dws-2

Love Apple Pay. It's one of those technologies that is surprisingly convenient, especially because those PIN cards are so, so finicky. I was waiting in line behind a person paying with it, and it was like an Apple commercial. First they put it in and pulled it out too fast, but the cashier didn't notice, so she just tried it again, and it wouldn't work, then she tried another card, but it was stripe only, and on and on. Not usual, but after that the cashier told me that Apple Pay is noticeably faster in just about every case.

This CES is very good news for HomeKit.

For some reason, Apple's PR is determined to handle this in the worst possible way.

What I find hard to justify is that Apple needs to make more and more money to be a good company. I'll explain.

If I really liked my iPhone 7, and it lasted me a couple years because of software improvements, is that a bad thing? It certainly reduces the money Apple makes, but I'm pretty happy that Apple is adding value even as the market matures.

On the other hand, I bought an iPhone XS for a lot more money. It's objectively better in every way, but if I'm being honest, I don't like it better. Why not? The better camera, the better screen, and the faster processor aren't enough better that I notice in day to day life, mostly because the iPhone 7 was already very nice. And there are downsides. It's heavier and bulkier, and some apps (especially games) aren't really made for the screen, even now.

Maybe this is the problem. What's good for Apple the company no longer seems to be good for many of its customers. They want to sell more expensive devices, but people aren't really getting the value out of them.

flydog said:

Pretty well established that these twitter messages are sent by publicists, not the company or the celebrity endorsing the company's products. 

I think this still really exposes that the message they're sending isn't meaningful. If I owned a company that made a product I really believed in, and that product was used huge number of people, I'd hire a PR firm that shared my belief.

But, of course, that's one of (many, many) the reasons I don't run a big company. I care about the product more than the profit.