michael scrip

AppleInsider said:

Apple's Mac sheds marketshare in Q2, sinks to 5th place

Apple was in the same 5th place last quarter... according to Gartner.  And they had the same 7.1% market share then too:

http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3280626

So I'm not seeing the "sinking" to 5th place or the "shedding" of market share.

ericthehalfbee said:

Funny when Foxconn sees a drop in revenue and people equate it with Apple while forgetting just how many companies they manufacture for. Blame everything on Apple.

True... Foxconn builds stuff for lots of companies.

But you also need to consider how many units Apple orders from Foxconn.

If Apple sells 50 million iPhones... it's safe to say that Foxconn builds 50 million iPhones.  And Foxconn's revenue is high because of them.

Now contrast that with low-volume "no name" companies who order less than 50,000 units from Foxconn.  Imagine the money that is spent retooling the factory to produce a product that doesn't have a big order... plus the training for the workers... etc.

It doesn't even have to be a "no name" company.  We know Foxconn builds stuff for Nintendo, right?  Well Nintendo isn't ordering 50 million Nintendo DS from Foxconn.

I'd argue that Apple is one of Foxconn's most important clients... both in volume and revenue. So yeah... Foxconn can be affected if Apple reduces their order.  Much more than any other client.

pkissel said:

It seems like the only real challenger to the iPhone is Google's Nexus line. 

Sales numbers suggest otherwise.

There were 280 million Android phones sold last quarter.  How many of them do you think were Nexus phones?

Nexus may get a lot of press on tech blogs... but I don't really think they are a "challenger" to the iPhone.  My opinion, of course.

hagar said:

Thanks for pointing me to Joanna Stern's article on iPhone and AI in WSJ. I think she's spot on. The position of Apple on privacy is not a desirable one. If I look at my Android friends that are amazed by the AI delivered to their phone by Google & friends that analyse their data, I can't help but wonder how Apple will ever deliver something similar?  Nobody seems to care that Apple protects their privacy (it's a multinational too!) and Google not. They just want useful information delivered to them when they need it.

Exactly.  It's the old "privacy vs convenience" argument.  I would imagine there are more people want useful information than there are people who are freaks about privacy.

It's funny though... I bet a huge chunk of iPhone users use Google/GMail... as well as Facebook and other similar services.

So the privacy Apple is protecting for people is counteracted by the privacy they're losing by using those other services.

In before...

"This is why they haven't updated the Macbook Pro?!?!?!"