Cool, just how far into the future have you traveled, that you can bring back these definitive, past-tense answers to us?
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Apple Says 'You're Only as Good as the Last Thing You Did' Amid Sales Slowdown
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Oh this is just great! That photo wasn't supposed to come out until _after_ Apple announces their "Indoor Dirigible Battles" reality TV show! ("Two dirigibles enter - one dirigible leaves!") They've worked so hard to keep it a secret.
Well for what it's worth, there's not a heck of lot in this interview that gives me great confidence in the future of Apple - at least as far as my needs go. The iPhone is more or less good enough as is for me. But I may have purchased my las iPad. Cook and company's constant banging the drum about iPad as a laptop replacement is simply not going to be the case for me unless, well, it can actually do all the things I need a laptop can do (there are numerous other threads that cover this).
As far the interview goes, they did they say some interesting things, but they also did their usual side-stepping of questions. The QA issue is still front and centre, the fact that Cook prattles on about customer first and then continues to sell a non-retina Macbook Pro for way too much money. And what about the underpowered GPUs they insist on using? The list goes on. But according to Cook and Co, everything is fine...
It's been so long that everything "just works" for me and my Apple gear!
As far the interview goes, they did they say some interesting things, but they also did their usual side-stepping of questions. The QA issue is still front and centre, the fact that Cook prattles on about customer first and then continues to sell a non-retina Macbook Pro for way too much money. And what about the underpowered GPUs they insist on using? The list goes on. But according to Cook and Co, everything is fine...
It's been so long that everything "just works" for me and my Apple gear!
FWIW, if you really need a laptop (keyboard, touchpad, multitasking, extensive filesystem access, software development, OS X and many of the OS X-based commercial packages), then you're not really the target market for "iPad to replace desktop". But there are a lot of people out there, for whom an iPad _is_ a suitable laptop replacement, if their needs are more casual. The bar used to be, "well, if you exclusively do light web and email use, maybe an iPad is sufficient". That covered some people. That bar has been slowly creeping higher, and now more people fit. They won't ever get to the point where everyone fits under the "can do fine just using an iPad" bar. But I suspect this is what's behind their "iPad as a laptop replacement" talking point - many potential users don't realize that the bar has moved up.
It also depends on how a laptop (or laptop replacement) fits into the picture for each individual - if you mainly use a desktop and have the laptop for coffee shops and travel, then the iPad is getting better. If you do everything on one laptop, and use a lot of "desktop"-level software, then it's much less likely an iPad could work for you. My main machine is a MBP, but my iPad gets a lot of secondary use. The iPad will never replace the MBP. Can't develop on it, and can't be in the midst of 17 different things at once on it, the way my MBP can - the iPad's strength, aside from portability, is focus on one thing, quite the opposite of what I need from the MBP.
Maybe if they had a single competitive product in their lineup they would actually sell something. But here they are, with a lineup of computers with nearly 2 year old hardware still vastly overcharging. Why would anyone buy a MacBook Pro when a faster, just as well build Dell costs half the price?
But hey as long as they keep making bigger iPads, poorly performing ultra-thin MacBooks, and watch wristbands Im sure they'll be fine...
But hey as long as they keep making bigger iPads, poorly performing ultra-thin MacBooks, and watch wristbands Im sure they'll be fine...
The merits of their current products can be debated (I feel a number of them are sorely in need of a refresh), but you said that "maybe... they would actually sell something"? Really? Are you so out of touch with reality that you are unaware that Apple still sells millions of Macs and many tens of millions of iPhones every quarter? That pretty much any other company in the world would kill to have Apple's sales figures? How many millions of items does the company you run sell every quarter? I presume you must have sales figures in the realm of tens or hundreds of millions of items sold per quarter, in order for you to write Apple off as not actually selling anything. Let's keep real here, folks.
Nope - incremental improvements as better technology (from suppliers) becomes available is not in a league of importance as the original iPhone.
Well said.
If we factor in Apples extreme need for attention, for anything to brag about, for anything they can claim they invented, suddenly computers seem awfully mundane.
A fiercely clever company that loves to create attention grabbing names for products like "lighting" or renaming an existing technology then acting like they invented it. "Retina" is nothing more than high resolution, as but one example.
Copying Android phones, they'll likely act as though they created a "special" capacitive home button, when my Androids have had them for years.
Apples made a fortune via smoke and mirrors hype. An admirable accomplishment.
Not throwing shade at you personally - but I think the same sentiment was shared by Blackberry in 2007: who also believed that business was their fortress. But the constant seeping pressure from the consumer market back into the professional world, things such as BYOD, will eventually entice the software makers to match capabilities of their ARM offerings with Intel.
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And then they navel gaze as to why they aren't doing that well internationally in places like India...
I largely agree with what you are saying here, but I also believe that Apple could do substantially better as a company, if it didn't make such boneheaded decisions. Take the Mac lineup. Apple produce a range of overpriced and gimped computers (as you have mentioned) and as a result only have around 10% of the computer OS market share.
The number one reason that people have for not buying a Mac is performance and price. If Apple listened to market sentiment and took notice, and fixed both of these to be more in line with other manufacturers, along with updating their product range regularly, I think it is reasonable to say that their Mac sales would absolutely go crazy. They could easily wipe the floor with Windows, if they decided too, and increase both OS market share and their computer profits dramatically. Instead, they seem intent on REDUCING market share by lowering the specs even further, and producing software that is less reliable than ever before. Another great example is the Apple Watch, which by not making it compatible with Android eliminated 85% of potential sales. What kind of company makes these kinds of stupid decisions that appear to be designed to limit their own growth?
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Whatever, Apple. Just give me/sell me the OS and I'll put it on one of these: http://www.boxx.com/
Except that the Olympics is sponsored by Samsung. So it will be the Gear 2 bands. No Olympics Apple bands sorry dude.And the next article would be "Apple releasing a new Olympic Medal Color Theme watch bands"..
Nothing is stopping Apple from releasing new watch bands
We have a heavy investment in BOXX workstations, with lightning fast performance and world class support they've been wonderful to use. Starting with ten two years ago, we now have over fifty at just one of our design labs. Reliability has been stellar, so we've got more on the way.
They should fire him if he fails to sustain that performance. Unfortunately by the time the non-professional investor sees the share price tank it will be too late. The money will only keep rolling in if Cook delivers a pipeline of desirable, market leading products and services - his track record to date is not great, it's always "jam tomorrow".
The problem Apple have is three fold:
1. They have blind fanboys who for years have bought anything they throw at a wall. At a time you could maybe justify it because they had better apps, retina screen, Touch ID, but now there hardware is on par with 400 dollar android phones.
The price point vs what you get in today's world is massive different. 3 year old hard ware and designs still selling for thousands of dollars.
2. Apple have become too arrogant and lazy.
3. Competition have caught up massively. The note 7 is way way ahead of the iPhone, the screen is far superior, it's got a pen, it's more compact, less bezels, headphone jack (haha), better audio quality, more storage options, it's so far ahead it's laughable. Likewise the dell XPS is so far head right now. That's just mentioning two of their competitors products.
Of course Apple will release new macs, and unless they are gimped (similar to how they released that POS Mac mini) they should be far better. But people shouldn't forgot it took them so long to release them and the wait just isn't acceptable.
The iPhone though? When android are releasing phones of high quality, good battery life, fast, lovely screen but for half the price...people will start to catch on. And it's not like there are huge leaps like before, so I don't think we can now justify the high prices of these smartphones.
1. They have blind fanboys who for years have bought anything they throw at a wall. At a time you could maybe justify it because they had better apps, retina screen, Touch ID, but now there hardware is on par with 400 dollar android phones.
The price point vs what you get in today's world is massive different. 3 year old hard ware and designs still selling for thousands of dollars.
2. Apple have become too arrogant and lazy.
3. Competition have caught up massively. The note 7 is way way ahead of the iPhone, the screen is far superior, it's got a pen, it's more compact, less bezels, headphone jack (haha), better audio quality, more storage options, it's so far ahead it's laughable. Likewise the dell XPS is so far head right now. That's just mentioning two of their competitors products.
Of course Apple will release new macs, and unless they are gimped (similar to how they released that POS Mac mini) they should be far better. But people shouldn't forgot it took them so long to release them and the wait just isn't acceptable.
The iPhone though? When android are releasing phones of high quality, good battery life, fast, lovely screen but for half the price...people will start to catch on. And it's not like there are huge leaps like before, so I don't think we can now justify the high prices of these smartphones.
If Apple never overthought things you'd never have the Macintosh.
And without the Macintosh, you'd wouldn't even have Windows.
Maybe you've under-thought something.
And again, Apple is not worried about you. They are a multi-billion dollar company capitalizes on profit margins. If they stay focused on the their product line, specifically Macs, they can rebound and fulfill some of their loyalists.
If Apple isn't worried about me, the consumer, then I'm REALLY worried about them.
That'll never happen. Why not just ask Boxx to write you a really good UNIX OS with full support for software like MS Office and Adobe CC?