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posted by cmn32480 on Friday October 30 2015, @10:47AM   Printer-friendly
from the half-eaten-fruit-strikes-again dept.

Apple Doesn't Want You Weighing Things With Your iPhone Just Yet

Can you turn an iPhone 6S into a working digital scale? The answer, apparently, is yes, but Apple doesn't want you to right now.

In an interesting post on Medium, developer Ryan McLeod explains how he and his friends built a digital scale app for the new iPhones by taking advantage of Apple's new pressure sensitivity feature, 3D Touch. The company only uses 3D Touch for a few functions — adjusting how quickly you scrub through music and video, for example, or quickly accessing app shortcuts from the home screen — but McLeod says he was inspired by all the "creative workarounds" on the App Store to hijack it for something else.

-- submitted from IRC

Apple Sales, Profit Surge On iPhone Strength

Apple logged another healthy rise in sales and profits for its most recent quarter on the strength of record iPhone sales and strong results for Macs.

The company's revenue rose 22 percent from a year earlier to $51.5 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 26. Sales of iPhones reached a fourth-quarter record, and the company said it sold more Macs than ever. Sixty-two percent of revenue came from outside the U.S., and revenue in China nearly doubled.

The company's profit grew even more strongly than sales, up 31 percent to $11.1 billion, or $1.96 per share. For the full year, Apple made $53.4 billion.

Both sales and profit beat the consensus forecast of analyst polled by Thomson Reuters.

What will Apple do with its mounting pile of cash?


Original Submission #1Original Submission #2

 
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  • (Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Friday October 30 2015, @02:36PM

    by PizzaRollPlinkett (4512) on Friday October 30 2015, @02:36PM (#256471)

    Apple sells to the top 20% of income earners. That's their niche. They have targeted people for whom the annual cost of an iPhone cellphone plan is essentially nothing. These are high-income earners (or wannabe posers stretching themselves) can drop a few thousand dollars each year on the latest Apple whatever and literally not miss the money. They're the same people who can drop money on Amazon Prime and not miss it, even if they never use it. These are people who have moved beyond making ends meet to using money to mark their status. Apple can play these people like a fiddle. Apple's marketing campaigns to convince these people to buy stuff are absolutely incredible to watch unfold. The "leaks", the buildup, the product launch, the immediately sold out product during orders... it's a Pavlovian thing that gets these people to buy. I am in awe of what Apple does. I mean, it's everything a guy like Eben Pagan teaches, only instead of worthless dating advice or stock market tips, Apple has a real product that actually has some value.

    Now, if Apple devalued their product, and sold more units, they'd essentially destroy themselves. Their niche is the top 20% or people who aspire to it. If their products were as common as Samsung's, they'd be in Samsung's position now, fading into irrelevance. The fact that Apple has kept their customer base buying all these years is remarkable.

    The other niche that Apple sells to, professionals who want reliable laptops and desktops, is being neglected and almost totally ignored.

    --
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