Gregg Thurman on WSJ: The iPhone is gold - 'Jobs once said he wanted Apple to be the Sony of consumer electronics. He got what he wanted.'
on Wedbush raises its Apple target $50 to Street-high $400 - 'Then what was all the hubbub about the hiring of John Gianandrea?'
on Saturday Apple video: 'My model of business is the Beatles' - 'I love that he didn’t suffer from Dunning-Kruger.'
on WSJ: The iPhone is gold - 'It’s one of the few companies today that treats its customers like its customers, as opposed to commodities. Tech and telecomms companies are probably the worst. But even banks slap the people who walk through the front door and open an account with service charges, in return for allowing the bank to borrow their savings at 0% interest and lend it back to them for prime + 2-3%.'
on The Verge: Samsung's flagship is a MacBook miss - 'Samsung actually doesn’t have a component advantage when assembling Notebooks, smartphones, or tablets. Because of the corporate structures, every Samsung Electronics division (Memory, Foundry, Seniconductor Devices, Display; MX – Smartphones, Tablets, Wearabkes, Notebooks & Computers) all function independently and fight for their own revenue and production so they “might” get a slight discount if that. otherwise, they have to justify how they make revenue. Given memory is now going to be at a premium to EVERYONE, even Samsung MX is not immune to rising parts costs, and guarantee they don’t have anywhere close to the purchasing power that Apple has. This is already impacting Samsung such that despite a modest 3.5% increase in MX Division revenue YoY in Q1 2026 to $25.45B, the combined MX+NW profitability dropped -35% YoY. And that’s with the newest and presumably most profitable Galaxy S26 series being released late Feb, Shipping 2nd week of March. While some reports say the S26 was selling 25% better than last year’s S25 series, profitability was dragged down due to the vast majority of Samsung smartphone sales being the budget Chinese ODM made A0x and A1x series, and low midrangers A3x and A5x series (includes 4G phones as well), assembled in India and Indonesia for local and export markets. (See top 10 smartphones Q1 2026 post) All of these phones will have BOM and margins heavily impacted by rising memory costs. In fact, according to Ars Technica, https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/04/samsung-may-be-bracing-for-first-ever-annual-loss-in-smartphone-business/ MX head TM Roh warned internally that Samsung smartphones may have a net loss in 2026 due to rising costs. Samsung has already begun to raise prices on all series to try to offset. Of course, raising prices in budget models makes them less affordable, and as mentioned in many reports, smartphone demand and sales is likely to fall with rising prices, less so though for the Premium tiers where Apple iPhones dominate. This is going to be a very interesting year in smartphones, notebooks, tablets, etc., anything that uses memory chips.. What once was a “mature market” is undergoing heavy reassessment due to unprecedented parts costs increases. I wouldn’t be surprised if Android market slips >10% or more..'
on This robot vacuum maker's wannabe iPhone sucks (video) - 'Not keeping its iPhone AI “promises” cost Apple 250 million. How much will Trump’s “Failed Phone” ™ cost him? (That’s a rhetorical question!)'
on The Verge: Samsung's flagship is a MacBook miss - 'Is it really “about the same”? $3800. 16″ screen, 32gb RAM, 1TB storage, Core Ultra 7 processor, NVIDIA RTX 5070. That processor has 16 total cores, 4 performance, 8 efficient, 4 low power efficient That “high end” processor feels more like the M5 Pro, -or less-. $3900. 16″ screen, 24gb RAM, 1TB storage, M5 Max (18/32 core) Or for the M5 Pro, $2700. So I’m not convinced “about the same” at all… But I’m sure someone will do benchmarks. I’ll be -particularly interested- in battery life.'
on WSJ: The iPhone is gold - 'Richard and Robert: Well said – you two are a great team too. Ergo I’m upvoting both of your comments. 🙂'
on This robot vacuum maker's wannabe iPhone sucks (video) - 'Prompt: “throw shit on the wall and see if it sticks”'
on WSJ: The iPhone is gold - 'Richard: I enjoyed reading your comment. I see Apple’s ethos, inculcated by Steve Jobs as you point out, as a process and approach that adds to the value proposition of Apple products and services. I don’t see Apple customer paying “extra” for Apple products. I see it as Apple customers recognizing the enhanced value of the products through the process, and indeed by the fundamental design of the products, that incorporates the needs, desires and aspirations of the customer from the very start.'
on This robot vacuum maker's wannabe iPhone sucks (video) - 'AI psychodelic hallucinations are the best marketing tool for vaporware. I wonder what the prompt was for that video?'
on The Verge: Samsung's flagship is a MacBook miss - 'The price is about the same. Samsung’s component advantage doesn’t help. Why? They need Intel’s chips and Microsoft’s OS. Separately, and jointly, they’re no match for M-series running MacOS. With Neo at the budget segment, the mismatch is much worse.'
on Saturday Apple video: 'My model of business is the Beatles' - 'Quote of the day: “Be on guard against arrogance, which knocks at the door whenever you are successful” – Steve Jobs, 60 minutes interview 2003'
on The Verge: Samsung's flagship is a MacBook miss - 'The botch isn’t just the hardware, Windows OS is still garbage against MacOS.'
