Apple Used To Be an Inventor. Now It's Mainly a Landlord. (bloomberg.com) 205
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: For years, analysts and journalists watching Apple have talked up the growing importance of services, as opposed to hardware sales, to the company's top line. But it's only now that Apple's business model truly appears to be shifting toward collecting rent from the company's ecosystem and increasingly relying on gadget sales to perpetuate this rent rather than drive growth. Apple's decision to stop reporting iPhone unit sales underscores the shift. Services have been steadily growing in importance for Apple since 2016, while the share of revenue provided by the flagship gadget, the iPhone, has gone up and down depending on the popularity of different models.
There's a lot of potential for Apple to squeeze a higher rent directly out of its captive user base. Goldman Sachs estimates that only 10 percent of Apple's user base pay for iCloud Storage; in terms of price and service quality, iCloud has been a poor competitor to services provided by Google and some smaller companies such as Dropbox, but that only means Apple can increase revenue from it exponentially if it bothered to compete more aggressively, as it does with another key service, Apple Music. Even that streaming service has relatively low penetration, though, with only about 35 million users last year. Goldman Sachs predicts that number will grow to 83 million by 2020. Goldman's proposal for Apple is to create a services bundle similar to Amazon Prime; for $30 a month or so, subscribers would get access to music, video, 200 GB of storage and phone repair. The investment bank calculates that with just 50 million subscribers, such a bundle could add $18 billion in services revenue in 2019. "Rent extraction from a user base that finds it hard to go away may sound a bit like extortion," Leonid Bershidsky writes in closing. "But it's more honest and upfront than extracting data from users in ways they often don't understand and then making money off the data, as Facebook does. That honesty is in itself a competitive advantage for Apple as it gradually reimagines itself as more of a services company."
The challenge, Bershidsky writes, "is to grow the services offering fast enough to make up for potential iPhone revenue losses; gadget prices cannot keep going up forever without hurting the top line, and in the end, a phone is just a phone. We only need it to gain access to all the nice digital stuff out there."
There's a lot of potential for Apple to squeeze a higher rent directly out of its captive user base. Goldman Sachs estimates that only 10 percent of Apple's user base pay for iCloud Storage; in terms of price and service quality, iCloud has been a poor competitor to services provided by Google and some smaller companies such as Dropbox, but that only means Apple can increase revenue from it exponentially if it bothered to compete more aggressively, as it does with another key service, Apple Music. Even that streaming service has relatively low penetration, though, with only about 35 million users last year. Goldman Sachs predicts that number will grow to 83 million by 2020. Goldman's proposal for Apple is to create a services bundle similar to Amazon Prime; for $30 a month or so, subscribers would get access to music, video, 200 GB of storage and phone repair. The investment bank calculates that with just 50 million subscribers, such a bundle could add $18 billion in services revenue in 2019. "Rent extraction from a user base that finds it hard to go away may sound a bit like extortion," Leonid Bershidsky writes in closing. "But it's more honest and upfront than extracting data from users in ways they often don't understand and then making money off the data, as Facebook does. That honesty is in itself a competitive advantage for Apple as it gradually reimagines itself as more of a services company."
The challenge, Bershidsky writes, "is to grow the services offering fast enough to make up for potential iPhone revenue losses; gadget prices cannot keep going up forever without hurting the top line, and in the end, a phone is just a phone. We only need it to gain access to all the nice digital stuff out there."
Rent Seeking (Score:5, Insightful)
Rent seeking is a code-word for a coercive business transaction. I don't think it fits Apple's situation. The smart phone market is pretty well saturated. The only new revenue you can get is through related devices (watches? headphones?) or services.
There are plenty of competitors. If one of them can come up with something substantially better then they could easily crush everyone else in the smartphone market.
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Apple really doesn't know how to sell. They've had exclusivity as an advantage for so long that all their marketing is based on having a special product that you only need to give people a glimpse of and they will pour into apple stores all over the country to buy. Compare iCloud to the first iPod. You don't sell iCloud with beautiful commercials of people jogging in scenic places.
Re:Rent Seeking (Score:5, Interesting)
Rent seeking is a code-word for a coercive business transaction. I don't think it fits Apple's situation.
Indeed. What is described in TFA is not "rent-seeking".
Also, most people have Amazon Prime for the free shipping on their stuff. The movies are music are just extra benefits. The cost is $10 per month. So why would 50 million people pay $30/month for a worse deal? Answer: They wouldn't.
Bundling phone repair into a monthly service package will just encourage people to fix their phones and keep them longer, which is the last thing Apple wants.
Apple is the most profitable company in the history of the world. I don't think they need advice from some random journalist about what they are doing wrong.
Lastly, Apple was never an "inventor".
Payment psychology and Sports clothing (Score:3)
Over my life I've noticed that every sports specialty store gravitates from selling cool hardware to having most of its retail space filled with clothing. The same pattern has been replicated in the internet age too. Geek gear stores grow, expand into new products but the mature end-state is the clothing store.
The reason I think is the product of repeat-sales* volume * margins / up-front-inventory cost is the highest on clothing so once you discover how to include clothing in your store it just takes over
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If Apple could guarantee no one would ever buy a new phone, they probably would. They make a ton of money off apps, Apple Music subscriptions, etc. And those have almost no per-unit costs or physical infrastructure requirements. What scares them far more than you not buying another iPhone is buying an Android device.
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Rent seeking is a code-word for a coercive business transaction. I don't think it fits Apple's situation.
Indeed. What is described in TFA is not "rent-seeking".
Does it become rent seeking if a contract of adhesion [wikipedia.org] is involved?
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Yeah, I don't consider Apple (Jobs) an inventor.
He was the tech version of a talent agent, his skill was identifying, promoting, and producing (refining) the invention.
Inventors vs pioneers vs settlers (Score:3, Interesting)
There's an expression that says Pioneers get the arrows, settlers get the land. But there's a third layer to this. For there to be Pioneers first there had to be some new invention that let people press farther into unknown regions than they had before.
Apple is both a pioneer and a settler. Their inventive side is less to do with the techical invention but the invention of a use for it.
while people will quibble here's a list of things that apple didn't invent but did arguably pioneer and settle the us of
The mother of all Demos (Score:3)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
in 1968, The 90-minute presentation essentially demonstrated almost all the fundamental elements of modern personal computing: windows, hypertext, graphics, efficient navigation and command input, video conferencing, the computer mouse, word processing, dynamic file linking, revision control, and a collaborative real-time editor (collaborative work). it featured video conference, picture-in-a-picture, an early form of windowing, electret head set microphones, the GUI. Enge
Re:Rent Seeking (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, Apple is not the only company trying to maximize this business model.
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Not really sure what this is supposed to mean. Apple iPhones easily last 3 years with a bit of care and 5 years for many, and Apple provide extensive OS updates with security patches throughout the reasonable lifespan of the device (compare to generic Android devices which almost never get updates). Batteries do tend to lose capacity over time - this has been known for a hundred years - and Apple has be
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Not really sure what this is supposed to mean.
This, just the first example I found :-
https://www.theguardian.com/te... [theguardian.com]
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Yes, I'm well aware of those stories. I doubt very much Apple had any intention of "deliberately slowing down their phones" [with hidden subtext of driving more sales]; it is equally or more likely that they were trying to provide better usability for their customers with older phones. Regulatory agencies don't have to investigate or take intent into account if they don't believe it is necessary, but that doesn't mean a regulatory agency's action is the final word on why an action was taken. Interestingly
Oh Bullshit. (Score:1)
That's such a load of rubbish. Factually over the decades apple computers have historically had almost twice the longevity in bussiness use than PCs. When it comes to phones, anytime there is explosive growth in technology, a rapid replacement cycle manifests. Phones have the natural problem of 1) getting dropped, 2) batteries wearing out and 3) difficulty upgrading software. Apple actually solved the latter one but by the time your batteries wear out, phones have imporved so much that the newer phones
Re:Rent Seeking (Score:4, Informative)
The thing the smartphone market was missing was a good universal(NOT CARRIER RUN SEGMENTED JUNGLE OF SHIT) before apple. that 30% and 100 bucks was a pretty goddamned good deal(getting stuff signed for symbian or j2me cost way more - per one release! and the shops you could sell on gave you shit percentages).
Appstore and google play store fixed that. If you've wondered what really killed Nokia this was a major factor in it, as their attempts were so half hearted because they didn't want to go against operators. They had their Download! etc but .. you would be really, really surprised on what kind of a budget those attempts were ran(displaying nokias motivation) and what kind of money you needed to sort payments for them(again displaying nokias motivation level - you wouldn't believe how good deal that 100$ bucks starting developer fee from apple was compared to the sums you needed to get a popular symbian os licensing platform and accepting payments on it - both in startup cost and per transaction cost for typical mobile payment sizes).
There is no easy way currently to break in a new smartphone platform in.. Android is already too well established in the lower(and higher too) end.
also there's kaiOS but thats a transitory ecosystem, just like tizen.
windows phone failed due to not matching features. launching a smartphone platform with featurephone capabilities was a dumb AF move. it was also tragically funny having ms and nokia people lobby for ports of apps onto the platform that were literally impossible to do at the time on the platform. then when escalating through ms dev relations the answer came back as "you don't need to do that". well, okay then. thanks for the free phone and food I guess.
anyways about apple, they're making cheaper and cheaper devices and selling them for higher and higher price. It's not their fault that people buy it. they will continue to make them cheaper and cheaper to make.
also somehow they manage to sell 3 year old devices that will have support dropped in like 1 year. that should be illegal (they do this in asia. apple actually has mid tier phones and has had for years. they just keep selling the old models - and this is new in box models through operators, a lot of it in asia. no refurbs. but new in box phones of 3 year old phones. thats their 200 dollar segment). apple sells them and doesn't give a fuck that the sw support is due to be dropped in just a little while.
Re: Rent Seeking (Score:5, Interesting)
The iPhone 5S was released in 2013, five years ago. It was discontinued in 2015 in most places, 2017 in India. It's still getting software support. There are android phones that never got a single update. Apple has historically had better support for its phones than any other company. I'm on a 4 year upgrade cycle because that's generally how long my phones last (with a thin case).
I get absolutely every single dollar worth out of my iPhones while I watched friends have endless boot loops on their Pixels (which couldnâ(TM)t be repaired in Canada because google would refer them to the manufacturer and then be referred back to google BY the manufacturer).
The state of longevity and customer support in the market is fairly poor, but Apple is certainly miles ahead of everyone else.
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also somehow they manage to sell 3 year old devices that will have support dropped in like 1 year. that should be illegal (they do this in asia. apple actually has mid tier phones and has had for years. they just keep selling the old models - and this is new in box models through operators, a lot of it in asia. no refurbs. but new in box phones of 3 year old phones. thats their 200 dollar segment). apple sells them and doesn't give a fuck that the sw support is due to be dropped in just a little while.
So glad you can accurately predict the future!
When it comes to supporting older devices, especially Mobile ones, NOBODY can compare Apple negatively to ANYONE else.
Period.
iOS12 (just released about a month ago), supports iPhones back to the 5s.
That's equivalent to Samsung still Supporting the Galaxy S4 with OS and Security Updates(!!!)
According to the link below, the last OS Update for the S4 was Android LOLLIPOP, in November, 2015.
https://www.androidpit.com/gal... [androidpit.com]
So kindly STFU on this subject. You just lo
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I'm not shilling for them.
I don't buy Apple products. Only reason I use some is that I get paid to do so, it's kinda hard to do builds for iOS without osx.
Actually I'm saying people are stupid to keep paying more for less, but I see people glamoring for them all the time. I guess it's same as was with ibm in early '90s.
however there are reasons for why developers jumped on the iOS bandwagon so easily and it was simply that it was super cheap super easy to start making cash on it. that's the vital part that
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There are plenty of competitors. If one of them can come up with something substantially better then they could easily crush everyone else in the smartphone market.
There's a big market space waiting for a secure, less fragmented iteration of Android. Anyone care to occupy it?
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Rent seeking is a code-word for a coercive business transaction. I don't think it fits Apple's situation. The smart phone market is pretty well saturated. The only new revenue you can get is through related devices (watches? headphones?) or services.
There are plenty of competitors. If one of them can come up with something substantially better then they could easily crush everyone else in the smartphone market.
The problem with video is that you either need to strike licensing deals or create your own content. Both Netflix and Amazon realized that they could only make money with their video streaming services if they created their own content. Licensed content is too expensive, they need a different license for each region, etc. By creating your own content, you can make it available everywhere and it ends up costing less than licensing fees.
In order for Apple to compete in the video market, they would have to
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Rent seeking is what it's always been about.
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There's no secret to what's happening. Steve Jobs was the innovator at Apple.
Since he's been gone there has been zero innovation there. In this case it's not really the engineers that innovate, it's the idea guy who sends the engineers the projects they work on and the integrators that take the individual small improvements to hardware and combine them into an actual innovative system. With Jobs gone Apple is just living off the carcass now. Its justa matter of time till they fold.
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Define "successful". Most units installed? Sure. Make any return on it? Well....
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Google did not come up with Android. They bought it.
From Google's point of view that was probably a mistake because it put them in competition with one of the major channels for delivering their products.
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Being a landlord is not generally considered to be rent seeking. Rent seeking means seeking to make profits from something that you already have created without contributing anything back to society. A landlord contributes the use of property to society in exchange for that money. There is an actual cost to the landlord, both in terms of being unable to use that property for other things and in terms of having to maintain that property.
It could be argued that the iOS App Store qualifies as rent seeking
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Apple uses policies that prevent users from side-loading apps or using other app stores
Time for this meme to die. It hasn't really been true since iOS 8.0. Do some research on Cydia Impactor, and the vibrant iOS Open Source community. And no, it isn't all just Swift stuff... ...And besides, considering the Googolplex of Android Malware articles (almost all of them even involving the supposedly-curated Google Play Store), I am more than happy with the Googolplex of CLEAN Apps I can DL WITHOUT WORRY from the iOS App Store, thankyouverymuch!
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the vibrant iOS Open Source community
You've got some private definition of "vibrant". Apple open source looks about as vibrant as code.google.com.
The usual apple circlejerk (Score:4, Funny)
Apple spent less r&d in than AMD in the era where Apple was a duopoly in the smartphone and tablet market with Samsung(no chinese companies back then where so huge) than AMD spent in r&d during their bulldozer days.
Apple, aside from the firewire, hasn't invented anything. They repackage, copy-pasta ideas, from others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
I hate fanboys because their fanboy-ism is based upon marketing and ads. I love fanboys who are fanboys for technical reasons.
Let the hate flow, I learnt the "foe" feature here 3 years into this account after an "anti-apple" comment.
Apple is a fashion choice, stop being fashists.
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Let the hate flow, I learnt the "foe" feature here 3 years into this account after an "anti-apple" comment.
Apple is a fashion choice, stop being fashists.
Strange that the article assumes that Apple users are somehow trapped on Apple products. Shall we chat about people who actually brag of how business is effectively locked into Windows?
Apple's inventions or lack of them are not the point. The point is what companies do with the inventions. Someone's gonna hate on you no matter. I'm on Linux at the moment. At home and work I have Apple and Windows. If I post anything on any of those, I'll get flamed. Meh, whateva.
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Fuck Linux. Linus Torvalds is a total retard.
You forgot misogynist, misandrist, and supercilious cock-a-whoop.
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He is also fat! Well, according to european standards at least ... /me peeks his nose and looks at what he found
Oh, what did I want to say, I forgot.
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He is also fat! Well, according to european standards at least ... /me peeks his nose and looks at what he found
Oh, what did I want to say, I forgot.
A pity when the latest social justice issue is complete control of people's personalities.
The tyranny of the weakest.
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Trannies on average possess more physical strength than their biological female counterparts.
Is that a trannie tyranny?
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Fuck off, Nazi asshole.
U mad, Bro?
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Look everybody - a corporate-Progressive nazi is hurling tired insults at a world hero of Freedom.
Hey Nazi asshole - what have you ever done for the world?
Look everybody, look at the nazi shitlord! Leave him a post saying "fuck off, Nazi asshole".
Oh, sheesh. Maximus whooshification.
Protip: When someone writes that someone is a "supercilious cock-a-whoop", it is likely to the point of certainty that he's being facetious. Just sayin.
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So what have you assholes done lately that has changed the world?
Pissed you off, which counts for something.
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Apple, aside from the firewire, hasn't invented anything. They repackage, copy-pasta ideas, from others.
So what?
I don't totally agree with you that Apple just "copy-pasta ideas from others", but even if so, why should I care? Their stuff is generally well designed and high quality. Why shouldn't I just buy whatever product works best for me, completely ignoring who invented what?
In fact, to be honest, I think a lot of companies would do better to follow established standards instead of trying to invent things. I'm glad Apple is generally using standard USB and Thunderbolt ports, for example, and would pr
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Apple is a fashion choice, stop being fashists.
Last time I checked iOS only runs on Apple devices and Mac OS X or OS X *legally* only runs on Macs.
Perhaps you want to look up what a fanboy/i is or what fashion is.
I know hundreds of Apple users and most of them are hard core computer users, give them better hardware and a better OS and they switch instantly.
OTOH if you have a reasonable specced laptop, preferred made from metal, and you install me macOS on it, I might buy it. Just to prove a point. I don't c
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Innovation on Apple stalled when Steve Jobs died. Now Apple is copying its own products over and over again.
Sadly, most smartphone manufacturers still think Apple as an innovator, and are afraid of breaking out of the rat race of copying everything Apple does.
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Innovation on Apple stalled when Steve Jobs died. Now Apple is copying its own products over and over again.
The Ax series of SoCs ALONE belies your assertion.
And that's just ONE example.
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Apple is making a return on its investment. Why AMD is still in business is something of a mystery. So I'm not sure citing AMD's R&D spending is a good argument.
And for whatever Apple are spending on chip research they are getting a heck of an ROI and putting out amazing designs on a routine 2-year cycle.
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Why AMD is still in business is something of a mystery.
AMD is responsible for nearly all the modern innovation in high performance x86 CPUs. The modern instruction set is entirely due to AMD (in fact we call it AMD64, even on Intel). AMD invented Hypertransport, which Intel copied as Quickpath. AMD pioneered multichip CPU modules, which Intel will be forced to imitate. Basically everything interesting lately.
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I love fanboys who are fanboys for technical reasons.
Then you should LOVE me.
I frankly don't care much for the vast majority of Apple's ads and videos. I think they actually do a pretty piss-poor job of describing the MERITS of Apple Products and the Apple "Ecosystem" (boy do I hate that term!). But, in most cases, those advantages DO exist, for tech-savvy users like me, those advantages keep me happy, and keep me coming back for more, decade after decade, even though I have plenty of experience on the Dark Side (Windows), and actually develop Windows busines
Ups and downs. (Score:2)
And Microsoft is realizing the same thing. Goods be it phones or OS is subject to too many vagrancies, while services are both higher margin and more consistent. Think of it as betting on the ifs of Vegas, versus the steadiness of bonds.
Hardware is dead (Score:1)
Technological progress in semiconductors has slowed down to a crawl. It's a zombie business model, buy junk from China and sell it with your brand at a markup. But we pretty much have no reason to upgrade anymore. Market growth in smart phones and computers has stalled, even declining.
So, what else can they do? Well, services. Services with monthly payments provide a stream of income, and a big stream if you manage to become the market leader. It takes time to get established though, and there are zero guar
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Hardware is dead
I'd like to see you compute without it.
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Technological progress in semiconductors has slowed down to a crawl.
Not at all. Just because Intel stumbled you think everybody has. But Moore's law just keeps chugging along. [wikipedia.org] AMD pioneered the multi chip module technique, making it a lot cheaper to put many cores into one CPU, giving Moore's law another big boost. EUV is a major hurdle because it changes from refractive to reflective optics, but after the difficult 7nm node, the next two or three nodes will be comparatively easy.
opportunities (Score:2)
Assumes competency almost entirely lacking in AAPL (Score:2)
All this assumes a level of competence in software and systems, starting from the very top, that Apple has seldom been able to achieve, and is
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You can't wave a magic wand and axiomatically create services people will use, let along pay money for, see Google+ for one of the starkest examples
Exactly the example I was thinking of. Rather an amazing pratfall. The issue: Google has no idea what actually motivates people socially because the founders are, let's call it, a couple of social misfits. Apple can trump that, it's a whole company full of social misfits.
Not a bad idea (Score:2)
I do like the idea of an all-encompassing simple subscription for all kinds of entertainment incl. books, a cloud service and some kind of extended warranty. No hassle. I can well imagine google, netflix etc eventually also offering such.
Clickbait (Score:4, Interesting)
This seems like nonsense to me. Apple's success has never been due to being an "inventor", and they're not currently "rent seeking". Apple is, and has been, primarily a hardware company. They sell Macs, iPads, iPhones, iPods, watches, and accessories. They sell a lot of them because they have a reputation (whether you think it's earned or not) for making high quality and widely supported products that are easy to use. That's still the case, and Apple is showing no sign of moving away from that.
Are their products inventive? I can see both sides of the debate. Most of their stuff is based off of some technology someone else invented, but on some level you could say that about all technology products. However, MP3 players weren't very popular before iPods. Smart phones weren't relatively unpopular before the iPhone. Tablets weren't selling much until the iPad. Smart phones didn't generally include virtual assistants until Apple introduced Siri. Not many people were wearing smart watches before the Apple Watch. In each case, the product class existed before Apple entered the market, but Apple seemed to introduce the first product in the class that people really wanted, and then a ton of imitating products followed.
None of those products were invented by Apple, but Apple still creates fairly innovative designs that have changed the way people use technology.
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they're not currently "rent seeking"
But Apple wants to be because as anybody can see, I-phone is nearly mined out.
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The price of the ore may have gone up but they're at the end of the seam. Means the goldmine's days are numbered.
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I have a biographer, sweet. "Tim Cook may wear the black turtleneck but he doesn't fill the shoes", write that one in your book of notable quotes. Catchy, isn't it.
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Now about the numbers. The total market is about 1.5 billion handsets/year, that makes sense given that the world's population is a bit over 7 billion, maybe 4.5 billion of those being the right age and income to own a phone and replace it every three years or so. Apple is currently sitting around 13% of the handset market, its chunk of the pie having narrowed considerably over the last few years. Heading to 9% in my opinion. So let's do the math: 1.5 * .09 = .135, that's about 13.5 million. Those days when
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Uh, Apple sold 47 million phones last quarter.
So? Take 1.5 billion worldwide handset sales, that is 375 million per quarter, Apple sold 12.5% of those. Probably. You can whine about it, but that is the share I-phone has today. Analysts expect it to go lower, the holiday season may well be the first of a string of outright reversals, not just stagnation.
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Everybody knows that Apple's unit sales are dwindling, even you. That's because Apple chose to prop up its revenue numbers by jacking up I-phone prices. So unit sales are going down. The only question is, how much, how fast.
What's your guess? :-)
And thanks for digging out my old posts, shows you have respect, or too much time on your hands or both. At that time you Apple cultists were in total denial about Android moving to completely dominate I-phone, I called that. Now I'm calling a unit sales tailspin fo
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So at least you admit that I-phone sales are stagnant. And everybody except you know which direction they are headed because of downward guidance for 19Q1 guidance. Dwindle.
Re: Homework for you (Score:2)
Here's some homework for you. Read about how China's domestic Android manufacturers are busy sucking the remaining life out of the I-phone market in China. [theverge.com]
India's I-phone story is even sadder. The two biggest populations in the world. Then what? Pakistan, another huge one. No growth there for I-phone. Same is true of just about every rapidly growing economy.
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You appear to be unaware of what the term "downward guidance" means. Let me help you: it was of the things that lead to AAPL's 7% haircut afterhours Friday.
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Q1 2019 guidance is for Appleâ(TM)s highest quarterly revenue ever.
And this year is the highest numbered year ever! Meanwhile, back to reality, Apple guided Q1 revenue up only 3% (below expectations) while average selling price is up 28% (more than expected) which implies unit sales down 20% (heart attack.) No wonder Cook hopes to hide the numbers! But the analysts will deduce this fact regardless and it won't be pretty.
See, honesty is always the best policy, something that no AAPL employee will ever understand.
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Let me help you: "below" and "down" are the same direction.
Oh wait, black is white in the mind of an AAPL cultist.
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Good point. So, guidance puts 2018 revenue up 15% over 2017 while average selling price increased by more than 20%. So unit sales are obviously down by at least 5%. Probably worse because service revenues are supposedly increasing. Still ugly.
AAPL twisting and turning to hide its defecting customers.
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Did I say fy? No you did. So for _actual year_ 2018, AAPL's published numbers say that unit sales for _actual year_ 2018 will be down 5%. That's ugly. Going to be impossible for AAPL to conceal it.
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Since when does Q mean FY?
Senility setting in.
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I said nothing about a fiscal year, you did. You're niggling yourself into a lather, maybe wipe off the drool before it gets in your keyboard and makes it work worse than AAPL keyboards already do.
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I understand that units of time confuse you.
Time to start selling macOS (Score:3)
For all these reasons, the fact that profits from services will soon be/already are exceeding profits from hardware sales, they should start selling macOS as a stand-alone OS for regular PCs. Simply give a list of supported CPUs/GPUs/chipsets.
That way, it means more people using macOS, more people subscribing to Apple services, more people buying other Apple devices (phones, tablets, watches, set-top boxes, etc).
sad new world (Score:2)
This is the new era business model, they don't want people to own anything, but to subscribe to everything they can. Actually it started a long time ago with computer software and the licenses changed so you weren't buying the software you were leasing it. Now music, movies, books, magazines, TV, radio, cars and other goods, they want a guaranteed monthly payment. I've read where grocery stores are looking into a model like this where you pay for base monthly food, then buy extras. Your quality of
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Well, to be fair there are relatively few films that are watched more than once or twice, and I'll bet the same holds true for books and almost certainly news stories. Having a large library is more of an interior design aesthetic than a valuable asset for most of us, and a liability when it comes time to downsize.
Qualifiers abound of course. And for whatever reason music seems to be an exception, probably because it lights up nostalgia pathways.
Bigger problem: we invent nothing new (Score:2)
Since 2007, as a species we have been playing with slightly improved versions of stuff invented in the 1970s. Our actual innovation has stagnated, and the result is that we are more focused on entertainment products than anything with long-term potential. Signs of the decline.
If you want to play in the garden, (Score:2)
You have to payyyyyyy.
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And you have to be that kind of person.
Apple's model (Score:2)
Apple is trying to keep their customer relationship to itself. The other FAANGs are happy to bring third parties into the business/customer relationship (ie advertisers and resellers) because it is a way to get quick growth and allows for singular focus. I also think that the current CEO probably puts a very high premium on privacy for some very personal reasons, and that alone is a good reason to consider paying Apple instead of going the free route.
Everyone here knows the saying "if you aren't paying for
IMHO the new Microsoft (Score:2)
the Bershidsky dossier (Score:1)
None of the links in the summary go to the article authored by Bershidsky. Instead, it doubles down on putting lipstick on a pig.
Here's the Bershidsky link:
Apple Used to Be an Inventor. Now It's Mainly a Landlord. [bloomberg.com]
Now I have three entries for Bershidsky in my idiots file:
Another crap Apple article (Score:2)
Airpods have been copied to death. The Apple Watch is the most successful smart watch out there. Solid seeming rumors point to Apple researching foldable phones, air gesture controls, and AR glasses. But none of these are ever mentioned in these useless articles. All they ever do is bemoan how things "used to be better" under Steve Jobs. At this point any points about what Jobs did better have been made a dozen times over. But no, we need to see this
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Apple watch dropped from 35% to 30% market share [counterpointresearch.com] year over year, to hold a minority share of a market it once owned, while Fitbit Shipments grew 348%.
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These pop on /. every week. They never say anything new.
Airpods have been copied to death. The Apple Watch is the most successful smart watch out there. Solid seeming rumors point to Apple researching foldable phones, air gesture controls, and AR glasses.
But none of these are ever mentioned in these useless articles. All they ever do is bemoan how things "used to be better" under Steve Jobs. At this point any points about what Jobs did better have been made a dozen times over. But no, we need to see this same damned article every week till the end of time.
MOD PARENT UP!!!
How to be innovative (Score:2)
2. Have designers in a company who can work on new products that are "new".
3. Have engineers hired on merit who can do the advanced work and testing.
4. Ensure the new products work and make a profit.
5. Test the products to make sure they work in the real world under real conditions.
6. Have testing done and fix problems well before paying consumers find and report th
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It was a parody post, right? This is the Apple that can't even make a wireless charger. [theverge.com]
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1. Hire only the best staff. On merit who can do the work they got hired for without needing extra support in the company for years.
2. Have designers in a company who can work on new products that are "new".
3. Have engineers hired on merit who can do the advanced work and testing.
4. Ensure the new products work and make a profit.
5. Test the products to make sure they work in the real world under real conditions.
6. Have testing done and fix problems well before paying consumers find and report the same problems.
7. Always have staff learning new skills and hire new staff on merit to bring in new skills.
Any average company can create a product for existing market conditions. A few brands can take exisiting tech and bring in new advanced features.
A few of the very best brands every generation can create a new market that never existed.
Hire the best staff to ensure a brand can make its own new markets every generation that define the use of tech for that generation.
Its all in having the best staff and best workers. Find the best and support them. People who arrive on time. Who work hard. Who understand new problems and can work on new projects.
Wow! Sounds like an accurate description of Apple's policies and practices!
Each Apple cultist gets a chip implant (Score:2)
Each Apple cultist gets a chip implant for the purpose of transferring funds directly from their employer or family to Apple at scheduled times, such as shortly before Apple reporting dates or whatever other times Apple deems to be appropriate, in amounts to be determined by Apple based on sophisticated AI algorithms that take into account the cultist's conditions of employment and those of their immediate family. This is the Apple I-chip.
What else to expect from a bean-counter? (Score:2)
Re:Once again (Score:4, Informative)
Meh, then your definition of "invent" is too strict. True, they didn't invent the home computer. But after a few tries they managed to find a formula that worked and an entire industry was born. They didn't invent the GUI - but they finally innovated a recipe that worked with the Mac and the PC world never looked the same. Then they did it again with the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad - all categories that technically existed, but sucked. I could write any one of those off as a lucky fluke, but they've done it several times. They've failed several times, too... for instance they got too crazy with the Newton and Palm figured out the formula instead. Even the lightbulb was an iterative design and not something popped into existence by Edison.
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They turn computers from complicated tools to limited appliances. They care about details and looks over usability, usability over adaptability.
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What has Apple done lately? Fuck all. Fucked things up. Squeezed their idiot fans harder. Removed the headphone jack.
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"Lately"? They've tried pushing into home entertainment. I don't think it's going to work out, but they are still trying. Steve Jobs is gone, and he was at the helm for all of the other stuff and I can't see into the future - so maybe they are done. But I wouldn't put my money on that.
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Some would call that the difference between invention and innovation.
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By that definition, no one has invented anything. Edison just improved the light bulb. Bell just improved the telephone. Why all this energy spent on semantics? Apple had the first mass-market home computer, the first mass-market GUI, the first mass-market MP3 player, the first mass-market smartphone, the first mass-market tablet. You don't like the term "invented"... OK, let's not use that. It's still a very impressive record of whatever-you-want-to-call it.
Re:Once again (Score:4, Interesting)
Then who is the true Innovators who really invented something?
We keep on saying that we are not innovating, and that companies have lost their way.
But technology has been progressing, we have been getting new things. They are not normally WOW THIS WILL Change my life. But more well this is slightly more convent, and this continues gradually. 20 years ago we had internet video, but it was normally in a 320x200 size, that if buffered would take 5 minutes to download, before it started. If you happened to happen to have such video on a CD you might be able to play it in 640x480 full screen, but it would be very choppy. Watching Ripped TV Shows on PC was poor quality.
Apple is good at taking a technology and making it for the consumer, they do not invent the technology but they implement it in a way that can be useful. Because of Apple I now have a Phone that has a resolution matching if not exceeding modern laptops, Geek Bench scores matching mid/upper tear laptops. video camera(s), GPS, Multi-touch display, counts its steps, knows its location and position..... 20 years ago this was unheard of, the thickness of such phone is thinner then some of the plastic cases.
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Re: Not true (Score:2)
You gain more value than that for your $1000. You also have a new app where you can aim your phone at your head and all your facial gestures are mirrored on it's screen by a cartoon head shaped out of feces.
Re: What did Apple invent? (Score:2)
Apple enhances and adds branding value. They are like the guy who sees a Chevy and adds a new badge and trim to it and sells the public a Buick. Apple definitely sells a Buick-class product.
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It's all in perceived value. I would never spend $40k on a car vs $20k on a car. The $40k car is never going to offer double the value of the $20k car for me. I suppose maybe if the $40k did all the driving while the $20k couldn't, then it would have real value.
Apple is the same thing. I can build my own computer for $1k (I've never spent that much on a system, EVER, by the way) or I could go buy from Apple and spend closer to $2k.
Regarding phone technology, I kind of laugh. It wasn't so long ago that Apple
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Why is this moderated flamebait? It's a legitimate question.
Design isn't invention; that doesn't mean it isn't valuable, or can't be innovative.
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Be honest Apple is using smoke and mirrors to keep investors these days. All of their products have either reached peak growth or have long since lost any real growth. Their recent products prove they have nothing left to inspire and in fact why did the new Macbook Air or Mac Mini take so long to do? There is nothing about them that is a engineering marvel. They are refreshes that should have been done years ago. This is not the revolutionary company of Steve Jobs.
You call THIS "Smoke and Mirrors"?
You call THIS "Not an Engineering Marvel"?
https://www.macrumors.com/2018... [macrumors.com]
Ohhh Kayyyyyy
Keep deluding yourself, Slashtard Hater.
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Tim Cook is the new Ballmer he hasnâ(TM)t brought anything to the table just a long list of underwhelming products
Underwhelming Products?
https://www.macrumors.com/2018... [macrumors.com]