The iPhone's golden age is over, Apple will only charge fans more - Wired mag

[8ball]

I read today they may be moving Foxconn to India.

Foxconn Looks Beyond China to India for iPhone Assembly

I guess Africa doesn't have suitable facilities/workforce just yet.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Reminds me of the golden age of Nokia. They had their day for a good decade. Then they just became undesirable when better alternatives came along and it was a painful decline thereafter.

I do wonder how it will play out for Apple. There surely isn't that many more things they can do to justify their massive cost anymore.

Think we’re basically coming to the end of the smartphone a curve so along with their massive reserves think they’ll be focused on what will happen over the next twenty years...


.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

I think they have a small cadre of fanboys who will do that, some really rich people who don’t even look at prices, and a majority who would
soon be nudged in other directions if they felt they were being ripped off.

They’re probably going to devolve a lot of things to services...


.

 

[Gromit]

I think we've pretty much hit the peak of smartphone innovation for now and that pretty much levels the playing field across the entire industry. (It happened to PCs)
Apple are milking their Brand for as long as it's worth and that is longer than is decent because people are twats about brands and so you would. Just as Nike do etc.

Queues for limited edition Nike trainers that cost hundreds etc. etc.

Doesn't mean Apple won't find a new innovation to hijack and build big. They're sitting on a massive reserve just biding their time for that next iPod, iPhone ting.

 

[skyscraper101]

Autonomous cars

 

[Throbbing Angel]

Apple are milking their Brand for as long as it's worth and that is longer than is decent because people are twats about brands and so you would. Just as Nike do etc.

Queues for limited edition Nike trainers that cost hundreds etc. etc.

Reminds me of Jennifer Government

"Hack Nike is a lowly merchandising officer who's not very good at negotiating his salary. So when John Nike and John Nike, executives from the promised land of Marketing, offer him a contract, he signs without reading it. Unfortunately, Hack's new contract involves shooting teenagers to build up street cred for Nike's new line of $2,500 trainers. Hack goes to the police - but they assume that he's asking for a subcontracting deal and lease the assassination to the more experienced NRA."

 

[8ball]

I think we've pretty much hit the peak of smartphone innovation for now and that pretty much levels the playing field across the entire industry. (It happened to PCs)
Apple are milking their Brand for as long as it's worth and that is longer than is decent because people are twats about brands and so you would. Just as Nike do etc.

Queues for limited edition Nike trainers that cost hundreds etc. etc.

Doesn't mean Apple won't find a new innovation to hijack and build big. They're sitting on a massive reserve just biding their time for that next iPod, iPhone ting.

I love my IPhone, but I’ve had it over 3 years now and I can’t see a single reason to change it.

I think for some Android bods it’s likely to be the same story. I was actually planning on getting an Android, but got given this as a present.

I’ve played with friends’ Android phones - they seem pretty variable.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Smartphones are well toward the end of the S curve...


.

 

[8ball]

Smartphones are well toward the end of the S curve...

Why do you think they're scratching around for stuff like this in the first place?

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Why do you think they're scratching around for stuff like this in the first place?

Weathering the storm until the next S curve take off. The real problem has is it smartly rose two S curves in a row (iPod and iPhone) and the tech wasn’t quite ready for the next ones.


.

 

[editor]

Looks like Apple are going to start throwing some of their pots of money around

Sources say Apple is spending hundreds of millions of dollars, and may exceed half a billion dollars in total funding, for its upcoming Arcade game subscription service, the Financial Times reported this weekend.

While the company’s plans to move into streaming television and films(as well as news partnerships) have drawn the lion’s share of coverage, that tally would be a massive investment, covering half of Apple’s reported streaming budget of $1 billion. Several sources told the Times that most of the more than 100 games planned for the service have budgets in the millions of dollars—a lot for mobile and the indie market Apple is targeting, but not extraordinary when compared against the video game industry writ large, where seven-figure budgets or more tend to be par for the course.

According to the Times report, some forecasters believe Apple’s push into gaming will deliver more subscription revenue than its streaming service—and thus the big-budget strategy is an attempt to blast its way into a crowded game market. Some developers are also signing on for lucrative deals with the company to keep their games exclusive to iOS for a period of at least “a few months,” meaning the titles would not initially be available on alternate platforms like Android or the Xbox and PlayStation game stores, the paper wrote.

Apple will be competing with Google’s Stadia and other game streaming services; Google has big plans with that service, like bringing console-quality games to some Android devices. However, it has also scored some big-league partnerships, including the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, Cartoon Network, Lego, Beneath a Steel Sky sequel Beyond a Steel Sky, and a number of others. One does wonder whether Apple is really dropping millions on titles like Hot Lava, a game about the floor being lava, but hey, that’s an unimaginably wealth company’s prerogative.

https://gizmodo.com/report-apple-may-spend-over-half-a-billion-on-its-subs-1834036931

 

[UnderOpenSky]

So is this for a thin client type console that relies on all the processing done somewhere else?

 

[Crispy]

So is this for a thin client type console that relies on all the processing done somewhere else?

Nope. Local processing. The CPU/GPUs in the iOS machines are more than up to it.
"Actual good games on your phone" is a pretty strong strategy, given the hideous state of the current mobile gaming. They're basically going for the traditional videogames business model - centralised platform control, with certain quality and performance requirements for software (ie. must run at 60fps, no in-app purchases, no offensive content etc), and direct investment in games developers.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Nope. Local processing. The CPU/GPUs in the iOS machines are more than up to it.
"Actual good games on your phone" is a pretty strong strategy, given the hideous state of the current mobile gaming. They're basically going for the traditional videogames business model - centralised platform control, with certain quality and performance requirements for software (ie. must run at 60fps, no in-app purchases, no offensive content etc), and direct investment in games developers.

Thanks. That makes a lot of sense. It certainly would distinguish them further. The state of gaming on Android is abismal.

 

[editor]

Now that's what I call a fine!

Apple hit with record €1.1bn fine in France

France's competition watchdog says Apple engaged in anti-competitive behaviour.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Gromit]

Now that's what I call a fine!

Apple hit with record €1.1bn fine in France

France's competition watchdog says Apple engaged in anti-competitive behaviour.

www.bbc.co.uk

A lot to us.
But it's only 1% of their reserve.

No one is happy to lose a billion but they are one of the few that can just shrug it off.

 

[editor]

A lot to us.
But it's only 1% of their reserve.

No one is happy to lose a billion but they are one of the few that can just shrug it off.

Maybe people will start to look closer at the obscene wealth of such companies - and the vast pay cheques of their execs - when we emerge in a post Covid-19 world. Well, I can dream.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Maybe people will start to look closer at the obscene wealth of such companies - and the vast pay cheques of their execs - when we emerge in a post Covid-19 world. Well, I can dream.

They'll probably get a bail out for lost profits...

 

[SpookyFrank]

Now that's what I call a fine!

Apple hit with record €1.1bn fine in France

France's competition watchdog says Apple engaged in anti-competitive behaviour.

www.bbc.co.uk

Almost enough to buy a stand for the new mac.

 

[Gromit]

Maybe people will start to look closer at the obscene wealth of such companies - and the vast pay cheques of their execs - when we emerge in a post Covid-19 world. Well, I can dream.

Maybe.
However i think it more likely that big companies will use this as an excuse to build up huge reserves as a defence against economic disasters.
Apple have been previously criticized by share holders for not using more of its reserve to fund growth and add value to their shares (whilst not offering a dividend). Not circulating capital is against American economic philosophy but it will have biten them hard at present.