5 ms·

Apple’s New Era Has Begun

23 points by dankul1 6y ago

Ecco 6y ago
$549 iPhone 12? Count me in!
- wdb 6y ago
  That would indeed a be a nice price! £550 for a modern iPhone would be great. I don't see it happening to have a iPhone 11 for that price, though
  - satvikpendem 6y ago
    The iPhone SE 2, which has the same processor as the iPhone 11, is 400 USD currently.
    - wdb 6y ago
      If I remember correctly, it doesn't have the OLED display and the cameras. I think those £1000+ phones is just a bit too much.
- spzb 6y ago
  Dammit. Just when I bought the new SE.
zpeti 6y ago
Of all the "eras" possible this is a disappointing article, I thought it would be about the risk to apple from deteriorating US China relations. I'm pretty sure that will have a bigger effect that services vs phone prices.
bryanlarsen 6y ago
Maybe it's just competition? Reviews for the Google Pixel 4a at $349 are claiming that it's just as good as a premium priced phone. Or perhaps it's convergent evolution: both Google & Apple decided at the same time for the same reasons to concentrate on cheap phones again.
pwinnski 6y ago
Rah-rah cheerleading about Apple based on an uncorroborated rumor of future low prices? We can do better than this.
garyrob 6y ago
My understanding has been that Apple's orientation toward protecting privacy has been rooted in the fact that it makes most of its money from hardware sales, and therefore doesn't need to track people for ads, or to sell data (at least not to the same degree as companies whose profits are based mostly on such things). But if Apple starts selling phones at a low price, how will its motivations be different from, say, Google's? Maybe it can have the simple model of selling App Store access and other services, without resorting to the "your users are your product" model. But it seems like the the line will be thinner and the temptation greater. In the end, Apple's behavior will probably be determined purely by how much marketplace advantages it gives them to be able to tout such advantages. And my impression is that the average person really doesn't care that much, even if HN readers do.
- moviuro 6y ago
  Apple sells tons of subscription-based services: Music, News, TV, Games, Storage, etc. (+ their slice of App sales). If this keeps up, they don't have an incentive to track their users and sell that data. (They could still track them to find out what's "hot" and what genre(s) they should produce next, like Netflix did)
  - garyrob 6y ago
    But Google sells services too. If Apple is not making most of its money on hardware, then what differentiates Apple's incentives from Google's? Do you think they'll simply decide, "We will not track people for targeting ads, and we won't sell their data"? But what if they find that that perspective doesn't actually help them sell their services, because the vast majority of consumers just don't know or care about these issues like HN users do? It didn't cost them much to have that perspective when most of their income was from hardware, but once it's coming from online services, it may turn out that they're leaving a lot of money on the table, which would be very easily made, by being less purist about the privacy issue. Not that they're super-purist now, from what I've heard...
    - noworriesnate 6y ago
threatofrain 6y ago
I feel like even if Forbes makes good reports on Apple, they should overall be ignored on any matter pertaining to Apple. If you do a Google search for popular headlines, you'll see that Forbes has been recycling Apple articles for years with tiny variations in headlines. https://www.google.com/search?&q=ios+%22nasty+surprise%22+site%3Aforbes.com https://www.google.com/search?&q=ios+%22nasty+surprise%22+si...
- basch 6y ago
  fyi, this is a "Forbes Contributor" article, so basically like attributing to Medium something that someone posted on it.
gentleman11 6y ago
The new era seems to involve just as many frivolous lawsuits against small companies as the old one. They need to shape up ethically, not just modify business strategy to get a “new era”
onyva 6y ago
Are all the headlines on Forbes generated by an algorithm optimized for click baitingness? Why link to a paywalled site most people here don’t seem to care much about?
stomatomot 6y ago
higher price = made asian companies rich now america pay the double price, they become poor, while giving asians full control over them little american will soon be asian's slave your little sisters are all fan of asian singers now us pop is no more, what's next?
robynsmith 6y ago
Privacy and long term support converted me from Android to iOS in 2019. I’d say the narrative is working :) Try and find an alternative device that has the same level of privacy and updates for 5 years. You can do it if you flash a rom on your android device - but that’s not currently realistic for most of the current user base.

23 points by dankul1 6y ago

Ecco 6y ago

$549 iPhone 12? Count me in!

wdb 6y ago
That would indeed a be a nice price! £550 for a modern iPhone would be great. I don't see it happening to have a iPhone 11 for that price, though
- satvikpendem 6y ago
  The iPhone SE 2, which has the same processor as the iPhone 11, is 400 USD currently.
  - wdb 6y ago
    If I remember correctly, it doesn't have the OLED display and the cameras. I think those £1000+ phones is just a bit too much.
spzb 6y ago
Dammit. Just when I bought the new SE.

zpeti 6y ago

Of all the "eras" possible this is a disappointing article, I thought it would be about the risk to apple from deteriorating US China relations. I'm pretty sure that will have a bigger effect that services vs phone prices.

bryanlarsen 6y ago

Maybe it's just competition? Reviews for the Google Pixel 4a at $349 are claiming that it's just as good as a premium priced phone. Or perhaps it's convergent evolution: both Google & Apple decided at the same time for the same reasons to concentrate on cheap phones again.

pwinnski 6y ago

Rah-rah cheerleading about Apple based on an uncorroborated rumor of future low prices? We can do better than this.

garyrob 6y ago

My understanding has been that Apple's orientation toward protecting privacy has been rooted in the fact that it makes most of its money from hardware sales, and therefore doesn't need to track people for ads, or to sell data (at least not to the same degree as companies whose profits are based mostly on such things). But if Apple starts selling phones at a low price, how will its motivations be different from, say, Google's? Maybe it can have the simple model of selling App Store access and other services, without resorting to the "your users are your product" model. But it seems like the the line will be thinner and the temptation greater. In the end, Apple's behavior will probably be determined purely by how much marketplace advantages it gives them to be able to tout such advantages. And my impression is that the average person really doesn't care that much, even if HN readers do.

moviuro 6y ago
Apple sells tons of subscription-based services: Music, News, TV, Games, Storage, etc. (+ their slice of App sales). If this keeps up, they don't have an incentive to track their users and sell that data. (They could still track them to find out what's "hot" and what genre(s) they should produce next, like Netflix did)
- garyrob 6y ago
  But Google sells services too. If Apple is not making most of its money on hardware, then what differentiates Apple's incentives from Google's? Do you think they'll simply decide, "We will not track people for targeting ads, and we won't sell their data"? But what if they find that that perspective doesn't actually help them sell their services, because the vast majority of consumers just don't know or care about these issues like HN users do? It didn't cost them much to have that perspective when most of their income was from hardware, but once it's coming from online services, it may turn out that they're leaving a lot of money on the table, which would be very easily made, by being less purist about the privacy issue. Not that they're super-purist now, from what I've heard...
  - noworriesnate 6y ago

threatofrain 6y ago

I feel like even if Forbes makes good reports on Apple, they should overall be ignored on any matter pertaining to Apple. If you do a Google search for popular headlines, you'll see that Forbes has been recycling Apple articles for years with tiny variations in headlines. https://www.google.com/search?&q=ios+%22nasty+surprise%22+site%3Aforbes.com https://www.google.com/search?&q=ios+%22nasty+surprise%22+si...

basch 6y ago
fyi, this is a "Forbes Contributor" article, so basically like attributing to Medium something that someone posted on it.

gentleman11 6y ago

The new era seems to involve just as many frivolous lawsuits against small companies as the old one. They need to shape up ethically, not just modify business strategy to get a “new era”

onyva 6y ago

Are all the headlines on Forbes generated by an algorithm optimized for click baitingness? Why link to a paywalled site most people here don’t seem to care much about?

stomatomot 6y ago

higher price = made asian companies rich now america pay the double price, they become poor, while giving asians full control over them little american will soon be asian's slave your little sisters are all fan of asian singers now us pop is no more, what's next?

robynsmith 6y ago

Privacy and long term support converted me from Android to iOS in 2019. I’d say the narrative is working :) Try and find an alternative device that has the same level of privacy and updates for 5 years. You can do it if you flash a rom on your android device - but that’s not currently realistic for most of the current user base.