Michael Goldfeder on Bernstein hikes its Apple price target $15 to $340 - 'Does this mean that Rod Hall will be returning too?'
on He was about to return his Apple Vision Pro, then... - '”I am sooooo looking forward to using mine to watch Real Madrid Real Madrid is just completing a multi-million dollar renovation of its stadium. The owner has test drove the Vision Pro and stated he’d like to see it installed there. Says he (paraphrasing), “there are millions of Real Madrid fans that would like to see a game live, but can’t. The Vision Pro could be the next best thing to live.” https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6821120/2025/11/19/real-madrid-apple-news-sponsorship-documentary-perez/'
on Apple tops the active installed base charts - 'A little chart reading and interpolating: If Motorola is approaching 200M and Honor is already over 200M IB, the charts roughly says that’s about 3.3% of the total. Apple appears to have 24.6% while Samsung has 19.4%, together ~44%. If 200M is 3.3%, then Apple’s 24.6% is 7.45X larger, so that’s 1.491 billion install base, pretty close to the 1.5B most people are showing for Apple’s install base as of 2025, and as mentioned above, that’s just iPhones. Samsung would have roughly 19.4/3.3 = 5.88 x 200M = 1.176B, in line with Counterpoint’s estimate. Xiaomi comes in at 12% or 727M, Oppo 8% or 485M, Vivo with 7.4% or 449M, Transsion with 4.6% or 279M, Huawei with ~4.1% or 249M, and Honor with 3.6% or 218M. Poor little Google seems to have less than 1%, about 0.8% or ~50M And remember, not all active devices are equal. Given that 4 of every 5 Samsung devices are A series mid and low priced tiers, better than 80% of Samsung’s install base are these cheaper smartphones getting replaced every 2-3 years, especially because their OS and security support is limited to less than 3 years. Even among the Galaxy S models, the S21 (released in 2021, so 5 years total) just was removed from OS and security support, even though most users feel the phone could run newer OS’es. This is why Samsung has little ecosystem revenue and keeps pushing for some kind of recurring revenues besides hardware sales. ALL of the other Chinese OEM’s have ASP’s below $270, as far down $150 for Xiaomi and $100 for Transsion, so the vast majority of Chinese OEM install base are also mid to low priced budget smartphones, barely conducive to long term ecosystem or recurrent revenues, again pretty much dependent on hardware sales. Meanwhile, Apple told everyone to watch their Services revenues double by end 2020 ($14.5B) and now double again by end 2025 ($30B), now pushing $110B for CY2025, all because having an integrated ecosystem, App Store, large install base, tremendous breadth of services, and economically advantaged user demographic is something Apple planned for, executed for, and keeps happy with value for the money they spend. Apple’s install base is a very productive install base, Android’s is, well, a lot of hardware, a lot ending up as e-waste, and not terribly productive for their makers. ya, doomed I tell ya….'
on The New York Post accuses Apple News of left-leaning bias - 'I was referring more to a balance of sources (right vs left), and not to the content of those sources. I can understand why you would approve of the content of Apple news. My question would be, would it be acceptable to you if Apple was more balanced in regards to the sources of news, again not looking at the content?'
on Apple tops the active installed base charts - 'Upvoted. Yes your number are in line, closer to 33% per checks with AI. That’s why I’m a nut case about IB and “new to”, especially when analysts freak out about temporary lulls in unit sales.'
on He was about to return his Apple Vision Pro, then... - 'Before buying, I am waiting to see if Apple / F1 actually announce something in terms of dedicated content dedicated for the Vision Pro. The 2026 cars now have three camera bumps on top instead of the previous two, perhaps for better 3D capture. All speculation till the first race weekend, which is about three weeks away.'
on Apple tops the active installed base charts - 'I was looking up some other numbers. According to a website called backlinko in an article from January of this year, Apple has over 1.5 billion active users of the iPhone. Other sites say that Apple has sold a total of 3 billion iPhones over the years, as of last year. With active users of 1 to 1.5 billion, that would mean that 33-50% of all iPhones sold are still in use. If my math and numbers are correct. Those are decent numbers'
on In the 'navigation wars,' Apple Maps gains ground on Google - 'Khan’s work is always good – unbiased. I’ve never been comfortable with Google Maps it just never felt intuitive. (Not that Apple’s is perfect.) Glad they’re making headway. Do non-Apple people actually use Apple Maps?'
on In the 'navigation wars,' Apple Maps gains ground on Google - 'Exactly Gregg. What most people don’t get, is the value of Apple’s remarkable, sustained leadership and CULTURE (something some folks here now and in the past seemed to miss). The most basic example: Apple must be the only company left on Earth where I still consistently enjoy my customer service experience. Staying the course on Maps another great example. Let’s hope Siri and Vision Pro the next.'
on The New York Post accuses Apple News of left-leaning bias - '“The Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group focused on tracking media bias, analyzed a total of 620 stories that were featured by Apple News in high-traffic morning time slots between Jan. 1 and Jan. 31.” **I’m absolutely shocked, shocked, I tell you…that a *conservative* watchdog group found that Apple’s news app has been promoting articles from *left-leaning* news outlets. 🙂 It’s such a shame that Apple News isn’t fair-and-balanced like the New York Post. /s'
on He was about to return his Apple Vision Pro, then... - 'I am sooooo looking forward to using mine to watch Real Madrid, Premier League, Champions League, and even sports that don’t yet interest me. That is not even considering concerts (which I am too old to go to, but love).'
on Bernstein hikes its Apple price target $15 to $340 - 'I thought so too. He was always wrong Toni. Now that he is an Apple bull (finally) should we be afraid?'
on The New York Post accuses Apple News of left-leaning bias - 'I bet you could “algorithmically load” an account to get this kind of result, by liking/clicking on all of the ‘left wing’ stuff and denigrating (if Apple News has a “don’t show me this again” option) the ‘right wing’ stuff. (I stopped using Apple News because the ads were WAY too annoying. I use Google News ‘headlines’, with NO login or customization. Surprisingly, news.google.com doesn’t feed me ads. Increasingly, the big advantage of webpages over apps is the ability to load adblockers and other privacy tools in the web browser that are not available for individual apps!)'
on The New York Post accuses Apple News of left-leaning bias - '“But I would have thought that Apple’s standard would be a little higher than Fox News…” Which implies that you think Apple’s standard isn’t, Rodney. To which I take exception. And I read Apple News and Apple Business News a lot.'
