Jump to content

AAPL - Apple Inc.

indirect

By indirect
in Investment Ideas

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 7k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Posted Images

portfolio14 Newbie

portfolio14

Posted
Posted

 

Let me say this on record: commercially, I believe Pixel being framed and priced as a premium consumer item is a flop.

 

At this price point and market segment, consumers expect a "luxury vibe". However, the aesthetics is wrong. The glass on the back of the phone breaks the visual form. Frankenstein like.

 

The rounded chassis opted by Google's designer actively invites you to compare its aesthetics to iPhone. It actively draws your attention to its weakness: "My design is a copycat". I don't believe there is only one "correct" design form. e.g. HTC's One (M8) design has more character and feels more luxury.

 

Samsung' and Google's unforced errors is Apple's tailwind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DooDiligence Newbie

DooDiligence

Posted
Posted

 

Siri versus the new Google assistant.

 

I've consistently had bad results with Siri when trying to find locations.

 

Last time home, I asked Siri for directions to my local supervisor of elections (needed to vote absentee) & was given directions to Walton County (nearly 3 hours away.)

 

It was probably a deficiency in Maps (I tried a typed search & unbelievably got nothing for Escambia county where I live.)

 

I'm not a power Siri user & mainly use it to read/send texts & other tasks while driving (nav has always produced frustrating results.)

 

I'm a full on iOS / OSx user & am very happy with the results overall but unless they can improve Maps - Siri will be a meh for me...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
johnny Newbie

johnny

Posted
Posted

Worst iPad quarter since Q3 of 2011

The Mac lineup is a complete disaster that, if rumors are be to believed, is only going to get partially remedied this Thursday.

The new iPhone is great in exactly all the ways to be expected, but with no surprises to the upside.

The Watch ambitions have been dramatically scaled down.

The car ambitions have been dramatically scaled down.

 

It remains one of my larger positions, but if I'm being honest I'd say that the product lineup (and outlook) right now is about what I put down as the worst case scenario when I was loading up earlier this year. Anybody think I'm being unfair?

 

edit:

 

And the Apple TV refresh was so mediocre that I even forgot to include it in my list of mediocre things.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Liberty Newbie

Liberty

Posted
Posted

In what way is the Mac lineup a 'complete disaster'?

 

The Macs were great when they were released, but too many haven't been updated in a very long time. Part of the blame rests on Intel, which can't seem to be able to deliver its roadmap on time, and then when you miss an upgrade window sometimes it's better to just wait for the next one... But part of this also probably is Apple's fault -- maybe they're stretching themselves thin with too many platforms to develop in parallel and too many new products in the pipeline.

 

In any case, most of that should be fixed tomorrow when new Macs are announced.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Liberty Newbie

Liberty

Posted
Posted

I agree. It's not a disaster. But it is embarrassing to be selling such old hardware at full price. Hopefully they don't let themselves get into that situation again; maybe this will make them look again at switching to ARM chips (especially now that Intel said it will fab third party chips) and so control more of the key components in their computers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DooDiligence Newbie

DooDiligence

Posted
Posted

I've got a June 2013 MacBook Air with a 13.3" screen & 256gb HD & can't think of any feature they could add that would induce me to buy a new one (for at least another year or 2...)

 

If I were a gamer; maybe a fancy pants graphics card & a ginormous fan that would lift the laptop into the air might be cool but...

 

Ditto on my Nov 2013 9.7" iPad Air with 64gb

 

I am; however, looking forward to the 10th anniversary iPhone!!!

 

And continued evolutionary changes in product lines & services (haven't authored anything in MS Excel or Word since I ported all my docs & sheets to Pages & Numbers.)

 

I have a hunch the next revolutionary thing may come in healthcare.

 

I have no basis for this idea except for their brief meetings with the FDA which I believe were about HIPAA compliance.

 

Anyone got thoughts / guesses / factoids?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Liberty Newbie

Liberty

Posted
Posted

I've got a June 2013 MacBook Air with a 13.3" screen & 256gb HD & can't think of any feature they could add that would induce me to buy a new one (for at least another year or 2...)

 

That feature is already out, it's called the Retina screen :)

 

Seriously, once you go high-DPI, you can't go back. I have a 27 inch LCD that does a pretty respectable 2560x1440 on my workstation (a 2008 Mac Pro upgraded with 12 gigs of RAM and a SSD), but I don't use it because I prefer the 13 inch screen on the 2015 Macbook Pro.

 

Aren't they releasing new Macs tomorrow?

 

Yes. Two shots of the new Macbook Pro have already leaked.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
johnny Newbie

johnny

Posted
Posted

In what way is the Mac lineup a 'complete disaster'?

 

There was a time when Macs had a justified reputation for being underpowered, overpriced computers that had nothing going for them but nice cases. The stink of this association followed Apple products around for a -very- long time. You could even say that in product lines where it no longer makes sense as a criticism (mobile) it's still burned into the brains of anybody over 30. There was at least an excuse for this when they were backed into a corner with their CPU architecture choices. But this cannot in any way be blamed on Intel, since they are 1. refusing to realistically adjust the pricing to acknowledge the passage of time and 2. deliberately skipping multiple hardware generations.

 

They released the Mac Pro and made a Gigantic Self-Congratulatory Deal about what an innovative and bold company they were, and then proceeded to let it sit for an industry-defying 3 years without any meaningful upgrade. You can build a computationally superior machine for less than the price of -the ram upgrade- on a reasonable Mac Pro build. It's a complete joke and it's a pretty embarrassing state of affairs. If somebody mentions they are considering getting a new Mac Pro in 2016, it is now a sign (without any other information) that they don't know what the hell they're doing. That's a disaster for what should still be a flagship product.

 

It's really an unforced error. They had a chance to keep some people (like me) from even getting acclimated to Windows 10, but they seemed totally unwilling to put in the marginal effort required to keep their desktop offerings sufficiently attractive. And instead they have created a situation where reputable people say memorable things like:

 

Oculus Rift will support Macs 'when Apple makes a good computer'

 

The stink of that sentiment (issued by credible commentators, rather than SeekingAlpha hacks) will follow the brand around for a very long time, even when it's no longer as indisputably true.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DooDiligence Newbie

DooDiligence

Posted
Posted

In what way is the Mac lineup a 'complete disaster'?

 

If somebody mentions they are considering getting a new Mac Pro in 2016, it is now a sign (without any other information) that they don't know what the hell they're doing. That's a disaster for what should still be a flagship product.

 

 

So IBM is not really saving on support staff by using Macs?

 

When do you predict they'll discover their error?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
johnny Newbie

johnny

Posted
Posted

So IBM is not really saving on support staff by using Macs?

 

When do you predict they'll discover their error?

 

It's not necessarily an error (which suggests an actual misapprehension within IBM), but that claim being made by IBM is a pretty disingenuous piece of marketing.

 

Are you really surprised that a self-selected subpopulation of IBM employees that opt-in to receive Apple products might actually have higher mac-literacy (and general computer literacy) than the others? I'm not. It makes perfect sense that the 25 year old employees on Macbooks are opening up less support tickets than the 55 year olds on Thinkpads. This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the products themselves.

 

I'm also guessing that the number of Mac Pros acquired and deployed by IBM is somewhere around 0, so it's not especially relevant to that criticism one way or another.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
DooDiligence Newbie

DooDiligence

Posted
Posted

So IBM is not really saving on support staff by using Macs?

 

When do you predict they'll discover their error?

 

It's not necessarily an error (which suggests an actual misapprehension within IBM), but that claim being made by IBM is a pretty disingenuous piece of marketing.

 

Are you really surprised that a self-selected subpopulation of IBM employees that opt-in to receive Apple products might actually have higher mac-literacy (and general computer literacy) than the others? I'm not. It makes perfect sense that the 25 year old employees on Macbooks are opening up less support tickets than the 55 year olds on Thinkpads. This doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the products themselves.

 

I'm also guessing that the number of Mac Pros acquired and deployed by IBM is somewhere around 0, so it's not especially relevant to that criticism one way or another.

 

Sure it is.

 

I was an Apple hater until about 2011.

 

The company I work for has Macs & I had an old Compaq laptop in need of replacement so I bought a MacBook Pro.

 

A few years later, I bought a MacBook Air & passed my Pro on to my Mom & Dad because I was tired of giving them tech support which would occasionally run into 3 or 4 hour sessions of removing malware, etc.

 

I haven't had to do squat other than initially showing them how to use Safari, Mail, etc.

 

Fact is; some people love their PC's & Android devices & have a tribal hatred of Apple products & some people simply enjoy whatever devices they have & could care less what the other tribes use.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
rkbabang Newbie

rkbabang

Posted
Posted

Does speed really matter nowadays when purchasing a computer?

 

Big question is how will the cash get deployed....$237 billion and counting...

 

It depends what you are doing.  If you are editing and rendering 4K video it is pretty important.  For VR it is going to be very important.  Yes Apple overprices the Mac for the hardware that you are getting, but that is no reason for it to also use sub-par hardware.  The Mac Pro especially, should be updated twice per year and always be a top of the line machine.  In reality, unlike what apple does with its iPhone where it is the best or among the best on the day it comes out, Macs are pretty obsolete on day 1.    That said I now have an iMac (that I paid way to much for) because I want the software and the hardware is good enough for me.  I do know that I could have built a faster system for half the price.  I would then be stuck with windows or linux though.  I prefer the Mac OS and was willing to pay for it. For any price conscious or price constrained consumer paying more than double the price is a lot to ask.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


×
×
  • Create New...