Tim Cook Defends Apple, Teases Exciting New Products In The Pipeline (bgr.com) 225
anderzole quotes a report from BGR: Apple's earnings report last week saw the company report a year over year decline in profits for the first time since 2003. The biggest contributing factor to the decline, not surprisingly, is that year over year iPhone sales dropped by 16%. Notably, Apple's most recent quarter represents the company's first iPhone sales decline in history. Consequently, the usual contingent of pundits and analysts have come out of the woodwork, all exclaiming that we've reached 'peak iPhone' and that Apple at this point has nowhere to go but down. In an effort to inject a bit of good news and all-around optimism to a particularly negative Apple news cycle, Tim Cook earlier today appeared on CNBC with Jim Cramer where the Apple CEO teased that Apple's still has a lot of innovation left to do and some interesting items in the product pipeline. "We've got great innovation in the pipeline," Cook said to Cramer. "New iPhones that will incentivize you and other people that have iPhones today to upgrade to new iPhones. We are going to give you things you can't live without that you just don't know you need today. That has always been the objective of Apple is to do things that really enrich people's lives. That you look back on and you wonder, how did I live without this."
New iPhones (Score:3, Insightful)
So their great new innovation in the pipeline is.. a new iPhone.
Stick a fork in them.
Re:New iPhones (Score:4, Insightful)
So their great new innovation in the pipeline is.. a new iPhone.
Stick a fork in them.
Yeah, how can they survive against the next Galaxy S8 - that screams innovation.
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So their great new innovation in the pipeline is.. a new iPhone.
Stick a fork in them.
Yeah, how can they survive against the next Galaxy S8 - that screams innovation.
As of yet Samsung haven't come out saying they "are going to give you things you can't live without that you just don't know you need today".
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So their great new innovation in the pipeline is.. a new iPhone.
Stick a fork in them.
Yeah, how can they survive against the next Galaxy S8 - that screams innovation.
As of yet Samsung haven't come out saying they "are going to give you things you can't live without that you just don't know you need today".
Yes, their claims are actually much weirder. E.g. their claims about the new color for the S7 are pure comedy pink gold.
In particular, the refined, skin tone-inspired Pink Gold color scheme is intended to soothe and incorporate a touch of gentleness, radiance and sophistication to the smartphones' design."
Re:New iPhones (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple was never the leader in features.
In terms of the competitors Apple always tends to be in the middle of the road. Even the original iPhone which set the cell phone industry 2 years to redesign their phone, still was a rather modest device in terms of features, And you could do more with say a Blackberry.
Apple at its best will come with a new idea for a new way to use a product, however they don't seem to go crazy on features. Apple at its worse is still rather decent quality product that looks good, but you have no use for.
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Re:New iPhones (Score:4, Insightful)
Apple's big problem, I think, is the almost forced need to come out with a new phone/tablet/os/whatever EVERY YEAR. And if you do that, you have to come up with ideas/features/things that make this years different from last years, even if those aren't that well baked or change for change sake to show you did something.
Imagine the the worlds reaction if Apple said the iPhone 7 is not coming out til its ready and doesn't come out til next spring.
Re:New iPhones (Score:4, Interesting)
And the reason for that is that Apple's profits are entirely based on hardware sales. Sure, there's iTunes, but really... If US carriers ever change the model that allows you to think you're getting a new iPhone every 2 years for just $200, Apple will take a huge hit. And it's not because their products aren't good. it's just that they've been good enough for 5 years now, and only through the operators' model of fake-subsidies on new hardware that anybody upgrades any more. I'm using a 3 year old Nexus 4 on T-Mobile, and it's basically fine for my needs. I may upgrade if a reasonable midrange device comes along that meets my needs better, but that's not going to be a $700 iPhone. But if I were stuck on Verizon, I might go for that $200 'subsidized' Galaxy 7...
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You couldn't install Apps on the original iPhone. Jobs pushed HTM5 Web Apps for the job.
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Re:New iPhones (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:New iPhones (Score:5, Insightful)
None of those things were popular 15 years ago, but every single one of them existed before Apple came out with a version.
... that didn't suck.
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No, they worked fine.
Of cooooouuurse they did.
They just didn't have a massive marketing push behind them and were more feature focused than polish focused.
Why is it that companies spending much more on advertisement than Apple can only convince you that their products work just fine?
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So their great new innovation in the pipeline is.. a new iPhone.
Stick a fork in them.
Yeah, how can they survive against the next Galaxy S8 - that screams innovation.
Frankly at this point in time an iphone doesn't even have the number of features I have on my old samsung galaxy s3.
Well, still no SD card slot - and since that is nothing but a half-assed pain in the butt, you can keep it. You won in features that sound great until you actually use them.
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So their great new innovation in the pipeline is.. a new iPhone.
Stick a fork in them.
Yeah, how can they survive against the next Galaxy S8 - that screams innovation.
Frankly at this point in time an iphone doesn't even have the number of features I have on my old samsung galaxy s3.
Well, still no SD card slot - and since that is nothing but a half-assed pain in the butt, you can keep it. You won in features that sound great until you actually use them.
I have an SD card on my devices (tablet and phone) and their great. Storage is to limited otherwise.
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what's next? how bout a car? innovative enough for you?
enterprise needs don't mix with apple thin (Score:2)
In some enterprise settings they need to be able to remove storage before sending a system in for warranty work. Dell, HP, others even let you destroy HDD's that fail.
Ethernet is needed in some settings and no one port changing / usb only does not really cut it.
OS downgrades are needed as well even if just temporary and I'm not talking about backing out updates.
MAC OS X SERVER that can run in a VM in ANY BASE HARDWARE. Is also needed can be done now but not legally or at least have a real rack mounted serve
Re:New iPhones (Score:5, Insightful)
If it was just ones of people, or even thousands of people, this article wouldn't exist.
The article exists because it generates clicks. Not because thousands of people switch from or to iPhone from or to Android or vice versa.
Re:New iPhones (Score:4, Funny)
Ooh, so insightful.
It generates clicks because it contains information that is noteworthy and that people are interested in reading. If people weren't switching, if the iPhone market share weren't stagnating, the article wouldn't have been written. If it did not exist, it would not generate clicks.
The fact that this needs to be explained to you is frankly pretty sad.
The fact that you are plain wrong is highly entertaining.
Catstriohic repairability (Score:2)
Don't under-estimate the absolutely catastrophic repairability of iPhone.
Yes, "we've reached Peak iPhone", in the sense that most people are happy with their current phone and don't need to exchange it with one with more features. The market is saturated, nearly every customer who would like to buy an Apple smartphone has already done so...
BUT
The modern smartphones arent the old non-smart phones of before. Those back then were durable to the point of being nearly indestructible, and weren't that hard to rep
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I think your assumptions are far, far off. Broken devices being replaced are a small minority...and there's plenty of repair places to handle them as well.
A $20 case will prevent the large majority of broken phones.
If Apple wants to continue selling so many iPhones, they need to have a new feature that's useful...not just a revision number and slightly changed specs.
Hell, side by side comparison of the camera from my Note 5 and iPhone 6s in 'difficult' settings like concerts, clubs, and other darker places
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... or they need to address the midrange market better. That's the only place they're gonna find significant growth. So far, they're still pitching a 'luxury' brand, and the status-seekers already upgrade reliably to each new model. But that's not a growth market. Their latest attempt at midrange isn't so bad - it's just not cheap enough to get much of the midrange market, and it's just cheap enough to turn off the 'apple makes me cool' set.
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Nearly all modern smartphones are very fragile - they'll break very easily - and are a pain to repair.
True, but there are exceptions. Ever seen the Moto X Force? It can withstand some crazy shit, such as a 275 meter drop. [youtube.com]
Re:New iPhones (Score:4, Funny)
If it's an iPhone that allows
- Icons in arbitrary locations on your home screen
- Home screen replacement
- Multiple user context (my employer doesn't completely control my device)
- Removing stock apps from my home screen (I don't have an Apple Watch)
- Miracast support
- Customizable lock screen (widgets)
- Customizable control center
- Silencing my phone when I have a "busy" entry on my calendar
- Wifi Analyzer [google.com]
- Tasker [google.com]
Then it would be at the most basic level of where it should be, in my opinion.
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So their great new innovation in the pipeline is.. a new iPhone.
Stick a fork in them.
...is it cool if I use the same the fork y'all were sticking 'em with after they released the G4 Cube?
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Are you talking about Linux or Darwin [wikipedia.org]
Is this a joke? (Score:2)
We've got great innovation in the pipeline... New iPhones that will incentivize you and other people that have iPhones today to upgrade to new iPhones
Yeah, right...
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Rumour is they've replaced Siri with a hard light hologram of Kristine Kochanski.
They need a new mac pro tower and better laptops (Score:5, Informative)
They need a new mac pro tower (the new one sucks and they are at risk of losing a big part of the creative market) and better laptops (stop going for thin)
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"Specifically fundamental parts being serviceable! RAM, M.2 SSD, and the battery should be replaceable post warranty expiration"
That is your answer. The price of ram and M.2 SSDs are dropping in price. My old Mackbook pro has 16 GB I put in and I replaced the HDD in my wife's.
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What do you see as missing in the MacbookPro?
They do need a way to keep their headless offerings much more current, despite the smaller volumes in that segment.
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An ethernet port, user upgradable and repairable SSD "M.2" interface, user upgradable ram, and user replaceable battery.
The same for the iMac as far as the drivers and ram.
The MacPro needs SLOTS so you can upgrade the video cards. SATA-3 and M.2 ports so you can add mass storage.
Thunderbolt is nice but is it logical to have a small workstation like the Pro had have it tied to a external mass storage array with a cable like the old Commodore 64?
The MacPro was a good machine but it was too limited to be the b
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Define "need".
Because the Mac Pro, along with the Mac Mini, are the worst selling Macs in the entire lineup. And not because they're several years old - even the towers were poor sellers, and even when it was new and hot and fairly competitive it was still h0-hum sales.
It's one of the reasons they could afford to build it all in the US - it probably only
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Yup. I've been saying this for a while. Apple can double their work-force and have every product be a complete flop where they only sell items to just their devoted fans (the ones who would buy shit and claim they loved it) and they will STILL have a huge nest egg of cash in the year 2216. They can have each employee do nothing but burn a $10 (American) bill on the hour, ever hour, and do nothing else and STILL have a huge nest egg in the year 2116.
I bet Microsoft is kicking themselves for not holding onto
I'm tired of Tim Cook teasing my pipeline (Score:2)
Put up or shut up!
Re: I'm tired of Tim Cook teasing my pipeline (Score:2)
I'm tired of Tim Cook teasing my pipeline
At least no small, furry mammals were harmed.
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I'm willing to bet that Apple is built on the bones of many small furry mammals.
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He's about to put an exciting new product up that pipeline, so brace yourself and try to relax.
Do you remember (Score:5, Insightful)
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It was always mostly showmanship from Jobs. The "revolutionary" new features were rarely very revolutionary, and in fact they often suffered from being launched early to beat the competition by six months.
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Do you remember when instead of telling us that the next trick will be impressive, They would just do the next trick and let us be amazed? If you need an applause sign, you've officially failed. Just sayin,
Well, yes, instead of relying to the interview question: "Why shouldn't we just dump our AAPL stock now?" Cook should have just fired up the Apple Time Machine and retrieved a new product from the future that isn't quite ready yet in our present.
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That is still their preferred way of working, but they have to say SOMETHING to the slack-jawed moron investors who are somehow surprised that a company can't just grow forever. "What do you *mean* +10%/year is not sustainable forever?!?!?!!!!1111"
New iPhones (Score:5, Insightful)
If they're going to do new iPhones, they need one that costs $99 or less. He spends time talking about the Chinese market, but they're not going to grow in that market anytime soon unless:
1) the phone is capable and cheap, as the market of Chinese people who can afford a $699 phone is saturated
2) the phone is made in China and likely co-marketed by a Chinese phone manufacturing company as the Chinese government wants to move their industry up the value chain
Those two things will be really hard for Apple to do. Outside of that:
Apple Watch - a big misstep
iPad Pro - it's a cheaper version of the Surface Pro with a mobile OS instead of a laptop OS. A misstep
For that reason, anything "enterprise" related they're just not that good; they've gotten better in recent years but Windows and Office are too universal in the enterprise setting.
MacBook Air - this is a pretty good product
iPad Air - eh, good product but the tablet market is starting to wind down or be saturated so the growth isn't there
After that, what have they got? Apple Car? They're not a car company; how the heck is this going to work? I'm not a Tesla fan but Tesla's way ahead of them on advanced modern cars, and GM, Ford, Toyota, and Honda are still churning out millions of cars; I don't see how Apple actually launches this successfully unless it's some Apple developed tech that is licensed to a real car manufacturer. Besies, Apple is in the business of high-margin hardware; in cars margins are slim on the hardware and all the money is made on financing to the consumer. This would be a very strange business for Apple to get in to.
Apple Home Automation? Maybe, but I doubt it. As much as Nest is making missteps these days by force-bricking their old products, they're still way ahead of Apple and have Google's backing and there are plenty of other guys out there in this space.
The only one i see is some form of consumer healthcare product to make the Apple Watch a health sensor platform integrated with other Apple products, but the drop in FitBit's sales and stock show that step counters won't cut it; it needs to be something a doctor can act on and that means getting loads of doctors and research behind the use of something as well as getting FDA approval. That's hard and expensive, but something Apple likely has the resources to tackle. To me that's the best shot at a big growth area and fits their customer base who are generally hipster quantified selfers who would love to brag and share how healthy they are via iMessenger.
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If they're going to do new iPhones, they need one that costs $99 or less. He spends time talking about the Chinese market, but they're not going to grow in that market anytime soon unless:
1) the phone is capable and cheap, as the market of Chinese people who can afford a $699 phone is saturated 2) the phone is made in China and likely co-marketed by a Chinese phone manufacturing company as the Chinese government wants to move their industry up the value chain
Oh stop. Just stop. They don't want a $99 iPhone. I don't mean Chinese people, or Slashdot users... some of them certainly do. But Apple isn't interested in that market. They don't NEED one (I wish my company's revenue dipped to barely $50 billion in one quarter). I just don't understand the logic that company A "HAS" to do something. They really don't. They make so much money now, I can't imagine why they would be interested in a higher volume, lower margin segment. Does Ferrari look at all those Toyota Camry's moving each month and say "man, where did we go wrong?"
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If they're going to do new iPhones, they need one that costs $99 or less. He spends time talking about the Chinese market, but they're not going to grow in that market anytime soon unless:
1) the phone is capable and cheap, as the market of Chinese people who can afford a $699 phone is saturated 2) the phone is made in China and likely co-marketed by a Chinese phone manufacturing company as the Chinese government wants to move their industry up the value chain
You mean they should do everything Samsung does - well apart from tanking on the Chinese market.
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Apple should expand their HomeKit IoT infrastructure to be farther reaching. Something that guarantees certified device "A" can communicate with device "B", as well as offer whatever functionality is wanted. Sell a hardened hub where devices communicate with that via Bluetooth, and the hub handles Internet communication. This way, individual endpoints are not exposed.
In return, vendors would have to keep devices updated for the lifetime of the item (no thermostats or burglar alarms being orphaned after 2
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Apple Watch - a big misstep
That's actually selling like crazy compared to the competition. Which means smartwatches and plain dumb watches.
iPad Pro - it's a cheaper version of the Surface Pro with a mobile OS instead of a laptop OS. A misstep
That is actually selling around ten times as well as the "original".
For that reason, anything "enterprise" related they're just not that good; they've gotten better in recent years but Windows and Office are too universal in the enterprise setting.
And falling. But in a universal way.
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After that, what have they got? Apple Car? They're not a car company; how the heck is this going to work?
After that, what have they got? Apple Phone? They're not a phone company; how the heck is this going to work?
After that, what have they got? Apple Tunes? They're not a music label; how the heck is this going to work?
After that, what have they got? Apple Walkman? They're not a portable music player company; how the heck is this going to work?
After that, what have they got? Apple Stores? They're not a bricks-and-mortar retailer; how the heck is this going to work?
If there's one thing that Apple has shown t
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After that, what have they got? Apple Phone? They're not a phone company; how the heck is this going to work?
Apple never really made telephones; they waited until telephones had become small computers.
After that, what have they got? Apple Tunes? They're not a music label; how the heck is this going to work?
Has Apple produced any music? The vast majority, if not all, of what they've done is sell downloadable computer files.
After that, what have they got? Apple Walkman? They're not a portable music player company; how the heck is this going to work?
Apple never made portable cassette or CD players; they waited until portable music players had become small computers.
After that, what have they got? Apple Stores? They're not a bricks-and-mortar retailer; how the heck is this going to work?
How are the Apple Stores generating revenue other than with sales of their computers?
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The fitness platform is interesting to me. However, I'll wait for a more open system. I don't want to data to be stuck in proprietary formats, or have to buy peripherals that only work with Apple hardware.
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Right. Between the iPhone and the iPhone store, Apple makes 94% of the profits in the Smartphone business. Now what they really need to do is become a commodity re-seller to Chinese farm workers.
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> iPad Pro - it's a cheaper version of the Surface Pro
> with a mobile OS instead of a laptop OS. A misstep
Yeah, it's such a huge misstep that Apple only sold 25% more iPad Pros than MS sold Surfaces in the last quarter. Doooooooomed!
http://www.geekwire.com/2016/n... [geekwire.com]
i can't wait! (Score:5, Funny)
the word on the streets is that they integrated the iWatch functionality into the next iPhone. this way you can see what time it is without an iWatch!
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Don't be stupid. Apple would never obsolete their own product.
Innovation doesn't mean what you think it does Tim (Score:5, Insightful)
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Or a newer, more expensive charging/synching cable
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Innovation is not making something slightly thinner or lighter or faster or missing a port or with a better screen.
It is if you charge enough for it.
sounds awesome, Tim! (Score:2)
We are going to give you things you can't live without that you just don't know you need today
I can't wait to buy your competitor's version for half the price!
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We are going to give you things you can't live without that you just don't know you need today
I can't wait to buy your competitor's version for half the price!
Apple couldn't care less. No really, they don't give a fuck about what you do.
innovation? (Score:2)
is "innovation" the new codeword for copying Google's self-driving car? or perhaps does it mean churning out yet another iteration of the same product every 18 months?
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is "innovation" the new codeword for copying Google's self-driving car?
Yeah, because there were no self driving cars before Google "innovated" them. Watta fanboi.
Incentivizing people to upgrade (Score:2)
"New iPhones that will incentivize you and other people that have iPhones today to upgrade to new iPhones. We are going to give you things you can't live without that you just don't know you need today. That has always been the objective of Apple is to do things that really enrich people's lives. That you look back on and you wonder, how did I live without this."
Or more accurately, they'll continue to build phones with built-in obsolescence, and increase the amount of Apple lock-in to ensure you can't leave their ecosystem without losing all your content.
Apple's new slogan (Score:5, Funny)
We are going to give you things you can't live without that you just don't know you need today.
Apple's new slogan: "We give you solutions in need of problems."
How did I ever live... (Score:2)
... without this colorful florolastomer watch band?
Wait for us, we're the leader! (Score:3)
.
More and more lately, Apple is beginning to sound like Microsoft did ten years ago, "wait for us, we're the leader."
Unfortunately for Apple, unlike future-seeing innovative prowess, luck is not reproducible at will.
We know what the next innovation is. (Score:5, Funny)
Innovation, to the nth degree! Man, it is going to rock the world.
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The big problem with iCar is that obeying the Holy Jobs design rules there will be no holes in the bodyshell large enough for people to get in and out. The solution (so to speak) to this will be the iChipper(tm) with a flexible hose and a unique patented nozzle coupling in the side of the iCar. It will require an up-to-date version of iTunes to get back out of iCar.
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It is never going to be iCar. That's one of those ideas that people due to faulty conclusions based on rumors. It was strongest a few years ago when it was confirmed that Apple engineers met with Elon Musk. At the time, I thought that Apple was most likely working on car interfaces rather than a car. Very shortly Apple announced CarPlay.
Well, think about it: Elon Musk would meet with Apple so they can create their own car? Not likely. But he would talk to them about car interfaces for their iOS devices.
Un
Classic "cash cow running dry" syndrome (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple has made mountains of cash selling iDevices for years now, and will continue to do so. They will also take a cut of all music, entertainment and apps people purchase on these devices. I'm not worried about them disappearing like they were about to in the mid 90s. What they may end up becoming is an IBM. IBM has guaranteed revenue streams from its mainframe business, which are basically safe until people don't need to bank, book airline tickets or consume vital government services. IBM has been able to survive every single attempt by their board of destroying the company. They've sold off most of their hardware production, moved most of the services jobs offshore, and they're still alive.
If Apple does come out with a self-driving car after all this, the pundits will be eating their words if they're able to hit that consumer sweet spot with it. Their products are shiny and nice, and work fine in the hands on non-technical users. I expect an Apple car to have the same level of "UX safety" while being super-complex under the hood. They're just facing a mature market for smartphones - even poor people have them and there's no reason to replace them every single contract cycle. Intel has the same problem and is scrambling to find the next big thing, even though it's clear people still need PCs and servers (but not to the same degree.)
I'd like to see Apple return to making at least a couple of laptops and workstations that are professional-focused and don't just look pretty. Having no way to expand memory or storage on a laptop just to make it thinner is a bad trade-off for anyone other than a throwaway gadget consumer. If they win back the professional users, they can still make the margins they want on hardware. Look at HP, Dell and Lenovo - they sell consumer crap PCs but they also sell workstations that cost five figures and sell well within their niche.
Apple has lost its way (Score:2)
I remember back when the first iPhone came out. I just had to have one and it was miles ahead of anything else out there. Then everyone caught up to them. Same thing with the first iPods and iPads. Not just in terms of build quality but ease of use and just really nicely packaged.
Now you have Macbooks that you can't add memory to. And phones and tablets that you cannot add storage to. The Android devices have caught up, and in many cases, surpassed the Apple offerings. Apple has always traditionally been a
I know! I know! (Score:2)
A version of iTunes that Just Works and Doesn't Suck!
I shudder with antici... (Score:2)
The only iPhone upgrade I've actually *wanted* .. (Score:2)
Was when I upgraded my iPhone 4s to the iPhone 6s Plus as I really wanted the larger screen real estate.
Every other iPhone upgrade was because Apple released a version of IOS that basically nerfed the performance forcing me to upgrade.
So I guess that's what they mean.
"Teases Exciting New Products In The Pipeline" (Score:2)
Go back through the transcripts of EVERY Quarterly call and Keynote/Product/WWDC speech Tim Cook has given since he took over the helm from Steve Jobs...Cook has said, in pretty much the SAME TERMS, EXACTLY this same line. Every. Single. Time.
And what have we gotten?
* iPhones with bigger screens: Something the Android manufacturers had been doing for a few years before Apple, and something that would have been trivial for Apple's engineers to do. (In fact we knew, from various reports and Isaacson's Jobs bo
Translation (Score:2)
"New iPhones that will incentivize you and other people that have iPhones today to upgrade to new iPhones. We are going to give you things you can't live without that you just don't know you need today."
We are going to develop more "features" you do not want to further lock you into an iPhone and to force you to continue to use iPhones into the future, because profits, and you're our bitches. - love Cookie Monster
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Seriously. Their excuse was "we can't get the parts/drives to make them anymore". Ummm... they have hard drives on chips now. At work some of our laptops have "hard drives" that are nothing more than a chip about the size of a laptop DIMM physically with 256GB or more space.
Re:iPod Classic? (Score:4, Informative)
Seriously. Their excuse was "we can't get the parts/drives to make them anymore". Ummm... they have hard drives on chips now. At work some of our laptops have "hard drives" that are nothing more than a chip about the size of a laptop DIMM physically with 256GB or more space.
You don't just put a new drive or new drive technology in an existing device. There's engineering and testing and all that good stuff out there. And no doubt, they looked at the size of that market and said no thanks, we'll spend our time elsewhere. I'm not saying there aren't hundreds of thousands or possibly even millions of people who would like an iPod Classic sized device with a 512GB SSD, but that's probably not a big enough market for Apple to care about. Also, while coming down, the price of a 256GB or 512GB SSD compared to an equivalent spinning disk would probably remove many of those potential buyers anyway.
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The tech 'challenges' in getting an iPod classic to accept flash are ... uhm ... how to put it. Solved.
They use a standard (in antiquated) interface which you can readily buy an adapter to use an SD card.
http://www.imore.com/iflash-co... [imore.com]
$60 buys you a 256GB flash drive from a dozen different retailers
Apple just loves to artificially inflate the cost of memory in it's devices to drive up profits. They could easily make a cheap, large iPod ...but it would invalidate why they charge so much to get 128GB in a
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The tech 'challenges' in getting an iPod classic to accept flash are ... uhm ... how to put it. Solved.
They use a standard (in antiquated) interface which you can readily buy an adapter to use an SD card.
http://www.imore.com/iflash-co... [imore.com] $60 buys you a 256GB flash drive from a dozen different retailers
Apple just loves to artificially inflate the cost of memory in it's devices to drive up profits. They could easily make a cheap, large iPod ...but it would invalidate why they charge so much to get 128GB in an iPhone.
That is how YOU solve the problem of upgrading YOUR HDD designed iPod. That's really not the way a company would go about making an iPod Classic SSD edition. But hey, go for it. I'm sure iPod Classics are pretty easy to get on eBay.
Never said it was challenging to do. I said they didn't care to bother based on the way the market is today. I'm staring at my iPod right now. It probably hasn't been plugged in to charge for months. Truth is, I'm RARELY without WiFi or Cell coverage. When I am there's usuall
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" I'm sure iPod Classics are pretty easy to get on eBay. "
If you're willing to fork over $400+....
And Apple is slowly dying because they've forgotten to satisfy the public and instead just want to be "hip"
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Be honest
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" I'm sure iPod Classics are pretty easy to get on eBay. "
If you're willing to fork over $400+....
And Apple is slowly dying because they've forgotten to satisfy the public and instead just want to be "hip"
In a discussion where people slam Apple for not being innovative, you blame them for not increasing the storage in a device that others have declared dead almost a decade ago.
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Re:Why would anyone use Apple products? (Score:5, Insightful)
Can anyone explain to me why anyone would use Apple products? I suspect I'll be modded down to -1 so people can pretend my post doesn't exist and not answer the tough questions.
I have an iPad, an iPod touch, mac book pro and iMac at home. (However my day job involves an awful lot of Microsoft based products and systems)
I find for the systems I have that "they just work" , no need to fiddle with them to get something working that should have been there out of the box. Yes they have their own quirks as to how things are done. Yes they keep changing things ahead of the curve (EG loss of floppy). Yes they annoy this shit out of me at times ( as does MS and linux systems I have used) . In the end I tend to agree that OS X is what linux on the desktop *should* be.
BTW the Apple tax is an old chestnut that has been discounted many times. I'll willing to bet that if you try and configure *any* laptop to meet the same specs as an Apple system you will end up at the same or greater price - and by that I mean all specs including weight and volume. (however don't mention the premium they put on additional memory for drive space :P)
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The problem with Apple is you can't get a device speced for what you need. I Still don't need a glowing keyboard, or a high resolution video camera.
I would love a system with the general specs of a Mac mini, but cheaper that is bigger and fatter.
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There is a slight premium (tax) still, but nothing major unless you need to install Windows.
For me, I see our company Macs as being more reliable both in terms of hardware and operating system than the Dell/Windows workstations (high end machines). Macs don't have the profile/registry corruption issues that seem to cause more IT overhead. Doing a remote pull backup on a Mac is trivial (and free).
Reasons why we'd "use Apple products" .... (Score:2)
I work in I.T. for a company that does marketing and corporate events.
We've long held a policy that we're "platform agnostic". If you start work with us, we give you your choice of a Mac or a Windows laptop as your machine. (We also had a policy of issuing people an iPad when they started, but that really came about because we had a division writing a few custom iOS apps for our clients. It made sense for our people to be familiar with what we were selling. Moving forward, I see the company issued iPad po
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Re:Why would anyone use Apple products? (Score:5, Insightful)
As a disclaimer I have an Android phone, have owned two iPads (one is still used by my wife), but own a Surface Pro 4 now. My last laptop was a Macbook Pro with Windows installed, but now I have a Lenovo. I am certainly not an Apple fanboy but still feel they offer great products.
Apple's hardware is underpowered.
This is rarely true. Because there is only one manufacturer of Apple devices and they only refresh them about once a year, there are usually more powerful Android / Windows devices on the market for most of the year. But you rarely have to wait more than 6-9 months for Apple to catch up. Apple also tends to wait for the bugs in newer drivers to be solved, which as an owner of a Surface Pro 4 I can tell you is not how Microsoft handled their device launch. It took about 5 months before my Surface Pro 4 drivers started functioning properly all of the time.
The OS software is so oversimplified that it's hard to use.
This is probably only because you are a power user. I also sometimes find OSX difficult to use, but not for 95% of my usage. Only when I am trying to customize my experience do I run into problems, and I assume the primary reason is I am used to other OSes.
There aren't many useful applications unless you're doing audio or video editing
I would agree that Apple doesn't really have a killer app on the desktop, but in the iOS world they are clearly #1 in applications. You may not find those applications useful, but the majority of consumers disagree with you.
Apple hasn't innovated in ten years.
That is nonsense. It still takes innovation to incrementally improve products. You don't have to reinvent an industry to be innovative. I may agree that Apple hasn't innovated much in the last 2-3 years, but certainly not 10.
The Apple Watch was a mistake that tried to solve a problem that doesn't exist.
Agreed.
Apple products are incredibly expensive but wouldn't even be worth the cost of a typical Android or Windows product.
The apple tax is mostly a myth, and at best comes to $50 on many devices. For instance the iPhone 6+ cost $50 more than my Note 4 when I purchased it two years ago. Apple also tends to only build devices with top of the line hardware, so they are more expensive that the vast majority of other devices. But when compared to Android / Windows devices with similar specs the prices are very similar.
Can anyone explain to me why anyone would use Apple products?
Overall I don't use Apple products because I don't think there is enough variation of products, and I generally feel a more open marketplace creates better products in the long run. For at least 5-6 years I have felt Android phones were superior primarily because I had more options to choose from. If I had to choose between Samsung and Apple I probably would have chosen Apple until 4 years ago, but I never had to make that choice since I also had Motorola / HTC / etc to choose from. Same thing with other Apple devices. For a short time I felt the Macbook Pro 17" laptop was the best on the market, so that is what I bought, but I don't think that has been true for a while.
But regardless of my complaints about options from Apple, they still make great devices. Its just not for me.
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Apple's hardware is underpowered.
This is rarely true. . .
I find it is true for high-end users; however, most consumers buying computers these days rarely need a lot of power. Realistically a tablet to surf the web and emails is all the power they need. Gamers and creative professionals are a different breed.
The OS software is so oversimplified that it's hard to use.
This is probably only because you are a power user.
I hear this a lot and normally it comes from people who don't really use OS X at all. They don't know that Terminal exists. I use it 90% of the time to manage Linux boxes. I've only used AppleScript a few times to do things but it very powerful.
Also I don't k
Re:Why would anyone use Apple products? (Score:4, Interesting)
While with the newer generation of Androids this might not hold true, but I bought an iPhone 5 some years back because:
1. The iPhone5 camera is far superior to an S4 or previous. No contest.
2. The phone is simply responsive and reliable. No hangs or freezes. It's quick. Neither my Nexic 7 nor S1 could make that claim. It's there when I need it, since it is above all else, a phone. My old S1 wigged out too much to be trusted. Good thing my car never broke down when that was my phone. (Granted, that's a long time ago) I have an S4 now for work, and it's better in that regard, but still flaky, IMO.
3. I bought an iPhone so as to familiarize myself with at least one Apple product, just to broaden my technical scope
4. Some apps are only available for IOS.
5. Simple, solid interface.
iPhone Downsides:
1. No SD card slot
2. Ridiculous price difference in upgrading from 16GB to 32 or 64. Heck, 32GB isn't even available anymore, and that's the sweet spot!
3. No easily replaceable battery.. (I just did it last month, it was a minor nightmare) But even the Samsungs are doing that now, so that's a wash.
I'm due for a new phone though, and I'm still considering an iPhone6. I'm not that crazy about Samsung's UI, and never looked that deep at an HTC, LG, or Droid.
I might switch though, as I'm not a fanboi or hater of either product.
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"The OS software is so oversimplified that it's hard to use."
Your nuts. I develop on Windows for a living but my Mac is a piece of cake to use. The OS is Unix under the GUI so you can do just about anything you want with the command line.
" There aren't many useful applications unless you're doing audio or video editing."
Really?
Re: Why would anyone use Apple products? (Score:4, Insightful)
Try not to laugh but, and it pains me to admit this, I am really enjoying my time with a Windows phone. I haven't upgraded it to Windows Phone 10 yet but I guess I can and it's supposed to work just fine. I'm a pretty happy Linux user but I gotta be honest and say that this Windows phone isn't bad at all. It's actually good. The specs make one think it's slow or whatnot but it isn't. Contrary to popular opinion, there's a number of apps for it - there just aren't 803 versions of Candy Crush and 9254 versions of a flashlight. The apps are all fine and I'm not seeing any compelling reason to swap back to Android.
I did pre-order an Ubuntu tablet. I did not order the phone. If the tablet is any good and the reviews of the phone indicate that it is worth it then I'll order a phone. It's hard telling. Maybe... I really am pretty happy with my Windows-based phone. It's snappy and responsive. It does everything that I want it to do - I am, literally, not missing any features that I'd get with any other phone. I'm sure there might be a few apps that it doesn't have, for example, but I'm not missing them.
Get this... I'm not even being paid (or coerced) into making this post. It's all good that you pick what you pick but there are other options besides Google and Apple. They range from Ubuntu to Microsoft to a few custom things - and BlackBerry still has their own OS going on. So, there are options.
No Mr Fusion? Not interested. (Score:2)
iPhone!
Because you don't want to look like some sort of peasant, do you?
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Yup, everybody's trading and only cares about the stock price going up. Never mind that Apple pays dividends lately... that's not good enough.
I wonder if they could use their cash stockpile to take themselves private.