Me and it's all becoming Microsoft

[Ollywood]

Well well, here I am a newbie. After a whole day of trying to get an iPhone and failing for various reasons. Now a bit if background I am a hard core Apple guy. kind of born and raised on it really. I have seen and touched Lisa. And I want to post a thread saying *Apple is becoming Microsoft" and as a newbie had to find low enough thread to post.... Boring. Then his whole Apple iPhone debacle got me thinking. I run a business that runs only Apple hardware (they love it) and software (it sells hardware) and it's done well thanks Apple I have made a so so succesfull business. BUT with all it's arrongance and secrecy nonsense has got itself into a very sticky situation. I just can't build my business. It's like a car salesman dealing with a car manufacturer who just delivers you a car and says hey this it.... really.

So you don't get an vision of what Apple is up to but more like hey here is the Cadillac... heh sorry this is a well Daewoo or that is price your putting on the hood.... and what's next?

Sorry can't say

But I need to raise money to buy the next stock list

Oh it'll be amazing

Really? Your last product was so so. Like Apple Studio... FCP great, Motion Terrible.... DVD Studio Pro. - Can't do HD.... Color - Nice but haven't improved from Final Touch....etc... NOT GOOD ENOUGH!!!!

Did you guys hear about FCP extreme... research very interesting anyway

My question where is Apples head at?

 

[Sky Blue]

The same place it's always been. Apple's always been secretive. Wouldn't you research this stuff before you run a business with it?

 

[speakerwizard]

what the hell are you talking about?!?!

p.s. motion is amazing

 

[mr.light]

what the hell are you talking about?!?!

p.s. motion is amazing

Really! Lost me very early in his rant.

 

[GGJstudios]

You run a "succesfull" business???? I'm very curious to know where you learned to speak! Unless you're from another country (in which case, forgive me), your post is VERY difficult to understand. Typos and spelling errors... even poor grammar.... run rampant through these forums, but at least most are readable. I can't tell from your post what exactly you're complaining about! Cadillacs? Motion sickness? Can you try to use English, so more of us can understand?

 

[Ollywood]

You run a "succesfull" business???? I'm very curious to know where you learned to speak! Unless you're from another country (in which case, forgive me), your post is VERY difficult to understand. Typos and spelling errors... even poor grammar.... run rampant through these forums, but at least most are readable. I can't tell from your post what exactly you're complaining about! Cadillacs? Motion sickness? Can you try to use English, so more of us can understand?

It's quite simple, would you buy Apple stocks today? And if yes why?

In most companies I can go round to my suppliers and ask what are you doing next. And then make a judgement on where they are going and if it's something interesting I invest. Can you do that with Apple?

Ps motion? have you tried Shake way better and they dropped it.

 

[GGJstudios]

It's quite simple, would you buy Apple stocks today? And if yes why?

In most companies I can go round to my suppliers and ask what are you doing next. And then make a judgement on where they are going and if it's something interesting I invest. Can you do that with Apple?

Ps motion? have you tried Shake way better and they dropped it.

Yes, I own a significant amount of Apple stock that I bought at $116... it's now at $172. Most prescient analysts project a real value around $200+/share in the near future. I'm extremely happy with the performance of their stock!

Any intelligent company with the supply vs demand ratio that Apple enjoys, is NOT going to leak their future plans to an individual or small business, when that information could be taken directly to their competitors. A simple Business 101 course would teach that to anyone.

 

[Ollywood]

Yes, I own a significant amount of Apple stock that I bought at $116... it's now at $172. Most prescient analysts project a real value around $200+/share in the near future. I'm extremely happy with the performance of their stock!

Any intelligent company with the supply vs demand ratio that Apple enjoys, is NOT going to leak their future plans to an individual or small business, when that information could be taken directly to their competitors. A simple Business 101 course would teach that to anyone.

Well I bought myself some stock too at $75 before they split. If you read any financial reports there is always an indication of where the company is going. Now that Apple has pretty much achieved it's goals. Has it overreached itself, as on the video side of the business it's lagging behind. At the moment there is a huge growth area is on the phone sector. But on other fronts has had setbacks Adobe is still the leader for graphics and web and is not exclusive for Mac, iPhone does not support Flash. FCP is lagging. Pages is ok. Thank god Vista is terrible. What I'm saying watch out for the arrogance i.e Quark, AVID and co.

 

[albusseverus]

this is the problem with the relationship Apple has with its customers

Apple has developed a phenomenal (and almost personal) relationship with its customers. So much so, that we tend to want to know her most intimate secrets. More than that, we expect, even demand to know her most intimate details.

Sure it would be great for Apple to tell us where they are headed. And then, every clone maker would quickly bring out a crap implementation, give the public a bad taste in their mouths and spoil Apple's vision.

Electronics is an extremely fast moving business. Things that sound possible often fail at implementation, leaving an unsatisfiable hunger and major disappointment. This just doesn't happen in the car industry, for example, which moves much slower. They build concept cars and everyone just waits for the features to appear.

If anything, Apple has tried to give us an idea of the future. The iPhone is the first product they've demoed before release, is it not? And again, the 2.0 software and SDK.

Seems the more they try, the more we demand... and we're never going to be happy. A 'relationship' doesn't work that way.

 

[Ollywood]

mmm Intel and IBM talk about where their future chips are going to be like. My problem and is going to be Apples problem I have other suppliers that have a even closer relationship with the clients and talk to you where they are going. And they deliver and to be honest some of Apples products are been way off the mark. Look at Color...use to be called Final touch a very impressive piece of software and they did nothing with it....

Horrendous render times
Poor compatibly with FCP - lots of errors
No real time play back

And this has been going on for over a year. No wonder it's free...

 

[donmei]

Apples business model is more like IBM's than it is like MSs.

Both companies strive to provide the best experience (at a premium) by controling the entire stack of hardware and software. That means physical h/w, OS, utilities, and applications.

Generally this model works. But the downside is:
1)higher initial purchase cost
2)slower uptake of latest and greatest technologies because they bother to thoroughly TEST things. So while you may not be the first to get a feature, you are usually pretty well assured that the feature will work. (in stark contrast to MS)

 

[Matek]

It's marketing, Ollywood. I understand your trouble - you can't rely on anything, because all that's out there are rumors.

But on the other hand Apple gets a lot of profit from it. If you look at albusseverus's post, just two posts above mine - he's describing his very personal relationship with Apple products (no pun intended), he doesn't consider computers some cold things you pick based on performance and simply buy when you need. This is exactly what Apple wants, this is what every company in the world wants.

For example - just like every company using Intel's mobile platforms, Apple has to release new laptops more or less every time Intel updates the platform. If Apple would say "MacBooks and MBPs will be released every 6 months with redesigns coming every two years", their laptops would be just a regular computer. They would have to compete with others based solely on quality and performance (I'm not saying Apple products are crap, although I think they're worse than most people believe).

If instead, they don't tell you ANYTHING, you go and read rumor sites, open topics in forums, search for leaked photos, follow live SMS reports from keynotes, etc. They don't have to come to you - you come to them instead, which is really ironic. Usually, we hate advertisments and we do the opposite - we switch channels, use pvr to skip them, install popup/ad blockers, etc. In Apple's case, we look for advertising and because of this, we accept it with much less criticism, because we found it ourself, it wasn't force fed to us.

If you're a company like Intel, you can't afford to do this, because you sell your products to people who use them in their products and they need information to plan ahead. Apple sells to the end-user and can use the described marketing strategy. It may be a bit problematic for people like you who sometimes need to rely on future releases, but Apple makes too much money from it to just give in.

I think it's funny for you to feel they are "like Microsoft". Apple is just a company, like Microsoft, like any other highly successful company. They try to give you a warm, friendly feeling inside, because that's really good for them, but in the end, it would be funny to expect they are any less greedy (in the usual corporate way) than any other company.

 

[Ollywood]

Yes, I own a significant amount of Apple stock that I bought at $116... it's now at $172. Most prescient analysts project a real value around $200+/share in the near future. I'm extremely happy with the performance of their stock!

Any intelligent company with the supply vs demand ratio that Apple enjoys, is NOT going to leak their future plans to an individual or small business, when that information could be taken directly to their competitors. A simple Business 101 course would teach that to anyone.

Interesting thought now! To sell or not to sell!

As they are effectively slowly pulling the plug on the pro market.

 

[Pacwell]

Good lord this is old. But i have 2 questions.

1- how is your business.

2- how much of that 75 apple stock do you own?

 

[Ollywood]

Good lord this is old. But i have 2 questions.

1- how is your business.

2- how much of that 75 apple stock do you own?

Business is still perpetual change. It's good but mostly to do we changed from having to rely on Mac and using other platforms that do a better job. Now it looks like FCP it's going for the prosumer market and Apple are leaving the pro market altogether. Which what I thought was going to happen all those years ago!

And still have all the Apple stock! but now is a question of how long can it go on having the dizzying heights of Microsoft and technology always disrupts as Apple know so well...