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Apple has a market cap of $3.7 trillion at the moment I’m writing this comment. I wouldn’t say that they’re incompetent. You may not like the products they cu

by _mlbt 2y ago

Apple has a market cap of $3.7 trillion at the moment I’m writing this comment. I wouldn’t say that they’re incompetent. You may not like the products they currently put out or the direction they are heading, but there is no doubt that Tim Cook and the rest of the leadership team at Apple are very competent business people. In fact, they’re probably the best that Apple has ever had as a whole. The reality is that a lot of people are clamoring for AI. Microsoft and Google are completely on board the AI hype train. If Apple doesn’t offer a solution they will be seen as being left behind.

jncfhnb 2y ago
Apple, Amazon, and Google are examples of companies that struck an absolute gold mine to the point at which it doesn’t really matter how badly they fuck up, they’ll be fine. Google and Apple have been flopping for years. They’re poorly run. They’re going to continue do great despite that.
- BenFranklin100 2y ago
  This isn’t even remotely true. Nokia, Palm, Blackberry, Alta vista, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, hundreds of online retailers lost to history, etc… Your comment is untethered from reality.
- Teever 2y ago
  The M series move seems to be wildly popular and has revitalized their until then tepid MacOS offerings. They're almost in complete control of their stack, that is an impressive achievement that no other company has ever achieved in the markets they have. How has Apple been flopping for years and what would you prefer they be doing?
  - jncfhnb 2y ago
    The M1s were briefly popular but they’re now back to exactly where they were before.
    - cyberpunk 2y ago
      There are exactly zero developers with intel laptops at the extremely large financial institution I work for...
      - jncfhnb 2y ago
        That’s great but sales data is much more clear than your anecdote
        jazzyjackson 2y ago
        I can imagine both are true: developers everywhere are on m series MacBooks and also, Apple has not grown their market share in the past few years Anecdotally my 2021 MacBook is doing fine and I see no reason to replace it anytime soon
        jncfhnb 2y ago
        Their market share has significantly declined
- _mlbt 2y ago
  By what metric is Apple poorly run other than some HN commenters personal opinions about their products?
  - jncfhnb 2y ago
    Apple Vision Pro was a flop, iPhone sales have been weak for years, the Apple car got canceled after ten billion dollars, Apple TV has largely flopped considering the insane spending, and they are blatantly at risk from non compliance the digital markets act and similar legislation for their platform gate keeping. They didn’t really have to do anything to be really successful. Most of their big investments have not yielded anything. By my back of the envelope calculations, 30-50% of their net income comes from just taxing software distribution on the App Store. The M1s are cool but frankly a niche audience. Apple will continue to do very well (unless regulation actually starts kicking hard). It’s not because of savvy leadership. Their leadership sucks. Google’s is even worse.
    - Der_Einzige 2y ago
      Let's not forget 8gb ram 256gb gimped SSD as the default low end in macbook airs in 2024. It was insulting to do this in 2018 and even worse now. Yes, it means good margins. It also means Apple clearly hates their customers by giving them hilariously under-provisioned hardware for doing anything. If their customers ever grew a spine, they'd make it hurt apples pocket book.
      - jmg_ 2y ago
        For a lot of the ways I see friends and family use Mac products, 256gb is often good enough. I'd argue for people that care about storage space the default acts as a price anchor.
- jhbadger 2y ago
  That's what people said about IBM in the 1980s -- that it didn't matter that they were just playing catch up with more innovative companies because they were so huge. Things caught up to them, and while they still exist (primarily as consultants similar to Accenture), they are a far cry from when they dominated the tech scene.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]

by _mlbt 2y ago

jncfhnb 2y ago

Apple, Amazon, and Google are examples of companies that struck an absolute gold mine to the point at which it doesn’t really matter how badly they fuck up, they’ll be fine. Google and Apple have been flopping for years. They’re poorly run. They’re going to continue do great despite that.

BenFranklin100 2y ago
This isn’t even remotely true. Nokia, Palm, Blackberry, Alta vista, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, hundreds of online retailers lost to history, etc… Your comment is untethered from reality.
Teever 2y ago
The M series move seems to be wildly popular and has revitalized their until then tepid MacOS offerings. They're almost in complete control of their stack, that is an impressive achievement that no other company has ever achieved in the markets they have. How has Apple been flopping for years and what would you prefer they be doing?
- jncfhnb 2y ago
  The M1s were briefly popular but they’re now back to exactly where they were before.
  - cyberpunk 2y ago
    There are exactly zero developers with intel laptops at the extremely large financial institution I work for...
    - jncfhnb 2y ago
      That’s great but sales data is much more clear than your anecdote
      - jazzyjackson 2y ago
        I can imagine both are true: developers everywhere are on m series MacBooks and also, Apple has not grown their market share in the past few years Anecdotally my 2021 MacBook is doing fine and I see no reason to replace it anytime soon
        jncfhnb 2y ago
        Their market share has significantly declined
_mlbt 2y ago
By what metric is Apple poorly run other than some HN commenters personal opinions about their products?
- jncfhnb 2y ago
  Apple Vision Pro was a flop, iPhone sales have been weak for years, the Apple car got canceled after ten billion dollars, Apple TV has largely flopped considering the insane spending, and they are blatantly at risk from non compliance the digital markets act and similar legislation for their platform gate keeping. They didn’t really have to do anything to be really successful. Most of their big investments have not yielded anything. By my back of the envelope calculations, 30-50% of their net income comes from just taxing software distribution on the App Store. The M1s are cool but frankly a niche audience. Apple will continue to do very well (unless regulation actually starts kicking hard). It’s not because of savvy leadership. Their leadership sucks. Google’s is even worse.
  - Der_Einzige 2y ago
    Let's not forget 8gb ram 256gb gimped SSD as the default low end in macbook airs in 2024. It was insulting to do this in 2018 and even worse now. Yes, it means good margins. It also means Apple clearly hates their customers by giving them hilariously under-provisioned hardware for doing anything. If their customers ever grew a spine, they'd make it hurt apples pocket book.
    - jmg_ 2y ago
      For a lot of the ways I see friends and family use Mac products, 256gb is often good enough. I'd argue for people that care about storage space the default acts as a price anchor.
jhbadger 2y ago
That's what people said about IBM in the 1980s -- that it didn't matter that they were just playing catch up with more innovative companies because they were so huge. Things caught up to them, and while they still exist (primarily as consultants similar to Accenture), they are a far cry from when they dominated the tech scene.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]