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OMG! That paints and entirely different picture. Apple has totally collapsed. You are right Apple is doomed! /S
BTW his claim was year over year declines.

2015 sure was a unusually large jump, wasn't it?
I suppose it was the increase in sales in Asia and the large phones but that was really dramatic.
 
2015 sure was a unusually large jump, wasn't it?
I suppose it was the increase in sales in Asia and the large phones but that was really dramatic.

Yep. Again Apple being a victim of its own success. If only 2015 had been a little lower then everyone would think Apple is doing fine. But if you have a dramatic increase you have to follow it with another or the sky will fall.
 
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I woke up in the morning to my alarm on my Apple phone. Then I put on my Apple watch. Then I drove to work in my Apple car (or it drove me). Then I showed up to work at Apple. Then I had an appl for lunch while listening to Apple Music.

Where will it end?

Throwing out the Apple core with no more bites left ?
 
People said that about the iPhone. There were computers and there were phones -- and the two worlds were entirely separate. Not a core business at all.

What People? I was an avid mac user 10 years, I remember all the rumours about the iPhone and nothing was said about apple diluting themselves.

Did you make it up on the spot?
 
on the other side, member drivers for Didi Chuxing are not as educated as Uber drivers, and many cases of didi drivers raping women passengers or driving without pants etc...
 
I live in Beijing and I'm curious to know how self driving cars would react to the driving the habits of people in Beijing?
Apple cars will scatter and run away back to Cupertino. Or to the home chinese factory that produced it.
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on the other side, member drivers for Didi Chuxing are not as educated as Uber drivers, and many cases of didi drivers raping women passengers or driving without pants etc...
Jony Ive will design Apple pants for those cases. Didi pants in gold and rose gold.
 
Funny how you people want to have it both ways. Have you heard of the self-serving bias? That's where people take credit for their successes but blame forces outside themselves for their failures.

Steve Jobs worshippers have a Steve-serving bias. Anything Apple does that is good is the result of things Steve put in place and everything bad is the result of Tim Cook.
Yes. I agree with your last statement. Prove me otherwise.

Tim Cook has miserably failed to take Apple to the next level as a product company. Apple, at heart, is a consumer product company, not a service company. Once a company leaves it's true religion, it's set for failure.

At this point, it looks like all the talk about "pipeline", is smokescreen. Apple has nothing innovative left in their pipeline. How can it be? When the only person in charge is innovation is a designer, I don't see how much of innovation can come out of the company. Hence, all these investments to keep the investors happy. I guess the sun is setting on the golden era of Apple being the product company that brought revolution in consumer market.
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I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say "Apple is doomed." Maybe you're just young, but I had an Apple IIe for my first computer. Every year since then I have listened to people say "the end for Apple is near." Still waiting...

It is inevitable that Apple will fade out someday, but if you think you can predict that day, well, you're wrong.
You forgot that at one time, Apple was on the brink of bankruptcy!
 
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I was just asking a question, that you didn't really answer. Are you saying that if Jobs was still around he wouldn't have achieved the same level of growth since Cook took over? Which era of Apple is really more likely to have been the driving force in Apples current success? Is that really debatable at this point in time? Has Cook really revolutionized the company or just kept it afloat? He has made a lot of rather odd decisions since he took over, especially the "big ones." (Purchase of Beats Electronics, Apple Watch, 1 billion dollar bribe/investment in a Chinese company who is the biggest competitor to a potential US powerhouse in UBER)
I would say yes. Steve was great at coming up with new products, but terrible at getting them ready in sufficient quantities to meet demand.

Tim is clearly better at the latter, and this is what has allowed Apple to sell way more products and become far bigger and more profitable than it has ever been.

The two work hand in hand. Yes, you obviously need to have a good product to sell first, but the best product in the world is also useless if nobody can buy it. Tim has done way more than just keep Apple afloat. He has succeeded in taking Apple mainstream. Both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook have been instrumental to the success of Apple, and I don't see the need to exalt one at the expense of the other.
 
Bad example, IMO.

Smart watches were beginning to sell. Like other blossoming markets they've entered, that's why Apple got interested.

However, in typical Apple fashion, they locked their system down to make it impossible for anyone else to integrate with an iPhone. So of course their own device with secret access, would be the best selling on their own ecosystem.

As for marketing something to everyone, I agree. When the Watch came out, I noted that Apple had made sure it had something to appeal to everyone. Of course, when other companies do that, it's calling "throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks". Nothing wrong with that, though. Smart move.

Actually, there are other competitor smart watches on the market where they can be paired with the iPhone. However, the draw back is they are severely crippled (I.e. Unable to reply to texts/E-Mails, unable to make/receive calls/ critical updates, ect. ) Huawei and Moto made some software changes to integrate their Eco-System to the iPhone. Believe it or not, Pebble is actually rated the best 3rd Party smart watch to pair with the iPhone, of course it's next to the Apple Watch.

And Apple exhausted all efforts to really portray WHY would any gender of all ages want an Apple Watch.
 
Tim Cook has miserably failed to take Apple to the next level as a product company. Apple, at heart, is a consumer product company, not a service company. Once a company leaves it's true religion, it's set for failure.

Apple is whatever it needs to be at that particular point in time. The way I see it, Apple has grown, and is no longer the same Apple we knew from a decade ago. The same strategies that allowed it to become successful in the first place may not longer be relevant or applicable to this newer, larger and more profitable Apple.

I have never seen Apple has a product company for one. I like Apple because it sells me the ecosystem and the user experience, not so much just the hardware. The Apple of today is simply taking that to the next level by offering me more services that build on the existing Apple ecosystem and augment the end user experience.

After all, when you already have an iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air, iMac and a couple of Apple TVs, what hardware is there left to sell me?
 
Apple is whatever it needs to be at that particular point in time. The way I see it, Apple has grown, and is no longer the same Apple we knew from a decade ago. The same strategies that allowed it to become successful in the first place may not longer be relevant or applicable to this newer, larger and more profitable Apple.

I have never seen Apple has a product company for one. I like Apple because it sells me the ecosystem and the user experience, not so much just the hardware. The Apple of today is simply taking that to the next level by offering me more services that build on the existing Apple ecosystem and augment the end user experience.

After all, when you already have an iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air, iMac and a couple of Apple TVs, what hardware is there left to sell me?

I don't see Apple that way. I see Apple as more of a liberator. Go back in the history and see what Apple did for music and for that matter for phone. It may look kind of obvious progression, but it's not. There are so many more things to do. I am fine Apple even looking into the car. May be they can bring more sophisticated automation to automobile technology. But investing into a taxi automation company???? That's not Apple!
 
(3) While iPhone has become more powerful, Apple computers have not. They have released lower power computers while keeping prices the same. Margin has been a priority and high power users have not. How else do you explain the Macbook? A lower power computer with only 1 port? Refreshes to Air and Pro have been non-existent.

BS. The MacBook is easily explained: It's for users who value portability over ports and CPU horsepower. MOST users don't need pro-level CPU/GPUs for day to day use. Because it doesn't suit you doesn't mean it's not easily explained as a significant improvement for others.

The Air is a dead man walking, I was surprised they bumped it at all this year (it happened). That's the last refresh it'll get — it's only around as a cheaper entry point, just like the lingering older iPads. The MacBook is the new Air.

I'll bet you we'll see a MBP refresh at WWDC, and would be surprised if the Pro didn't also get a significant internal refresh this year depending on CPU availability (not sure what the Xeon roadmap is right now but it's contingent on that).

(4) Apple Watch. A fundamental shift in the direction of how Apple decided to market a product. Fashion houses, models costing thousands of dollars, no longer is "status" subtle but blatant-depending on how much you paid for a particular model of the device. Advertisements in vogue, watches under fancy glass cases requiring a "sales pitch" from an Apple employee. The hiring of the CEO of an overpriced fashion house with no real tech experience to run the retail stores.

You have a better way to market wearable computers to the masses? Shoot Phil Schiller a note, I'm sure he'd LOVE to hear your ideas. :|
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If Apple had a little brain they could have put together Safari and iWorks and create "Google Drive". But no... they have those applications cute looking doing nothing because no one is using them.

Except that you can save to "iCloud Drive" and you can edit your iWork docs in Safari. Unfrozen caveman commenter?
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When the only person in charge is innovation is a designer, I don't see how much of innovation can come out of the company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_reasoning
 
Remember after Steve was fired from Apple, they started dabbling into really weird niche products that had nothing to do with their core business and sales across the board began to tank due to lack of updates/innovation in the products that actually made money thus crippling the company revenue?
I look at the numbers for iPhones and Mac's going down year over year, stories like this one indicating more and more capital and resources being diverted from core product R&D into this "Apple Car," and I can't help but get a chilling sense of deja vu.


Eh, I don't know. Their core business used to be just computers, then it was the iPod and music sales, then they combined the computer with the iPod to make the iPhone. All those markets are nearing saturation. They need another path forward and vehicles are the next big revolution.
 
I don't see Apple that way. I see Apple as more of a liberator. Go back in the history and see what Apple did for music and for that matter for phone. It may look kind of obvious progression, but it's not. There are so many more things to do. I am fine Apple even looking into the car. May be they can bring more sophisticated automation to automobile technology. But investing into a taxi automation company???? That's not Apple!

I have honestly never seen Apple as a liberator. I bought an iMac in 2011 not knowing how Steve Jobs was. I got a Mac because I was getting sick and tired of Windows PCs slowing down within six months and breaking down after less than 2 years. I got my first iPad 3 because that was pretty much the best option in the market. The MBA because I needed a thin and light laptop for working outside. The iPhone, well, because I thought only iPhones worked (well) with other Apple products.

And the more Apple products I own, the more deeply entrenched in the Apple ecosystem I become, to the point that I don't bother considering non-Apple options when I contemplate about my next device upgrades. I don't regret my move one bit. Apple was there to provide me with an integrated and intuitive computing solution at a time when no other vendor could. I prioritise the user experience and ease of use over everything else and well, here I am today.

But liberator? We are simply trading one ecosystem for another. Each has its own set of pros and cons, and we are each just choosing the tradeoffs and compromises that we can live with.

The Air is a dead man walking, I was surprised they bumped it at all this year (it happened). That's the last refresh it'll get — it's only around as a cheaper entry point, just like the lingering older iPads. The MacBook is the new Air.

The MBA technically didn't get a refresh - Apple is simply replacing the 4gb ram models with the 8gb ones, but otherwise, they remain identical statwise. No processor or other spec upgrades from as far as I can see. You do get a little more value when you buy a 13" MBA now, but that's pretty much it.

You have a better way to market wearable computers to the masses? Shoot Phil Schiller a note, I'm sure he'd LOVE to hear your ideas. :|
I have to agree with you here. When you look at the state of the Android Wear market, it's the same story as Android smartphones. It's heavily commoditised. People don't value it as they see it as another piece of cheap, throwaway tech, and it shows as general consensus is that the masses aren't willing to pay more than $100 or $200 for one.

The second challenge is that many people still aren't sold on the value of a smart watch. The best wearable is useless if you can't convince anyone to wear it (just look at Google Glass). What Apple is trying to do is to make it seem fashionable and socially acceptable to be seen with a wrist wearable outdoors, and I feel that this is just as important as delivering a useable product.
 
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