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: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday January 22 2019, @09:29PM (1 child)
> Most PC users now could do with a PC that easily costs under a few hundred dollars.
This is a big reason why I've gone for low power PCs-- the stick computers, that Intel NUC, and of course the laptops and tablets. Cuts down on the noise, and still has enough power to run a desktop reasonably snappily. And can still play most high end games, albeit at lower framerates and resolutions. Though one problem I've had is that the embedded Intel HD graphics are prone to overheating. The computer can grind away at a CPU intensive math problem, but not actually use the 3D accelerated graphics, not without some adjustments.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday January 23 2019, @05:17PM
You still get more bang for you buck building your own AMD machine. I've only built AMD over the past decade and am quite happy with my choices. None of the computers I've built have died over that time period. I had some stability issues with my current setup, but I got 1st gen Zen and motherboard. Not sure whether the AMD updates or Motherboard updates eventually fixed the issues, but during that time I know I also had some issues with Windows 10. I think I just paid the first adopter tax on the hardware and the software.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"