SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the it-worked-until-it-didn't...-now-what? dept.
Apple has had an incredible decade. Since the iPhone debuted in 2007, the company's sales have jumped tenfold. The stock has soared over 700%. And up until last November, it was the world's largest publicly traded company. But two weeks ago, Apple issued a rare warning that shocked investors. For the first time since 2002, the company slashed its earnings forecast. The stock plunged 10% for its worst day in six years. This capped off a horrible few months in which Apple stock crashed about 35% from its November peak. That erased $446 billion in shareholder value—the biggest wipeout of wealth in a single stock ever.
[...] Despite the revenue growth, Apple is selling fewer iPhones every year. In fact, iPhone unit sales peaked way back in 2015. Last year, Apple sold 14 million fewer phones than it did three years ago.
[...] In 2010, you could buy a brand-new iPhone 4 for 199 bucks. In 2014, the newly released iPhone 6 cost 299 bucks. Today the cheapest model of the latest iPhone X costs $1,149! It's a 500% hike from what Apple charged eight years ago. [...] In 1984, Motorola sold the first cell phone for $4,000. The average price for a smartphone today is $320, according to research firm IDC. Cell phone prices have come down roughly 92%. And yet, Apple has hiked its smartphone prices by 500%!
[...] Twelve years ago, only 120 million people owned a cell phone. Today over five billion people own a smartphone, according to IDC. [...] now iPhone price hikes have gone about as far as they can go. [...] A publicly traded company that makes most of its money from selling phones is no longer telling investors how many phones it sells!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Apparition on Tuesday January 22 2019, @09:15PM (10 children)
Here's the problem as I see it, and I know that this will be a bit contentious here: The iPad is still the best tablet, bar none. I'm sorry, but Android is a terrible OS in general, and an even worse OS for tablets. Is the iPad expensive? Heck yes. Is iOS a walled garden? Definitely. But, unlike an Android tablet, the apps work, and iOS spies on its users far less than Android does. If you want, you can read this article [bleepingcomputer.com].
Yes, I know. LineageOS. Root your device. I'm sorry, that's just a complete non-starter for your average user, especially since most recent Android devices sold in North America are completely unrootable.
So the options are to buy cheap Android devices that literally spy on you fourteen times per hour, or to buy expensive iOS devices that respect your privacy far more than Google does.
So until something better comes along (I was really rooting for the Jolla tablet), I'll stick with Apple and iOS.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jmorris on Tuesday January 22 2019, @09:30PM (5 children)
You can't easily copy your own media to a iProduct, you don't get an SD card slot, you can't sideload your own apps and you can't get root. On what planet is that "best" when it isn't even an option?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Apparition on Tuesday January 22 2019, @09:45PM
There's this thing called Nextcloud that lets you copy your own media. It even has an iOS app, you should look into it [nextcloud.com]. As for a SD card slot, and not being able to get root, that's also the case for most modern Android devices so I don't see any difference there.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday January 22 2019, @11:01PM (3 children)
Well, goodness. Here I am agreeing with jmorris. Quick, someone check if the lion is lying down with the lamb and whatnot.
In about 1992 I worked in the pre-press industry and we began using Macs. They were better than PC's and it was not even a debate. They were better. Full stop. (Or period, if you must).
As the years went by, Windows happened, then new versions of Windows happened, and Windows became more and more stable, and worked pretty well, then very well, then Apple's products were not "better" any more. Either option was fine.
Somehow, all my friends who still work in that industry still claim Apple stuff is "better", because it "just works", even though any other option "just works" too.
My point is, that iPads are fine. They work fine.
Android tablets work just as well though. Anything you want to do with an Android tablet you can, and just as well.
It is not 1992 anymore.
(Score: 2) by Apparition on Wednesday January 23 2019, @12:09AM (1 child)
Most Android apps look and work like blown up phone apps on tablets, (which is because they are). As I pointed out above, iOS also respects its users' privacy a lot more than Android does. So while Android may also work, I'd rather use a mobile OS that respects my privacy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @09:14AM
Then use Replicant, even if the phone selection is limited. The problem with iOS is that it's a proprietary jail; it does not respect users' freedoms at all. And even if it does respect your privacy now, that could change at any time, given that you have no real control over it.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday January 23 2019, @12:41PM
I want to use monotone to sync the documents I write between my Android tablet and my computer.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by crafoo on Tuesday January 22 2019, @11:28PM (2 children)
The Surface Pro is far superior to Apple tablets. Even encumbered with Windows 10, it's still far better.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 23 2019, @03:10AM
I've played with my girlfriends surface and I really liked it and was very impressed. She squealed with delight as she could see how impressed I was and how much I was enjoying it.
Like most people, I am not a fan of Windows 10, but as far as the Surface goes, for a similar price of a iPad Pro you get a real laptop that works also very well as a tablet and comes with a real OS that can run real applications and not just dumb single-function apps.
This is Apple's problem: They have lost their imagination and are currently releasing products based on momentum built up during the Steve Jobs days. Their obsession with "thin" is an obsessive compulsion. A Surface-like device running full-fleged version of OSX is something I really would have expected Apple to come out with, certainly not Microsoft. Apple today feels like the stagnant Apple from the mid-90s that almost ended up going bankrupt. Unfortunately there is not Steve Jobs to come to the rescue this time.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday January 23 2019, @12:45PM
The Surface Pro looked very nice, indeed. But can it dual-boot Linux and Windows? Will it still do that after a Windows forced upgrade?
(Score: 2) by PocketSizeSUn on Wednesday January 23 2019, @11:12AM
Yes .. you can tell the phone not to do that .. not sure how much the google apps honor the request though.
And of course that location information could be misused, or used to incriminate.
One of the primary uses of that data (well that I use a lot) is related to maps ... like when a place is busy and traffic information.
On the other hand if you are worried about your location history being used to discover that you went to a 'bad' part of town and spent a few hours at some 'shady establishment' then you probably ought to leave your phone at the office because it doesn't really matter what phone you have ... that data is available to the TLA's