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Apple Met Paramount and Sony Executives Last Week as it Flirts With Original Content
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At least Google does you a favor and tells you they're no longer doing anything more. (Pixel laptop). Apple just drags you along and keeps charging a premium for years old equipment while playing the "maybe we will, maybe we won't" game.
Yeah, "everyone is moving away from Apple in every product sector." They are doomed I guess. Please tell us when the armageddon will take place for them. In the meantime, I guess we will just have to sit by as they increase their lead as the most valuable company on Earth. Set new world records for most revenue, most profits. Own the smart watch market. Own 85% of the + $200 tablet market. Own 75% of the contactless payments market (Apple Pay) and are adding a million users a week. Own the desktop all in one market. Are the largest seller of wireless headphones in the world. Own 60% of the premium headphone market. Have zoomed to number 2 already in the music streaming business and adding over a million users a month. Own the music download market. Have the largest and growing App store in the world. Oh, and most analysts are predicting they will sell close to a quarter of a billion, yes that's the big B, iPhones in when the new iPhone comes out. Etcetera, Etcetera!
Poor Apple, thy end is near! Heed Boltman's warning and repent before it is too late.
Great question. And I think we know the answer. Apple seems growth obsessed. The industry has plateaued and there's clearly no new big thing coming anytime soon. So grow services revenue. It makes sense on many levels. It's not exciting but it's a growth opportunity.
Personally I'm not a fan of this direction. I think Apple is completely missing a golden opportunity in home automation. Talk about an industry that needs to be disrupted! Instead of treating HomeKit like an afterthought, it should be priority number one. Apple should be producing first party home hardware that "just works" instead of taking the Microsoft approach and letting others build it. They are, after all, a hardware company. Or they were.
I'm doing a huge remodel and addition this summer and I've considered investing in some "smart home" tech, but I'm completely turned off by the patchwork of manufacturers, standards, the need for bridges so devices can communicate, etc. Home automation is a mess, an expensive mess when you're spending $50+ per light switch.
A line of home automation hardware with Apple level polish and quality would be hugely successful in my mind, would stay within the hardware wheelhouse, and would offer endless opportunities for growth long-term. Original content may be sexier, but it's a fickle business. Just look at any major studio or record label's history. Lots of big ups and huge downs. Seems like a good way to burn through some of that cash pile.
Apl highest market cap today is $733B Microsoft's inflation adjusted (Dec 1999)close to $900B....
So there is a problem...what happens when iPhone is not "it" and apl fan's friends leave forever?
Microsoft will be the first $1T company not Apl is what will happen
Too many eggs relying on ONE 10yo simplistic product..see AOL, see Osborne
Iphone is about to follow the iPad path, Apl is simply at its heart a "niche hardware " co. Problem for them they are not coming out with cool hardware and shun the cloud with a "privacy" sales pitch. Two fatal flaws.
Apl cannot compete effectively in the future with an ever declining human user base , right now on their primary base product 12% (almost single digit %) choose apl globally down from 20% a few years ago...they run out of people with at-risk users bailing.
They out of all big 5 tech companies, are most dying when you look into the future. Apl is an expensive habit like smoking. People quitting.
In order for apl to survive that trend must reverse...
Ask yourself this simple question,
"When was the last time you were truly excited/blown away by an apl product? I'm not talking price increases either."
If its years ...there you go.
Probably why many have bailed..RPU hides this (that will end one day)
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You have to get out more and stop reading the same fake news blogs about Apple. If you do, you'll see it's absurd to suggest that Apple is only the amazing iPhone. Just to get you started on your independent research, here's one factoid for you. Apple Services have grown so large that they now are large enough to be a Fortune 100 company all on their own. The revenue that Apple receives just from Apple Services is now 24% and is larger than all of Facebook's combined revenue. See how you've been deceived by the trollers? Sounds a little silly to say that Apple is dying doesn't it? As you research more, maybe also start with the record setting and exponential growth from sales of wireless products, Apple Watch, etc.
In contrast, Google is dependent on advertising for more than 90% of all of its revenue. Ditto Facebook. If Apple builds in VPN to Safari, both companies would shrivel overnight as they lost the ability to track and assemble dossiers on everyone. They would love to have the combination of hardware, software and services that Apple has.
These "great apl services" require a new $800 iPhone ever year or two for many , so its reliant on iPhone too....iPhone goes down services go down all tied at the hip. Non Iphone users rarely use apl services.
I was listening to Walt Mossberg talk about how Apl all they needed to do was to take their 1.3M apps (scaled large better than others google, msft according to him) and make a clamshell laptop that that is the ultimate computer..LOL how clueless he is.
What he does not get is that might be a very expensive toy for 12% of humanity and they will get frustrated just like with iPad..see a fatal flaw in reasoning of apl pundits/fans ..they simply ignore the fact and don't really get that a vast majority of the worlds population like 90% will, never use anything apl....people want cross platform not walled gardens.
Apl is another AOL walled-off type co...the public cloud will eliminate the need for Apl for many just like the Internet eliminated the need for AOL
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That's my worry. It's preaching to the converted, not bringing in new customers.
Apple Music is available on Android and Windows, so this worry is sort of irrelevant.
I think you mean AAPL, not APL.
Microsoft never had net profits of ~$50bn each year. The health of a company is more than just one's market cap, by the way. If Apple wanted to get aggressive, they could buy both Disney in Netflix in "cash" (if tax reform is passed and repatriation rates were lowered) and create a media empire. That thinking could be applied to any other industry; Apple is in a tremendous financial-position.
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It is when most Android/Windows users choose Spotify I doubt many do Apl music unless they have an I device they use a lot .... see my explanation elsewhere on Apl
Once again, it is AAPL. And Apple Music has half the paid subscribers of Spotify, despite Spotify running heavy promotions with wireless carriers and publications like the NYT over the last decade. Neil Cybart stated it best: no all their subsections are created equal. Comparing Apple Music to Spotify is a fair comparison, but at the end of the day Spotify is a "start-up with no cash flow".
..and 30M more consumers by choice than Apl Music..the 20M on apl music most likely have a primary apl device, so the celing on apl music subscribers is quickly approaching
Your point? Apple disclosed 20m users this past December. They're more than likely closer to 25m than 20m, considering they've been averaging 1m new users each month since launch. I'm done discussing the with you because of your inability to properly abbreviate Apple. Bye!
Apl has more debt than ever before and declining primary product. Their "tremendous financial-position"...and they bought Beats. No they could not just buy Disney or Netflix it would kill the value of those companies and users would bail..apl has a lot of cash and not many good paths forward. they have an image problem.
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Please stop. You're not only embarrassing yourself, but you're highly misinformed. They have debt because they've used it to fund their stock buyback program. (I doubt you're a shareholder, but you should! Their stock is performing quite well this year.) That doesn't take away from the fact they have a quarter of a trillion dollars in "cash". Lastly, what "declining product"? Do you mean the iPhone that just had its best quarter in history and improved ASP? Thought so.
Yeah, they should focus exclusively on making Macs for the rest of their existence.
Were you one of those people who complained when Apple decided to stop selling cinema displays and dropped the AirPort line?
They have about $165B cash look it up..rest is in long term stuff
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It isn't irrelevant if people on those platforms don't use it. I think the previous poster is correct in his assessment. Apple services revenue is directly tied to the iPhone. Apple Music is pretty much for iPhone owners. If it were truly being embraced cross platform it would have killed Spotify by now. Instead Spotify growth is huge.
I am fully aware of long term and short term market securities. https://twitter.com/asymco/status/828690761071861765/photo/1
Follow Horace for more enlightening experiences.
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Lol and by your rationale Apple's services segments is a failure––even though it's about the size of Facebook in total revenues. Got it!
Thought you were done?
Apple’s net cash position at the end of its 2016 fiscal year would be $162.1 billion, up from $121.2 billion at the end of the 2012 fiscal year. That total, and the $41 billion gain over four years, is nothing to sneeze at, but it looks tiny compared with the $116.4 billion gain that a quick look at its cash reserves would indicate.
Lot less than half-$T tweet thing some dude posted lol
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Lol at your second grade reading comprehension skills. Nowhere did I say services was a failure. I guarantee you I've been an Apple customer way longer and have spent way more money on Apple products than you. That doesn't blind me to the fact that Apple services aren't widely embraced outside of established Apple customers. Check your fanboyism. It's boring.
Apple "flirts" with original content / Apple TV is a "hobby" / project Titan is...?????? / liquid metal for new laptops / the great sapphire screen debacle /
Apple, under Cook, appears to be spinning it's wheels more and more. So much money and resources going in, so little emerging.
a.k.a. Tim's pipeline
What's the profit they've made on those customers? They haven't, and analysts think they may finally turn a profit this year. Given how services such as Spotify and Apple pay for content, Apple is in a much better position since they have a horde of cash to cover loses from minimum revenue guarantees if they don't hit the numbers while Spotify has to burn through cash from investors. It's hard for a pure streaming company like Spotify to survive without a rich parent.
So why does Netflix make a profit - they own content as well as license which reduces costs and allows for accounting for the costs of the content while Spotify rents all their content; and Netflix has DVD rentals that are higher margin than streaming to help with cash flow. Apple sells content as well as streams it so they are not as dependent on subscriber growth to turn a profit.
Apl is out of there wheelhouse, remember when Apl News was going to redefine news with Apl NEWS? Its a total joke now.
Same for Apl Music vs Spotify... Face it most of the world does not like Apl-anything and will choose Spotify just to spite apl. Spotify is big enough with 50M paying subscribers to stay afloat and thrive. The TV industry is very wary of Apl and what they did to the music industry. As for Apl making content, let's just say they don't have style.
Apl music is simply the "default" forgot to cancel the trial of apl users as "a novel new" in otherwise bland controlled walled-garden void , that's all. So they go "meh' $9 more whatever its new. Not many beyond care its like pages or numbers. Apl users will get disappointed with Apl original content and it'll languish like all the fest of apl original content/apps.
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