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Tim Cook on Defending Marketshare, Product Pipeline 'Chock Full', Apple TV Growth
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If they knew the only way to compete with the iPad was to make 7" tablets, which are cheaper than bigger iPads, then they knew that the market wanted 7" tablets whether it be for the 7" screen or the lower price or both.
Apple responded with an iPad mini, which has a screen 40% bigger than the competitors' 7" tablets and costs more, and it sold well. Apple could have made cheap 7" tablets like its competitors.
Microsoft responded to Apple and its competitors (besides MSFT itself) with a PoS, as usual.
cmChimera
macrumors 601
I disagree. I think Apple's philosophy is that in order to profit they have to keep making the best products. I'm guessing your iMac broke down? Making the best products doesn't mean that no product will ever fail.
These are not mutually exclusive! It is 100% possible for Apple to think the the best way to make money is the bolded part of Cook's statement, thus making it the most important thing to Apple. They believe they will make less money if they cut corners on their products for the sake of revenues/profits.
Nunyabinez
macrumors 68000
A couple of posts before you said they do make the best products in the world. Which is it?
Rogifan
macrumors Penryn
Are people calling this a lie because they don't think Apple makes the best products they can or because they think Apple's primary motivation is money not making great products?
I think what he's saying is that the big overall question they ask when plan their business strategy is how do we make great products, rather than how do we make more money. That doesn't mean they don't want to make money also. Just that their business model isn't predicated on addressing that question first and foremost.
Rogifan
macrumors Penryn
At the end of the day I think it was all about price. And 7" and decent enough quality gets them $199.
That is sadly the history of Apple.
Like why did we have to wait 5 years to get HDMI on any MAc?
Rogifan
macrumors Penryn
wbeasley
Suspended
Hear, hear!!!
Thank you for telling it like it is in the REAL world.
These devices are rarely in stock. They are flying out the door.
The whole "it doesn't have a retina screen" is a crock. LOOK at the screen. It looks sharp, works well and doesn't chew battery. I'd rather have that in a Gen1 device any day over a retina screen.
In two years time, are you all going to be screaming "it doesn't have a 4K screen"? These are tools people. They aren't your life.
Those holding off because of the lack of retina screen are the ones missing out. Same as the "tech gurus" who didn't buy an iPad1 because they couldn't see the point of a giant iPod. History has shown them to be so far off the mark. Real world sales data is now showing the lack of retina screen is in no way hampering iPad mini sales.
Now Samsung are going to deliver a 8" Note. What better recommendation could Apple get than Samsung copying yet again? They made an over-priced 7.7" device that didn't sell well. It was really nice. Just too expensive. No doubt the new 8" version will have a more competitive price tag. 🙂
My only complaint about Apple is the rediculous-for-2013 premium price for incremental memory increases. $100 for 16G or 32G is so far off the mark. That's what hurting iPod sales: too expensive for too little memory. Look at the price drop of retail USB memory sticks over the past two years... Apple is making a huge amount because you can't add an SD card (or micro SD).
The 16G, 32G and 64G versions need to be trimmed to 16G (entry) and 64G (high end) at the current 32G price. Or shift to 32G, 64G and 128G for the same money.
Thank you for telling it like it is in the REAL world.
These devices are rarely in stock. They are flying out the door.
The whole "it doesn't have a retina screen" is a crock. LOOK at the screen. It looks sharp, works well and doesn't chew battery. I'd rather have that in a Gen1 device any day over a retina screen.
In two years time, are you all going to be screaming "it doesn't have a 4K screen"? These are tools people. They aren't your life.
Those holding off because of the lack of retina screen are the ones missing out. Same as the "tech gurus" who didn't buy an iPad1 because they couldn't see the point of a giant iPod. History has shown them to be so far off the mark. Real world sales data is now showing the lack of retina screen is in no way hampering iPad mini sales.
Now Samsung are going to deliver a 8" Note. What better recommendation could Apple get than Samsung copying yet again? They made an over-priced 7.7" device that didn't sell well. It was really nice. Just too expensive. No doubt the new 8" version will have a more competitive price tag. 🙂
My only complaint about Apple is the rediculous-for-2013 premium price for incremental memory increases. $100 for 16G or 32G is so far off the mark. That's what hurting iPod sales: too expensive for too little memory. Look at the price drop of retail USB memory sticks over the past two years... Apple is making a huge amount because you can't add an SD card (or micro SD).
The 16G, 32G and 64G versions need to be trimmed to 16G (entry) and 64G (high end) at the current 32G price. Or shift to 32G, 64G and 128G for the same money.
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WilliamLondon
macrumors 68000
Disagree completely. Where does that leave us now? Argue incessantly about a product, which I bought day one and have done nothing since except revel in said decision, with people who: 1) are disappointed with the mini (or my decision), 2) are severely disappointed (with either/both), 3) are utterly disappointed (with both) but will never be satisfied unless it craps Android chocolate buttons every time I press the home key, 4) feel superior in contradicting and being negative about just about everything on earth, 5) don't understand others have different criteria, 6) believe others are stupid simply for enjoying a product with about which they don't feel the same, or 7) all of the above?
iBored with discussing my lovely iPad mini with all of the above.
nagromme
macrumors G5
Good plan. I'll probably still wait for whatever little (or big) bump ATV gets in future, before I buy any of them. Just in case it has something I want! Mainly I want AirPlay, and I can live without it a while longer.
I have a random unknown brand of mini-projector... Qumi Q2. But it's been great so far... focus is a little off (doesn't matter for most things) but it's cheap and LED-driven, yet surprisingly bright, and super-portable. 1280x800: fun for Mac FPS games.
Can't it? And what about delays on the refresh of the Mini and the delay still ongoing for an update of the Pro? Last time the Mac Pro had anything done to it that a firmware flash didn't cover, was 2009! Four years!
In fact, on top of the extreme lateness of the updates and the extreme supply constraints in pushing out sales of them, the flat-out uncertainty over the future of the lines put a dark cloud over them. With Apple's fanatical attention to mobile and portable sectors, it seemed plausible that the Mac desktops would be EOLed or combined into some unified model. Given the wording of Tim Cook's "confirmation" of the Mac Pro refresh "later" this year, this possibility is in fact still in play...
The entire PC segment contracted sharply. Macs outperformed the sector overall. But Apple lost sales to self-inflicted wounds, for sure. They should have issued spec bumps in May or June and waited on the redesign until early 2013 when supply yields would have been in better shape.
Could it be that the Retinas are just too expensive in this current economy?
Also I think there is some Apple fatigue here especially when what you bought 2 years ago can't use the current features- 13"MBP and Airplay mirroring - I'm looking at you.
Ok, please point to the cheap Apple products flooding the lower end markets, you know, just to make a dollar.
well, new iMacs delayed, new macbook pro retinas much less affordable than the last and the fact that the entire pc segment is contracting, this shoudln't be a surprising trend.
ghost187
macrumors 6502a
WTH People? I see nothing but positive results from earnings. If it wasn't for the mac numbers earnings per share would be around $15. Apple literally stopped selling iMacs for months till the new ones came out in very limited quantities. So macs being off 1.1 mill is perfectly normal, and it means monster upcoming quarter for macs. About 40% yoy growth on iPhones (considering the 1 less week last quarter), and huge growth on iPads is phenomenal. Yeah, we didn't get 50 million iPhones, but that was unrealistic from the start considering supply chain issues. Shares will take a hit this week. But starting next week, smart investors will jump on APPL and I see a huge rally in February.
Sure it is full
Indeed pipeline is full of mini, maxi, widi, but it will not change any of the same thing. Brace yourselves for for steady loss of market share and whatever comes from it.
Apple may full their followers, but not investors. Quiet please, I think I heard a toilet flash...
Indeed pipeline is full of mini, maxi, widi, but it will not change any of the same thing. Brace yourselves for for steady loss of market share and whatever comes from it.
Apple may full their followers, but not investors. Quiet please, I think I heard a toilet flash...
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why? apple is a love brand, of which there are only a handful. want to take a wild guess at which part of tim´s quote that got it there? and further, how it benefits apple financially?
It's easy to sit in the bleachers and throw rocks...
I happen to think the man is doing an exemplary job with what he has to work with, in the current economic climate.
At the top earning executive level, and lower, lots of shareholders of various stocks are dumping to avoid the tax increases the government has put in place. It has nothing to do with Apple and everything to do with coming out of pocket with a lot more cash to pay our individual taxes.
But I hardly ever throw rocks at quotes from others, especially Steve Jobs. Even if I'm an especially harsh critic, multiplying both sides by 2 will still put Cook behind.
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Many of Apple's display outputs = DVI = HDMI for video (just with different shapes), though HDMI also carries audio. Frankly, HDMI's shape is a huge pain because it keeps slipping out, unlike DVI. There were so many times when my movie setup failed just because a random HDMI cable fell out behind the boxes.
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They make the best products, when compared to similar competing products, in the world in some cases. But that's not Apple's reason for existence. The goal of any company is to make profit.
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So... what is the most important thing for Apple, making money or making good products? You seem to say that making good products is the most important thing because it brings in money, but that would mean that making money is the most important thing, and they make good products to accomplish that.
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I wasn't mad about the fact that my iMac failed, and it was NVIDIA's fault anyway, but I was very disappointed when I found out that you have to take the screen off the computer and get through duct tape to even reach the hard drive, should it fail (and mine did, so I replaced it with a lot of effort). Then the GPU failed later, and I couldn't even get to it. The previous designs (iMac G5) opened with only 2 screws.
In addition, Apple did not recall the 2006 24" iMacs even though they had widespread GPU problems for anyone who bought them early... NVIDIA's fault, but it's Apple's job to recall them and deal with it themselves. Apple just ignored it. Sure I still like Macs the best, but it's clear that Apple's main focus is making money, not just making good products.
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"The most important thing to Apple is to make the best products in the world" is what I was referring to. The most important thing to Apple is not to make the best products in the world; it is to make money by making the best products in the world. Even that is questionable because I would not consider ALL of Apple's products the best in the world.
And just saying, the whole "digging your hole" thing is unnecessary, but if it makes you feel a little better, go ahead.