thrang

If legit, that looks more like a Watch SE idea....

Hint - EVERY cost is passed onto the consumer. In every business. Everywhere.

Here's the dingbat's background....https://www.drdigitalhealth.co.uk/about

Dr Kent, do you work for free? What's your profit margin when you pontificate?

dedgecko said:

The gas analogy is dumb. Electronic devices run on electricity.

Apple doesn’t get a cut of our electric bill, unless paying with Apple Card, in which case they take the industry standard for processing the payment.  For credit card payment processing, it’s been a couple percent if I recall correctly. 

For digital distribution, the industry standard has been 30%.  And it’s slowly been coming down in the typical race to find bottom… and subsequently a quest to subsidize the revenue to cover costs / lost profits.

The analogies more befitting of this situation:

- If Mercedes wanted to sell their cars inside BMW dealerships with no permission from BMW and no compensation to BMW.
- If Epic wanted to set up sales inside all BestBuys with no permission from Best Buy and no compensation to Best Buy.

Among other more serious issues, Epic's desire is akin to trespassing and theft.

Apple may be quite popular but it is seriously misguided to think they are a utility-level entity.

Are their eyeballs really that mis-aligned? Or someone f*****g with the images?

Sort of a lot of parsing and nuancing with words here. No woke culture from me here: Apple discontinued the HomePod. They reduced the product offerings in this "category "by 50%. The action eliminated more advanced technology that gave rise to the HomePod.

The HP Mini is quite good, but is not sonic/qualitative replacement for the HP, nor, at the moment, is it as capable

Whether this is a retreat, a pause, or some recalibration of market perspective remains to be seen . Perhaps they introduce more to the category in the future, or acquire Sonos (quite unlikely), At the moment, it feels like a retreat. And one that I'm not happy about as an ardent supporter of HomePods, and owner of several.

It all really comes down to Siri. Until it starts hitting home runs a majority of the time you throw it a softball, Apple will have a tough time selling a premium price product that puts a batter in the box that mostly draws walk or bunt singles.