netmage

disneylandman said:

techrider said:

You have to read footnote 1 in https://support.apple.com/en-jo/ht207428 for confirmation that once Messages in iCloud is enabled, messages are now stored in general iCloud storage (which still counts towards your free 5GB or paid storage plan), rather than iCloud Backup storage.

Since most people have tons of text messages with photos and some videos, it looks like iMessages in the Cloud is Apple's way to get people to buy more storage since 5GB is nothing and people typically have the Messages setting to retain all messages.  I don't back up to the cloud since it is not a full backup in the cloud, but many people do and it maxes out their 5GB free storage and so iMessages won't work in the cloud since it uses the same space.  Apple should increase their free tier to 10GB and not force people to pay for storage to use features.  

GeorgeBMac said:

So what functionality does this add?  Or is it simply an improved, modernized process?

Since we split the line with the launch of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 2014, this is the first cycle in which the top of the line iPhone model has also been the most popular.

They also seem to already be pulling in plenty of switchers to Mac:

We were happy to see double digit growth in our active installed base of Macs to a new all-time high, with almost 60% of March quarter purchases coming from customers who are new to Mac.

Somehiw I don't think they sold less than expected of the iPhone X:

We were surprised somewhat that through all of this period of time that the iPhone X winds up at the most selling, most popular for every week of the time since the launch.

I think Tim was saying Apple views the iPhone X as a SuperBowl winner but some "people" think it should have won the game by more points.