6 ms·

Sad fact is that Mac sales are now 10% of Apples revenue. I think the only reason Macs receive any attention at all within Apple is because you need Macs to bui

by dman 8y ago

Sad fact is that Mac sales are now 10% of Apples revenue. I think the only reason Macs receive any attention at all within Apple is because you need Macs to build iphone/ipad apps. Another way of framing this is - how much effort do you put on the bottom 10 percent of your TODO list.

sidlls 8y ago
Another way to look at that is the company risks up to 10% of its top line if it doesn't support the product line. Everyone's priorities may differ but if I'm running a business I don't casually give up 10% of my revenue. That's a lot!
falcor84 8y ago
The Mac line brought them ~25B revenue in 2017, in one of their best years ever. Looking at a business of this magnitude, I don't see how it matters what percentage of the total revenue this is. There's so much money to be had here and, unlike an individual, a company's attention shouldn't be so limited as to essentially make them forget to collect this additional revenue.
- sandworm101 8y ago
  >> a company's attention shouldn't be so limited as to essentially make them forget to collect this additional revenue. For a publicly-traded company all that matters is stock price. One would assume that collecting revenues has a direct impact on that price, but we are not in so rational a world. Today it is all about growth potential rather than current revenues. Apple could be turning huge profits on laptops, but if they see that as a mature market then they will and must ignore it. Given Apple's grip on users, they may even see laptops as a competitor to their iPhone business. Time on the macbook is time not on the iPhone. The intent may be to transition all macbook devotees away from lap/desktops altogether.
  - sulam 8y ago
    > For a publicly-traded company all that matters is stock price. Really? You don't want to qualify that at all, maybe? If not, please explain the first 10 years of AMZN.
    - scarface74 8y ago
      He said potential growth. People see Amazon as a growth business.
- mortenjorck 8y ago
  This is the part I just don't understand. The Mac is a $25B business by itself, and yet it seems to be operated like a vanity project, largely limiting itself to flashy launches like the Touch Bar or iMac Pro instead of maintaining a steady update pipeline like any other B2B product company.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- menacingly 8y ago
  I have no idea if macs only account for 10% of Apple revenue, but assuming it's true, it doesn't matter what dollar amount that 10% works out to. We find percentages useful precisely so that we can see through deceptively high dollars to the truth that they don't really play a big part in total dollars brought in. The fact that it's 25B (if it is, again, no idea) only serves to illustrate the heart-stopping scale at which Apple does business. We're talking about a company for whom even such a sum is a bottom 10% priority from a pure revenue standpoint.
  - nikdaheratik 8y ago
    Taken separately, this makes some sense, but they already delivered the hardware on this and put in the work on the designs. It doesn't make sense to fail to even put in the minimal amount of work to update the line in a well run company. The only reasons I can think of are that they have taken designers completely off the mac line and put them all on the iPhone and other lines or else that they have put alot of designers on some kind of secret project, like moving to a different architecture and it's taking longer than expected to get it right. And even these don't seem to match up with how the company of 10-15 years ago would run things.
    - menacingly 8y ago
      Oh definitely, I wasn't weighing in on how apple views macs, just that countering "it's X%" with "but that's $Y" doesn't really work. As to the actual matter at hand, I hope the output we're seeing now is the result of a de-prioritization, because I don't like to think of these results as best efforts.
berthe 8y ago
> Sad fact is that Mac sales are now 10% of Apples revenue. I think the only reason Macs receive any attention at all within Apple is because you need Macs to build iphone/ipad apps. Another way of framing this is - how much effort do you put on the bottom 10 percent of your TODO list. I think it's wrong to analogize a large corporation to an individual like that. An individual only has a limited capacity to divide its productive capacity, but a corporation almost has an infinite amount. One of Apple's problems is that they often take what are probably good ideas too far. Some focus is good, but too much can be bad. Back when Steve Jobs took over, it was probably right for them to hyperfocus on a small number of models and software products, but the situation is different now. There's no good reason for a company as successful as they are now to not give the Mac division the resources and leadership it needs to be successful. Unfortunately, they seem to be neglecting it instead.
ovao 8y ago
It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario in that you can't get past that 10% unless you really devote the energy to it, and you can't justify the energy when it seems to contribute so little to your revenue. At one time Apple had a lot of passion for desktop and laptop computers. Today, they just seem to be nonchalantly kicking the metaphorical can down the road. You can't blame consumers for not going crazy for products that Apple isn't crazy about themselves.
nostromo 8y ago
While true, Mac is still larger in revenue than the Apple Watch and the iPad -- both of which receive regular updates.
- pier25 8y ago
  OTOH it's a lot more of a headache to maintain the complete Mac lineup than a few iPad models.

by dman 8y ago

sidlls 8y ago

Another way to look at that is the company risks up to 10% of its top line if it doesn't support the product line. Everyone's priorities may differ but if I'm running a business I don't casually give up 10% of my revenue. That's a lot!

falcor84 8y ago

The Mac line brought them ~25B revenue in 2017, in one of their best years ever. Looking at a business of this magnitude, I don't see how it matters what percentage of the total revenue this is. There's so much money to be had here and, unlike an individual, a company's attention shouldn't be so limited as to essentially make them forget to collect this additional revenue.

sandworm101 8y ago
>> a company's attention shouldn't be so limited as to essentially make them forget to collect this additional revenue. For a publicly-traded company all that matters is stock price. One would assume that collecting revenues has a direct impact on that price, but we are not in so rational a world. Today it is all about growth potential rather than current revenues. Apple could be turning huge profits on laptops, but if they see that as a mature market then they will and must ignore it. Given Apple's grip on users, they may even see laptops as a competitor to their iPhone business. Time on the macbook is time not on the iPhone. The intent may be to transition all macbook devotees away from lap/desktops altogether.
- sulam 8y ago
  > For a publicly-traded company all that matters is stock price. Really? You don't want to qualify that at all, maybe? If not, please explain the first 10 years of AMZN.
  - scarface74 8y ago
    He said potential growth. People see Amazon as a growth business.
mortenjorck 8y ago
This is the part I just don't understand. The Mac is a $25B business by itself, and yet it seems to be operated like a vanity project, largely limiting itself to flashy launches like the Touch Bar or iMac Pro instead of maintaining a steady update pipeline like any other B2B product company.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
menacingly 8y ago
I have no idea if macs only account for 10% of Apple revenue, but assuming it's true, it doesn't matter what dollar amount that 10% works out to. We find percentages useful precisely so that we can see through deceptively high dollars to the truth that they don't really play a big part in total dollars brought in. The fact that it's 25B (if it is, again, no idea) only serves to illustrate the heart-stopping scale at which Apple does business. We're talking about a company for whom even such a sum is a bottom 10% priority from a pure revenue standpoint.
- nikdaheratik 8y ago
  Taken separately, this makes some sense, but they already delivered the hardware on this and put in the work on the designs. It doesn't make sense to fail to even put in the minimal amount of work to update the line in a well run company. The only reasons I can think of are that they have taken designers completely off the mac line and put them all on the iPhone and other lines or else that they have put alot of designers on some kind of secret project, like moving to a different architecture and it's taking longer than expected to get it right. And even these don't seem to match up with how the company of 10-15 years ago would run things.
  - menacingly 8y ago
    Oh definitely, I wasn't weighing in on how apple views macs, just that countering "it's X%" with "but that's $Y" doesn't really work. As to the actual matter at hand, I hope the output we're seeing now is the result of a de-prioritization, because I don't like to think of these results as best efforts.

berthe 8y ago

> Sad fact is that Mac sales are now 10% of Apples revenue. I think the only reason Macs receive any attention at all within Apple is because you need Macs to build iphone/ipad apps. Another way of framing this is - how much effort do you put on the bottom 10 percent of your TODO list. I think it's wrong to analogize a large corporation to an individual like that. An individual only has a limited capacity to divide its productive capacity, but a corporation almost has an infinite amount. One of Apple's problems is that they often take what are probably good ideas too far. Some focus is good, but too much can be bad. Back when Steve Jobs took over, it was probably right for them to hyperfocus on a small number of models and software products, but the situation is different now. There's no good reason for a company as successful as they are now to not give the Mac division the resources and leadership it needs to be successful. Unfortunately, they seem to be neglecting it instead.

ovao 8y ago

It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario in that you can't get past that 10% unless you really devote the energy to it, and you can't justify the energy when it seems to contribute so little to your revenue. At one time Apple had a lot of passion for desktop and laptop computers. Today, they just seem to be nonchalantly kicking the metaphorical can down the road. You can't blame consumers for not going crazy for products that Apple isn't crazy about themselves.

nostromo 8y ago

While true, Mac is still larger in revenue than the Apple Watch and the iPad -- both of which receive regular updates.

pier25 8y ago
OTOH it's a lot more of a headache to maintain the complete Mac lineup than a few iPad models.