mpantone

lkrupp said:

Can we settle an ongoing argument about 4K streaming? How much bandwidth is recommended for reliable 4K streaming? I have seen figures of around 20mbps. Now what is the average bandwidth available in the U.S. right now? I myself have a 12mbps DSL line so I am assuming 4K streaming would be useless to me, especially if other devices were consuming bandwidth online at the same time. And while we're at it my DSL line is 1mbps upstream. Using an online bandwidth calculator I figured it would take 120 hours to upload 50GB of my Photos library. This makes cloud computing a non-starter for me and I assume millions of others.

Yeah, US Internet broadband service is overpriced.

People in Southeast Asia are getting ten times faster service at half or a quarter of the cost.

Cloud computing works for a vast majority of people on the planet. That group does not include the United States of America based on the dominant consumer ISPs in this country.

That's something for Apple's finance department to determine.

Does it count as an online purchase with a will-call fulfillment or is it a retail purchase at a bricks-and-mortar store?

I would say that the bricks-and-mortar retail staff should not get the credit for the sale, since they had nothing to do with the purchase. The bricks-and-mortar store is simply a fulfillment center at this point, no different than picking it up at a UPS distribution hub.

One thing is for sure: Apple cannot count it as both.

lkrupp said:

I always have trouble reconciling seemingly contradictory reports. Apple "remains one of the most successful brick-and-mortar retailers in the world with sales of $5,546 per square foot, according to recent research." But Mac sales are slumping, iPad sales are slumping, the Watch is a flop, iPhone sales are declining and losing market share according to analyst reports and market survey results. I guess I don't get it.

Let's say Company A made $5800 per square foot last year and $5500 this year. Let's say Company B made $3800 per square foot last year and $3900 this year.

Yes, Company A's retail sales per square foot dropped but they still beat Company B.

Even if the entire bricks-and-mortar retail industry is in decline, if you are still generating more revenue per square foot than anyone else, you are still number one in that category.

More important is profit. Apple has a high profit margin, so despite its meager market share, it is raking in the lion's share of industry profits. 

This has been going on for maybe 12-15 years on the PC side, and certainly the last five years of smartphone sales. Even if Samsung sells a boatload more smartphones than Apple, the margins are far less.

For PCs, Apple's overall market share is tiny, but they make something like 98% of the industry's profits in the $1000+ market, which is where almost all of their computer products are priced. Everyone else is scrapping it out for breadcrumbs.

Likewise, for smartphones, only two companies are making a profit: Apple and Samsung. LG might still be breaking even, but basically everyone else is losing money.

You need to learn a bit more about competitive analysis. 

This isn't about Apple trying to beat all-time records, it is about Apple trying to do better than their competition *TODAY*.

The Olympic gold medal is not awarded to whoever performed the best in history, it is based on a particular competition over a defined timeframe.

I assume you have zero knowledge about athletic competitions.

When you swim in a medal race, you are not competing against history, you just need to be faster than anyone else in that pool.

That's what these statistics are about. Measured performance over a certain timeframe under certain criteria.

The auditorium is underground. See this photo posted by drone videographer Duncan Sinfield.

There is no natural lighting in the auditorium. The circular building visible in the drone footage is the ground level lobby/foyer, sort of like the NYC 5th Avenue "Cube" lobby, but with no light going below.

It is unlikely that the auditorium foyer will have carpet. That would be very un-Steve-like.

patchythepirate said:

I wonder where visitor center parking will be? And nice touch having visitors walk by a berm so they can have a close-up appreciation for the sculpted topography of Apple Park.

The visitor center is supposed to be at 10700 North Tantau Avenue. If you use Apple Maps today, you will see this:



The shadows indicate that there are underground walls at this site, so the parking garage will be underground. Access will be from the north side (right below the striped crosswalk), you can see the current dirt ramp which will be removed once they pour concrete. The visitor center garage will be strictly isolated from the employee parking at Apple Park across the street.

It's worth pointing out that the Apple Maps satellite imagery is quite old and the Google Maps imagery is even worse.

Neither of the two maps shows the extent of the solar panel coverage on the main ring building which is visually complete in recent drone videography footage.

If you compare the two mapping systems, it is easy to see that the Google Maps imagery is considerably older since one of the two multi-story parking garages on the south perimeter is lacking solar panels.  This also shows that Apple's construction contractors tore down a number of buildings on the west side of North Tantau Avenue and also ripped out the asphalt road leading to these buildings.