Some use good stuff, others, not so much. Heck the knock-off iPhones in China (some plastic, others nearly identical) run Android (so people can look like they have an iPhone for like $50-$70... they are complete junk though). All of that stuff adds into those percentages.
I'm not so sure about that, but I think the goal was fundamentally different. Jobs was about serving the customers with the best products Apple could make (within reason), where as Cook seems about maximizing profits. Jobs never made cheap junk (and in fact, eliminated some of it when he returned) to bring in the masses. He made great products, and at times whittled them down into a price margin nearly everyone could afford.
Oh, for sure. There's usually a place for a cheap, entry level product. That's just never been Apple's thing. And, not making *enough* money is a serious problem for the stability of a platform or vendor.
Or, new physical enclosures. Yea, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I wish they'd have stopped at the 5s/SE, actually. The design seems backwards since. And, I don't agree about iOS... while they have advanced in some ways, iOS7 was a total disaster, and they've been trying to fix it ever since.
Well, it's a bit more complex than that. Apple is an entire eco-system. What made them great was focusing on UX and UI and making great stuff that made people more productive. If they lose that, it doesn't matter how much 'thinking like a business person' people do. The leaders Apple had in the 90s, arguably, 'thought like a business person.' Jobs thought outside that stale box.
The Mac is a crucial part of Apple's eco-system, as are the creatives, designers, students, etc. You can't just thumb your nose at that crowd without repercussions. And, Windows isn't dominant in business because it's the best platform for business. Apple had the perfect chance to make advances there, and blew it. Maybe they decided they didn't want it (fair enough). But if they did, they blew it.
Oh, I agree that's what is happening. And, that's unfortunate (and not what Jobs did). I'm also pointing out that this is much of what's wrong with the corporate world today. Short term thinking is very dangerous, and calling people who cause it 'investors' is stretching it quite a bit. They are the problem, and a better term is gamblers and profiteers.
I've worked for a Fortune 100 (nearly Fortune 50), and I'm hardly a kid, so I understand what you're talking about. But, much of this is due to short-sighted thinking and poor IT design and practices. Why should it be hard to move from Win 7 to Win 10 or to Macs? Because they picked poor technologies that locked them into hard to move from eco-systems. That's why a lot of 'intranets' still need old versions of IE... can you say, stupid? But, yes, it's the reality.
To be fair, I disagree here. If growth is what matters, then you need to increase somehow, somewhere. If you're just flat, at say $1B in profit year after year, then that's not growth. I'll invest in such a company ANY DAY though!
Yea, but who cares? If I could make $1M every year for 30 years with ZERO growth, I'd be ecstatic! The only reason we're talking about this is because what's considered 'investment' is a baloney game for the rich to feel respectable about their gambling and play money games.
Investors primarily care about profitability and returns on investment. Growth is icing. Wall Street isn't about investing.
Well, then they are idiots. I want the companies I buy products from to make money, because then I get support and a long-term stable eco-system.
I design websites. Do I use the $3.95/mo hosting for my sites? Nope. I want my hosting provider to make money and provide me with great service and a great product. I'm also getting into podcasting. Am I going to use someone like Sound Cloud that's bleeding cash? Nope. I'm going without someone charging adequate money and providing good, stable, long-term service.
If you think you're 'pulling one over on the man' by buying some cheap-o product from a company (or getting it for free) that isn't making money... you'd better enjoy the junk while it briefly lasts.
