hmurchison

gutengel said:

This is sad, tech hardware it the toughest industry ever. Eero was in the verge of collapse if it wasn't for Amazon acquire them, reported by the Verge.

What I find is that people are being "serviced" to death.   Typically i'm ruling into people that are paying on average 150 dollars a month for Internet and Cable/Dish.   Then your family cell plan adding another C-Note or more.   The expectation is for hardware to come with the service for free in many cases.  It's hard for Eero to compete when people are getting CPE from their. broadband provider that is "good enough" 

Times are turbulent right now and being a hardware vendor is very tough.   Even the services are moving quickly.  YouTube TV has gone 35 bucks a month to over 50.   ATT is saying that can't make money unless DirecTV Now is 50 a month.  

Netflix is now 16 dollars a month for 4K streaming.   I've got my Cox hardware in a box right now on my way to cut Cable.   I'm finding it easier to just wait for deals on TV shows and buy them on iTunes.  I just bought Stargate Atlantis all seasons for 19.99.   

Not enough utility for the money.   Disposable income just isn't that large yet for enough people. 

Latko said:

flydog said:

Fatman said:

Anecdotal rumblings ...The UX on Spotify is preferred by most, Spotify's play lists are more on the mark. Spotify's free tier helps people get used to the service, create playlists and then sign-up for paid version when ready. The AirPlay2 push plus Verizon promo will help Apple's market share, but Apple needs to be on par or better.Once people are on a service they tend to stick with it.

Apple could care less about winning the subscriber count battle.  It's about making money, and Spotify has done nothing but lose money since day 1.  

Apple Music probably has even more losses (staff, office, server, bandwidth, licenses, fees) that are being covered by massive cross-subsidization. Referring to Jimmy Iovine who complalined he didn’t see how music streaming could be a viable business

It's not a viable business on its own.   Apple needs to negotiate the next step which is finding a way to balance the sale of music with the "all you can eat" subscriptions.  Most of the music lovers that I know use streaming services to curate and find music for them and the best stuff gets purchased.   Apple's message regarding buying versus streaming is cloudy.   I'd like to see a threshold being hit where if I purchase enough music I get my streaming fees comped.  I'd like to see Apple focus more on concert goers as well.  Acquire BandsInTown and integrate it into a future version of music.  We also need hires support sooner rather than later. 

When you're young you need the inexpensive package but later in life as an enthusiast you want more course to the meal and you have the disposable income to make it happen. 

glynh said:

 Like someone else said Apple should have had Home Automation tied up well before now but they completely missed the boat on this one IMHO.

The boat hasn't even taken off yet.    The current incarnation of Home Automation technology is just trial run.   The 3rd generation is coming and will coincide with the push to Wifi 6. 

Members of the Thread Group of note

• Apple
• ARM 
• Cisco 
• Amazon 
• Samsung 
• Texas Instruments 
• Intel 
• Legrand 
• Google 
• Siemens 
• Silicon Labs 
• Signify (Philips) 
• Yale 
• Qualcomm 
• OSRAM 
• Ikea 
• Crestron 

Thread is low power IP based with built in encryption.  It's self healing because you have have multiple border routers that be leveraged in fail-over.   Because it's IP addressable it can be network efficient and that's where Wifi 6 comes in with OMFDA and the more intelligent use of bandwidth 

If we're lucky we'll be able to upgrade our router to Wifi 6 nodes and these will function as the necessary bridges that we need (so long as RF is not necessary) for controlling out Home Automation gear.   

anantksundaram said:

Entirely anecdotal, but neither of my kids or anyone I know in their immediate circle of friends uses AppleMusic. They're all on Spotify, however. In fact, one of my kids accidentally let the "free 3-month" offer expire, and was charged by Apple. He canceled it right away. 

It's not really because Spotify is that great they have decent social features where you send your playlist or other things to friends and the biggest thing is Spotify is available everywhere.   Apple Music is available on Apple Devices,  Amazon devices and Sonos.   

It's clear from the rumblings from other vendors that Apple is going open up Apple Music.  Google let slip support for Google Assistant devices and other vendors like Savant have said "yeah Apple Music is coming". 

Make me wonder if Apple's going to add some interesting things to Apple Music and the ecosystem at WWDC.