karmadave

netrox said:

Why is it bleeding? 

Probably because banks make money on credit cards by charging late fees and high interest on customers who carry large balances and make the minimum payment. Keep  in mind, that a bank pays a fee to the company who processes the credit card transaction which in this case is Mastercard. Many Apple customers are more financially well-off and pay their entire balance off on-time. Good for Apple because of the incentives customers get on Apple products, but not so good for Goldman Sachs which likely loses money on every transaction.

Covid-19 has definitely impacted supply chains. I work for a computer manufacturer (not Apple) and the market is just now getting caught up on severe NAND shortages. I expect capacity, in China, is no longer an issue however NAND shortages coupled with Apple's new 5nm A14 mean that supply will be tight throughout 2020 and into the first half of 2021. Frankly, given the circumstances I'm amazed that Apple can ever pull this off in 2020...

Full disclosure. I formerly worked at Apple and now work at Dell. My personal system is a MacBook Pro while my work system is of course Dell (Latitude 7400). It's always amazed me that Apple could take essentially a single platform and sell it to both Consumer and Business customers. There is some limited configurability, but it's essentially the same product. Dell, and other PC manufacturers build products (and brands) for specific market segments such as Consumer, General Business, Education, and Workstation. The new XPS15 and XPS17 are 'crossover' platforms that share most of the same components with their Workstation counterparts, the Precision 5550 and 5750. These products are also 'certified' to run specific technical apps from Autodesk, Adobe, Dassault, Synopsis, Cadence, etc. and have a few more CPU and GPU options.  

From strictly a hardware perspective, Apple and Dell both have their strengths, weakness, and the choice is increasingly based on user preference. What really differentiates these platforms are the 'ecosystems' that both reside in. Dell is firmly in the Microsoft ecosystem, although the XPS 15 and 17 can run many of the widely available Linux distributions. Dell also bundles optimizer software, on Business laptops. Since Apple writes the operating system they can add such features directly into the OS. The primary Mac differentiator is that Apple engineers and builds both the Hardware & Operating System + a few 1st party applications. This gives the user a more unique experience, but tends to limit the choice of options. Dell laptops also tend to be more serviceable as components are more easily added/swapped and user accessible. I know this site is devoted to Apple, but I am happy to answer Dell-related questions 

Most of Intel's chip manufacturing facilities are already in the United States (Oregon and Arizona) so I am not sure what they are talking about. TSMC (aka Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) has manufacturing facilities in Taiwan, Mainland China and the United States. While I believe we all want more manufacturing in the United States, there are a couple of issues to keep in mind 1) Since Taiwan, China, South Korea, and Singapore have done a MUCH better job of containing the spread of Coronavirus than the United States what benefit would there be if all these facilities existed in the US? It might even cause more supply chain disruption. 2) These are well-established Asian facilities which would take years to bring back IF even feasible from a financial and logistical standpoint. There is a reason why companies like Apple Manufacturer most of their product in Asia. Who wants to pay $2,500 for an iPhone? 

Protectionism and economic populism may appeal to parts of the country that have lost significant manufacturing jobs, but this is not something I believe most tech multinationals would see as in the best interests of their shareholders and customers. Capitalism isn't a sentimental system. It's a system that maximizes shareholder value while delivering the best innovative products at the lowest possible prices. That's the stark reality and unless the US embraces 'state capitalism' (as the Chinese Communist Party as done) I don't see this happening. Not trying to make a political argument. Just an observation based on reality.

Steve Jobs wanted to donate a computer to every school in the US. In order to make it work financially, Apple lobbied Congress for a tax break. The bill failed in the US Congress, but a similar one passed in the California Legislature. The subsequent program, called 'Kids Can't Wait' was a stoke of genius as it immediately established Apple as the leader in Education. The Apple IIe was introduced for Kids Can't Wait...

https://timeline.com/apple-kids-cant-wait-2792d326aa31