Apple Reports Declining Profits and Stagnant Growth, Again (nytimes.com) 154
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: Apple has long performed like clockwork, growing steadily and producing an ever-growing stream of profit. Not anymore. On Tuesday, the Silicon Valley behemoth said that its net income had fallen 13 percent and that its revenue rose 1 percent in the latest quarter, with iPhone sales continuing to decline and gains in the company's services and wearables business failing to make up the difference. The results showed persistent signs of weakness for one of the world's financial standouts. Apple built its enormous business on the iPhone, but sales of the device have slipped for three straight quarters in a saturated market for smartphones. Yet the results also suggested that the company could be starting to halt declines in those sales and other key areas, including revenue from the Chinese market. Over the previous two quarters, Apple's profits and revenue had fallen over all.
Apple said net income had dropped to $10.04 billion for its fiscal third quarter, from $11.5 billion a year earlier, with profit of $2.18 a share exceeding Wall Street estimates. Revenue rose to $53.8 billion from $53.3 billion a year earlier. In the latest quarter, revenue from iPhone sales fell nearly 12 percent, to $25.97 billion, from a year earlier. In the company's previous quarter, iPhone sales fell 17 percent. For the first time since 2013, iPhone sales did not account for at least half of Apple's revenue, said Yoram Wurmser, an analyst at the market-research firm eMarketer. Sales in China have declined nearly 25 percent over the previous two quarters, the report adds. "In the latest quarter, Apple's sales in the region fell 4.1 percent, while revenue specifically in mainland China grew."
Apple said net income had dropped to $10.04 billion for its fiscal third quarter, from $11.5 billion a year earlier, with profit of $2.18 a share exceeding Wall Street estimates. Revenue rose to $53.8 billion from $53.3 billion a year earlier. In the latest quarter, revenue from iPhone sales fell nearly 12 percent, to $25.97 billion, from a year earlier. In the company's previous quarter, iPhone sales fell 17 percent. For the first time since 2013, iPhone sales did not account for at least half of Apple's revenue, said Yoram Wurmser, an analyst at the market-research firm eMarketer. Sales in China have declined nearly 25 percent over the previous two quarters, the report adds. "In the latest quarter, Apple's sales in the region fell 4.1 percent, while revenue specifically in mainland China grew."
Drop the mac pro price or up the hardware a bit! (Score:2)
Drop the mac pro price or up the hardware a bit!
Re:Drop the mac pro price or up the hardware a bit (Score:5, Informative)
The anonymous reader needs to stop cherry picking the news. Apple had a record-setting June quarter with revenue of $53.8 billion.
That revenue was on the high end of its forecasted range, and higher than both last year's $53.3 billion result and the Wall Street consensus of $53.7 billion. While iPhone revenue was down from $29.9 billion last year to $26 billion this year, growth in the Services arm, iPad, Mac, and the "Wearable, Home, and Accessories" category helped offset the decline.
Re:Drop the mac pro price or up the hardware a bit (Score:4, Informative)
People are obviously so upset with this that they're buying Apple stock, currently up 4.5%.
Re: Drop the mac pro price or up the hardware a bi (Score:2)
That just means it's not as bad as they thought. They've essentially had a lost quarter.
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Drop the mac pro price or up the hardware a bit!
Actually need to drop the hardware and the price for the entry model. The computer they are presenting is great for a render farm or video company. They need a prosumer model with something less than a server grade motherboard that can hold an obscene amount of RAM. They did the same with their initial Intel Mac Pros. The lowest model had a different motherboard that only had one CPU, they should be able to do the same with the new Mac Pro.
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...and if you're using FOSS, then you have no right to bitch and complain. Their source code, their build system, their distro, their rules... Don't like it? Get the Linux From Scratch book, learn how to program in 30 days, and fork it during all your free time forever or until you're dead.
The thousand dollar stand (Score:5, Funny)
I knew it was over for Apple (Score:5, Funny)
When my Mom called me this week to tell me she finally switched to an iPhone.
Time to look for the next cool thing.
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Moms are pretty much the target demographics for iPhones. It has never been cool or for power users.
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Yet most serious developers I know, even the famous ones, use iPhone. I suppose the BSD developers, Apple developers, and most IT people I know are not power users in the least. I'm a *nix sysadmin and I use an iPhone. I've been in IT nonstop since 1998.
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You're only confirming the uncoolness.
Re: I knew it was over for Apple (Score:1)
Apple isnâ(TM)t doomed, but itâ(TM)s no different than HP, Gateway, etc. now.
Appleâ(TM)s fortunes will raise and fall with the industry now like all the other companies and they no longer lead in innovation
Well this is not a suprise (Score:1)
I am not chipping in 1K for a phone. .. thingie that I will lose 10 times over the lifetime of the phone.
p.s. I also want/need a headphone jack, not a
Re: Well this is not a suprise (Score:2)
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I find that in real-world scenarios, Bluetooth's loss of quality is a non-issue, right up until I want to connect to a home stereo system. Then it becomes a massive liability. However, I almost never do that.
On the other hand, I find that managing the charge state of Bluetooth headphones is a PITA, and I never have to do that with my wired ones.
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"your phone doesn't support an audio cable so of course you don't: you can't!"
My phone is a Lenovorola X4, it supports an audio cable just fine. But when I get in the van I just use Bluetooth so I don't have to dick with the cable. I used to care when I was driving an Audi, and could hear the stereo well.
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Don't forget that you connect your headphones to multiple things, too. Whenever you plug those headphones into your Mac, you have to take off the adapter (and risk losing or forgetting it), because the Mac
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Dedicated, not necessarily, but separate, definitely.
OMG, Apple revenues are leveling off ... (Score:3, Insightful)
... at 50 bazillion a year! We're all gonna die!
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Yeah, it was actually $50 bazillion a quarter. They're still at $200 bazillion in revenue annually, and about $40 bazillion of that is net income.
Clearly they need the world's charity.
Please put USB-C on iPhones (Score:2, Insightful)
upgrade the connector on the iPhone to a standard that everyone else uses... USB-C
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They should - but when that happens all the haters will have an orgy, same as they did when Apple switched from the dock to lightning connectors. Nevermind that their non-Apple smartphones have had more interface changes since 2007. Custom, micro-usb, usb 3, usb-c....
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Standards aren't thinking Different, Geeez AC get it together.
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upgrade the connector on the iPhone to a standard that everyone else uses... USB-C
This.
For a company that was quick to adopt USB when it first came out, it's odd that they're now uber reluctant to adopt last year's technology.
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upgrade the connector on the iPhone to a standard that everyone else uses... USB-C
People used to yell and scream at Apple for being among the first to swap out USB-A, which was at the time 'the standard nobody uses', for what was at the time 'a standard that nobody uses nor will every use', USB-C. Now the boot is on the other foot which is kind of a musing. This having been said, yes, USB-C connectors on iPone would be nice but I'm not getting my underwear in a twist over it, I'm just happy with being able to plug my iPhone into the USB-C laptop and iPad chargers and that all I have to d
Mah (Score:4, Funny)
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Maybe Apple should invent headphones that can be physically connected with a high throughput link and never need to be charged... ever! They actually use power from the phone!
They already did: https://www.apple.com/shop/pro... [apple.com]
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Re:Headphones (Score:4, Informative)
One can't charge the phone at the same time using the EarPods with Lightning Connector.
There are other uses for headphone jacks. Our new car has Android Auto and Apple Carplay, but our old car just has the 3.5mm audio connector to play music from a phone for long trips.
I am still using an iPhone 6s because it is the last iPhone with a headphone jack. I would have bought at least 1 newer, maybe 2 newer iPhones if the newer ones had a headphone jack. I still haven't decided what I am going to do when my 6s dies.
I replaced my Macbook Pro with a Dell because I couldn't bring myself to buy a laptop where I can't plug in a mouse without an adapter (I don't like wireless mice that are heavier and need to be charged). I would need 2 different docking adapters to provide all the ports available on my Dell laptop and the Dell laptop has better specs. I would not buy a laptop without at least 1 USB port, at least 1 USB-C port, a mini DisplayPort, an RJ45 port, and a headphone jack. I ended up getting the same Dell Precision 7530 through work (my work let me choose between Dell or a Macbook Pro) and bought one for personal use also.
In the last 2 years Apple has literally lost about $10,000 in sales just from me just because they can't put the right ports on their products. I am just one person and I see many other people with the same complaints.
I like buttons and ports. If I were choosing between the iPhone 8 and iPhone X; I would pick the iPhone 8 just because it still has the button. When I switched from Android to iPhone a while back, the thing I missed the most was the back button (swiping to go back doesn't work everywhere and is definitely less user friendly). I don't get why the market thinks buttons are a bad thing. I would never buy a Tesla purely because having a touchscreen as the only interface for a car is a terrible interface in comparison to the console in most cars.
I prefer Apple's privacy policies over Google's or Microsoft's and their better respect for customer privacy is one of the main reasons I have bought Apple products in the past. However, if I have to choose between a product with privacy but without the functionality I need and a product with the functionality I need and less privacy, I don't really have a choice; functionality is the stronger requirement.
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I owned several iPhones, few iPads and fewer MacBooks, but each device has been more expensive than the previous one, and at the same time less reliable and with less value over competition.
And finally, support quality has decreased. Back in 2014, It was hard not to get even a replacement model for even small minor issues. Couple years ago got the iPhone SE, but few days after I discovered a hardware defect. The only answer Apple will prov
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Financial engineering at its finest (Score:5, Interesting)
CNBC: Appleâ(TM)s stock gains the last 4 years prove âfinancial engineeringâ(TM) via buybacks works [cnbc.com]
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It's negative because Apple is supposed to be a growth stock, which means they're supposed to generate a higher rate of return by investing their profits in future products and services rather than in themselves. Stated differently, if you had $100 to invest would you invest it in a company with growth potential, where your rate
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Growth stock. They are a near 1 trillion dollar company! Companies that size are not supposed to be growth stocks.
Employee happiness and Business success are linked (Score:1)
I don't understand... (Score:5, Insightful)
....growth continues forever, right? Why aren't more people buying $1000 phones and $80,000 electric cars and $5 Beyond Meat burgers? So confusing. I paid 40x the real value of the stock on this premise. Oh well, time for some cost cutting. Lets fire some employees or buy another company who is growing!
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....growth continues forever, right? Why aren't more people buying $1000 phones and $80,000 electric cars and $5 Beyond Meat burgers? So confusing. I paid 40x the real value of the stock on this premise. Oh well, time for some cost cutting. Lets fire some employees or buy another company who is growing!
Where are mod points when you need them. People used to be happy when companies turned a healthy profit. These days Infinite growth is a default expectation of Wall Street analysts, it is also completely unrealistic.
iPhone sales (Score:5, Insightful)
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Cameras (Score:2)
The cameras on iPhone 8 and later models are much improved over the 6s. But other than that - unless you need more processing or storage, might as well stick with the old phone.
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Re: iPhone sales (Score:2)
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Re: iPhone sales (Score:2)
Stagnant (Score:5, Insightful)
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Did you say stagnant? Time to short sell. Nothing else after that word in your post matters. I'm an investor.
They are their own worst enemy (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe they should start making products of quality instead of computers that cost +50% more than same-spec competition while also being non-repairable and non-upgradeable? And having a slew of design faults? They're discovering you can only milk a carefully cultivated cult of users so far before reality sets in.
The 50% figure isn't made up... I do a LOT of purchasing where I work and am often coming up with Dell alternatives to requested Mac hardware. In fact, it's not unusual for me to be able to come up with better spec'd hardware around that same price difference (more RAM, faster CPU, better GPU, higher-res display, etc). And it's not only better specs, but computers than can have their SSD and RAM upgraded later in life.
Meanwhile, the growing list of bad hardware in the latest Macbooks continues to be a problem. The keyboards that are failing left and right. The SSD recall on certain models. The motherboard recall on certain models. And now the recall for the batteries that catch fire which is affecting a large number of our employees and turning into a huge hassle to deal with.
People want computers with good keyboards, good batteries, AND WITH FUCKING PORTS. No one cares about "thinness". No one cares about the stupid touchbar gimmick... they want their real keys back (oh and you'll love how much more expensive repairs are on the touchbar models vs. the non-touchbar models). They want to be able to just add more RAM or a bigger SSD without replacing their whole fucking $3K laptop with another one. They want touchscreens. They want performance and price in-line with what everyone else can do. They want less BS and more practical computer.
The new Mac Pro is an insane joke. Even the iMac Pro is a joke but Apple still doesn't get it. Of course, the whole iMac line is a bit of a joke... all-in-one desktop computers are an inherently flawed concept but there are at least ways to do it far better than Apple does (the screen doesn't need to be GLUED ON and require removal along with the motherboard and everything else just to add RAM or replace the faulty spring on the hinge which frequently breaks). Make an access panel on the back like everyone else who does stupid AIO computers... user's aren't staring at the back of their computer anyway, so thickness and design on the backside are of no relevance.
Apple needs to get their head out of their ass. They've jumped so far over the cliff of form-over-function that they've forgotten what the ground is.
You mean, why don't they make cheap shit (Score:2, Insightful)
Apple charges comparable prices for comparable products, and are routinely at or near the top in reliability surveys. What they don't do is make $300 POS specials, sporting 32 gigs of flash storage that Windows can fill up with just a few updates.
That's your Hatorade Distortion Field talking. Who are y
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That's your Hatorade Distortion Field talking. Who are you to talk about "design faults", Fandroid, after Samsung made an entire line of bomb phones that had to be recalled.
And that's your fanboy distortion field talking. How about Apple's shitty keyboard that they continue to produce, years after it's proven to be absolute garbage. You want a list of Apple's shit design, here you go [youtube.com].
The difference between Samsung and Apple, is when Samsung screws a product, they recall it. On the other hand, when Apple screws a product they keep producing it for years, deny it's a problem, blame the end user, and basically force people into repeated repairs or forking over for AppleCare pl
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Soldering components in place is a cost cutting measure.... ie cheap shit
Yep, but they're not passing that cost savings onto the consumer. Instead, they're using it as a forced mechanism to be able to charge 4-5 times market rate for the components since users can't just use standard parts.
If Apple was soldering everything in but a Macbook Pro cost $1000 it'd be a different conversation.
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The net profit margins contradict this. Apple's profit margin has consistently been around 20%-25% [macrotrends.net]. The profit margins for similar [nyu.edu] companies are around 3% to negative (losses) for consumer electronics (phones), and 13% for computers. So Apple charges about 10%-20% more than comparable products (they all use pretty much the same components - screen by Samsung, LG, AUO; memory by Samsung,
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OS X is better suited for certain users, and depending on what field you work in it may offer a wider variety of applications you can use (photo, video, graphics, and publishing are heavily skewed in favor of the Macs).
Not really so much now. Adobe saw the writing on the wall and all the Adobe suite apps look and function identically now on Windows and MacOS. And they certainly benefit from the higher-end hardware available available on the non-Mac platforms, which I suspect played a factor in them deciding to have feature/UI parity finally.
A user with a $3K budget looking to get the best computer they can for Adobe Premiere can get such an astronomically more-powerful computer for their workflow if they don't get a Mac,
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Three words: economics of scale. Let's say your name is Gordon and you open a mom & pop grocery store, Gordon Shumway's Foods. And let's say you charge the same $3.50 per gallon of milk that the neighborhood Walmart charges. Do you have the same profit margin? Of course not, because Walmart sells more milk across all their stores in a hour than yo
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Re: Apple, you can only hold one of the following positions:
- "Apple are masters of design, and I'm ignoring certain things to inhabit their ecosystem"
or
- The "Grip of Death/Butterfly Keyboard/One Port for Everything/HW has been underpowered for a decade" series of complaints.
For the record, these also don't cut the mustard:
- RPi's USB-C problem: It's the POWER CORD, ffs.
- Google's cheaper phone that turns itself off randomly
- Dumb ideas to begin with: Folding phones and 5G
Might just be me, but all of the
Re:You mean, why don't they make cheap shit (Score:5, Informative)
Apple charges comparable prices for comparable products
This is patently not true. I can configure systems that use the exact same CPU, more RAM, better and faster SSD, and higher-resolution screen for dramatically less. And for a user that wants to "upgrade" the specs, if you look at the cost differentials Apple is effectively charging typically from 4 to 5 times commodity market prices for that same component upgrade if one was able to buy standard parts for it.
"Comparable"? Hardly. Standard M.2 NVMe drives are smaller and faster than Apple's SSDs. A laptop with a 4K screen has a higher resolution than Apple's "Retina" display, and I can get it touchscreen as well. These laptops have keyboard that don't fail the way Apple's routinely do, and if a user damages the keyboard it's actually a replaceable part. Want more RAM or a faster SSD? Just add it using standard parts... and hey, there's room for 2 SSDs. No dongles needed... all the ports are built in. And because it's not using Apple's heavy, unforgiving and dent-prone aluminum chassis, the magnesium alloy chassis allows for it to be over a half a pound lighter and able to recover from small impacts without permanently denting.
"Comparable" my ass. It's not even close. Apple is charging an outrageous tax for the Apple logo, while providing inferior and problematic hardware. But they've spent many years cultivating a userbase that they can progressively screw over more and more each product generation, and will gleefully ask for more.
and are routinely at or near the top in reliability surveys.
The cult of Apple is loyal to a fault. Do you really think a bunch of brainwashed consumers already willing to bend over and take it up the pipehole every time Apple comes out with a new POS product and pay 50% extra for the privilege aren't going to be the sort to then gush on about how happy it makes them? Pay twice as much and Apple won't even use lube.
From my sampling of overseeing a deployment of several thousand computers, about 50/50 Mac and non-Mac, I can tell you incontrovertibly, with hard data and numbers (we do track this shit) that it's the Macs coming in with far more frequency, and costing massively more when they do. And luckily we finally have users getting fed up with Apple and switching to our alternative. Sometimes because of the keyboard. Sometimes because of the ports. Sometimes because of the docking station option. Sometimes because their using their own funds and can't justify paying so much more and getting so much less.
What they don't do is make $300 POS specials
Nor do we order such things. I'm well aware of the bottom-of-the-barrel trash market. We don't play there and none of this conversation is referring to that. All the laptops I order are over $1400 these days, and frequently over $2K. Some are over $4K... and those aren't Macs (Apple doesn't even make anything that can come close to what those laptops do, so Apple isn't even considered in those discussions as we put together solutions).
That's your Hatorade Distortion Field talking. Who are you to talk about "design faults", Fandroid, after Samsung made an entire line of bomb phones that had to be recalled.
No, that's experience and fact:
- Faulty GPUs, an issue that has plagued many generations of Macbooks and even the trashcan Mac Pro
- Bad ball soldering on their PCB chips, with their "solution" to use pieces of rubber to press the chip harder down.
- Hinges on the iMacs which frequently bust their spring.
- Not making the headphone jack on the iMac, a frequently damaged part, it's own part. User damages the headphone jack? Time for a whole new back chassis and the repair nightmare that results in having to move everything over, including that fucking stand hinge. What adds insult to injury is that the part is actually removable and separate... Apple just doesn't su
BYO != OEM (Score:2)
Which you can do compared to every single other OEM on the market, Hateboi. Comparable products == a system with similar capabilities from HP, Dell, Lenovo, etc etc - but no one ever complains at length at HP that they can build a cheaper system with parts from NewEgg. So your entire point here is entirely pointless.
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Kind of a odd take on a really positive quarter (Score:5, Insightful)
That ultra-negative Doom Take was a bit hard to swallow, given how well the quarter actually went.
Yes iPhone sales were down some, but the services and wearable revenue are really starting to show a large growth curve to them. I don't think people here or elsewhere truly understand how much the Watch is the next iPhone... Between that and the services growth (not as rapid but still looking good), Apple seems to be in awfully good shape... especially going into a year with some significant new hardware releases in the Mac space.
If you want the opinion of professionals who have money on the line as to Apple doing better or worse going forward - AAPL is up 4.75% today.
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A lot of the stock movement probably has to do with the buybacks. Shares outstanding went from ~4.7M to ~4.3M from a year ago. Apple is essentially pumping its own money into its shares.
Which is good for shareholders (including employees who are paid partially in shares) but probably isn't a sign of long-term health.
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Fewer shares outstanding == higher share price for the same company "worth". Hence why I said a lot of the stock movement likely has to do with the buybacks. Buying back shares causes an increases in per-share price assuming the business isn't on the decline.
Upgrade treadmill is over (Score:2)
Its going to be the same slow down we say in the PC industry; the market is at saturation if you want a smart phone you have one. There just inst a compelling reason to the do the 18mo upgrade cycles any more either. I went from a 5S to a 8 recently because my 5S physically failed. The 8 has bigger screen, which is not a feature IMHO the 5 fit in my pocket such that you'd hardly know it was there. The 8 makes me want to go back to one of those circa 2k3 holsters.
Otherwise I really don't care about any of
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I don't know anyone -- anyone -- who's had FaceID for a week who would go back to TouchID. It's a substantially better experience. But you have to live with it for a little while before the truth of that hits home.
No Subsidy = No Upgrade (Score:1)
For nearly a decade wireless carries would have you sign a two year contract and they would subsidize the cost of your phone upgrade. So every two years you had to renew your contract, and if you didn't upgrade your phone and take the subsidy then you were leaving money on the table. For a long time you could use the subsidy and sell your old phone and pay little or even NOTHING (two cycles in a row I ended up making a $4 profit when upgrading)
Then the carriers got greedy. They said "No more contracts you
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I remember those days. I also remember how the hoard of wise slashdot masses kept criticizing the carriers over "contracts" and how restrictive they were and just how glorious of a world it would be without 2-year contracts that subsidized phones but tied them to the carrier.
And that happened. But the complaining didn't stop I guess.
Oh and BTW, cellular plan pricing has decreased:
http://www.in2013dollars.com/W... [in2013dollars.com]
As a more concrete comparison, here's Verizon's family plan from 2012:
https://www.engadget.com/2 [engadget.com]
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I remember those days. I also remember how the hoard of wise slashdot masses kept criticizing the carriers over "contracts" and how restrictive they were and just how glorious of a world it would be without 2-year contracts that subsidized phones but tied them to the carrier.
And that happened. But the complaining didn't stop I guess.
Oh and BTW, cellular plan pricing has decreased:
http://www.in2013dollars.com/W... [in2013dollars.com]
As a more concrete comparison, here's Verizon's family plan from 2012:
https://www.engadget.com/2012/... [engadget.com]
The base price for limited data ranged from $40-$100 *and* you paid $40/line.
Today's Verizon plan:
https://www.verizonwireless.co... [verizonwireless.com]
$40/line (no base price) for unlimited data (they throttle you somewhere around 20GB I think).
That's not "more expensive" nor "stayed the same". I know my personal cell phone bill is about half of what I paid in ~2012 (was ~$80/mo, now ~$35/mo).
And to boot, they provide more data and faster speeds.
I'm not defending the telecoms; they probably move slower than any other industry (except fucking Comcast). But it's disingenuous to make up facts for self-righteous ranting.
I paid Approximately $100/month then, I pay approximately $100/month now. 3 lines.
The fee's for lines, and data, and text messaging , and nights and weekends etc etc has changed. but the net monthly cost has remained the same. Except now i don't get a subsidized phone.
Bottom line is, Apple would sell more phones if the subsidies still existed.
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I paid Approximately $100/month then, I pay approximately $100/month now. 3 lines.
The fee's for lines, and data, and text messaging , and nights and weekends etc etc has changed. but the net monthly cost has remained the same. Except now i don't get a subsidized phone.
Bottom line is, Apple would sell more phones if the subsidies still existed.
For a comparative plan? What kind of plan in circa 2012 was $100/mo for 3 lines? What were the data caps? Restrictions? Also which network?
The current popular going rate seems to be $40/mo for up to 10GB of data (either soft or hard cap) with unlimited call/txt (and with many, free international data/text).
How much did a comparable plan cost in 2012?
I enjoyed CNBC's headline today (Score:3)
As a Refrigerator manufacturer ... (Score:1)
As a refrigerator manufacturer I can commiserate with you. After all, once everyone has a refrigerator, there is almost no market left. We tried building shittier refrigerators that need replacing every year, but that just got us sued and ended up not having the results we intended. We tried making them in different colours and adding useless crap that no one wanted such as ice making machines and refrigerated water dispensers, and even putting Wi-Fi in them and tried putting NetFlix on the freezer door
Better get used to it (Score:2)
"Stagnant growth" I love it! (Score:1)
Marketing speak for not logarithmic growth. Still growing but the grown is not growing... That means its "stagnant" In other words, "bad".
"I feel your company is doing badly."
"Why? We are growing at a constant rate."
"That is the problem right there, constant. Your growth is not growing. The company is stagnant and needs some shaking up. Lets fire a thousand people!"
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Another technical term for it is "sucking more money out of each enthralled cultist."
I am not surprised (Score:1)
Here in Denmark the iPhone price point entered into the 5-digit Danish Crowns range, which is a threshold for me that don't want to cross.
So I am happily plugging away on my iPhone 6, wondering whether I'll stay in the ecosystem when it breaks someday. I just draw the line when the newest generation iPhone costs more than a new decent gaming PC.
Really? (Score:2)
https://appleinsider.com/artic... [appleinsider.com] Yes, there's a variety of things we users may want to see. But Apple is hitting and exceeding the appropriate financial targets. That isn't happenstance, and it's not a sign of a failing company.
Nice. (Score:2)
Couldn't happen to a more arrogant company.
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Boot lickers are the first to be downsized. Years of brainwashing means they won't ask questions or sue.
Re:So fucking sick of hearing about all these ultr (Score:5, Insightful)
Who said we're supposed to be sad for them? And, as a matter of course, why should we be sad for you? If you've spent 19 years failing, maybe you need to make some changes and stop acting like a victim. How about you accept some responsibility for the conditions you are in, and change them? And while we're on the subject, not everyone is going to be wildly successful in life. Life isn't your safe space, and you don't get participation trophies. There will be winners, and you won't be one of them every single time - even the wildly successful miss the mark - Gates, Jobs, Dell, Musk, Ellison - they've all had their failures too.
It's what you do with those failures that counts. There is no better teacher than failure.
Just the same as if Apple is seeing declines in revenue, you can bet they aren't just going to say "Ohh poor us! Those meanies down in Mountain View just keep adding features people want to Android and giving it to hardware manufacturers that are making phones people want to buy instead of ours! It's all Google's fault!" and continue doing the same shit - it's clearly not working as well as what they were doing just a year ago. They are going to make changes. Some will work, others won't.
The world has always been an "adapt or die" sandbox, and it's no different now.
Poor little iFanboys (Score:2)
I'll bet a dollar I was an Apple user before the paid shill who modded me down for pointing out facts. ][+ with 80 columns, baby.
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The post offered important historical reference. If I had mod points, I'd bump you, even though I generally disagree with about 99% of everything you say
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the iPhone is nice, but way over-priced.
Price your product for artsy hipsters and and then try to release new versions when a new version doesn't really do much new or useful and you're going to see declining sales. Anyone who didn't see this coming was just wearing rose-colored glasses and deep in denial....
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Re:So fucking sick of hearing about all these ultr (Score:4, Interesting)
the iPhone is nice, but way over-priced.
Price your product for artsy hipsters and and then try to release new versions when a new version doesn't really do much new or useful and you're going to see declining sales. Anyone who didn't see this coming was just wearing rose-colored glasses and deep in denial....
No it isn't. I can afford whatever phone I want. I moved from the iPhone to a Google Fi compatible android because
A) USB-C on the phone, charger and computer to which it attaches.
B) Battery life
C) Headphone jack present
D) Unmetered tethering after maximums, through Fi.
I don't much care about the price within reason. I do care that the phone has optimum utility. The iPhone no longer has anything close to maximum utility.
A) Proprietary connector doesn't match what's on the compute to which it attaches.
B) Thinness is prioritized over battery life.
C) No headphone jack means compromise with dongles or charging bluetooth headphones.
D) Isn't compatible with Fi, so butt-raping prices for tethering data on other carriers is the norm.
Those are the criteria I applied for 'niceness'.
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Don't you mean the Eye-glasses? Or maybe I-glasses, much like the I-phone?