gregg thurman

The Sony, Bang & Olufsen entrants have to be designed for the Android market.  Compared to Apple's AirPods they are over priced ($199 and $299 respectively vs AirPod's at $159) with weaker (3 hours and 4 hours respectively vs AirPod's 5 hours) batteries and chargers (Sony 2X charge for total of 6 hours playback time vs AirPod recharge totaling 24 hours playback, B & O not listed).  I can't imagine an iPhone user buying these.

Given that Apple competitors largely rely on price for product differentiation, I suspect that Apple is selling the AirPods at slightly over cost to drive switchers to iPhone.

Just another reason, if you needed one, to buy iPhone.

For the average one car family the tipping point between ownership and "ride sharing" is about $700/month TCO.  Two car families are going to drop the second vehicle and get a self driving unit that will take bread winner to work then return home to serve the secondary driver until it's time to pick up the breadwinner 

I'm legally blind and use Uber a lot (about$250/$300 per month). It's more convenient than public transportation, no concerns about finding a convenient parking space, etc.

Talking with Uber drivers it seems their #1 passenger was formally a two car family, senior citizen or visually impaired. 

I also see ride ride sharing replacing public transport. Generally speaking public transport requires about 90% subsidy to operate.  FARES ONLY ACCOUNT FOR 10% OF TOTAL REVENUE.  Municipalities could offer better service and save BIG TIME, by subsidizing Uber/Lyft at a 50% rate to provide public transport.  

Keep in mind that 

gatorguy said:

Actually a cool feature that apparently won't be available (at least anytime soon) on Android TV's due to feature differences.  Plus one for Apple TV.

Lots of write-ups about this today.  I pulled this quote from one of them, "For now MultiCast is exclusively available on the Apple TV, ESPN says, because other smart TV platforms don’t have the same capabilities as tvOS."

If only my poor brain could absorb data as fast as the narrator speaks. Useless demo for that reason.

"but the progress was short lived as sales slumped in the second quarter of 2017. "

Au Contraire.  Apple revenue did dip in the March quarter, but that is the norm.  Since FY2013 March quarter revenue has declined from December quarter levels an average of 26.4%.  That said March quarter 2017 saw revenue INCREASE 4.63% over the same period in 2016.

After suffering 3 consecutive quarters of negative growth in 2016, Apple is on the verge of reporting 3 consecutive quarters of YoY growth,  The September quarter should make that 4 consecutive quarters, with FY2018 extending that growth trend to 8 consecutive quarters.