Bloomberg: Apple's 5G iPhone Still on Schedule for Fall Launch, But Future Products Could Be Delayed

[T-R-S]

I wish I had that problem of only making 1.58 billion in profit.
5G is not widespread yet. I'll wait for a better one in couple of years.

 

[otternonsense]

It's not gonna sell. Absolutely nobody needs an iPhone with incremental features this year.

Wait a year. Bring out a better bigger new iPhone when we all have survived.

Totally agree, because I consider Tim to be entirely capable of stretching the iPhone update cadence into a tic-toc-toc-toc cycle to keep his margins fat and happy, pandemic or not. Looking forward to a truly innovative redesigned device, and if it releases in 2021, fine, so be it.

 

[recoil80]

Let's be honest.. nobody has probably "needed" to upgrade yearly since like.. the 5S but we still do

This.
Some people will upgrade from a 6 or a 6s this year, they may be the target of the "SE 2" if it will ever come to market, but even for the successor of iPhone 11.
There is no doubt that the iPhone 12 won't be successful as the 11, they'll sell less of them as people will be on low budget this fall, but nevertheless some people will want to upgrade.
I have a Xs and I don't feel like spending more than €1000 for a new phone this fall, but if let's see. I love Pro Motion on the iPad Pro, if they release an iPhone with higher refresh rate I'd be really tempted, but I could easily wait another year and upgrade in 2021. Don't care about 5G, not yet

 

[jeyf]

hmmmm, we have 5G towers here.

 

[Tech198]

"could be delayed" could be an understatement... With boarders closed this virus got in the way of production...

Oh well.. back to the drawing board.

 

[himanshumodi]

The detail about signing bonuses to attract new workers concerns me somewhat. If people have well-founded reasons to be uncomfortable going back to work and need to be enticed to do so, I’d rather Apple respect those feelings and delay as much as is necessary. Some things are more important than a new phone.

That's just how the invisible hand works. When faced with an externality, tweak the incentives to move towards the desired outcome. Cold, cold, economics.

 

[chucker23n1]

That's just how the invisible hand works. When faced with an externality, tweak the incentives to move towards the desired outcome. Cold, cold, economics.

Seems the invisible hand of Corona is stronger than that of the free market right now.

 

[PostApple2016BrainWash]

There might be approximately 20% drop in demand due to short term recession.

 

[Justanotherfanboy]

hmmmm, we have 5G towers here.

I like peanut butter. Can you swim?

 

[MacBH928]

As someone who uses 5G I can tell you its all mumbo jumbo for now.

Using 5G is no different than using 4G, its basically like driving an economy car and a sports car both at 60mph. Its the same, its actually better with 4G because of the better coverage. 5G will shine once you need to download mega big files on the go which I am assuming most people don't do. Email, browsing the net, updating apps and everything else works as fast as possible on 4G's 50-100mbps connection.

Until the 5G network is actually implemented, its only marketing talk, and 5G is not going to be implemented any time soon due to the corona virus that halted the development. In the long run, corona virus economic hit means people+gov+businesses lost money, luxuries like 5G will be put on the shelves for sometimes until the economy regain its health which might take years.

 

[subi257]

No they couldn't. The shareholders would immediately fire any management that does this.

The basic principle of capitalism is to maximize profits. It's demanded by the market and the shareholders.
If you don't comply, the market will weed you out. Period.

Either get rid of that principle or forget about moving production to a more expensive place, just because it creates jobs there. There's absolutely no gain in that for the company.

Also, Tim Cook has rightly pointed out numerous times that it's not just the cheaper wages. It's the whole grown infrastructure there. China is not the cheap labor dump it used to be 20 years ago. There's a huge high tech industry in place. Plus, they have the mineral resources and the industry to process them just around the corner.
None of these companies belong to Apple and they can't just force all that infrastructure to move their booties to another place, just for American jobs.

And now, if you think that the government could force them, good luck with that! They can't enforce any of this just like that. It needs to be build up over decades, and the US chose not to do that.

Completely agree. How asking the shareholder to accept the cut....not going to happen. Shareholders will dump the stock in a heartbeat and kill the company...we are a capitalist country (all about the Benjamin's) Plus the reality, China has the ability to turn out more product than all of the rest of Asia combined. If they were made that $1200.00 iPhone would become a $2000.00+ iPhone.

 

[subi257]

Steve turned Apple into that company and Tim inherited the entire kit-and-kaboodle.


Okay, it's your opinion and I want to discuss the "money" aspect. The money is because Tim Cook gave the people what they wanted. With the exception of a vocal minority, people are buying Apple products. Enough people are buying to propel the company to north of $1T. That should tell you all you need to know about Apple values, money and profits.

However, what I wrote doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement. I would like to see manufacturing reborn in America, but it was clear the carbon credits really were the nail in the coffin.

That will never happen, manufacturing is now based on a global economy and and that will never change. Apple could bring manufacturing back, but it would most likely kill the company, as paying American wages for the 10s of thousands of people needed would completely price them out of the market. No manufacturing company could now survive on domestic sales only, realistically it's not feasible. Everybody bitches about the wages paid in the other countries, buy they are basing those opinions on US cost of living and not the cost of living in those countries. The wages paid by Foxconn are better than what those people get doing other jobs in their countries.

Realistically, there is no perfect country, everywhere in the world there is good and bad....We here have a lot of good, but we do have a bunch of bad too.
[automerge]1585670024[/automerge]

This is unfeasible for two big reasons (if not many more):

1- You will not find the same workers in the US that you can find in China. Not in volume, not in manufacturing proficiency, and certainly not in labor cost (and other expenses like facility operations and logistics).

2- We are in the middle of a global pandemic with the likely outcome being that China will become the world's leading economy. Meanwhile, the US will have a hard recession and is looking at around a 30% unemployment rate.

I can go further but these two reasons alone seal the deal of why you will never see US production for the majority of Apple's products.

All of the above, plus the sad part is that a lot...and I did not say all...of American workers are lazy and don't have the work ethic that first generation immigrants do or the the kids of the first generation immigrants as well as the people in MOST not all Asian countries. In my area most of the Asian and Indian (also technically part of Asia) kids go the school as does all of the other kids and then they go to Kumon schools to learn more math because there is not enough emphasis on math and science and too much on sports.

 

[Speedy2]

That will never happen, manufacturing is now based on a global economy and and that will never change. Apple could bring manufacturing back, but it would most likely kill the company, as paying American wages for the 10s of thousands of people needed would completely price them out of the market. No manufacturing company could now survive on domestic sales only, realistically it's not feasible. Everybody bitches about the wages paid in the other countries, buy they are basing those opinions on US cost of living and not the cost of living in those countries. The wages paid by Foxconn are better than what those people get doing other jobs in their countries.

Agreed.
What most people seem to forget: this "terrible, terrible" globalization has brought us cheap goods. Goods that also poorer people can afford now. Flatscreen TVs, clothes, tools, you name it. Stuff so cheap that people throw it away very quickly when they don't like it anymore. So when people complain about losing those kinds of jobs and their solution is to turn back time, then they'll have to agree to pay more for pretty much everything.

It wouldn't be THAT much more because the companies wouldn't simply employ the same amount of people here, doing low-end work. Bringing production back TODAY wouldn't create the same amount of jobs, neither in quantity nor in quality. Quantity would be lower, quality higher. Companies that still produce in high-wages countries (Germany with its huge car industry comes to mind) automate the hell out of everything. They still use a good amount of highly-skilled workers, but not the huge numbers of low-skilled workers that Foxconn employs.

Once the workers get too expensive in China, companies will either move on to other countries or simply automate it there too. Long term it's game over for low-skilled work all over the globe. No matter if you like it or not.