Dan Scropos on Omdia: The wearables market is splitting in two - 'A lower cost fitness band between $99 and $199 probably sees Apple’s current total addressable market more than double from Apple Watch alone.'
on Apple and Trump guys butt heads over Chinese chips - 'Exactly! Lutnick should be pounding on Micron and Samsung to expand memory manufacturing in the USA.'
on Apple and Trump guys butt heads over Chinese chips - 'Tim Cook has a good working relationship with the Trump administration. Here’s hoping that reporters don’t get in the way.'
on Omdia: The wearables market is splitting in two - 'The replacement cycle for Apple Watch has increased from 3 to 4 year to 4 to 6 years for the more recent devices. Hence one quarter’s unit sales does not indicate any trend. Tune out the noise. More importantly, Apple Watch has the only viable ecosystem.'
on Apple and Trump guys butt heads over Chinese chips - 'Then let Lutnick fund new domestic chip plants! There is an immediate shortfall, that requires immediate solutions for US manufacturers. Where’s the Memory Plant to feed Apple’s Mini plant in Texas?'
on Apple and Trump guys butt heads over Chinese chips - 'The optics, nevermind geopolitics, for Apple on using Chinese memory chips are pretty bad. Apple has been promising since Trump 1 to build-up its US supply chain. It’s made pitiful progress in the last 9 years in keeping that commitment. Deepening its Chinese supply chain dependence now goes against those past, unfulfilled commitments. Apple could invest to expand production of a US or South Korean memory company, so why pick a Chinese company? Loss of US gov’t sales and high import tariffs would be bad for business.'
on Saturday Apple video: Steve Jobs and the Apple story - 'Another interesting (but very long) video. Not strictly a tear-jerker, but not overly optimistic. I think Apple is far better positioned than the impression that is given at the end. I wish I could have heard the German over the translations, but that wasn’t gonna happen. I recognize DW as Deutsche Welle (German Wave – but wave meaning media stream) and NDR as Norddeutsche Rundfunk (Northern German Radio). So it is actually interesting that the thing was overall produced in English. I didn’t particularly notice any of the other credits. Somewhere along the way, I feel like the video made my laptop video go crazy. Don’t understand that. Like Jonathan says, a bit of a hatchet job. At the very least, a double-edged sword.'
on Premarket: Apple is red - 'Apple ended the trading week up $0.67 on the day at $305.93. The shares opened at $306.03 and spiked to a high on the day of $307.49 before quickly pulling back. The shares are off 2.36% over the past five days, off 2.84% over the past month and in the green 19.61% over the past six months. The shares were off $0.16 in today’s AH session.'
on Premarket: Apple is red - '(Doctor’s office waiting room, so quick post) AAPL’s $343-$302 12% essentially overnight drop July 29th-30th was, apparently not coincidentally, tied to a $392-to-$451 essentially overnight July 29th-30th 15% hike in MSFT. This is a tectonic shift between these two companies promulgated by a very small relative percentage of stock ownership literally moving from one company to the other. Fascinating, and a real “tell” about just the tiny cadre that is responsible for that shift – still reverberating a week later….'
on Reuters: Apple will be the first U.S. firm to crack the Chinese AI market - 'Having worked in a small company I’m always amazed at how Apple adapts to so many countries. It was a big deal for us to get the manual translated to a few languages. Apple has to adapt products and packaging and documentation for over a hundred countries.'
on Apple is offering pubs $100Ks for permission to train Siri AI on their content - 'This seems like the right thing to do: companies actually paying for value received. If so, then Apple has again gotten “out in front” of an issue. Similar to a well-published CEO transition and upcoming price changes. Content producers deserve a fair return. They do not deserve to be looted by voracious AI training expeditions.'
on Reuters: Apple will be the first U.S. firm to crack the Chinese AI market - 'They’re also developing a special “Schultz” AI model for the EU. It “knows nothing and sees nothing.” And so offends nobody.'
on Reuters: Apple will be the first U.S. firm to crack the Chinese AI market - 'This is an example of Apple’s understanding how to design products for an international distribution. They recognized that “one solution fits all” would be a problem in this case. So they have left in options that allow for different AI solutions in different regions of the world. Now if the performance is different in different regions that will center on the local regulations creating the differences more than on Apple not executing AI as well as someone else. May not be the best solution all the time but considering the interference regions are putting in Apple’s path to sell products it is a wise one.'
on One of Tim Cook's last acts as Apple CEO (video) - 'I find myself with mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, I’m glad to see Apple invest in the U.S. It’s somewhat overdue. And it might help a little bit in time. On the other hand, Bessent is corrupt as hell, purportedly Epstein-connected, and much too smart and well informed to be ignorant of what the current administration is up to. So – while I do not know – I prefer to think that Cook is doing this distasteful task much as one might turn toward the toilet handle to perform a particularly needful flush.'
on One of Tim Cook's last acts as Apple CEO (video) - 'If only TC wasn’t too smart to run for President. The world needs more Tim Cook’s in charge.'
