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Tim Cook to Investors: People Bought Fewer New iPhones Because They Repaired Their Old Ones (vice.com)
On Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a dire warning to his investors. Apple, the world's first trillion dollar company, lowered its revenue forecast for the first time since 2002, thanks primarily to China, he said. But there was at least one more issue at play.
Motherboard: The lengthy letter cites, specifically, that people are buying fewer iPhones because they are repairing their old ones. Apple has long fought efforts that would make iPhones easier to repair: It has lobbied against right to repair efforts in several states, doesn't sell iPhone replacement parts, sued an independent repair professional in Norway, worked with Amazon to get iPhone and MacBook refurbishers kicked off Amazon Marketplace, and has deals with electronics recyclers that require them to shred iPhones and MacBooks (as opposed to allowing them to be refurbished.) The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, has seized iPhone replacement parts from prominent right to repair activists in the United States.
[...] Apple has never clearly articulated why it doesn't want people to fix their own iPhones or to have independent experts repair them. It has previously said that iPhones are "too complex" for users to repair them, even though replacing a battery is pretty easy and is done by average users all the time. But the fact that repair hurts Apple's bottom line came out in Cook's official communication with shareholders, who he is legally obligated to tell the truth to.
Motherboard: The lengthy letter cites, specifically, that people are buying fewer iPhones because they are repairing their old ones. Apple has long fought efforts that would make iPhones easier to repair: It has lobbied against right to repair efforts in several states, doesn't sell iPhone replacement parts, sued an independent repair professional in Norway, worked with Amazon to get iPhone and MacBook refurbishers kicked off Amazon Marketplace, and has deals with electronics recyclers that require them to shred iPhones and MacBooks (as opposed to allowing them to be refurbished.) The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, has seized iPhone replacement parts from prominent right to repair activists in the United States.
[...] Apple has never clearly articulated why it doesn't want people to fix their own iPhones or to have independent experts repair them. It has previously said that iPhones are "too complex" for users to repair them, even though replacing a battery is pretty easy and is done by average users all the time. But the fact that repair hurts Apple's bottom line came out in Cook's official communication with shareholders, who he is legally obligated to tell the truth to.
If they lose revenue when people can't repair their hardware, then the replacement costs are hurting the global economy and this needs to stop. Period.
Poor investors! Whatever will we do for the investors!
Why doesn't Apple offer to repair old iPhones? They could make extra money.
They see no evil, only anti-apple.
People are more nostalgic for steam engines than old diesel engines, Windows XP has become allegedly more popular than Windows 8.1, Gamers still use their old CRTs to play games. All these show that newer isn’t always better and people would rather have headphone jacks than memojis and faceid. Expect eBay prices to rise on jackphones in a few years. Also we are still waitng for the legendary 17 inch macbook pro to return.
I took advantage of the $29 battery replacement on my 6s hoping to add a couple of years of life to it. Might count as a repair since it was sort of "broken" by Apple.
It's not possible that even one converted to Android? No way he'd admit that.
But the fact that repair hurts Apple's bottom line came out in Cook's official communication with shareholders, who he is legally obligated to tell the truth to.
He's not allowed to lie. I don't think there is a legal obligation to tell the whole truth, in fact the obligation on that topic is almost to run the other way, there are things he is definitely allowed, and definitely should not share with shareholders.
If he's telling them this, it's because he wants some action taken.
to repair what you own.
The Apple mystique is fading. They still make good (albeit overpriced) products, but they haven't introduced a significant new product since Jobs died.
He'll do anything but admit that they fucked up when they priced it at over $/£/€1000. People aren't buying them because they're too fucking expensive.
I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. - Scott Adams
People bought fewer iPhones because they jacked the prices up and, didn't give anyone anything new that would justify such an increase. Thereby, negative return on investment. DUH! For people that are supposed to be smart, they sure say and, do some really stupid shit.
They Suck.
Having ceased production of the iPhone SE in exclusive favor of miniature tablets, Apple's abandoned a whole market segment.
iPhones and electronics are like printer consumables, they should have a set expiration.
iPhone/iPad/iMac; expires 2 months after next release. If purchased during this window, data transfer is free, if not,for a "small fee". If Users don't want to upgrade, they can purchase an extension for a small recurring fee.
Users are lazy, and don't upgrade when they are told to we need to force it.
PCs have long since had "intrusion detection" switches on the mainboard, these should have been used. Open the case, data is gone.
It is not your PC, it is HP/DELL/APPLE PC. You are simply granted a license to use it as they see fit.
this would solve all the compatibility and security issues in one go!
Users are not to open their systems. Users are not to install unauthorized applications.
Apple is very similar to BMW and Mercedes when it comes to this "immersive brand experience" thing. None of these companies want people running around with old phones or cars. They want them on the 3-year leasing treadmill. They want you to basically subscribe to their hardware. To accomplish this, one of the things they do is fight efforts to make repairs economical. Apple basically builds their phones as glue sandwiches and solders all the components onto the motherboard for "design reasons." BMW/MB make the out-of-warranty repair experience painful with single-source expensive parts, so even if you find a good mechanic who charges reasonable labor rates, this sensor or that sub-assembly will cost thousands to replace. The only way to own one of these cars long term is to have the money and not care about spending it, or just throw in the towel and rent one forever in the form of a never-ending lease.
I think people in the US and Europe will finally get sick of this and realize they're being ripped off now that there's a huge secondary market for iDevices. China and India have huge middle class populations but they're less likely to blow $1100 on a phone than Americans are.
Saudi Aramco was valued over $1T years ago.
Apple definitely needs a follow-up to the iPhone SE form factor and price range.
Do I need to remind you that Apple failed looong time ago because they started pushing product that no one wanted (precustomized, never upgradable product)? Sounds familiar?
people bought fewer new iPhones because you let the cat out of the bag on how replacing the battery fixes performance issues. I mean, I guess that is _technically_ a repair...
And I've replaced two iPhones now for what turned out to be a dying battery.
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Why isn't Apple selling more iPhones?
1) Too darn expensive. I'm not dropping a grand on a device that I can lose or break in an instant. I switched over to Android because I can buy a phone with 90% of the functionality of an iPhone for $200 to $300, which is the price point I want.
2) We're at peak functionality. Yeah, apps are bloating and requiring more CPU power, but if I need a phone, email, calendar, a browser, and some basic games, I'm good. I don't need a zillion megapixels or a few more battery stealing CPU cycles, so why do I need a new phone?
3) The "wow" factor is over. Every phone looks the same and does most of the same things. I'm not jazzed by anything on the latest and greatest iPhone. Innovate!
Apple is just about where Motorola was after the RAZR crashed and burned. Motorola didn't take the RAZR profits and invest more in R&D and their customers moved on to the next big thing (smartphones). RIM / Blackberry had the same problem. As has just about everyone else in the space. The only saving grace for Apple is the ecosystem it has for its devices and software. That has built something of a moat around its products, but as long as older products continue to function, there is no incentive for Apple to get hungry again.
People complained about replacable batter, phone jack, ability to fix device and prices. They did not care - people stoped buing products - now they are surprised?How about listen to your customers next time?
you give them your old iPhone (which probably just needs a new battery), they sell you a new one for $100 bucks off. Then they take the old phone and put a $10 battery in it and sell it for $300 in China or India.
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And now below $700B, and with MSFT, AMZN, and GOOG all worth more... A brief moment before they fell. Falling market share always catches up in the end.
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Under Steve Jobs, Apple innovated creating whole new lines of products with innovative features. Now innovation at Apple means adding a notch to the screen or removing the headphone jack. The iPhone is a great phone, but enough people already own them and they're not willing to pay $1,000 or more for small incremental improvements.
[Insert pithy quote here]
Higher profit margin. The school that I work at has 200+ perfectly good ipads that just won't update past 10.3.3. They aren't that old and there's nothing wrong with them. Built in obsolescence. Now the apps we use won't work because they do a version check for 11+ So fuck apple, we're getting Android tablets, next round.
People bought fewer iPhones because there's really no compelling reason to, mainly because I lack the vision my predecessor had and his gravy train is running out of steam.
Sorry, I just see no need to pay $1000 for a $500 phone when my current maxed out one does perfectly well.
My next iPhone will probably be a model made for India. Small, compact, capable, and around $500 instead of $1000.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
They design their phones to slow down so you have to buy new ones. Very dishonest business practice. at 700+$ each these phones should last for at least 5 years to be worth that kind of money.
.. because of battery age?
Is that this is the second duplicated article posted on THE FRONT PAGE today.
Please, someone tell me msmash isn't paid to do his/her job.
I tend to rant.
Reasons:
1) Apple went full stupid with the pricing on their newest lineup
2) I like my headphone jack thank you very much
3) There is nothing wrong with my iPhone SE nor my Galaxy S5 ( both of which have headphone jacks )
4) Smartphone market is over-saturated, iPhones are no longer the only option
The only reason I have an iPhone SE is the size. I prefer a smaller phone that easily fits into a pocket vs :|
the super sized versions that are so common today. They get any bigger and we'll be able to mount them
via a forearm strap and use them as shields
Were it not for the larger size, I would really prefer to stick with my Galaxy S5. It has a headphone jack,
a removable battery ( I have a few spares ) and is expandable via the micro-SD card. The drag and drop
file functionality is really hard for Apple to beat imo.
Plus, f*ck iTunes. That sh*t is why I grabbed a Galaxy S5 to begin with.
My ideal phone would be:
1) Android base ( not the carrier bloated bullsh*t that's impossible to remove without root )
2) Removable Battery
3) Micro-SD card expand-ability
4) Hardware switch(es) to disable the Mic, Camera and GPS
5) Decent size selection range ( small to large )
6) Headphone jack
7) Dual Sim
I got tired of Apple's bullshit. Dumping support of Open Standards.. especially when it comes to graphics. Also let's face it. A Six Core MacPro is overpriced,
plus mine had the D700 issue. I reflowed the solder on my D700 GPUs myself, also noted I would never buy a Mac again.
I got a haydes canyon NUC. dual rank 32GB ram, 1tb NVMe, external storage is will the same thunderbolt attached jbod I used for the MAC. Now i have a thunderbolt attached NVIDIA card alond with the NUCs AMD Vega.
As far as phones go.. I think after my MotoZforce 2 dies I will go with a new gen ruggedized flip phone. I'm tired of the social media crap and alerts.
I don't have time for it really. Maybe I'm not the only one that feels this way. Sure my Wrangler Android Auto, I'll swap the head unit out for one with a real GPS.
China quit buying. That is where you lost your sales. Cook, and all western CEOs, need to keep in mind that CHinese gov is NOT about to allow real competition.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Apple will always blame anything else.
The other reasons probably are less users feeling the need to upgrade, and I'd be curious to check androids market share too (which is probably still growing).
I really need a headphone jack or two lightning ports built in... I guess I will be holding onto my 6S for as long as I can manage it...
Come on, people, the answer to the question 'why Apple (or {insert any manufacturer name here} doesn't want people repairing their products' is simple and right in front of everyones' faces, but nobody wants to come out and actually say it: If you make a product (like an iPhone) so that it can be easily repaired, then you sell fewer new replacements, leading to a loss of profits. It's happened countless times, I'm sure, since the advent of the Industrial Revolution: a company makes a durable, quality product, that lasts and lasts and lasts, and maybe if it does break, it's easy to fix and keep using. Initially they sell a gazillion of them, and make all sorts of money; eventually, however, everyone who wanted to buy Product 'X' has bought one, and since they don't seem to need to replace it, ever, that company goes out of business because no repeat customers! This is why there is such a thing as 'planned obsolescence', too, of which 'lack of repairability' is just another version. Apple, and any other company you care to name, doesn't want to repair, or allow anyone else to repair their products in any substantial way, because they, ideally, want you to buy a new one every year. If Apple, or anyone else, thought they could get away with the entire inside of their products be just one solid block of opaque epoxy (and it wouldn't cost more money to do so), they'd do just that, to ensure no one can 'fix' anything.
It wouldn't be anywhere near as hard as these manufacturers claim to build things like smartphones in such a way that they're more modular internally and more easily repaired. It would cost more money, to be sure, but you could create a smartphone in such a way that it's not only 'field repairable', but upgradable, such that you could keep using the same one for years and years and years -- and a company like Apple would likely go bankrupt, or at least become so much less profitable that who knows what would become of them? At the very least perhaps they'd become less innovative for less profits to invest in research and development of new technologies. Who knows?
One thing is certain: microminiaturization of just about everything has clearly made repairing electronic devices significantly more difficult and in some cases impossible. Back in the early days of television, for instance, up to the end of the CRT TV era, repairing a television set down to the individual component level was not only possible but a regular practice. First with vacuum tubes, then transistors, then through-hole integrated circuits; it was possible for a technician to troubleshoot down to the discrete level, replace a part (or several) and the TV would be good to go again. Even with computers and computerized devices, up until the advent and widespread use of BGA-packaged integrated circuits, it was still possible to field repair PCBs without any too-expensive equipment. But now between the fact that the vast majority of ICs are now BGA-packaged devices, and the package density of PCBs in a device like an iPhone, these PCBs are for all intents and purposes unrepairable; between the need for specialized equipment, costing thousands and thousands of dollars, to remove and replace BGA devices, and the specialized training required to successfully use this equipment, there's still a large chance that the attempts to repair such PCBs will fail, costing the company attempting to repair it money they can't recover. Even the manufacturers themselves don't usually attempt to 'repair' PCBs anymore for this reason, they'll replace them with new. For this reason if 'The People' want electronic devices that can be repaired to the Nth degree, they'll have to settle for overall larger, heavier devices, using technologies that allow component-level repair -- or someone will have to invent a new technology that isn't essentially a straight-line path from raw components to finished device to end-user use to the e-waste bin.
While macroeconomic challenges in some markets were a key contributor to this trend, we believe there are other factors broadly impacting our iPhone performance, including consumers adapting to a world with fewer carrier subsidies, US dollar strength-related price increases, and some customers taking advantage of significantly reduced pricing for iPhone battery replacements.
because that sounds a lot more like, "we had to charge a lot less for a service than we had anticipated."
If Apple wants to make their products unrepairable, fine... HOWEVER, they should come with a 10 year warranty.
Next time Tim Cook wanks on about how "green" Apple is, he can F**K OFF, the greenest approaches are upgrade and repair , neither approach supported by Apple.
And who the hell cares if the items are too complex to repair, if you fail to repair a broken item, what do you have, a broken item...DUH.
Give us the 3d camera and let the app folks have fun.
Watching this strange man flail around trying to deal with a small drop in growth amusing. He has nothing like Jobs's reality distortion capabilities; he's actually making things worse.
Phones, with their current functionality, have reached the point where they are "pretty good". I use a Samsung S8Plus which I've just paid off. It's fast, big enough, an OLED screen, and has plenty of storage space. I'll be rooting it soon. Until I bought this I was never really satisfied with my phone. Always wondering when it will be really fast, or not run out of space, or have a clearer screen. The only reason to upgrade now might be the battery. But I can replace the phone for 150 with damage warranty. The next time I upgrade will probably be for 5G but that's the only reason I can think to do so.
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
Like with the PC. Where one car maker says "fuck it, we're going open", and creates a bunch of interface standards so that everybody can make e.g. a body or a motor or a suspension system for it.
Obviously it would include all the rules so that any arbitrary combination of parts that are certified to be compatible to this interface are also legal and have a known crash test behavior.
And there would be a few different platforms to serve the different needs. Because a high performance sports car can't use the same chassis as a "Smart" wheelchair^Wcar.
Buying out a bankrupt car maker with otherwise great tech (like Saab used to be), with money from a crowdfunding, would probably be quite realistic. Imagine Top Gear and/or The Grand Tour doing something like that, with their massive "most popular TV show of all time" audience. They'd have the contacts, the backers, the interest and and the ability to do something like that.
It's because the last phone cost $1200 and nothing innovative was announced, so there is no point in upgrading.
So IOW they are too stupid to sell iPhone parts so somebody else makes the money.
Tough luck.
Dear Apple, If you want people to treat your products like they are disposable then you need to price them like they are disposable. If I pay $1000 for my phone there is no way I'm going to throw it out within 2 years for any reason. Make the cost closer to the cost of repair if you want to have a new one all the time.
Then, last summer, the GPS stopped working. Apple replaced it with an identical 6S right before the 1-year warranty expired.
So now I've got a 6S with a 100% battery. Eventually I'll need to spend $49 to get the battery replaced, but that's what I plan to do - not buy a new phone. This phone does what I need it to do.
Sure, I can't do animoji. I can't open it using my face. Somehow I'll live without those awesome features - maybe spend that $1000 on a new camera lens.
#DeleteChrome
The tech press takes massive payolla from Apple and others to push anti-consumer FUD.
-the right to repair becomes the creation of dangerous unlicensed hardware likely to maim, kill and allow 'russians' to steal your banking info.
-the desire for memory card expansion becomes the demands of depraved cheapskates to ruin the wonderful internal memory system and file security.
-the desire to control spying peripherals with actual hardware switches is demonised with the ole "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" garbage.
-the desire for a headphone jack is derided as the rantings of a "get off my lawn" senile old man.
But now the ability to get what you want from a phone (mostly) by buying a well specced chinese brand is attacked by the puppeteers of 'leaders' like Merkel, Trump, May and Macron stating that chinese phones must be banned. A modern phone to the West's design specs is the most perfect NSA spy tool imaginable. Everything currently depreciated on a phone represents ideas the NSA wants banned.
In the new Deep State Orwellian society, we are all but cattle to be controlled and observed in the most perfect ways possible.
Apple is now run by a literal monster (Cook makes my flesh crawl in a way only Tony Blair has done so in the past). But unlike Blair, Cook is a total incompetent corrupted by power to a degree the demonic Blair is proofed against. And now Cook is making the Orwellian nature of Apple's phones look bad- something his Deep State masters are going to be increasingly worried about.
But the R+D arm of the NSA, Google, will be the true inheritors of the Orwellian phone program.
Tell them up front "after X years you won't get bug fixes and you will be vulnerable to zero-days."
As far as the corporate world is concerned, that's tantamount to setting an expiration date.
Sure, they may look to Android, but there aren't many Android vendors promising 5+ year bug-fix support either.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I like having a smart phone, but honestly this is getting silly. I can pick android and have google in everything I do. I can pick apple and have better privacy, but support a company that is price gouging and publicly telling me they want my phone to die more often. We need a 3rd option.
Apple keeps price gouging their products -- their profit margin is impressive. How about cutting that sh*t out and making your products affordable... and start INNOVATING again. Apple's recent years have been bereft of originality and innovation, they are going stale. Time to step up, or step out.
The great majority of people used to count down the days until they could get a contract-price upgrade of their smart phones because 2 years made a huge difference in almost every aspect. It's just that now we're approaching peak-smartphone as far as current technology will allow. So until then there is way less drive for people to upgrade every year or two and people are keeping them longer.
This is clear because all smart phone sales have declined and keep doing so.
Trust me, if someone comes up with a game-changer like a week long battery then we'll have another boom in sales across the board. If nothing else I'm sure when true 5G becomes widespread, it will take care of the issue.
$1k is a significant psychological barrier, and you released a model that darn near identical to the one released last year. People who would upgrade from last year's model are balking. People who would upgrade from previous years' models are taking a very close look at Android, which happened to have a pretty decent release this year (Pie), and now has models besides Pixel which are not fucked up by the phone's manufacturer, and guaranteed to receive OS updates (Android One initiative).
What did you expect after nearly doubling the price of the product? The base model of iPhone XS now costs 5x what a very decent Android One phone does (Nokia 6.1 2018 model). The price differential is not at all commensurate with difference in capability.
I wonder how the SE would have done against the new $1000 phones.
With the end of More's law, I also wonder if the environment is worth more than Appple's bottom line.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
You mean to tell me, Timmy-boy, that your phones are so fucking likely to break to the point where, if people start fixing them, it affects your bottom line? If so, they sound pretty shoddy.
All this time, I've been told people are willing to pay a premium for their phones because they "just work" and they're better quality than anything else on the market...?
So which is it?
There goes the time the iPhone was clearly a better user experience for the price.
The smartphone technology has evolved well enough that any 200+ USD phone provides a satisfying experience, only slightly worse than a phone ten times more expensive.
Also if anything, people understood the iPhones from iPhone 6 onward were not made to last, and thus confidence on the brand was eroded. Why invest 1k-2k USD in a phone that is not build to last, and will only get you by 2, at most 3 years? By that token, you buy a 200USD every couple of years, use the latest tech, and save a bunch of money in the process.
Furthermore, phones are a very vulnerable technology to theft, breakage or loss. There is no incentive into buying 2K USD phones against 200-300 USD phones that just work. People are pragmatical.
I really miss the headphone jack more than I thought I would, touch ID was nice and missed, as was having a physical button to go HOME and to scroll through running apps. Without that button you do odd "halfway pull" gestures on the LCD to scroll through apps, the notch sucks on the display. Its bigger so none of my car vent holders fit it, its really bulky with a case. Battery life is nice and they say the camera is better but I can't tell the difference. I repaired my 6S twice and should have just kept doing that. I'll sell this and upgrade again when the headphone jack is standard.
desperation.
the truth of course is this is 2018 and you can't sell a new phone as "groundbreaking" with core features from 10 years ago minus stuff that people really want, like earphone jacks, for a price that is twice that of competitor's with better features and less bullshit behavior towards their users.
I'm certain that there will still be a set of people who wait outside in the rain when a new Apple product is released, and cheerfully turn in their previous iteration to be shredded, and consider the outrageous price as a way of showing everyone how well they're doing in the world every time they pull out their new shiny Apple device, not bothered at all that their battery is not replaceable and the memory and SSD are soldered in place, secure in the knowledge that a slight incremental refresh will become available before any current components have a chance to wear out.
Apple will continue to make money on the J R Beer business model "if you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it". Just, perhaps, not quite as much money.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
The charge port on my 6s needed replaced. I went thru call support (knew the problem) and they confirmed the problem, so they scheduled an in store repair. I go, wait for a while, and finally see a person that looks at it and determines the port needs replaced. Then they inform me they don't replace for that model (at least not that old) and try to get me to buy a new one. I buy a repair from ifixit and keep using it. The main problem I see is how much the cost of a phone has gone up under Cook, with the fact there is nothing new that really encourages an upgrade. Now you have a building repair industry/movement, it may get worse. I will admit ifixit has done a good job with their site not just selling products, but decent instructions to repair. My dad bought a dirt cheap replacement battery for a 5s from amazon, but it was the wrong battery. I told him to go thru ifixit, it may be a little more, but you will get the correct battery
I have an iPhone. I just like it better than Android. My phones last about 3 years and I upgrade, selling the old phone on eBay to lessen the shock (people still drop $100+ on 3yo iPhones). Every time I buy a new iPhone, I get this thing about recycling and I'm thinking: why? You guys don't sell the parts or the phone anymore. Yeah, it's all about recycling those dollars into newer phones by taking yours off the market. I may buy an iPhone, but I don't buy their "environmentally responsible" bullshit.
Chewbacon
The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
Being stupid cunts like this. I wont buy an Apple product at all. I'd rather deal with a Windows system that I can then port to Linux.
My spouse is a happy iPhone user, and I've done a bunch of repairs on it. I'd love to buy a new iPhone to replace the 6, but I refuse to buy one without a headphone jack.
Bluetooth is crap, and I don't want to carry dongles.
such an ugly design, steve will never let someone design an iphone with a notch on the display.
Until apple remove the notch from the display, I will not buy any iphone.
Repairing iPhone should be considered as Anti-American activity and has to be prosecuted as economical sabotage.
When you buy a thing you own that thing. It is that simple. The Ayn Rand crowd would just be dandy with control after sale practices.
So they are admitting their product was designed to fail? were they expecting revenue from people buying new ones? sounds sketchy.
since people are looking now. Plus it's my kid's phone and she graduates in 2 years and then has to buy her own phones :D.
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Tough shit, Apple. I'm content with my iPhone 6 and see no need to upgrade to something beyond a 6S as I don't want to lose my headphone jack. Plus, I may upgrade to a 5S as I like the smaller form factor. YOU. ARE. NOT. MAKING. A. NEW. PHONE. THAT. I. WANT. Fix that and include a headphone jack and I may consider buying a new phone.
Further proof that Apple has been taken over and is being ruled by MBAs rather than innovators.
HERE HERE!
I will not DOWNGRADE my iPhone SE, (basically a 6S in a 5S body,) to a piece of defective-by-design SHIT that is missing its headphone jack, let alone pay WAY MORE for it.
NO.
Apple’s Tim Cook is, as far as I'm concerned, lying. NO ONE at Apple asked me why I didn’t cough up north of a KILOBUCK to “upgrade” my SE. Therefore they have NO WAY OF KNOWING if it’s because I repaired it or because I didn’t BREAK IT in the first place.
Cook is just trying to save face and scapegoat iFixit and similar organizations for the REAL PROBLEM causing Apple’s lackluster sales figures:
PEOPLE DO NOT WANT APPLE’S NEW OVERPRICED SHIT ANYMORE!
Same things are going to start happening across ALL APPLE PRODUCT LINES because Cook is a lying shithead who insists on trying to forcefeed an already saturated market with bullshit they’re not interested in. Period.
Thank you.
You do NOT need a headphone jack PERIOD. Why is that so hard for you to grasp?
I don't need an iPhone either. But if you want me to buy one, you should probably make one that I want to buy.
I second that.
I need and USE my headphone jacks to plug things into, thank you very much.
Maybe some people don’t need a headphone jack, Apple Shill. But as should be obvious from the plethora of remarks here asserting that Apple should NOT have pulled this stupid shit, especially when it is so damned obvious that it’s just because they just HAPPEN to have bought a WIRELESS HEADPHONE COMPANY, some people DO need, and DO USE DEVICES WITH THEIR HEADPHONE JACKS, AND THAT’S NOT GOING TO CHANGE NO MATTER HOW MUCH APPLE, and its incompetent asshole leadership, wants it to.
You can have my wired headphones when you pull them from my COLD, DEAD EARS!
The phone industry is going though the same thing the PC/Laptop industry went though a decade ago. What people have now is good enough and the cost to performance increase ratio of a brand new device just isn't worth it.
For the average consumer a laptop/pc that is 10 years old is good enough for probably 90% of the tasks they use the device for, just as a phone of about 5 years old is good enough for the average tasks people are using them for. There is zero reason to buy a new pc/laptop/phone unless you just have to be on the bleeding edge and have a ton of money to burn.
Before Apple popularised "smart phones" (Nokia, etc. had them for years before, but they weren't mainstream until the iPhone) the mobile phone market was already mature/saturated in western economies - there were generally more phones than people.
Virtually everyone has a "smart phone" now. Since the iPhone 6 there has been little perceivable difference in performance and functionality to mainstream users.
In a mature market, the only reason you buy a new product is because of wear-and-tear or compelling new features.
I'm still using an iPhone 6. The battery is starting to go and there's a couple of dings and scratches on the metal case, but a newer phone is going to do exactly the same things, just with a slightly nicer screen, a better battery and the added hassle of not having a headphone jack. The limited battery life of my current phone isn't really an issue though since it's mostly sitting around plugged into a charger.
In the first few years of the iPhone, the technology advanced so rapidly that there were compelling reasons to buy a new phone every year or two - there were updates to 3G then 4G, the introduction of higher resolutions, huge increases in processing power and energy efficiency and similarly huge increases in the camera functionality and larger screen sizes.
Despite all the confected doomsday drama about falling sales, Apple is still enormously profitable and its last quarter was its second-best ever. But you know, dying media outlets need to generate revenue so cue the sensationalist headlines.
Your move suckers.
The repairs/repairers are the problem, not your profit driven need to discourage such activities or the unrealistic expectation that you can force some kind of culture shift to disposable crap when people literally know better because prior generations of device were more repairable and less annoying in general to use, especially when it's trying to get you to use fucking "cloud" features every 5 seconds.
The real cause people are repairing their iPhones is a little bit hidden in this way.
People repair them because new ones are too expensive.
The new ones are too expensive because Apple has pumped up the price to 'compensate' for fewer sales.
This is Apple testing the graph of 'Supply and Demand'. It is clear they will have to lower prices.
It seems illegal that - as a publicly traded company - they now, as they are declining, refuse to release iPhone sales numbers.
Thing is; they don't innovate enough and can't compel users to cough up the price difference on branding alone.
I hope they can accept the downscaling as a result of the iPhone sales reduction and won't go through messy monetisation efforts across their other product lines...
On the positive side, Tim Cook got to focus on virtue signaling his loyalty to all the Regressive fashions of the moment.
Hey Cook...you're admission of THROTTLING older phones "because it would extend battery life", kind of let the cat out of the bad to what was really going on. You purposely slowed them down, because after a NEW OS update, people would notice the slower phone, go to an Apple store, the apple employee would tell them the older hardware couldn't handle the new OS, in an effort to push them into a NEWER more EXPENSIVE phone, that of course would seem MUCH faster. With the battery replaced, their OLD phone appears MUCH faster. Couple that with the insane pricing of the phones, and it's no wonder people aren't buying these overpriced phones. Not just Apple, but the pricing of Samsung has gotten out of hand too.
You can blame Trump for this. He started a silly trade war with the biggest consumer market. Now surprisingly they don't want to buy your stuff anymore...
People(?) are buying fewer i[idiot]Phones because they're overpriced, flimsy junk.
The hero we all need.
I can tell your a jealous ass. Your first problem is you
They didn't buy new ones because they are to fucking expensive.
A shame Tim Cook's not legally obligated to tell the whole truth.
But then, if he did, his career would be over. He's even more obsessed with building walls than his idiot President. And that's coming at the cost of innovation. Apple is stagnating under his lead.
A company that once excelled at design AND engineering has veered drastically into the weeds of DESIGN IS GOD like Ion Storm under John Romero without Carmack to ground him.
This is just Cook cynically choosing the excuse of least resistance to save his own hide. "I-it's not MY fault, it's the REPAIRERS U_U
See also: USB-IF made DigiCert the gatekeepers of new USB devices. I wonder how much work Apple put into that move, instead of producing stunning products?
"Ending is better than mending".
This Aldous Huxley was plain genius.
That people don't have a new phone every 2 years built into their cell plan anymore and when people see the real price is $799 they say the phone they have is just fine. Now apple is just putting out fake news by blaming it on people repairing their phones so the politicians are like we can't have that I lost money iny stock portfolio. Now we will have serious legislation preventing people from repairing their own property.
They recently released info about their officials repair parts for all their phones!!!
Squeezing the user and straight up denying reality are two entirely different subjects.
While Jobs was famed for his skewed reality his was skewed towards awesome shit that made lots of money. This is just straight greed pure and simple. The products are stagnant and starting to suck these days.
The only "repair" mentioned in the letter is reduced-cost battery replacements. As in, Apple's $29 battery replacement program that just ended. Now it's back to the $59 price.
I'm not saying Apple doesn't play dirty with repairs, just that the Motherboard headline and article are a little misleading. The letter isn't a blatant admission by Apple that they hate third party repairs. That's only demonstrated by their actions.
Imagine if Apple started marketing the fact that you can keep using your iphone for 5 years without upgrading. All you have to do is periodic battery replacement. Stop being hostile to user or third party repairs. Gauranteed security updates for 5 years. I'd buy that phone.
So those numbers where hyper inflated through planned obsolescence and anti consumerism
Is anyone surprised?
Good thing they're getting their numbers back down to normal.
I'm being serious.
Apple has TONS of budget to do market research, price elasticity studies, etc. That this was a surprise to them befuddles me.
Oh, android user here. Ya know, has headphone jack. Was gifted air pods for Christmas. They're compatible, and nice and all, but my wired headphones just never decide to drop the Bluetooth connection, etc.
So, removing the headphone jack just costed Apple 9 billion dollars.
It has nothing to do with repairs. Itâ(TM)s their high prices and lack of subsidies.
â¦_anyone_ could have taken reins of Apple. Enough product was pipelined that Apple could run for the next 10 yrs - doing nothing. Apple would continue to crank out money. SteveJobs knew thatâ¦
Tim Cook did exactly that perfectly. Directors have only themselves to hold responsible for NOT mentoring a creative heir apparent.
Tim did exactly as expected; nothing. Now Appleâ(TM)s pipeline is empty, layoffs follow and whatever happened past 10 years is on the block.
My Ford has one of those Microsoft factory stereos in it, with Bluetooth. Complete trash. I have to disconnect the battery on occasion to reboot the fucking stereo.
That is fucking hilarious. You have to reboot the stereo by cycling the power at the battery? Does it show a Windows 10 splash screen when it comes back on? OMG, that is priceless.
Apple would rather have us fill landfills with precious materials and continue to trash the planet so they can profit. I get it. I thought Apple was suppose to be a e-hipster, green, trendy company.
Android One
His lies affected Trump. Don't think that is as easy to run from. Fingers crossed for tarrifs.
Strange that other Chinese manufacturers are thriving in China. They have great phones there. Samsung also had their asses kicked there.
Maybe Trump is right. Apple should not be making phones in China. Maybe he should put a tarrifs on them to make Lying Cook see it his way.
Because of the rate of change that happened. Cook has been talking about China being this massive opportunity for years...even last November.
Then China suddenly went Android.
No it was the the Chinese potential customers choosing Android over Apple on mass. Because they decided that they could get better phones for less. Headphones could have played a part, but costing 4 to 10 times as much for phones considered better is probably what did it.
Fairphone anyone?