According to
this site: "Apple net profit margin as of September 30, 2023 is
25.31%."
So, as I said, I require a projection of 50% profit margin in my business; because I know I won't have accounted for everything. Black Swans are real. So, everything you wrote above seems to be pinning your critique on hoped-for projections.
Customers need value from their purchases. I, personally, have achieved all the value I need from every purchase I've ever made from Apple. It's why I trust them as I do. I don't care if Apple earns 60% profit margin, so long as the value I'm receiving is real.
I'm trusting your claims at businessman. I'm one too. So we both know that "net" profit margin is worked DOWN on paper to minimize taxes. It's a common practice for many companies to show a net loss for tax purposes and a healthy profit to shareholders. Here's Apple's
Gross Margin 2010-2023... which is a number before any accounting maneuvering can be worked to minimize taxes.
Premiums ARE fattening. Margins ARE fattening. In our old Intel MBs, we could buy RAM & SSD for a fraction of what it costs in our Silicon Macs. If I actually do go PC for my next laptop, I'll be able to still buy excessive RAM and SSD storage for only what Apple charges for the Storage Upgrade. In fact, in the embrace of Silicon for my desktop Mac I knew I would need to replace my bootcamp option. For what I paid for Apple's 8TB SSD in that Mac, I was able to buy an entire gaming PC with 10TB of fast SSD and 32GB of fast RAM to return to "old fashioned bootcamp." That's a whole computer, good graphics card, 10TB of fast SSD and 32GB of fast RAM for what Apple wants to upgrade only the storage of a Silicon Mac to 8TB. I recently purchased 8TB of M.2 for $679. Compare that to the $2200 upgrade pricing. 1/3rd! For what is basically commodity storage in either case.
There's no denying margin expansion and anyone can look at relative pricing in the comparisons of fast RAM and SSD pricing.
Anecdote: you and I are BOTH among what feels like the few in various Vpro threads making "leaning positive" cases against the rampant, extreme pessimism about
that product, seemingly mostly on price. Why are a bunch of Apple people- presumably a lot of what could be considered some level of Apple fans- so wound up about $3500 for a brand new kind of potentially revolutionary product? Where's some positive imagination to offset a great volume of only negative imagination (or perhaps that NOT imagination at all)?
While there's always some stirring a similar pot for
every new product launch, I've never seen such a wall of extreme pessimism before. Is that genuine sentiment driven by some kind of objective view of Vpro eluding you & me and a few others? Or is that
another sign of goodwill erosion?
In past brand new launches, there was always a crowd of pessimists putting down the concept. But there was what seemed like at least an equally sizable group of extremist optimists countering. Not for Vpro. Every thread is loaded with overwhelming pessimism, seemingly heavily influenced by relative pricing. Yes, that could just be contempt for this
one kind of product but maybe it is a sign that goodwill is thinning... that the nickel & diming is eroding the willingness to just take leap of faiths on Apple greatness and instead leading to harder scrutiny of Apple propositions.
To be determined. I can only speak for me. I lean quite positive on the Vpro proposition. To me, it looks like an incredible bundle of value. At the same time, I have serious consideration that my next laptop might be a PC. That's pure consumer thinking in play. So I'm not overall down on Apple and certainly not a fanboy-type either.
This kind of rumor really bugs me. Apple doesn't need to pinch pennies like this. I don't know how much savings is in this move but I would guess it's probably a few dollars at most (per unit) on their purchasing power. Yes, on their volume of sales, a few dollars can be a LOT of added profit. But that profit comes at the expense of frustrating customers who do NOT want slower storage from the existing generation (whether they can notice or not).
Make fantastic new products and grow revenue on high-value sales. It's certainly possible to delight shareholders AND customers at the
same time. That's the Apple that seemed in play through my lens about 5-8+ years ago. In the last few years in particular, that perception is weakening for me. I see too much of this kind of thing and not enough of choices being made more favorable to customers vs. shareholder ROI. I wish to perceive a better balance... as it seemed in the past.
