6 ms·

But there must be so many people that buy iPhones, iPads, and macBooks that don't then give Apple any recurring revenue too.

airstrike 3y ago
The % that does give them recurring revenue more than makes up for that difference Plus network effects of having more devices "out there"
dangus 3y ago
Whatever the number of iPad users is that pays for additional services, it’s a lot more than the 0% of AirPort Extreme customers buying anything that directly goes along with their network equipment. Apple sells dozens of accessories like cables, adapters, cases, etc. Plus, iPads can cost upward of $1,000 and have high profit margin upgrades at every price point (internal storage space). Their network equipment didn’t drive Mac sales, it was really the other way around: a Mac user might consider Apple network equipment, but there was no strong driving factor that would send you that direction. Apple also couldn’t price their network equipment far above their competitors because it has very few differentiators. WiFi is WiFi is WiFi. For an iPad, Apple can charge more money because it has iPadOS which is only one of two choices in the mobile OS space. Network equipment is almost completely vendor agnostic commodity equipment. Maybe doing Time Machine backups or streaming iTunes music over your network would lead you to AirPort products, but both bring in zero recurring revenue for Apple and have been made obsolete in terms of convenience and customer preferences by cloud storage and music streaming/AirPlay. Let’s not forget that Apple was never actually able to maintain any kind of market leader status on WiFi equipment. Their best case scenario of eclipsing a market leader like TP-Link never happened because their product line was simply not popular. That’s why it was discontinued in the first place.

6 ms·

But there must be so many people that buy iPhones, iPads, and macBooks that don't then give Apple any recurring revenue too.

by PlunderBunny 3y ago

airstrike 3y ago
The % that does give them recurring revenue more than makes up for that difference Plus network effects of having more devices "out there"
dangus 3y ago
Whatever the number of iPad users is that pays for additional services, it’s a lot more than the 0% of AirPort Extreme customers buying anything that directly goes along with their network equipment. Apple sells dozens of accessories like cables, adapters, cases, etc. Plus, iPads can cost upward of $1,000 and have high profit margin upgrades at every price point (internal storage space). Their network equipment didn’t drive Mac sales, it was really the other way around: a Mac user might consider Apple network equipment, but there was no strong driving factor that would send you that direction. Apple also couldn’t price their network equipment far above their competitors because it has very few differentiators. WiFi is WiFi is WiFi. For an iPad, Apple can charge more money because it has iPadOS which is only one of two choices in the mobile OS space. Network equipment is almost completely vendor agnostic commodity equipment. Maybe doing Time Machine backups or streaming iTunes music over your network would lead you to AirPort products, but both bring in zero recurring revenue for Apple and have been made obsolete in terms of convenience and customer preferences by cloud storage and music streaming/AirPlay. Let’s not forget that Apple was never actually able to maintain any kind of market leader status on WiFi equipment. Their best case scenario of eclipsing a market leader like TP-Link never happened because their product line was simply not popular. That’s why it was discontinued in the first place.