David Emery on Meta Quest VR loses a 'world' weirder than anything Apple ever built — or ever would - 'What he has been good at is establishing the surveillance economy and selling that to advertisers. Back when I was on Facebook (these days I’m proud they threw me off when I wouldn’t sign up for their 2-factor approach that required more info about me than I was willing to give…), every time I’d see an ad on Facebook, before I blocked the advertiser, I’d add them to my personal “defecation roster.” of companies to avoid. I feel the same way about ads on YouTube, but at least those are slightly more distinguishable than the “sponsored content” on Facebook. Now I have all Meta websites blocked at my firewall. Unfortunately, that has cut us off from some relatives who post updates on their baby (born 3 months premature, but doing well) on Instagram.'
on As Chinese smartphone sales fell, Apple's China sales grew - 'Apple’s recent low cost entries is going to have a very big, and very negative, impact on the secondary market for 3 or more years old Apple products'
on As Chinese smartphone sales fell, Apple's China sales grew - 'Worse yet, mid to low end Androids, have to compete with second hand iPhones.'
on As Chinese smartphone sales fell, Apple's China sales grew - 'Very much agree with your assessment Gregg. This is a brilliant and strategic move by Apple that captures the market segment (the next generation of users) just below its traditional price point with a compelling product wrapped in Apple industrial design goodness, utilising fully amortised A series that perpetually get better. I’m confident this is a long term play for Apple that will provide a very solid foundation for Apple/AAPL – much in the same way that the M series will provide a foundation at the upper end and AI. If they can sort out their home automation offering that will only extend the opportunities for A series chips.'
on Meta Quest VR loses a 'world' weirder than anything Apple ever built — or ever would - 'The report is he lost $80B on this wasted effort. I wonder what it feels like to pile up $80B in the front yard and set it on fire?'
on As Chinese smartphone sales fell, Apple's China sales grew - 'Key here is that Apple is not interested in grabbing “market share”, never has been. Apple doesn’t even play in the price tiers that the vast majority (>90% by my estimates) of Android models sell in, namely below $400 (upper midrange, all brands, all regions), below $300 (midrange, Vivo, Oppo, OnePlus, etc. Mainland China, RofA, MEA, India, Europe, LATAM), below $200 (low price, budget – Xiaomi, Huawei, Mainland China, India, Africa, RofA, LATAM) and below $100 (rock bottom entry models, moving from feature phones – Transsion, Africa). For under $400, Apple’s used and refurbished older models fill that tier without any significant manufacturing effort or direct revenue gains by Apple itself, relying mostly on third party refurbishers, vendors, and secondary markets. However, as secondary markets value sales are dominated Apple products due to good resale value and demand, Apple WILL see services revenues eventually from this population, and a significant number of these users will remain with the Apple ecosystem as their economic buying power eventually grows. What Apple does care about is establishing their market for value oriented upper level buyers willing to partake of the Apple ecosystem, cutting edge Silicon, high quality features, demonstrated build quality, reliability, longevity, customer support, functionality, longer and higher resale value, and a certain attainable level and aura of prestige, status, and coolness (materials, design, color, and yes, marketing). This same market push is also aimed at up and coming aspiring youth and young adults who are shown the possibilities of what they can do with Apple products, the dreamers, the future professionals, the creatives, the doers. And also, everyone in between. And instead of diluting itself by building down to a price point where it doesn’t want to be, it built the 17e and Neo as its lowest priced new models, each $599, and offering essentials and recent state of the art chips as value for value oriented users worldwide, but particularly for emerging markets like China and India. Is it any wonder then that in China there’s been a continued surge back to Apple? Both the 17 and now 17e AND Neo are priced to take advantage of the Chinese government subsidy, bringing the price of the Neo below the ¥4000 level, adding more motivation to consider Apple products, even if they are so-called budget. It’s a direct approach to attracting more and more younger users like teens, college level, and young adult professionals, precisely the aspirational users that can become long term Apple customers. Here’s an article from 36KR Europe Central Station (the 36KR means the element Krypton, IMO, the Chinese love to mix metaphors and exotic foreign references) and one author’s view of Apple’s down market strategy. It’s a little florid in its “battle”, “competition”, and “throne” as well as “Apple bowing to pressure” descriptions, but hey, it’s Chinese culture and they must feel they have huge impacts on how Apple responds to its market: https://eu.36kr.com/en/p/3728041006267264'
on WSJ: Even with a brain-dead Siri, AI has become a cash cow for Apple - '“Apple’s dominant share at the top of the smartphone market affords it another luxury: time to get its own AI strategy right.” I don’t completely agree with that. Apple has a long history of success in coincidentally determining where things are going or need to go, technologically and strategically, while keeping front of mind the critical importance of really focusing on what users/customers are actually looking for or wanting, in terms of user experience, efficiency, ease-of-use, and performance. Often, it’s been despite that users/customers themselves haven’t actually known what they want or need. Over and over again, Apple has taken its time to develop, test and refine products to the point of quickly dominating the market it’s about to land in, and completely redefining standards of quality, usability, and performance. All while refusing to approach and treat users like a commodity. They did it with music players, they did it with smart-phones, and they did it with tablets, and at every step they have always seamlessly integrated hardware, software, and interoperability between hardware and software factors to enhance ease-of-use. And by all appearances they may be about to do it again with AI. So no, I don’t think the advantage that Apple has in its approach to AI is the result of the place the iPhone holds in the market. Apple’s advantage is the culture and standards that Steve Jobs established, protected, and fostered. Everything else – including their conceivably advantage in AI – is a product of that. Apple’s never hurried the release of products because they understand that their “competitors” are often engaged in what looks like a bunch of 5-year-olds playing soccer, with everyone just racing around randomly as they chase the ball. Meanwhile, Apple looks at the game strategically, and by comparison ends up looking like Messi.'
on As Chinese smartphone sales fell, Apple's China sales grew - 'Yet, Mr. Market does not see it. Apple will capture more phone market as they don’t raise prices and competitors have too. An hitting home runs on the low end bringing in new Customers that as we know stay forever. If I wasn’t already all-in on Apple, I’d be a buyer.'
on Meta Quest VR loses a 'world' weirder than anything Apple ever built — or ever would - 'No! No! How about “Faceplant”? Much more appropriate imho. 🙂'
on Premarket: Apple was green, turned red - 'Perplexity AI informs me that around 2/3 of Apple stock is held by institutions, mutual funds/ETFs, with the remaining 1/3 held by individual investors. It seems to me that the institutions’ restrictions on how much of any one stock they can hold – plus the uncertainty of the times – would be weighing on the current stock price. But the harder you push down on that beach ball…'
on WSJ: Even with a brain-dead Siri, AI has become a cash cow for Apple - 'Well the funny thing about this to me is if Siri is fixed to the point that AI works then Apple will have to figure out how to monetize it differently than a competitors app gaining Apple App Store fees. I am sure they can but then the criticism of their efforts will have to find a new problem to address about Apple’s failings. And if Apple just relies on more device sales without a software or service charge for better AI then the economics might be a bit murky on AI’s financial return.'
on Premarket: Apple was green, turned red - 'Index futures are red this morning. After dropping $4.29 on Wednesday to close at $249.94, Apple is off another $0.14 at $249.80 pre-market. Although NVIDIA’s GTC event this week garnered lots of positive media coverage, the shares finished down $1.53 on Wednesday at $180.40 and are off $2.32 ahead of the bell. Investors continue to plow through remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell following this week’s FOMC meeting. Trading begins in fifteen minutes…'
on Apple owns the richest customers in the richest countries - 'And Apple will continue taking share in MENA and Latin America as those countries continue developing. It’s good to be an Apple investor.'
on Meta Quest VR loses a 'world' weirder than anything Apple ever built — or ever would - 'I remember when Jim Cramer (yes, the Jim Cramer from CNBC) hosted Zuck on his Mad Money show to allow Zuck to demonstrate and pump up the Metaverse. Cramer was falling over himself talking about how this was going to be the next big thing. His co-hosts on their CNBC morning show Carl Quintanilla and David Faber couldn’t help but roll their eyes. Cramer is a hack and Zuck is, well, I’ll just stop there. How META still exists is a mystery to me. Like TSLA, has it become a sort of meme stock?'
