16 ms·

Apple is a traditional business

180 points by Osiris 8y ago

ocdtrekkie 8y ago
I probably now fall into this camp as well. I made fun of Apple for years, but while I still hold an emotional and likely completely irrational dislike for their products, if someone were to ask me for a recommendation on a phone today, the only phone I could recommend in good conscience is an iPhone, because it's the only option that takes privacy and security seriously right now.
- loxs 8y ago
  Yeah, me too. Used to laugh them, now I use them for the past several years and don't plan on switching to something else for now.
- RyJones 8y ago
  I made the same transition a few years ago. Over time I've supplied my family with iPads to 1) get us on a common chat platform and 2) reduce my tech support requests as much as possible. It has worked well! I have a Pixel 2 XL and Chromebook for work. There are a few features I wish iOS would take from Android, and a few I wish flowed the other way, but if you buy in to the Google stack, it's hard to beat the Pixel/Chromebook pairing.
- Lionsion 8y ago
  Yeah. I love their commitment to privacy and security, but I only wish their platform wasn't so locked down. The only reason I went with Android in the first place was so I could side-load personally-built apps. IIRC (I could be wrong), if you want to write and side-load your own personal iOS apps, you have to pay a $99 fee and they deactivate after a week.
  - gf263 8y ago
    You don't need to pay anymore.
    - Aditya_Garg 8y ago
      Actually, if you don't pay the developer fee, you can only install 2 apps per apple account and they get deactivated in a week. If you do pay, I think its unlimited apps and a 3 month long period before they get deactivated.
      - zf00002 8y ago
        When did that change? I wrote an app that I use every day and have been for about 4 years now. The most recent time I've had to load it on a new phone was in Dec of last year. My apple dev account was originally a paid one though so maybe that has something to do with it? I really hope I don't run into this deactivation thing.
        Dim0N 8y ago
        >My apple dev account was originally a paid one though so maybe that has something to do with it? Yeah that is why. I had a paid one also and I still have those perks.
      - ss248 8y ago
        >a 3 month long period before they get deactivated It's 12 month long actually.
      - mygo 8y ago
        not true. I’ve written a couple personal apps that sync with health kit data collected from my Apple Watch and nutrition apps to help me track things in a way that is useful for my fitness goals. In 2016-2027 I used these apps to put on 30 lbs and stay relatively lean but I’ve never wanted to publish them in the app store. I don’t pay for any developer program. Just need to download some (free) developer tools / SDK for XCode, build the source, and put it on my phone. The install is tethered, but afterwards it stays there until I delete it. Restarting the phone doesn’t delete the app either. Only time I needed to re-install was when my 5s crapped out and I had to get a new phone.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - jxdxbx 8y ago
    If you are a paid developer your apps don't expire (at least not for a year or so).
- ekianjo 8y ago
  > because it's the only option that takes privacy and security seriously right now. iPhones are a luxury. If you can recommend them it means you already belong to the richest part of the planet. For the rest, they jut can't afford it, and Apple was never interested in making anything cheap.
  - whatok 8y ago
    21% of Apple's quarterly revenue was from China. China is not well-known as one of the richest parts of the planet.
    - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
      China has a lot of rich people even if they are far from a majority. It isn’t poor taxi drivers and ayis using iPhones, but more like those who are driving black Audis.
    - antris 8y ago
      Apple is luxury in China too. Do you really think it's the average Chinese that are buying iPhones?
      - monocasa 8y ago
        A worker at Foxconn has about the same discretionary income as blue collar workers in the states; their food and housing is covered by Foxconn, but isn't normally listed as part of their salary. Now, albeit, they're slightly on the higher end of Chinese workers, but it's not just the shitty aristocrat's kids spending money on iPhones. The people making the things make enough money to buy one, just the same as my hairdresser does.
        antris 8y ago
        In that case Foxconn isn't an example of an average company paying average wage. The disposable income per capita in China was 36396 chinese yuan in 2017, which makes a little over 400 USD per month. Median disposable income is even lower. You're not even close to buying iPhones with that kind of wages.
- austincheney 8y ago
  I have an iPhone, but it is soooo painful to me that my awesome as hell MacBook Pro for work has USB C for everything, including power, and yet my phone does not. Meanwhile my team lead, sitting directly across from me, has an android phone that charges with USB C.
  - r00fus 8y ago
    I actually am not bothered by that so much as that Apple did not produce a decent 1st party USB-C hub and most of the ones I've purchased produce a lot of signal noise (curse of sensitive ears + quiet home office) so I had to return (if I got around to it before return period) or donate them. The issue IMHO would be moot if they included a USB-C charging adapter (and a USB-A dongle/converter) on newer iPhones. Also it sucks that Amazon is so full of fake stuff. Hard to find/promote good accessories. Apple needs to step up and provide quality 1st party or heavily promoted 3rd party accessories.
    - heartbreak 8y ago
      I also have sensitive ears, and I highly recommend the Anker hub. It has 2x USB A, 1x HDMI, and an additional USB C to replace the one it consumes.
- collyw 8y ago
  Ubuntu phone? (I had one, but it wasn't very good, as it just didn't have the apps).
  - ocdtrekkie 8y ago
    I can't really recommend abandoned/dead OSes to people. Otherwise I'd recommend Win10 Mobile, which is still my personal favorite and (for the moment) still receiving extremely prompt security updates.
- wpdev_63 8y ago
  Just keep in mind that the NSA has remote sudo access to everything on your phone[0]. It's not completely secure and they're known to abuse their power time to time. [0]: https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/ https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/
  - mayniac 8y ago
    [citation needed] The link you sent just shows that they have zero days on Android: but they also have similar exploits available on iPhones. Besides, the NSA having zero day vulnerabilities is nothing new and not limited to Android. Saying they have "remote sudo access" is misleading also and implies that they were deliberately built into android, although that may not be what you meant. Either way, the NSA will always have the type of people employed who can find zero days on smartphones and most importantly, not tell anyone about them.
    - wpdev_63 8y ago
      They must have some really dank hackers cause they are able to remotely exploit iphones without user intervention. Imagine if one of the thousands of hackers who attempt to jailbreak the iphone had those kinds of skills huh?
  - loxs 8y ago
    Even so, I'm not in the USA and don't plan on visiting very soon. And I'm pretty damn sure my government doesn't have access to it.
    - wpdev_63 8y ago
      You really should give some context to what you say or it's meaningless. Also if you reside in one of the countries within the 14 eyes, they do have access to your phone[0]. It's a really good reason to think twice about buying american products and visiting their country knowing that they are creating a surveillance state. Wouldn't you agree? [0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes#Other_international_cooperatives https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes#Other_international_...
konschubert 8y ago
I wonder if the author likes Apple because Apple has, as he states himself, stopped innovating. This means that Apple's offerings offer stability, which means comfort. That being said, I agree with the authors sentiment.
matte_black 8y ago
Would anyone else like to say sorry?
xmodem 8y ago
(Disclosure: I hold AAPL) Great article but a couple of points: On Tuesday’s call, there was just one question about innovative offerings, and it concerned health applications, an important driver of Apple Watch sales but not a potential world-beating sensation. Apple appears to be happy to think small and focus on its shareholders, not on pie-in-the-sky ideas, like other tech companies, including industry leaders. There's a key point I think the author is missing here. If Apple could spend $50 billion on R&D and get a worthwhile return, I think they absolutely would. Their below-par R&D is not from a lack of wanting. It's because they are much more focused. They don't burn cash on new ideas just because they can. And if I thought Apple's health aspirations were limited to Apple Watch, well, I wouldn't be in the stock.
- whywhywhywhy 8y ago
  > They don't burn cash on new ideas just because they can How much was spent on Project Titan (The car)?
  - xmodem 8y ago
    No-one outside Apple knows, and we won't find out for at least another 5-10 years when executives start writing books about it, if ever. But you miss my point entirely. Perhaps a better way of putting it is in this comment from Tim Cook in 2009[1]: We believe we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. If there ever was a car-project (which there was enough smoke for that I think there probably was), it was because Apple's management genuinely believed at the time they could make a significant contribution to the automotive industry. The fact that, after trying for however long, they concluded the money had been pissed up the wall doesn't make the attempt any less valid. [1]: https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple_coo_tim_cook_lays_out_apple_manifesto_with_or_without_steve_jobs https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple_coo_tim_cook_l...
- jxdxbx 8y ago
  Most of Apple's R&D spending is not categorized as R&D. R&D spending is for basic tech research not product development.
deweller 8y ago
The author of this opinion piece is praising Apple for its willingness to NOT innovate. I strongly disagree. The best solution to privacy concerns is not to stop innovating. Surely there are better solutions. Apple is leading the way on some consumer privacy issues and I applaud them for that. But surely if Apple halts innovation, it will die as all companies do. Let us hope they are smarter than that.
- gambiting 8y ago
  I think the point here is that Apple is not innovating in "stupid" areas(for the author) - like cashierless stores, automated cars, surveillance speakers etc. In a way, yes, that is admirable - I think all other tech giants are going in the "wrong" and harmful direction, while Apple still concentrates on making good hardware with matching software(their abysmal attempts at MacOs fixes notwithstanding).
  - 0xcafecafe 8y ago
    Isn't it naive to criticize cashierless stores and automated cars as "stupid areas"? Arguing that those will cost jobs is akin to saying a 100 years back that the "iron horse" will cost jobs. Mankind has to continue to innovate and it is disingenuous to argue that a cashierless store is a "minor convenience".
    - greymeister 8y ago
      My current experience with just about any cashierless option at a grocery or department store is far from a minor convenience, it's almost entirely an inconvenience. I now get to do what I did over 20 years ago and bag groceries, except then I was paid for it. However, it allows the store to place one minimum wage employee over multiple lanes versus having to have one per lane (or even two if it was like the grocery store when I grew up that actually had backers AND checkers). So, like many innovations, it adds little to no convenience but is a very effective way of cutting labor costs. By Grabthar's Hammer... what a savings.
cryptoz 8y ago
Tim Cook made it clear be thinks that no industry should have any regulation, especially his (technology, privacy, consumer hardware, should all have no regulation, he thinks!). He thinks Facebook should have done what it did - no regulation is best regulation he says. No, Tim Cook is exactly as insane and rogue as the rest of them. He is just doing what he can do make Apple the most money. He is not full of common sense. On the contrary, he's basically insane. Apple should be regulated. So should every industry. If you're a CEO and you think you shouldn't be regulated, it's clear you're out for #1 and #1 alone. Apple is not some saviour of the universe. They're just making money, and should be critized, not apologized to!
oflannabhra 8y ago
> ...this is a time when Amazon is pushing innovations that don’t solve any real-world problems but may create some: like smart speakers, with their threat of big brother-style surveillance in exchange for a minimal increase in convenience, or complex and expensive cashierless stores that won’t deliver much of an improvement to our shopping experience but may cost underprivileged people their jobs. This is a time when an entire driverless car industry is trying to convince the world that its products are safe before it can even come up with convincing stats – or prevent deadly accidents like the one in Tempe, Arizona earlier this year. This is a time when Google is trying to subvert new privacy regulations to turn them against content producers. A time when Facebook, blasted by media and regulators for ignoring people’s privacy concerns, starts a dating service which will collect people’s most intimate data. That is a really pointed indictment of our current industry. Wow. I don't agree with some of the assumptions, but it really points to how rarely an innovation like the iPhone really occurs.
- pier25 8y ago
  > but it really points to how rarely an innovation like the iPhone really occurs Yeah, but don't forget that the pieces to be able to create the iPhone had to be there first.
  - IncRnd 8y ago
    > Yeah, but don't forget that the pieces to be able to create the iPhone had to be there first. Like the LG Prada?
    - blhack 8y ago
      Like Palm's existing smartphone with existing smartphone apps, or blackberry.
      - IncRnd 8y ago
        Thank you. Yes - that is my exact point!
      - 8y ago
michaelt 8y ago
I've been an Android user for years; I recently decided to change to iPhone, and this article really captures the reason why: Apple seems to be the only company for whom a cloud backup of my phone book is a liability, not an asset to be monetised.
- greedo 8y ago
  Shouldn't that be inverted? Your iCloud Addressbook backup isn't a liability.
  - Clubber 8y ago
    From the perspective of the vendor, it would be a cost center rather than a revenue generator (thus a liability). From the perspective of the customer, it's an asset because he isn't selling personal info for backups (which would be a liability).
  - robinwassen 8y ago
    Liability for Apple, they have more sensitive information that they need to protect.
- sahaskatta 8y ago
  What company is monetizing your address book?
  - wmeredith 8y ago
    Googling for 2 seconds shows that numerous companies over the years have gotten in trouble for scraping contacts. A couple fast examples. June 16th, 2015: Linkedin settled a lawsuit for over $13 million in a class action grounded on their alleged use of users’ email contacts it obtained from the “Add Connections” feature in its service.[0] Apr 30, 2013: Path, the photo-centric social network that just hit 10 million users yesterday, has been getting some heat for what some users say are spammy tactics to recruit new users. Digital marketer Stephen Kenwright downloaded the app earlier this week, tried it out, uninstalled it, and went to bed. When he woke up, he found that Path had gone on a rogue mission early in the morning, texting and robocalling an unknown number of his contacts, including his grandparents. [1] [0] https://www.hastingslawandpost.com/hlandp/2015/6/16/look-out-for-import-your-address-book-on-linkedin-and-similar-pop-ups-on-other-apps-a-recent-settlement-outlines-the-new-marketing-strategy-for-linkedins-data-use https://www.hastingslawandpost.com/hlandp/2015/6/16/look-out... [1] https://www.theverge.com/2013/4/30/4286090/path-is-spamming-address-books-with-unwanted-texts-and-robocalls https://www.theverge.com/2013/4/30/4286090/path-is-spamming-...
fhood 8y ago
It is kind of amazing how much the landscape has changed. I have always used Apple computers and phones, and I used to view Apple as a vaguely sinister company, but one that produced the best products. It is very weird to me that they are now a model for non-evil practices among large tech companies.
- cptskippy 8y ago
  > I used to view Apple as a vaguely sinister company What about Apple gave you the impression they were sinister and what has changed? I've actually been going the opposite direction with my opinion of them. All of their talk of "you are not the product" and "we respect your privacy" is great but feels opportunistic given the current climate. The foundation of Apple's products that they are touting as privacy focused were actually about controlling the experience. They've cleverly spun happenstance into a platform to promote their products. None of that really strikes me as sinister though, when I say that they've been going in the opposite direction I'm referring more to the way they support their hardware and their shady tactics when it comes to device repair. For Apple the profit is in selling you a new device, they make no money if you don't upgrade. A repaired device isn't a profit, it's the burden of continued support. So what we're seeing is products that look great but aren't designed with longevity in mind and replacement focused support. Apple shipped the iPhone 6 with a battery that degraded quickly and by most would be considered faulty. Rather than issue a recall or some other pro-consumer solution, they hid the fact that batteries weren't functioning to specification by throttling the CPU/GPU and degrading performance. This also had the nice benefit of coaxing users to upgrade because their device was slow. When Apple got called on this, their response was to claim it was a benefit to the user rather than admit the batteries were faulty. They then graciously offered to lower the price on a battery replacement. So instead of a costly recall, they're profiting or breaking even on you having to pay for a replacement. If that wasn't enough, many people are reporting that Apple is refusing to replace batteries on devices without first fixing other faults like cracked screens or "broken" microphones [0]. Apple is also using it's new found position as bastion of your privacy to justify other shady practices like disabling components or bricking hardware entirely if it isn't "genuine" and then claiming it's to protect the consumer's privacy. Their growth as plateaued and I feel like this is only the beginning of the Comcastic abuses of the customer we typically see from the market leader trying to find new ways to grow. That's why I think they've been becoming more sinister anyways. [0] https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3031484/apple-demanding-unnecessary-repairs-before-replacing-iphone-batteries https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3031484/apple-dema...
karpodiem 8y ago
Would be nice if iOS 11.4 did multi-room output via Airplay 2. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-seeds-third-beta-of-ios-11-4-to-developers-public-beta-available.2117196/page-3#post-26026929 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-seeds-third-beta-... The latest beta of iOS 11.4 / Airplay 2 does not work with multi-room output at the moment.
imjk 8y ago
I read the whole article and I'm not impressed. The crux of the article seems to be that he now admires Tim Cook and Apple because they don't spend money on progressive technologies that have a potential for harm. His examples include smart speakers, driverless cars, and cashierless stores that presumably shouldn't be pursued because of their potential for societal harm. Look, things like privacy, safety, and job opportunities for the underprivileged are immensely important, but his arguments are flawed. By the same standards, the iphone and a myriad of other important technologies should never have been pursued.
zeveb 8y ago
I'm very fond of Apple's business stance; my concern is not with it, but with their technological stance. Apple products are built on lock-in; they are proprietary and closed, not open. Frankly, at this point they're not even really all that good (in fact, sometimes embarrassingly bad — something not limited to Apple!). I want the freedom to tinker, the freedom to review, the freedom to extend. That's why I use Linux.
- airstrike 8y ago
  I'd settle for iMessage and FaceTime being open...
  - erikpukinskis 8y ago
    I’d settle for Apple allowing you to stay in your group texts after you deactivate iMessage.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - pwinnski 8y ago
    In the case of FaceTime, it's VirnetX that's to blame. Apple's pledge to open-source it ran hard into a lawsuit from VirnetX that required Apple to redesign and still currently has them paying $439M to VirnetX for patent infringement.
- zer00eyz 8y ago
  If you go dig into my comment history I have several comments where I praise Richard Stalman and his commitment to open source. He is the zealot (and I use that word with both positive and negative connotations) that open source needs. But I have to ask what ARE you running then? Intel? AMD? What about your phone? If your going to make this argument in this way you better have a Stalman like response. If you are running closed source in your stack then your argument is selective.
  - wilsonnb 8y ago
Clubber 8y ago
What a strange article. He spent most of the time saying, "I could criticize Apple for .." which seems like a criticism shrouded in something else or backhanded compliment (if that). Also, what's this infatuation between good and evil? Why does that even belong in a tech conversation?
- dkrich 8y ago
  Because technological advancements are almost by definition poorly understood and people tend to be scared or at least skeptical of what they don't understand.
airstrike 8y ago
I only wish the author hadn't forgotten to mention the quintessential non-Apple company: SNAP[0] Many say the current game of musical chairs is overdue for a pause. My money (not literally) is on Tech stocks taking the biggest hit. But as the article put it, Apple isn't a Tech company -- it's a manufacturer (and superb retailer!) of products that are observably differentiated, as they clearly command higher prices for virtually the same functionality as their competitors. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-02/snap-s-slowdown-stirs-doubt-on-redesign-triggering-share-plunge https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-02/snap-s-sl...
- jmull 8y ago
  > But as the article put it, Apple isn't a Tech company That's not what the article says. In fact, it says "Apple is the perfect tech company..." I'd like to hear a definition of "tech company" and doesn't include Apple.
  - rahulrrixe 8y ago
    I think Apple is a true tech company. How can you define a tech company? it has got holds on both hardware and software for its ecosystem. Doesn't that make it a tech company? At this stage, if any company which can create an OS like iOS would be considered tech company leaving aside the hardware part.
  - airstrike 8y ago
    I meant "not just a Tech company"... I guess that's what I get for not sleeping
_bxg1 8y ago
Apple's main endeavor is to develop an actual product. They design and engineer something in the hopes that people buy it. The honesty - and arguably, quaintness - of that consumer relationship separates Apple from the rest of the valley.
- wmeredith 8y ago
  Eh, I think this argument is a bit glib. Google's main endeavor is to develop an actual product. They design and engineer something in the hopes that people use it. (Then they sell ads, like the publishing industry has done for 200 years.)
  - _bxg1 8y ago
    The difference is where the exchange of money happens. Because Google's, and Facebook's, Amazon's, and most SV startups' services are free, you get the privacy problems and the ulterior motives and the trust issues. With Apple, you paid for the product up-front. The transaction is done and in the open. They don't have to do anything skeevy to make money off their product.
    - esrauch 8y ago
      Apple has plenty of non-aligned incentives, they control the store (+30% subscription tax on Spotify, taking down apps that compete with "core functionality"), they don't want you to repair your phone (and planned obsolescence) where ewaste and their profit is connected.
      - thisacctforreal 8y ago
        Apple does not seem to want you to open the phone, but they are easily the most repairable phones available. Most repair shops will repair any iPhone, and you can stumble through it yourself using YouTube or iFixit. According to this 2/3 Apple devices sold are still active today: http://www.asymco.com/2018/02/27/the-number/ http://www.asymco.com/2018/02/27/the-number/ I believe Apple gains directly from the longevity. People know that Apple products last long and hold resale value; where I am the iPhone 5s from Sept 2013 is sold second-hand for ~$150CAD Devices with high resale value mean customers can upgrade frequently.
pseudometa 8y ago
Having been a fan of Apple for over a decade now, over the last year I've come to the opposite point of view. Their iPhone and airpods are great products and of course they can ride a long time on those, but in every other area from Macs and accessories I feel they are falling flat on delivering great user experiences. From FaceTime to Siri, to crappy Apple TV remotes, Home Kit... there are just a LOT of mediocre products that sit idle for years. Of all times, the company is at the point most worth criticizing. I do blame Tim Cook for this stagnation in product development. And indeed their lack of ideas means they have nothing better to do with their cash, that they are buying back shares. Ehh, I'm so jaded these days on Apple.
- __david__ 8y ago
  Interesting you say that about the Apple TV remotes. I thought they were all horrible but I really like the new one. The speed at which I can move around and the precision of selecting things is really great.
  - ynniv 8y ago
    Why can't I tell which side is up without looking at it or accidentally changing something? Why is the black IR sensor the same size, shape, and location as the charging port, but on the wrong side? Why can't it decide that a log press when it's upside down is probably someone sitting on it? Why is it too small to comfortably hold? Maybe this thing works for people without kids, but I'll take a boring remote any day.
  - kalleboo 8y ago
    We had a lot of trouble with the new Apple TV remote. Stuff like it getting knocked slightly and the Apple TV going wild, etc. Luckily the AppleTV generations that use it also support HDMI-CEC so we just use our TV remote instead.
- bonyt 8y ago
  My parents are actually frightened of the new Apple TV remote. They hide it somewhere where they won't knock into it, because they know it'll switch the TV's input to the Apple TV, and they'll have to hunt down a different remote to switch it back to the cable box.
RyanShook 8y ago
Apple’s market cap will keep rising for the next few years without any innovation through buybacks and service revenue from existing devices. But the fact that they’re not talking about new products or hinting at anything down the line concerns me...
- froo 8y ago
  > But the fact that they’re not talking about new products or hinting at anything down the line concerns me... Why would they show their hand? There's little to be gained from it and it would harm their brand when these technologies don't pan out how they would want. See Google Glass - huge fanfare but no real substance. Besides, we hear of technology that is supposedly being worked on inside Apple. Project Titan, the AR headset that is looking at a 2020 release date.
- pwinnski 8y ago
  They haven't discussed new products or hinted at anything down the line at any point in the last 12+ years, and aren't about to start.
jugg1es 8y ago
His argument that Amazon is not innovating to solve real-world problems seems grossly uninformed. AWS is putting out new features almost weekly that solve lots of real-world problems across all industries.
ggambetta 8y ago
Can the title be fixed to include the comma that was inexplicably dropped from the original title?
dade_ 8y ago
Feed the masses and dine with the classes. Apple is focusing on the 80%, and have developed a strategic advantage based on privacy. This is not a new lesson. Commercially this is smart and profitable, but it was at the expense of the 20%. The fact is that their products stopped meeting my needs. So instead of a apology, I would like to thank Apple for the lock in that took over a year to unwind before I could leave the Apple ecosystem. It was a harsh lesson that I will never forget.
catchmeifyoucan 8y ago
> After Apple’s latest results announcement, one could knock it yet again for its stable dependence on a single mature product — the iPhone...It shows that a stage of useful progress is over and doesn’t tip over into overhyped uselessness Stagnanation isn't acceptable for any company. Apple has always been about "overhyped uselessness"(eg. Touch Bar, animoji). The article makes claims that Apple "offers a fix" referring to the battery throttling, but any company of that scale is obligated to. They were shamed publicly. I agree with privacy commitment, but that alone, isn't enough.
scarface74 8y ago
Bloomberg should be doing a retraction of their previous stories that were factually wrong about "struggling iPhone sales".....
Angostura 8y ago
Why not go the whole hog and just reword the headline “a story about Apple”
hungerstrike 8y ago
Original title: "I'm sorry I criticized you Apple. You win"
- kgwgk 8y ago
  One of these days I'm going to write a bot to keep track of title changes. "Apple is a traditional business" is the current title, for the record. I expect (I hope!) it will be changed again soon, because it doesn't make much sense.
  - dang 8y ago
    We changed the title because the original one was arguably linkbait, and the site guidelines call for changing those (see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). When we do that, we try to find a phrase in the article itself that represents what the author is saying. That's what we did here. If there's a better, more representative phrase, we can change it again.
    - kgwgk 8y ago
      "Apple is a rock of common sense in an industry that’s gone rogue" (the subtitle) would be better. "Apple is the perfect tech company for this day and age, an example to the rest of Silicon Valley" (the take-home message in the first line) would be better. The Apple "is a traditional business" remark refers to the main point of this opinion piece, which appears right before that statement: "This is a time when companies whose innovations are more intrusive than useful, more gimmicky than problem-solving, operate with business models that either burn investors’ cash or turn the users into products. "At a time like this, Apple is a rock of common sense, sobriety, dignified engineering supremacy, prudent financial and supply chain management, effective marketing, and customer-oriented retailing." Without the proper context, "Apple is a traditional business" could mean anything and doesn't mean anything at all.
      - dang 8y ago
        "Apple is a rock of common sense in an industry that’s gone rogue" is too baity, even more than the original title we changed. It's guaranteed to provoke objections if we put it in there. Ditto with "perfect tech company"—can you imagine the arguments that would lead to? You're welcome to make a bot to track title changes. People have done this kind of thing from time to time, e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16018430 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16018430. IMO the main thing it would show is how much work goes into getting this right, and how hard it is. Edit: Btw I agree with you that the title we changed it to isn't great; I just haven't thought of a better one or seen a better suggestion. If someone has an accurate, neutral title that preferably uses representative language from the article, we'll happily change it again.
cbsmith 8y ago
This article is almost in a satirical voice.
SonicSoul 8y ago
Here’s a naive question. This all sounds noble and all , but doesn’t Apple know just as much or more about you via phone / watch / iCloud / iTunes / Apple Pay / Apple TV? Are we celebrating here that they’re not openly selling this information or using as primary business model ? Or that it’s only used for internal business?
- r00fus 8y ago
  Apple has been criticized in the past for having an internal culture/dictates to avoid "synergizing" this kind of info between their products/services - criticized because it affects the quality of features like Siri. Contrast to companies like Google (who don't directly sell your info but still profit from it) or Facebook (who have had numerous exfiltration incidents over the years and who sell very targetable info that could be used to isolate a single person). Meanwhile Equifax has horrible security and you aren't even remotely their customer - they just collect your data and get passive income from that.

180 points by Osiris 8y ago

I probably now fall into this camp as well. I made fun of Apple for years, but while I still hold an emotional and likely completely irrational dislike for their products, if someone were to ask me for a recommendation on a phone today, the only phone I could recommend in good conscience is an iPhone, because it's the only option that takes privacy and security seriously right now.

loxs 8y ago
Yeah, me too. Used to laugh them, now I use them for the past several years and don't plan on switching to something else for now.
RyJones 8y ago
I made the same transition a few years ago. Over time I've supplied my family with iPads to 1) get us on a common chat platform and 2) reduce my tech support requests as much as possible. It has worked well! I have a Pixel 2 XL and Chromebook for work. There are a few features I wish iOS would take from Android, and a few I wish flowed the other way, but if you buy in to the Google stack, it's hard to beat the Pixel/Chromebook pairing.
Lionsion 8y ago
Yeah. I love their commitment to privacy and security, but I only wish their platform wasn't so locked down. The only reason I went with Android in the first place was so I could side-load personally-built apps. IIRC (I could be wrong), if you want to write and side-load your own personal iOS apps, you have to pay a $99 fee and they deactivate after a week.
- gf263 8y ago
  You don't need to pay anymore.
  - Aditya_Garg 8y ago
    Actually, if you don't pay the developer fee, you can only install 2 apps per apple account and they get deactivated in a week. If you do pay, I think its unlimited apps and a 3 month long period before they get deactivated.
    - zf00002 8y ago
      When did that change? I wrote an app that I use every day and have been for about 4 years now. The most recent time I've had to load it on a new phone was in Dec of last year. My apple dev account was originally a paid one though so maybe that has something to do with it? I really hope I don't run into this deactivation thing.
      - Dim0N 8y ago
        >My apple dev account was originally a paid one though so maybe that has something to do with it? Yeah that is why. I had a paid one also and I still have those perks.
    - ss248 8y ago
      >a 3 month long period before they get deactivated It's 12 month long actually.
    - mygo 8y ago
      not true. I’ve written a couple personal apps that sync with health kit data collected from my Apple Watch and nutrition apps to help me track things in a way that is useful for my fitness goals. In 2016-2027 I used these apps to put on 30 lbs and stay relatively lean but I’ve never wanted to publish them in the app store. I don’t pay for any developer program. Just need to download some (free) developer tools / SDK for XCode, build the source, and put it on my phone. The install is tethered, but afterwards it stays there until I delete it. Restarting the phone doesn’t delete the app either. Only time I needed to re-install was when my 5s crapped out and I had to get a new phone.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- jxdxbx 8y ago
  If you are a paid developer your apps don't expire (at least not for a year or so).
ekianjo 8y ago
> because it's the only option that takes privacy and security seriously right now. iPhones are a luxury. If you can recommend them it means you already belong to the richest part of the planet. For the rest, they jut can't afford it, and Apple was never interested in making anything cheap.
- whatok 8y ago
  21% of Apple's quarterly revenue was from China. China is not well-known as one of the richest parts of the planet.
  - seanmcdirmid 8y ago
    China has a lot of rich people even if they are far from a majority. It isn’t poor taxi drivers and ayis using iPhones, but more like those who are driving black Audis.
  - antris 8y ago
    Apple is luxury in China too. Do you really think it's the average Chinese that are buying iPhones?
    - monocasa 8y ago
      A worker at Foxconn has about the same discretionary income as blue collar workers in the states; their food and housing is covered by Foxconn, but isn't normally listed as part of their salary. Now, albeit, they're slightly on the higher end of Chinese workers, but it's not just the shitty aristocrat's kids spending money on iPhones. The people making the things make enough money to buy one, just the same as my hairdresser does.
      - antris 8y ago
        In that case Foxconn isn't an example of an average company paying average wage. The disposable income per capita in China was 36396 chinese yuan in 2017, which makes a little over 400 USD per month. Median disposable income is even lower. You're not even close to buying iPhones with that kind of wages.
austincheney 8y ago
I have an iPhone, but it is soooo painful to me that my awesome as hell MacBook Pro for work has USB C for everything, including power, and yet my phone does not. Meanwhile my team lead, sitting directly across from me, has an android phone that charges with USB C.
- r00fus 8y ago
  I actually am not bothered by that so much as that Apple did not produce a decent 1st party USB-C hub and most of the ones I've purchased produce a lot of signal noise (curse of sensitive ears + quiet home office) so I had to return (if I got around to it before return period) or donate them. The issue IMHO would be moot if they included a USB-C charging adapter (and a USB-A dongle/converter) on newer iPhones. Also it sucks that Amazon is so full of fake stuff. Hard to find/promote good accessories. Apple needs to step up and provide quality 1st party or heavily promoted 3rd party accessories.
  - heartbreak 8y ago
    I also have sensitive ears, and I highly recommend the Anker hub. It has 2x USB A, 1x HDMI, and an additional USB C to replace the one it consumes.
collyw 8y ago
Ubuntu phone? (I had one, but it wasn't very good, as it just didn't have the apps).
- ocdtrekkie 8y ago
  I can't really recommend abandoned/dead OSes to people. Otherwise I'd recommend Win10 Mobile, which is still my personal favorite and (for the moment) still receiving extremely prompt security updates.
wpdev_63 8y ago
Just keep in mind that the NSA has remote sudo access to everything on your phone[0]. It's not completely secure and they're known to abuse their power time to time. [0]: https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/ https://wikileaks.org/ciav7p1/
- mayniac 8y ago
  [citation needed] The link you sent just shows that they have zero days on Android: but they also have similar exploits available on iPhones. Besides, the NSA having zero day vulnerabilities is nothing new and not limited to Android. Saying they have "remote sudo access" is misleading also and implies that they were deliberately built into android, although that may not be what you meant. Either way, the NSA will always have the type of people employed who can find zero days on smartphones and most importantly, not tell anyone about them.
  - wpdev_63 8y ago
    They must have some really dank hackers cause they are able to remotely exploit iphones without user intervention. Imagine if one of the thousands of hackers who attempt to jailbreak the iphone had those kinds of skills huh?
- loxs 8y ago
  Even so, I'm not in the USA and don't plan on visiting very soon. And I'm pretty damn sure my government doesn't have access to it.
  - wpdev_63 8y ago
    You really should give some context to what you say or it's meaningless. Also if you reside in one of the countries within the 14 eyes, they do have access to your phone[0]. It's a really good reason to think twice about buying american products and visiting their country knowing that they are creating a surveillance state. Wouldn't you agree? [0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes#Other_international_cooperatives https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes#Other_international_...

konschubert 8y ago

I wonder if the author likes Apple because Apple has, as he states himself, stopped innovating. This means that Apple's offerings offer stability, which means comfort. That being said, I agree with the authors sentiment.

matte_black 8y ago

Would anyone else like to say sorry?

xmodem 8y ago

(Disclosure: I hold AAPL) Great article but a couple of points: On Tuesday’s call, there was just one question about innovative offerings, and it concerned health applications, an important driver of Apple Watch sales but not a potential world-beating sensation. Apple appears to be happy to think small and focus on its shareholders, not on pie-in-the-sky ideas, like other tech companies, including industry leaders. There's a key point I think the author is missing here. If Apple could spend $50 billion on R&D and get a worthwhile return, I think they absolutely would. Their below-par R&D is not from a lack of wanting. It's because they are much more focused. They don't burn cash on new ideas just because they can. And if I thought Apple's health aspirations were limited to Apple Watch, well, I wouldn't be in the stock.

whywhywhywhy 8y ago
> They don't burn cash on new ideas just because they can How much was spent on Project Titan (The car)?
- xmodem 8y ago
  No-one outside Apple knows, and we won't find out for at least another 5-10 years when executives start writing books about it, if ever. But you miss my point entirely. Perhaps a better way of putting it is in this comment from Tim Cook in 2009[1]: We believe we need to own and control the primary technologies behind the products that we make and participate only in markets where we can make a significant contribution. If there ever was a car-project (which there was enough smoke for that I think there probably was), it was because Apple's management genuinely believed at the time they could make a significant contribution to the automotive industry. The fact that, after trying for however long, they concluded the money had been pissed up the wall doesn't make the attempt any less valid. [1]: https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple_coo_tim_cook_lays_out_apple_manifesto_with_or_without_steve_jobs https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple_coo_tim_cook_l...
jxdxbx 8y ago
Most of Apple's R&D spending is not categorized as R&D. R&D spending is for basic tech research not product development.

deweller 8y ago

The author of this opinion piece is praising Apple for its willingness to NOT innovate. I strongly disagree. The best solution to privacy concerns is not to stop innovating. Surely there are better solutions. Apple is leading the way on some consumer privacy issues and I applaud them for that. But surely if Apple halts innovation, it will die as all companies do. Let us hope they are smarter than that.

gambiting 8y ago
I think the point here is that Apple is not innovating in "stupid" areas(for the author) - like cashierless stores, automated cars, surveillance speakers etc. In a way, yes, that is admirable - I think all other tech giants are going in the "wrong" and harmful direction, while Apple still concentrates on making good hardware with matching software(their abysmal attempts at MacOs fixes notwithstanding).
- 0xcafecafe 8y ago
  Isn't it naive to criticize cashierless stores and automated cars as "stupid areas"? Arguing that those will cost jobs is akin to saying a 100 years back that the "iron horse" will cost jobs. Mankind has to continue to innovate and it is disingenuous to argue that a cashierless store is a "minor convenience".
  - greymeister 8y ago
    My current experience with just about any cashierless option at a grocery or department store is far from a minor convenience, it's almost entirely an inconvenience. I now get to do what I did over 20 years ago and bag groceries, except then I was paid for it. However, it allows the store to place one minimum wage employee over multiple lanes versus having to have one per lane (or even two if it was like the grocery store when I grew up that actually had backers AND checkers). So, like many innovations, it adds little to no convenience but is a very effective way of cutting labor costs. By Grabthar's Hammer... what a savings.

cryptoz 8y ago

Tim Cook made it clear be thinks that no industry should have any regulation, especially his (technology, privacy, consumer hardware, should all have no regulation, he thinks!). He thinks Facebook should have done what it did - no regulation is best regulation he says. No, Tim Cook is exactly as insane and rogue as the rest of them. He is just doing what he can do make Apple the most money. He is not full of common sense. On the contrary, he's basically insane. Apple should be regulated. So should every industry. If you're a CEO and you think you shouldn't be regulated, it's clear you're out for #1 and #1 alone. Apple is not some saviour of the universe. They're just making money, and should be critized, not apologized to!

oflannabhra 8y ago

> ...this is a time when Amazon is pushing innovations that don’t solve any real-world problems but may create some: like smart speakers, with their threat of big brother-style surveillance in exchange for a minimal increase in convenience, or complex and expensive cashierless stores that won’t deliver much of an improvement to our shopping experience but may cost underprivileged people their jobs. This is a time when an entire driverless car industry is trying to convince the world that its products are safe before it can even come up with convincing stats – or prevent deadly accidents like the one in Tempe, Arizona earlier this year. This is a time when Google is trying to subvert new privacy regulations to turn them against content producers. A time when Facebook, blasted by media and regulators for ignoring people’s privacy concerns, starts a dating service which will collect people’s most intimate data. That is a really pointed indictment of our current industry. Wow. I don't agree with some of the assumptions, but it really points to how rarely an innovation like the iPhone really occurs.

pier25 8y ago
> but it really points to how rarely an innovation like the iPhone really occurs Yeah, but don't forget that the pieces to be able to create the iPhone had to be there first.
- IncRnd 8y ago
  > Yeah, but don't forget that the pieces to be able to create the iPhone had to be there first. Like the LG Prada?
  - blhack 8y ago
    Like Palm's existing smartphone with existing smartphone apps, or blackberry.
    - IncRnd 8y ago
      Thank you. Yes - that is my exact point!
    - 8y ago

michaelt 8y ago

I've been an Android user for years; I recently decided to change to iPhone, and this article really captures the reason why: Apple seems to be the only company for whom a cloud backup of my phone book is a liability, not an asset to be monetised.

greedo 8y ago
Shouldn't that be inverted? Your iCloud Addressbook backup isn't a liability.
- Clubber 8y ago
  From the perspective of the vendor, it would be a cost center rather than a revenue generator (thus a liability). From the perspective of the customer, it's an asset because he isn't selling personal info for backups (which would be a liability).
- robinwassen 8y ago
  Liability for Apple, they have more sensitive information that they need to protect.
sahaskatta 8y ago
What company is monetizing your address book?
- wmeredith 8y ago
  Googling for 2 seconds shows that numerous companies over the years have gotten in trouble for scraping contacts. A couple fast examples. June 16th, 2015: Linkedin settled a lawsuit for over $13 million in a class action grounded on their alleged use of users’ email contacts it obtained from the “Add Connections” feature in its service.[0] Apr 30, 2013: Path, the photo-centric social network that just hit 10 million users yesterday, has been getting some heat for what some users say are spammy tactics to recruit new users. Digital marketer Stephen Kenwright downloaded the app earlier this week, tried it out, uninstalled it, and went to bed. When he woke up, he found that Path had gone on a rogue mission early in the morning, texting and robocalling an unknown number of his contacts, including his grandparents. [1] [0] https://www.hastingslawandpost.com/hlandp/2015/6/16/look-out-for-import-your-address-book-on-linkedin-and-similar-pop-ups-on-other-apps-a-recent-settlement-outlines-the-new-marketing-strategy-for-linkedins-data-use https://www.hastingslawandpost.com/hlandp/2015/6/16/look-out... [1] https://www.theverge.com/2013/4/30/4286090/path-is-spamming-address-books-with-unwanted-texts-and-robocalls https://www.theverge.com/2013/4/30/4286090/path-is-spamming-...

fhood 8y ago

It is kind of amazing how much the landscape has changed. I have always used Apple computers and phones, and I used to view Apple as a vaguely sinister company, but one that produced the best products. It is very weird to me that they are now a model for non-evil practices among large tech companies.

cptskippy 8y ago
> I used to view Apple as a vaguely sinister company What about Apple gave you the impression they were sinister and what has changed? I've actually been going the opposite direction with my opinion of them. All of their talk of "you are not the product" and "we respect your privacy" is great but feels opportunistic given the current climate. The foundation of Apple's products that they are touting as privacy focused were actually about controlling the experience. They've cleverly spun happenstance into a platform to promote their products. None of that really strikes me as sinister though, when I say that they've been going in the opposite direction I'm referring more to the way they support their hardware and their shady tactics when it comes to device repair. For Apple the profit is in selling you a new device, they make no money if you don't upgrade. A repaired device isn't a profit, it's the burden of continued support. So what we're seeing is products that look great but aren't designed with longevity in mind and replacement focused support. Apple shipped the iPhone 6 with a battery that degraded quickly and by most would be considered faulty. Rather than issue a recall or some other pro-consumer solution, they hid the fact that batteries weren't functioning to specification by throttling the CPU/GPU and degrading performance. This also had the nice benefit of coaxing users to upgrade because their device was slow. When Apple got called on this, their response was to claim it was a benefit to the user rather than admit the batteries were faulty. They then graciously offered to lower the price on a battery replacement. So instead of a costly recall, they're profiting or breaking even on you having to pay for a replacement. If that wasn't enough, many people are reporting that Apple is refusing to replace batteries on devices without first fixing other faults like cracked screens or "broken" microphones [0]. Apple is also using it's new found position as bastion of your privacy to justify other shady practices like disabling components or bricking hardware entirely if it isn't "genuine" and then claiming it's to protect the consumer's privacy. Their growth as plateaued and I feel like this is only the beginning of the Comcastic abuses of the customer we typically see from the market leader trying to find new ways to grow. That's why I think they've been becoming more sinister anyways. [0] https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3031484/apple-demanding-unnecessary-repairs-before-replacing-iphone-batteries https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3031484/apple-dema...

karpodiem 8y ago

Would be nice if iOS 11.4 did multi-room output via Airplay 2. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-seeds-third-beta-of-ios-11-4-to-developers-public-beta-available.2117196/page-3#post-26026929 https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-seeds-third-beta-... The latest beta of iOS 11.4 / Airplay 2 does not work with multi-room output at the moment.

imjk 8y ago

I read the whole article and I'm not impressed. The crux of the article seems to be that he now admires Tim Cook and Apple because they don't spend money on progressive technologies that have a potential for harm. His examples include smart speakers, driverless cars, and cashierless stores that presumably shouldn't be pursued because of their potential for societal harm. Look, things like privacy, safety, and job opportunities for the underprivileged are immensely important, but his arguments are flawed. By the same standards, the iphone and a myriad of other important technologies should never have been pursued.

zeveb 8y ago

I'm very fond of Apple's business stance; my concern is not with it, but with their technological stance. Apple products are built on lock-in; they are proprietary and closed, not open. Frankly, at this point they're not even really all that good (in fact, sometimes embarrassingly bad — something not limited to Apple!). I want the freedom to tinker, the freedom to review, the freedom to extend. That's why I use Linux.

airstrike 8y ago
I'd settle for iMessage and FaceTime being open...
- erikpukinskis 8y ago
  I’d settle for Apple allowing you to stay in your group texts after you deactivate iMessage.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- pwinnski 8y ago
  In the case of FaceTime, it's VirnetX that's to blame. Apple's pledge to open-source it ran hard into a lawsuit from VirnetX that required Apple to redesign and still currently has them paying $439M to VirnetX for patent infringement.
zer00eyz 8y ago
If you go dig into my comment history I have several comments where I praise Richard Stalman and his commitment to open source. He is the zealot (and I use that word with both positive and negative connotations) that open source needs. But I have to ask what ARE you running then? Intel? AMD? What about your phone? If your going to make this argument in this way you better have a Stalman like response. If you are running closed source in your stack then your argument is selective.
- wilsonnb 8y ago

Clubber 8y ago

What a strange article. He spent most of the time saying, "I could criticize Apple for .." which seems like a criticism shrouded in something else or backhanded compliment (if that). Also, what's this infatuation between good and evil? Why does that even belong in a tech conversation?

dkrich 8y ago
Because technological advancements are almost by definition poorly understood and people tend to be scared or at least skeptical of what they don't understand.

airstrike 8y ago

I only wish the author hadn't forgotten to mention the quintessential non-Apple company: SNAP[0] Many say the current game of musical chairs is overdue for a pause. My money (not literally) is on Tech stocks taking the biggest hit. But as the article put it, Apple isn't a Tech company -- it's a manufacturer (and superb retailer!) of products that are observably differentiated, as they clearly command higher prices for virtually the same functionality as their competitors. [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-02/snap-s-slowdown-stirs-doubt-on-redesign-triggering-share-plunge https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-02/snap-s-sl...

jmull 8y ago
> But as the article put it, Apple isn't a Tech company That's not what the article says. In fact, it says "Apple is the perfect tech company..." I'd like to hear a definition of "tech company" and doesn't include Apple.
- rahulrrixe 8y ago
  I think Apple is a true tech company. How can you define a tech company? it has got holds on both hardware and software for its ecosystem. Doesn't that make it a tech company? At this stage, if any company which can create an OS like iOS would be considered tech company leaving aside the hardware part.
- airstrike 8y ago
  I meant "not just a Tech company"... I guess that's what I get for not sleeping

_bxg1 8y ago

Apple's main endeavor is to develop an actual product. They design and engineer something in the hopes that people buy it. The honesty - and arguably, quaintness - of that consumer relationship separates Apple from the rest of the valley.

wmeredith 8y ago
Eh, I think this argument is a bit glib. Google's main endeavor is to develop an actual product. They design and engineer something in the hopes that people use it. (Then they sell ads, like the publishing industry has done for 200 years.)
- _bxg1 8y ago
  The difference is where the exchange of money happens. Because Google's, and Facebook's, Amazon's, and most SV startups' services are free, you get the privacy problems and the ulterior motives and the trust issues. With Apple, you paid for the product up-front. The transaction is done and in the open. They don't have to do anything skeevy to make money off their product.
  - esrauch 8y ago
    Apple has plenty of non-aligned incentives, they control the store (+30% subscription tax on Spotify, taking down apps that compete with "core functionality"), they don't want you to repair your phone (and planned obsolescence) where ewaste and their profit is connected.
    - thisacctforreal 8y ago
      Apple does not seem to want you to open the phone, but they are easily the most repairable phones available. Most repair shops will repair any iPhone, and you can stumble through it yourself using YouTube or iFixit. According to this 2/3 Apple devices sold are still active today: http://www.asymco.com/2018/02/27/the-number/ http://www.asymco.com/2018/02/27/the-number/ I believe Apple gains directly from the longevity. People know that Apple products last long and hold resale value; where I am the iPhone 5s from Sept 2013 is sold second-hand for ~$150CAD Devices with high resale value mean customers can upgrade frequently.

pseudometa 8y ago

Having been a fan of Apple for over a decade now, over the last year I've come to the opposite point of view. Their iPhone and airpods are great products and of course they can ride a long time on those, but in every other area from Macs and accessories I feel they are falling flat on delivering great user experiences. From FaceTime to Siri, to crappy Apple TV remotes, Home Kit... there are just a LOT of mediocre products that sit idle for years. Of all times, the company is at the point most worth criticizing. I do blame Tim Cook for this stagnation in product development. And indeed their lack of ideas means they have nothing better to do with their cash, that they are buying back shares. Ehh, I'm so jaded these days on Apple.

__david__ 8y ago
Interesting you say that about the Apple TV remotes. I thought they were all horrible but I really like the new one. The speed at which I can move around and the precision of selecting things is really great.
- ynniv 8y ago
  Why can't I tell which side is up without looking at it or accidentally changing something? Why is the black IR sensor the same size, shape, and location as the charging port, but on the wrong side? Why can't it decide that a log press when it's upside down is probably someone sitting on it? Why is it too small to comfortably hold? Maybe this thing works for people without kids, but I'll take a boring remote any day.
- kalleboo 8y ago
  We had a lot of trouble with the new Apple TV remote. Stuff like it getting knocked slightly and the Apple TV going wild, etc. Luckily the AppleTV generations that use it also support HDMI-CEC so we just use our TV remote instead.
bonyt 8y ago
My parents are actually frightened of the new Apple TV remote. They hide it somewhere where they won't knock into it, because they know it'll switch the TV's input to the Apple TV, and they'll have to hunt down a different remote to switch it back to the cable box.

RyanShook 8y ago

Apple’s market cap will keep rising for the next few years without any innovation through buybacks and service revenue from existing devices. But the fact that they’re not talking about new products or hinting at anything down the line concerns me...

froo 8y ago
> But the fact that they’re not talking about new products or hinting at anything down the line concerns me... Why would they show their hand? There's little to be gained from it and it would harm their brand when these technologies don't pan out how they would want. See Google Glass - huge fanfare but no real substance. Besides, we hear of technology that is supposedly being worked on inside Apple. Project Titan, the AR headset that is looking at a 2020 release date.
pwinnski 8y ago
They haven't discussed new products or hinted at anything down the line at any point in the last 12+ years, and aren't about to start.

jugg1es 8y ago

His argument that Amazon is not innovating to solve real-world problems seems grossly uninformed. AWS is putting out new features almost weekly that solve lots of real-world problems across all industries.

ggambetta 8y ago

Can the title be fixed to include the comma that was inexplicably dropped from the original title?

dade_ 8y ago

Feed the masses and dine with the classes. Apple is focusing on the 80%, and have developed a strategic advantage based on privacy. This is not a new lesson. Commercially this is smart and profitable, but it was at the expense of the 20%. The fact is that their products stopped meeting my needs. So instead of a apology, I would like to thank Apple for the lock in that took over a year to unwind before I could leave the Apple ecosystem. It was a harsh lesson that I will never forget.

catchmeifyoucan 8y ago

> After Apple’s latest results announcement, one could knock it yet again for its stable dependence on a single mature product — the iPhone...It shows that a stage of useful progress is over and doesn’t tip over into overhyped uselessness Stagnanation isn't acceptable for any company. Apple has always been about "overhyped uselessness"(eg. Touch Bar, animoji). The article makes claims that Apple "offers a fix" referring to the battery throttling, but any company of that scale is obligated to. They were shamed publicly. I agree with privacy commitment, but that alone, isn't enough.

scarface74 8y ago

Bloomberg should be doing a retraction of their previous stories that were factually wrong about "struggling iPhone sales".....

Angostura 8y ago

Why not go the whole hog and just reword the headline “a story about Apple”

hungerstrike 8y ago

Original title: "I'm sorry I criticized you Apple. You win"

kgwgk 8y ago
One of these days I'm going to write a bot to keep track of title changes. "Apple is a traditional business" is the current title, for the record. I expect (I hope!) it will be changed again soon, because it doesn't make much sense.
- dang 8y ago
  We changed the title because the original one was arguably linkbait, and the site guidelines call for changing those (see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). When we do that, we try to find a phrase in the article itself that represents what the author is saying. That's what we did here. If there's a better, more representative phrase, we can change it again.
  - kgwgk 8y ago
    "Apple is a rock of common sense in an industry that’s gone rogue" (the subtitle) would be better. "Apple is the perfect tech company for this day and age, an example to the rest of Silicon Valley" (the take-home message in the first line) would be better. The Apple "is a traditional business" remark refers to the main point of this opinion piece, which appears right before that statement: "This is a time when companies whose innovations are more intrusive than useful, more gimmicky than problem-solving, operate with business models that either burn investors’ cash or turn the users into products. "At a time like this, Apple is a rock of common sense, sobriety, dignified engineering supremacy, prudent financial and supply chain management, effective marketing, and customer-oriented retailing." Without the proper context, "Apple is a traditional business" could mean anything and doesn't mean anything at all.
    - dang 8y ago
      "Apple is a rock of common sense in an industry that’s gone rogue" is too baity, even more than the original title we changed. It's guaranteed to provoke objections if we put it in there. Ditto with "perfect tech company"—can you imagine the arguments that would lead to? You're welcome to make a bot to track title changes. People have done this kind of thing from time to time, e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16018430 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16018430. IMO the main thing it would show is how much work goes into getting this right, and how hard it is. Edit: Btw I agree with you that the title we changed it to isn't great; I just haven't thought of a better one or seen a better suggestion. If someone has an accurate, neutral title that preferably uses representative language from the article, we'll happily change it again.

cbsmith 8y ago

This article is almost in a satirical voice.

SonicSoul 8y ago

Here’s a naive question. This all sounds noble and all , but doesn’t Apple know just as much or more about you via phone / watch / iCloud / iTunes / Apple Pay / Apple TV? Are we celebrating here that they’re not openly selling this information or using as primary business model ? Or that it’s only used for internal business?

r00fus 8y ago
Apple has been criticized in the past for having an internal culture/dictates to avoid "synergizing" this kind of info between their products/services - criticized because it affects the quality of features like Siri. Contrast to companies like Google (who don't directly sell your info but still profit from it) or Facebook (who have had numerous exfiltration incidents over the years and who sell very targetable info that could be used to isolate a single person). Meanwhile Equifax has horrible security and you aren't even remotely their customer - they just collect your data and get passive income from that.