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Hi-tech big 5 comparison
- Thread starter smoledman
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http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/publications/magazine/6/4/you_cant_innovate_like_apple
What's even more impressive is if you look at profits per designers. Apple only has about 20 designers on staff competing against a 1000 in the rest of the industry. Yet Apple is dominating the profit picture. It's like The Spartan 300 against the Persian hordes, but this time the Spartans won and annihilated the entire Persian army.
What's even more impressive is if you look at profits per designers. Apple only has about 20 designers on staff competing against a 1000 in the rest of the industry. Yet Apple is dominating the profit picture. It's like The Spartan 300 against the Persian hordes, but this time the Spartans won and annihilated the entire Persian army.
Could someone explain to me what could possibly cause this post to be down voted.
Yes, I know down voting is mostly meaningless. But this has me completely flummoxed.
Yes, I know down voting is mostly meaningless. But this has me completely flummoxed.
Some people, mostly ABA(anything but Apple) don't like the facts when it hits them like a 18-wheel semi truck in the face. Apple is so far ahead of the innovation curve that it's scary. They are set to double their cash pile to $160 billion by 2014.
So you're celebrating that a company has made a lot of money and horded it rather than putting that money back into making great products. Imagine what they could make if they actually spent a bit of that money. But then they wouldn't be able to sell incremental improvements each year (which is where a lot of their money comes from). Good for the people earning that money, they're doing well, but I can think of plenty of things to do with all that money that would be better than Scrooging it.
Who cares how much they spend? Their ROI is historically amazing at record levels. Is it better to be Microsoft spending $8 billion a year in R&D with little to show for it or be like Apple spend $2.5 billion and get $100 billion in revenue?
The one area that I'm a little bitter about is the lack of refresh on the iPod Touch line. I really wanted one with 96GB and iPhone quality camera. Is that too much to ask, Apple?
I care how much they spend, because as a consumer it is evident that the amount they spend is usually proportional to the improvements they make to their products. Maybe if they spent a bit more on R&D they could come up more durable materials for their phones, or better batteries, or even a refreshed Mac Pro that could compete with competitors solutions.
I can see what Apple does though. They cripple the iPod Touch line to try and drive me towards an iPhone which I don't need.
You realize a refreshed Mac Pro is reliant on Intel shipping the updated Xeon's right?
I wasn't aware, I was simply stating something I've heard asked for around the forums. I'll concede that point but I feel the rest of my examples are still valid.
How do you know he much they've spent (or haven't) on R&D? Or how much that amount has gotten them? Remember, Apple usually buys whole companies who have worked on big projects, not just working on small projects.
I don't know the exact numbers, but I know it's a fairly small percentage of their earnings (as simple mathematics will confirm) because they have a vast stock of cash. And what do you mean "what its gotten them"? It's gotten them this far, everything they have produced is a result of their development, it's as clear as day. My point is that they could probably get a bit further (from a consumer point of view) if they spent a little more.
Get further? Apple is already global smartphone king. Global tablet king. King of premium PCs. The iCloud datacenters are the model of how to make a datacenter. Siri is the envy of everyone. I say Apple knows how to spend their R&D dollars smarter then anyone, instead of bigger like Microsoft.
Notice that I said from a consumer point of view. Their products still have room for improvement.
In fact Google is becoming the new Microsoft. Of course the actual Microsoft is doing a pretty good job at wasting ungodly sums of money. Just look at them throwing $8.5 billion away on Skype, a useless acquisition designed to keep it away from Google. Or being $6 billion in the hole on Bing so far, or still in the hole on XBox after 10 years.
Nope.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/arti...tphone_vendor_as_Android_s_market_share_grows
Not much to brag about. Their total market share is only around 5%.
http://macdailynews.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/110411_idc_q111_ww_pc_shipments.png
And do you have anything to proof that they are better than the competitors' datacenters?
#1 - Samsung is shipping more total units because they are shipping dozens of models compared to 2-3 iPhone models!
#2 - Global PC shipments != sales. Apples sells 100% of everything they ship.
Well, doesn't that show that Apple's strategy has its flaws? Why won't Apple spend their R&D money on development of more iPhone models if that meant more market share and hence more money for them?
Shipment = Sale
An OEM can sell their machines in many different ways. One way is to have a retail/online store where consumers can buy them straight from the company. Another option is to sell items to resellers who then sell them to the consumer. However, when the OEM sells something to a reseller, that's a sale as well because the OEM is getting their money.
The market share among consumers can be different from the market share of the shipments but honestly, we aren't looking at huge difference. The point is, Apple doesn't dominate the computer market. They do well in the premium market but that's a relatively small market.
I already explained Apple makes 70% of mobile industry PROFITS with just 3 iPhone models. The iPhone 4S makes as much PROFIT per unit as it takes 4-5 Galaxy Nexuses!
Well, you are neither. Why do you care how much companies make profit? Unless you are a shareholder, you shouldn't care about that at all. It doesn't affect your life.
Sure, Apple makes some sweet profits, nobody can deny that. However, if they just sit on the pile of cash, we, consumers, won't really benefit from it.
I only care about the actual product I buy, the brand is meaningless. I don't care if they make $10 billion profit or $10 billion loss, that's not my interest. In some cases, I find that Apple's products are the best for my needs, but definitely not in all cases.
So how much money should Apple be spending to "benefit" consumers? Apple spent a lot of money developing OS X, iPod, iTunes, unibody Macbooks, iPhone, iPad, iCloud. Think of all the products Apple has introduced in the last decade and then tell me they don't know how to spend money wisely?
Yeah you should care how much cash Apple has and how much they are adding to it. The $90 billion cash pile essentially ensure Apple will exist for the rest of our lifetimes and that is reason enough to invest in the Apple ecosystem. Who knows if Microsoft will even exist by 2020?
You failed to answer my question. Why are you so interested in the profits Apple and other companies make? How do they affect your life?
I didn't say Apple hasn't spent their money wisely, but there is always room for improvement if we look at this from a consumer's standpoint. Apple could invest on hardware (CPU, GPU, SoC, NAND etc.) development and provide us with hardware that is superior to competitors'. Right now Apple uses the same technology as every other company. This would be an example of a scenario where we, consumers, would clearly be benefiting from Apple's massive pile of cash. To be clear, I'm not saying that they should, just providing an example.