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Apple Says 'You're Only as Good as the Last Thing You Did' Amid Sales Slowdown

62tele said:
How about talent and expertise? That's part of the "massive resources" at Apple's disposal that I was referencing.
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Even with Apple's talent and expertise. The iPhone is a once-in-a-generation product (modern touch-controlled, app-using smartphones are big milestone on their own, in the line of categories like the car, the telephone, the PC, mobile phones, and Apple had a substantial head start in that category).

I get that Apple was clever to put effort into dressing up the AppleWatch with it's emphasis on bands and finishes and they apparently spent a lot of time on it. But, to be honest, it was like putting lipstick on a pig for the initial entry level models.
To me the initial iPhone exceed expectations but the the AppleWatch? Not so much.
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I don't disagree with that last statement. But even the lipstick business can be profitable (look at Swatch for example). And you need some lipstick if you want to sell watches beyond the sport and tech nerds.
 
stockscalper said:
After Jobs' passed Cook said Apple was in great shape and had new innovations (products) in the pipeline for the next five years.
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Did Cook himself say five years of stuff? I thought that was just a guess made by someone else outside of Apple.

Although yes, Cook keeps swearing there's cool stuff on the way.

It's now been five years and they've not innovated a single new product. The watch doesn't count because that was Jobs' last creation.
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According to Ive, the watch project started after Jobs' death. So it seems to be a Cook and Ive (and Newson) thing.

Which makes sense to those of us who think that Jobs would never have approved the multiple confusing input methods thrown into its UI :)
 
JackANSI said:
If they would have put the MagSafe on there, someone would be able to charge their MacBook and use the USB port without a dongle.
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And if they put a second USB port on it, they also wouldn't need a dongle. Removing MagSafe has no direct link to reducing the number of data ports from three (11" MBA) to one (MacBook One). I don't know why you make that link.
 
manu chao said:
And if they put a second USB port on it, they also wouldn't need a dongle. Removing MagSafe has no direct link to reducing the number of data ports from three (11" MBA) to one (MacBook One). I don't know why you make that link.
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It's about combining the two and the cost of that poor choice... pretty simple concept.

The single port for both is a crappy compromise/situation for the end user. Only an idiot would've thought it a good idea.
 
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JackANSI said:
It's about combining the two and the cost of that poor choice... pretty simple concept.

The single port for both is a crappy compromise/situation for the end user. Only an idiot would've thought it a good idea.
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Sorry, combining charging and data transfer in a USB-C port in no way constrains how many USB ports a computer has. You blame USB-C for the reduction in data ports (from three down to one) just because they appeared on the same product.
 
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djcerla said:
Mac sales have "plummeted"? Really? Last time I've checked, the Mac has outperformed the PC sector for years, last time some months ago...
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Folks here have an astounding superhuman ability to extrapolate from "me" to "everybody" - Mac sales have plummeted in his house, so therefore they have clearly plummeted worldwide.
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George Dawes said:
El c(r)ap runs ok as long as you use it on NEW hardware it seems , on my mac mini from 2011 total disaster ( bricked it 100% ) ...
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As a data point against your blanket statement, El Capitan runs great on my 2011 MBP.
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JackANSI said:
If they would have put the MagSafe on there, someone would be able to charge their MacBook and use the USB port without a dongle.

USB-C as implemented by Apple thus far is just marketing BS that, like the jedi mind trick, only the weak minded could fall for.
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They very clearly said, when they released the new MacBook, "we wanted to see what we could do with just one port". It wasn't a matter of weak minded people falling for it. It is definitely not a machine for everyone. Personally, I'd like to see MagSafe, Ethernet, and several USB-C ports, on a new MBP.
 
djcerla said:
Thankfully, we are in 2016 and Apple just sold 4.25 millions Macs in Q3.

Compare this trendline to this.

We'll see soon a record-breaking quarter for Mac sales; that quarter will be Q1 2017 (december quarter).

Mark this post.
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4.25 million Macs is peanuts in the personal computer market (~250 million desktops and laptops in 2016).

I sincerely hope you're right though, that we'll see a record-breaking quarter in Q1 2017. But for the right reasons - i.e. a state-of-the-art Macbook. Not for duping people to shell record amounts of money on fashion tech. I don't care for that at all, but I want a good UNIX laptop to upgrade to, and if Apple doesn't supply it, I'll switch to an XPS developer edition, even if Ubuntu has weaker software support.
 
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stockscalper said:
After Jobs' passed Cook said Apple was in great shape and had new innovations (products) in the pipeline for the next five years. It's now been five years and they've not innovated a single new product. The watch doesn't count because that was Jobs' last creation. All they've done is updated their existing products - evolution and no revolution. They need somebody who can think outside the box like Jobs could. Cook does remind me of Scully, the sugar water salesman. He spends too much time obsessing over politics and social issues and not enough on creating the next new best thing. Ripping off Android and apps from the Cydia store and claiming you invented it is not innovation. I've been using Macs for decades and stuck with them through the dark times. I don't want to see them slip away like they have before.
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Apple used to produce products that redefined whole industries and were YEARS ahead of the competition. Think of things like the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. It's not that these products necessarily hadn't been done before, but Apple managed to produce a kick-ass version that leap frogged competitors' products, often setting the standards for years to follow. They key factor, though, that these things have in common is that they were all produced in the Steve Jobs days.

Man things have changed. With Jobs gone, the heart of Apple just isn't there anymore. A new kick-ass product hasn't come out since 2011 (the year Jobs died). Even the iPhone, which is now the only product Apple produces that the masses appear to still want, is now about 3 years BEHIND the competition in terms of features. I think it is safe to say that the best days of Apple are now over, and the company has entered a slow decline.
 
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Phoenixx said:
Apple used to produce products that redefined whole industries and were YEARS ahead of the competition. Think of things like the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. It's not that these products necessarily hadn't been done before, but Apple managed to produce a kick-ass version that leap frogged competitors' products, often setting the standards for years to follow. They key factor, though, that these things have in common is that they were all produced in the Steve Jobs days. Man things have changed. With Jobs gone, the heart of Apple just isn't there anymore. A new kick-ass product hasn't come out since 2011 (the year Jobs died).
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There are several ways to interpret that:
  1. Are there any product categories that the world is missing out on because Steve Jobs is no longer with us?
  2. Have other companies created new product categories that Apple 'should' have created or at least redefined?
  3. Or do we have new product categories which Apple has entered, if not created, but has failed to redefine and failed to made a huge financial success of?
Number (1) is possible but impossible to prove. For number (2) several things come to mind: Fitbit, Spotify, Netflix. Number (3) would be the smartwatch, which Apple at least seems to be the number one vendor and which aims at taking over the the 'Fitbit' category.

Spotify and Netflix (its streaming service to be precise) started in 2008, three years before Cook took over Apple. Apple's late entrance into their markets (video streaming is still on the drawing board) probably has a something to do with streaming services competing with download purchases (and rental). You can blame Cook but some blame must also go to Jobs on this.

Fitbit is a product with some similarities with the iPod in that it doesn't offer something completely new. Activity tracking from step counters over altimeters to 'bike computers' has existed before the Fitbit but Fitbit very much modernised the experience and opened the category to new audiences. It is also a category that is getting subsumed into more general purpose smartwatches (like the iPhone subsumed the iPod).

One can argue that Apple at its best should have created Fitbit itself but at the same time Fitbit sales numbers (or the sales numbers of the whole category) would probably have been seen as a failure by Apple. Similarly as the Apple TV and Apple Watch sales are seen as a failure (where the Apple TV was created under Jobs). And Fitbit also started in 2008, three years before Cook took over, ie, some of that blame might also go to Jobs.

My position is that I don't see any iPhone-like (or at least iPod-like) product category that Apple could have produced. One could argue that they could have made a better product out of the Apple Watch but I don't think Apple Watch sales could have ever approached iPhone (or even iPod) sales.

Even the iPhone, which is now the only product Apple produces that the masses appear to still want, is now about 3 years BEHIND the competition in terms of features.
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Hasn't the iPhone always been years behind the competition in terms of features (starting with the lack of 3G on the original iPhone)?
 
symphara said:
Well, their profit did. The products hardly.

These days Apple seems focused solely on their iPhone/iPad business, positioned themselves firmly in the "fashion tech" segment (emotional purchases make most money), and really, only the iPhone business seems to do very well. And apart from making it faster/bigger, there's hardly any generational jump in terms of technology. It's just basic product iteration, hardly anything to get excited about.

If you think about it, it's crazy that Apple doesn't offer anything worthwhile to upgrade my 2011 Air for. The PC product line is pretty bad: old display technology (Air), form factor and spec well behind the competitors' (Macbook Pro), or just shiny computing rubbish (the new Macbook). I don't understand how the other companies sell rMB-like computers with i7s while Apple ships theirs with a Core M.


I can't blame Intel when Dell makes a 1.29kg, Air-like form factor, 13" XPS with i7 Skylake and 16Gb RAM sold here for CHF1799 (developer model) while Apple sells their chunky 1.58kg 13" Macbook Pro with 5th gen i5 with 8Gb RAM for CHF1949. No wonder the sales have plummeted.

Either way, I will upgrade this year. If Apple is not in the laptop business anymore, I'll switch.
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Sigh. That is because the Skylake processor in the Dell only includes the Intel HD. NOT the Iris Pro. Like I said, blame Intel for their lack of Skylake with Iris Pro. There was not a valid Skylake available for the Macbook Pro systems for a very long time.

Intel HD sucks compared to the Iris. I would not want to get that on a laptop.
 
EricTheHalfBee said:
If he complained that he needed to spend $10K on a Mac Pro while his competitors could buy a similar PC for only $6K then you'd have a point.
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They can be had. This system cost me just over $6K. It has 116 cores.

Technically it could have been a Mac, as long as it ran Linux or Windows - but that would have just made the build more expensive for less machine.
 

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CarlJ said:
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.
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Well quite plainly I pity the poor uneducated fools who are being ripped off. If any other tech company tried to sell you 2 year old underspec hardware at full price they would get laughed out of the industry.
 
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xWhiplash said:
Sigh. That is because the Skylake processor in the Dell only includes the Intel HD. NOT the Iris Pro. Like I said, blame Intel for their lack of Skylake with Iris Pro. There was not a valid Skylake available for the Macbook Pro systems for a very long time.

Intel HD sucks compared to the Iris. I would not want to get that on a laptop.
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The i7-6560U in the Dell I mentioned has Iris 540, not Intel HD. Most of your post is a non-sequitur, since the premise is wrong.

While it is not an Iris Pro, I am not sure why that would be a deal breaker. Apple itself doesn't offer an Iris Pro option in the 13" laptops as far as I know, and, after all, the Iris 540 is much faster than the Iris 6100 currently used in the 13" Macbook Pro.

Look at http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Iris-Graphics-540.149939.0.html vs http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Iris-Graphics-6100.125591.0.html. Scroll down to look at game benchmarks. Not that either is much of a gaming machine (nor is the Iris Pro btw), but if I'd want to fire up Overwatch, I know which one I'd pick.
 
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I cannot understand why Apple don't upgrade internal hardware even if the design remains the same. To do this there is no need of Steve Jobs. Cook & co are killing the Mac. Even if they don't make big money like they do with the iPhone, that doesn't mean that the bad current opinions about Mac doesn't affect the Apple brand.
 
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djcerla said:
Mac sales have "plummeted"? Really? Last time I've checked, the Mac has outperformed the PC sector for years, last time some months ago http://fortune.com/2016/04/12/dude-youre-getting-a-mac/
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Yes they have. Look at the chart from the latest earnings call. Nearly a billion in revenue less compared to Q3 2015.
The fact that the rest of the industry is in a stalemate makes no excuse for the Mac's current state of abandon.
apple q3 revenues.png
 
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xWhiplash said:
Sigh. That is because the Skylake processor in the Dell only includes the Intel HD. NOT the Iris Pro. Like I said, blame Intel for their lack of Skylake with Iris Pro. There was not a valid Skylake available for the Macbook Pro systems for a very long time.

Intel HD sucks compared to the Iris. I would not want to get that on a laptop.
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I agree with you, but let me ask you this. If there wasn't the Iris Pro available, what did stop apple to use mobile versions of Nvidia and ATI graphics cards?
 
JAYLXXXI said:
Ah yeah, have you seen the new Samsung Note 7? After 5 years of being loyal iPhone user even I'm making the switch. Hopefully Apple brings its A-game back with the i8.
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My 2 cents on Android: after 5 years spent on very fast and "free as in freedom" android devices(my last iPhone was the 4S), I have returned to a "slow", "closed" iPhone (6 64gb) and I am loving it because I' ve discovered that I don't need speed and exotic tasks in change of stability and good design of the apps. Also, Google is very very invasive in privacy.
 
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Grade said:
I agree with you, but let me ask you this. If there wasn't the Iris Pro available, what did stop apple to use mobile versions of Nvidia and ATI graphics cards?
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Apple doesn't use the Iris Pro on the 13" Macbooks, and there's no reason for them to need Iris Pro for the new 13" laptops. My guess, if the mythical update does come, it won't come with Iris Pro for the 13" form factor.

They simply didn't update the Macbook lines, for no stated reason. Considering how slow and underwhelming the previous updates have been, I'm wondering if they've simply put the Mac business on the back burner (doesn't make much money anyway) and are focusing everything on God-knows-what: self-driving cars, watch bands, whatever else they can spend $10bil. R&D money on.
 
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Timmy is irresponsible and clueless.

Xiaomi should buy Apple and fire him immediately.

CWallace said:
Cook was the man who made everything Steve dreamed about happen. If anyone can follow in his footsteps, it's Tim Cook.

For all we know, if Steve was with us today we'd be in the same situation in terms of product launches and updates and everyone would be calling for his head to be placed on the chopping block and wondering how he "lost his mojo".
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Tim was just executing what steve jobs told him to do.

Without Jobs, Timmy is lost.

Timmy needs to start his political career supporting the LGBT community, that's all he wants to do.
 
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