cg27

melgross said:

Being realistic, Apple could reach $340 billion this year if the next two quarters hit $70 billion each.

but with all the euphoria around, I’d like to remind people about what happened in 2016, 2017 and 2018. 2016 also had a major factor for about a 50% sales increase in iPhones because of the new large sizes. I tried to tell people that sales could be lower next year, and possibly even for the year after that. The reason was that people bought the big phones in 2016 who would otherwise have bought a phone the year after, and even some, the year after. Then, those people wouldn’t buy a phone in those years. That turned out to be true before sales began to rise again, despite pundits stating that Apple had seen “peak” iPhone.

this year, we have the pandemic. Many companies are seeing large sales lifts if their products fall into the area where people who are staying home would want and need. Computing and telecommunications were two of those areas. Food delivery services were another. Apple’s sales rise of 54% is stupendous, but I believe that some of that would have been next year, and some from the year after that, just as in 2016. So don’t be surprised if the might be a sales fall next year if the pandemic is mostly gone, and people are getting back to normal. Then, as a result, don’t be surprised if those wonderful pundits start talking about “peak” Apple, with a drop in share price.

StrangeDays said:

Peza said:

seanj said:

GeorgeBMac said:

For all those defending the "Everything Glued together & soldered together" assembly of the MacBooks by saying "Nobody ever upgraded a computer", Andrew just called bull!

His biggest (only?) complaint about his M1 MacBook Air is that it can't meet his needs because it is frozen in time with what it came with when he bought it -- versus his MacPro which grew and developed with enhancements as his needs, wants and requirements grew.

Likewise, my 9 year old i7 Thinkpad runs perfectly well and meets all of my needs -- because it's been upgraded to a 500Gb SSD, 16Gb Ram and an internal harddrive used for ongoing, real time backups.  Without those cheap and very simple to install (5 minutes or less) upgrades the machine would have been scrap

Only a tiny percentage of people tinker with the computers, it’s a niche market that’s similar to those that add nitrous oxide to their cars...
Most people just want a computer they can do things with, rather than do things to, in other words a consumer product. With Apple they get that, which is why customer satisfaction is so high.

If you have a 9 year old Thinkpad then you’re probably either running XP (good luck browsing the Internet securely) or you’re running Linux. If it’s the latter then if you happy with a limited number of professional applications then that’s fine.

Well considering it's global PC market share, many would say the Apple Mac computer is also a niche product and market.

That's fine -- but the important thing you're missing is that this niche market is *not* the DIY crowd. Which is the point. It's an appliance computing model, and has been since Apple's early days when Jef Raskin wrote his bible for the original Mac, "Design Considerations for an Anthropophilic Computer" in 1979 (42 years ago!!):

https://web.stanford.edu/dept/SUL/sites/mac/primary/docs/bom/anthrophilic.html

This is an outline for a computer designed for the Person In The Street (or, to abbreviate: the PITS); one that will be truly pleasant to use, that will require the user to do nothing that will threaten his or her perverse delight in being able to say: “I don’t know the first thing about computers,” and one which will be profitable to sell, service and provide software for.

You might think that any number of computers have been designed with these criteria in mind, but not so. Any system which requires a user to ever see the interior, for any reason, does not meet these specifications. There must not be additional ROMS, RAMS, boards or accessories except those that can be understood by the PITS as a separate appliance. For example, an auxiliary printer can be sold, but a parallel interface cannot. As a rule of thumb, if an item does not stand on a table by itself, and if it does not have its own case, or if it does not look like a complete consumer item in [and] of itself, then it is taboo.

If the computer must be opened for any reason other than repair (for which our prospective user must be assumed incompetent) even at the dealer’s, then it does not meet our requirements.

Seeing the guts is taboo. Things in sockets is taboo (unless to make servicing cheaper without imposing too large an initial cost). Billions of keys on the keyboard is taboo. Computerese is taboo. Large manuals, or many of them (large manuals are a sure sign of bad design) is taboo. Self- instructional programs are NOT taboo.

There must not be a plethora of configurations. It is better to offer a variety of case colors than to have variable amounts of memory. It is better to manufacture versions in Early American, Contemporary, and Louis XIV than to have any external wires beyond a power cord.

And you get ten points if you can eliminate the power cord.

80s_Apple_Guy said:

Big chin, why? A little thicker and no chin is better IMO. 

spock1234 said:

AppleZulu said:

.... router market, with HomeKit-enhanced WiFi6 mesh devices. 

I would love that! 

I am still using an old AirPort Extreme (the tall one), because I have not found an acceptable replacement. The new Mesh WiFi options are tempting, but I don’t trust their security as much as I do Apple’s. 

C’mon Tim Apple, Make Home Networks Great Again! (Just making a funny pop-culture reference - please don’t respond with political comments)