karmadave

In a mature market Apple's strategy of selling iPhone at higher margins seems to have paid off. Obviously Apple is in an envious position, however their business model depends on bringing cool/new stuff to market and I don't see a new category in the offing. Maybe they will sell a ton of HomePod's, but my initial take is that the product is late to market and lacks many of the key features necessary to effectively compete with Sonos, Google, and others. Still. A very strong quarter and Apple is to be congratulated!

Seems like a reasonable resolution for users experiencing slowdowns due to battery issues. Obviously, folks will have different opinions but Apple's reputation is based on user experience and clearly throttling performance, to preserve battery life, was degrading the overall user experience. I suspect some percentage of those who want their battery replaced will instead opt to upgrade. 

Corporations are not benevolent organizations dedicated to the welfare of their employees. They are profit-seeking enterprises that will take whatever steps necessary (usually within the law) to maximize revenues, profits, and shareholder value. Yeah. The timing of this sucks, especially for those affected, but the reality is that AT&T is managing in it's own self-interest. Tax cuts have very little influence since most large corporations already employ various techniques to minimize taxes. Apple being one of the most creative tax avoiders...

Public corporations have a responsibility to maximize shareholder value. Period. End of story. Employees are generally compensated based on merit and their ability to negotiate with employers. Why would anyone assume that corporations will transfer some of their tax savings to employees? Of course, some could chose to provide employee bonuses. But if repurchasing stock, acquiring companies, and/or paying dividends will better increase shareholder value they will do so. To do otherwise would be management malpractice. I'm actually in favor of reducing the corporate tax rate, but to assert that this will lead to higher employee pay is naive, at best, and cynical at worst...

I see the iMac Pro as strictly a stop gap to a redesigned Mac Pro. Most high end users really want a system that they can customize and expand for their particular applications and the iMac's expansion is basically limited to almost entirely external devices. I think the iMac Pro is a good machine, although typically expensive, it's appeal is limited by lack of internal expansion options...