brucemc

JayVee said:

I'd have thought they would have bought back shares more aggressively since they only bought back 8.7 billion dollars worth this quarter where the stock price was heavily discounted, but let's see what Maestri says during the conference call.

We shall see if they state why.  My view is that when Apple mgmt became aware of the sales shortfall, they stopped the share repurchases as the company was privy to significant information that the market did not have.  It would have been a magnet for lawsuits.  I expect Apple would have resumed purchasing after the Jan. 2nd disclosure.

I quite like the USB-C connector (which is just the connector, the port of course supports T-Bolt 3, audio/video, power, etc).  I purchased a USB-C hub for $40 on Amazon which connects to all my peripherals at work, including the power cable.  One single attachment point, and you are done.  I did have to spend about $100 for all the peripherals, but I needed some for my last 2011 MBP as well.

Always funny to read the comments - you get the people that complain about Apple protecting legacy markets (I guess that is to imply trying to maintain the iPhone user base), and then the same ones turnaround and moan that the Mac doesn't have enough legacy ports.  Oh well, that is humanity I guess...

crosslad said:

Apple sales in China are down purely as a tit for tat response to Trump putting a ban on Huawei. The Chinese government has told its people to stop buying Apple products. Once the trade dispute is over China will return to buying IPhones. 

A large number of companies and markets showed a significant downturn in sales in China in the 4th quarter.  The gov'ts official stats (always believed to be overstated to be the most positive possible) said it was the slowest in almost 30 years.  This is not an Apple specific thing (maybe some people don't purchase due to nationalist sentiment, but the big picture is the economic decline).

boltsfan17 said:

tbornot said:

China having a recession might just buy us another decade before the Chinese Military is ready to start a ruckus with the US and Japanese Navies.  So, here’s hoping for confusion to the Emperor of China!

China is still very far behind compared to the US Navy. Even the 44 ships they made between 2016-17 are still far less advanced than what the US Navy has. China has one soviet era aircraft carrier in service. The carriers the US Navy uses blow that out of the water. Another area where China really lags with its Navy is long range strike capabilities. It will take decades for China to get where the US Navy is now. 

Indeed.  I am not American, and don't have a horse in the race, so this is a non-partisan, non-national comment.  A single US carrier battle group has more offensive capability (not including nuclear weapon capabilities in this) than the entire Chinese navy.  US carriers have been refined over 8 decades of combat use, and over 5 decades with nuclear propulsion / very large carrier designs.  

China currently has a couple of active ex-Soviet units, and are bringing to market their own designed ships based on those (building a 3rd carrier reportedly).  Did you know that the Soviet (and current Russian) ships have ramps (curves up) at the front to launch the planes, and don't use catapults like the US navy?  That is because it is much cheaper to do so.  But is also means the launch weight (in terms of plane type, fuel, and ordinance) is limited.  US carriers do not have this problem, and are FAR more capable in all areas as a result.

China is over estimated in the media, both economically and militarily.  Yes, they are a market of almost 1.4B humans, and as such there is big $$ to be made in selling to so many (it is a desirable market), but their economy has serious problems that will become more apparent in the next 20 years.  First is that the population as a whole is rapidly aging, due to their very low birth rate and almost no immigration.  25% of the population is estimated to be over 65 by 2030, up from 13% not that long ago.  Their workforce in total numbers is already shrinking.  There are 30M *less* women than men due to the one child policy and family bias.  Macro trends are not in their favour.  Secondly they also have a very state led economy, which tends to be less innovative and flexible.  Third is the continual erosion of civil liberties (it is getting more controlled, watched, and cut off from the rest of the world) which is unlikely to be economically positive.

If I am Taiwan or the Philippines, I can see being nervous.  Not if I was the USA.

rogifan_new said:

I’m not sure who’s more defensive about Apple these days: Tim Cook or DED.

You whine when Apple doesn't say anything to the media, and then whine that Cook is defensive when he comes out to talk up the optimism he has about Apple.