Gruber: Apple TV is Sold at Cost, HomePod at Slight Loss

[0958400]

Looking at Apple's decisions in the past years, I seriously doubt it. No company, especially Apple - and I'm sad to say that - would do that.

I wonder if he knows what he's doing by stating that: Consumers won't believe it and shareholders will not like it. There's nothing to be gained (and that doesn't make it more believable either.)

 

[Cosmosent]

RE: "Overall, Gruber says that Apple isn't pricing its products too high, it's developing products that are too good. "

Gruber is clearly (now) a Paid Stooge of AAPL's Upper Mgmt !

Someone @ AAPL clearly paid him to make ALL those statements !

They are so far out in Left Field, that ONLY those who have NO technical knowledge would believe them !

Seriously Gruber ???

Gruber, you should press Phil on AAPL's status of 10-bit color Capture & Display, & write about that instead.

 

[NMF]

Gruber is so out of touch with anything related to money. He’s been living in his 1% bubble for so long, he honestly doesn’t understand the value of any of this stuff.

It’s a big problem with the “Apple community” in general. All these filthy rich dbags talking about what is or isn’t a good value. It’s kinda gross, honestly.

 

[Santabean2000]

I consider John Gruber & Rene Ritchie to be Apple's unofficial PR folks. Both are massive sheep/die hard fans, and I'm sure Apple tells them certain things, but I highly doubt Apple would sell something below cost. Near cost, perhaps, but not below.

Rene's YouTube videos are nice though.

Rene is more objective than you might think. He actually tries hard to base his opinions on facts and info he can gather, not just baseless 'fanism'.

 

[Sakurambo-kun]

Not sure I buy the Apple TV thing. It's less powerful than a Nintendo Switch, and a Switch goes for $300. For that you get a gamepad an LCD screen, and a dock to connect it to your TV. Nintendo are famous for always making a profit on their hardware too.

Or a more direct example, the NVidia Shield. Again, it's more powerful hardware, and it sells for $170 with a remote and a gamepad.

Maybe Apple need to find cheaper manufacturers.

 

[Wiesenlooser]

Gruber is so out of touch with anything related to money. He’s been living in his 1% bubble for so long, he honestly doesn’t understand the value of any of this stuff.

It’s a big problem with the “Apple community” in general. All these filthy rich dbags talking about what is or isn’t a good value. It’s kinda gross, honestly.

I feel the same. It's totally fine he earns a lot of money. But the nonchalant way he talks about money and prices - just goes to show that he lost touch to whats "normal" quite some time ago.

 

[Peperino]

Apple Music subscriptions aren't high margin for Apple. Most of the money goes to the music industry.

That is the most pathetic quote I ever heard.
If most of the money goes to the artists, why are they paying streaming rates that are worse than child labor rates?
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Not sure I buy the Apple TV thing. It's less powerful than a Nintendo Switch, and a Switch goes for $300. For that you get a gamepad an LCD screen, and a dock to connect it to your TV. Nintendo are famous for always making a profit on their hardware too.

Or a more direct example, the NVidia Shield. Again, it's more powerful hardware, and it sells for $170 with a remote and a gamepad.

Maybe Apple need to find cheaper manufacturers.

Or maybe they need to find a less greedy CEO that price their products more according to reality.

 

[groove-agent]

I doubt Apple sells at a loss but if they do, please start selling the MBP at a loss as well.

 

[nerdAFK]

Said the biggest Apple apologist, so no.
One example: his take on Apple’s CPU throttling.
Price not high? You can’t make that sh*t up!

 

[T-R-S]

I know for a fact Apple Spent 2 years on R&D on the seamless speaker grill for the HomePod - Then I was at CES 2019 in the Samsung booth Samsung simply copied the HomePod Grill for a new Samsung speaker.

 

[mi7chy]

Highly doubtful considering Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K is more capable than Apple TV 4K and has been on sale for ~$30 which is probably close to cost compared to $50 MSRP.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K + MX Player + Kodi + Emby is the best cheap HTPC replacement. Plays everything I've thrown at it including 90GB 4K HEVC BD remux.

 

[fairuz]

The Mac Pro maybe. I don’t think Apple ever earned enough to recoup their initial investment in that one.

This is likely, at least during release time. AFAIK every gen of the Mac Pro has been cheaper than the sum of its parts when released. Apple might be getting the parts cheaper than consumers can, but eh, doubt it's enough to make it profitable. I'm guessing they just profit when people are still buying old ones.

 

[Veinticinco]

This guy is supposed to have credibility? The comment about "prices not too high but products too good" is beyond embarrassing. At best it's sycophancy.

 

[Applebot1]

I really like the sound of my Home Pod and recommend just on that reason alone. I also have a Sonos set up which again is good. For me the cost is right for the Home Pod compared to other rival products on the market.

In terms of the Apple TV I have a few ATV 2 and 3’s but can’t justify the price for the 4K version; even more so that channels is lacking here in the Uk.

They need to lower the price. Like everything Apple, it’s designed for their eco system and nothing else.

 

[dumastudetto]

That is the most pathetic quote I ever heard.
If most of the money goes to the artists, why are they paying streaming rates that are worse than child labor rates?
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Or maybe they need to find a less greedy CEO that price their products more according to reality.

I didn't say most of the money was going to the artists. Read my comment again.

 

[Evamika]

I see this said a lot, and it’s not necessarily true in respect to the HomePod. Siri does really well with the HomePod in terms of user commands and it’s responsiveness is actually better than most probably expect. Even the microphone can pick up your voice with Siri from a distance and very few times has it been inaccurate for my usage. Where Siri needs the most improvement, is further development with dictation and deciphering phrases/words, but for in-house commands, Siri does really well.

Here I can not agree with you. Siri will fail 9 times out of 10 if you have a slightest accent. I keep trying with every new iPhone I buy but it always end with n frustration.

 

[pika2000]

Highly doubtful considering Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K is more capable than Apple TV 4K and has been on sale for ~$30 which is probably close to cost compared to $50 MSRP.

Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K + MX Player + Kodi + Emby is the best cheap HTPC replacement. Plays everything I've thrown at it including 90GB 4K HEVC BD remux.

And? Amazon always sell its hardware at a loss because they make money from the services.

 

[Warped9]

I dont believe apple sells anything at cost.

Same. I never bought the explanation retailers sell computers at cost or a loss either.

 

[maxfromdenmark]

I don't buy this story.

 

[dealmaker]

Biggest issue with the HomePod is lack of Spotify support. I think they would sell a lot more if it had this. My kids' and all their friends , won't even consider one until they do.

 

[iSayuSay]

Did you check the price of RAM in the past 2 years?

Check the math again, please?

$200 for 16gb may be a bit reasonable for a prebuilt, branded machine, BUT you forget that you don’t keep the stock 8GB sticks.

1. Apple charges you the full price of a stock Mac that supposedly includes 8GB RAM as standard.
2. Apple doesn't give you a rebate for taking them out, nor giving you those RAM sticks in the package
3. Apple adds $200 on top for putting in 16GB "upgrade".

That’s a triple wham for you, buddy!

 

[iGeek2014]

Biggest issue with the HomePod is lack of Spotify support. I think they would sell a lot more if it had this. My kids' and all their friends , won't even consider one until they do.

I figure they’d argue Spotify supports AirPlay hence the decision not to have it natively, plus it means Apple hope people subsequently subscribe to Apple Music, over the competition.

For me, the biggest shortfall, was having Bluetooth 5.0 but closing the feature off, other than for set up... would be great if you could take it places that didn’t have WiFi but could still plug it in, and use it.

 

[iSayuSay]

Biggest issue with the HomePod is lack of Spotify support. I think they would sell a lot more if it had this. My kids' and all their friends , won't even consider one until they do.

The point of Homepod is luring people into Apple Music. Supporting Spotify isn’t exactly a smart move

It’s like the day when Blackberry decides to make BBM open. Didn’t save them one bit

 

[tobybrut]

Biggest issue with the HomePod is lack of Spotify support. I think they would sell a lot more if it had this. My kids' and all their friends , won't even consider one until they do.

Apple isn't trying to sell a lot more HomePods just for the sake of selling HomePods. It's trying to use HomePod to get you to use Apple services, not the other way around. If Gruber is right and Apple is selling it for a loss to lure or lock people into its ecosystem, just like Amazon does for all of its hardware, then why in the world would Apple support Spotify? Why would Apple sell hardware for a loss to get you to use someone else? Apple would simply be throwing money down the drain.

Amazon makes up for selling all of their hardware for a loss through all the huge purchases people make of products off of Amazon (e.g. books, movies, music and so on) along with all the personal info of yours they can use or sell. If Apple HomePod supported things like line-in (HomePod is for playing from iCloud, iTunes, Apple Music, or AirPlay, all of which are Apple specific) or Spotify, Apple would sell hardware for a loss and make up nothing at all from services, seeing as Apple does not collect personal information like Amazon does.

If Apple's goal was to sell as many HomePods as possible for a profit, you can bet it'd support every music service out there and would support connections from everyone else's hardware through Bluetooth or line-in. Instead, the HomePod is a loss leader trying to get people to subscribe to Apple Music or iTunes.

 

[Shanghaichica]

I see this said a lot, and it’s not necessarily true in respect to the HomePod. Siri does really well with the HomePod in terms of user commands and it’s responsiveness is actually better than most probably expect. Even the microphone can pick up your voice with Siri from a distance and very few times has it been inaccurate for my usage. Where Siri needs the most improvement, is further development with dictation and deciphering phrases/words, but for in-house commands, Siri does really well.

I would agreee with his. I have all 3 and Siri is the best for straight forward but very useful commands/tasks.
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High quality products cost money. Gruber knows more about this industry than just about anyone. I'm guessing he's pretty close to on the mark. I've never felt anything I purchased from Apple was too expensive for what I get. Even the new IPhone XS Max, while expensive, was worth every penny. I don't buy cheap steaks or cheap computer gear. I get what I pay for.

whilst I do balk at Apple’s pricing of late I cannot deny the sheer quality of their devices. They don’t cut corners and when I buy an Apple product I’m never left disappointed.