IS APPLE becoming JUST a Phone Company?

[pr0230]

With most of apples products at least 2-2.5 years old, does it feel like apple is NOT the computer choice anymore....

The Mac Pro was released 2013 No updates...
Imac 2015
Mini- mac 2014 and no better than a 2012...
Macbook Pro 2016 No touch screen, no removable screen, all soldered component

Other products are also lackluster in innovations as well as a third generation iphone6.

Personally I want to replace my 2010 mini mac, but not with a 2014 (12) model... My son was ready to spring for a now macbook pro but NOT with the unimpressive components and price increase...

 

[44267547]

No, clearly not, being Apple recently released new MacBook Pro's and still sells Mac hardware. Apple is more than a phone company, considering it is 69% of their net profit.

 

[nortonandreev]

I think that no pro user needs a touch or removable screen. So the MacBook Pro 2016 is an inappropriate example.
Aside from that, I think it's true and obvious that Apple cares more about iPhone than it's other products which might be disturbing for Mac users.

macOS Sierra is just an example of that how neglected Mac users are.

 

[Askolan]

They are definitely neglecting the pros, and this reflects clearly in their new MacBook "Pro" line up. Steve Jobs understood the necessity of having a strong pro market; even when the iPod was the biggest chunk of their profits he never neglected Macs. The Mac is where we get our work done, and if a company makes this experience frustrating it will lose the halo effect and make consumers distrustful of other things they have to offer (see: Microsoft)

 

[imanidiot]

Apple is most emphatically Just a phone company, and it becomes more evident every day. Sorry, not Just a phone company. A watch and watchband company. They may continue to make laptops for a few more years, but desktops are (already) a thing of the past. The Mini, the Mac Pro, and the iMac will soon be history. Apple is just another company, get used to it. There is nothing "special and magical" about Tim Cook's Apple.
There was a famous American criminal named Willy Sutton, who specialized in robbing banks. When he was caught he was asked why he robbed banks. His reply: Because that's where the money is.
Simple. Not more complicated than that.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

Don't confuse a company's primary product with its purpose. To me, Apple is a personal computing company - putting computing power into as many hands as possible. Today, that's phones - phones and tablets have put the power of computers into far more hands than PCs ever did. And not just when they arrive at work, or get back home - that power is ever-present.

It's likely that computers and what they can do will become even more deeply embedded in our lives. I expect that Apple wants to be a major part of that future, no matter what form the next generation of computing devices takes.

The Apple-that-was existed in a different world. Time marches on. The gripes I read in this thread remind me of the complaints of authors accustomed to pounding out their manuscripts on manual typewriters. There was a time when people interested in computers were interested in the future. Clearly, that's not always the case.

 

[TheTruth101]

Apple is in the business of making money now and buying other companies. They are not into computers, they are doing well as it is.

Selling a new computer today would distract the attention from the iPhone line and it would be more costly for a less profitable product. Yes, they are greedy and they are neglecting computer users.

 

[Tech198]

With most of apples products at least 2-2.5 years old, does it feel like apple is NOT the computer choice anymore....

The Mac Pro was released 2013 No updates...
Imac 2015
Mini- mac 2014 and no better than a 2012...
Macbook Pro 2016 No touch screen, no removable screen, all soldered component

Other products are also lackluster in innovations as well as a third generation iphone6.

Personally I want to replace my 2010 mini mac, but not with a 2014 (12) model... My son was ready to spring for a now macbook pro but NOT with the unimpressive components and price increase...

unless iOS gets a file system as Good as the Mac that can pull from external drives nativally, i don't think we'll be there yet.

 

[maflynn]

They're a consumer electronics company. They also have the mentality that the IOS devices will be surpassing and eventually replacing its Macs. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but they tend to spend more time and energy with their iPhones and iPads

 

[akash.nu]

Apple is a consumer electronic company indeed. They will get on new product type as and when a opportunity arrives and the market is ready. That has been the idea of Apple throughout and Tim Cook is actually doing well with it exploring new markets.

On a separate note, as a whole Apple is moving from being just a product company to a product and services company. Services is where most of the innovation and resources are going in for Apple. Till date there is no other company on the planet that can rival Apple with the seamless merge between both product and services.

iPhone brings them the most revenue, its natural for them to focus on that more than anything else. Plus the shelf life of an iPhone is way less that macs. With the smartphone culture at present people are far more willing to buy an iPhone every year than a Mac. That's just how it is.

Everyone is moaning about the pro users but from the perspective of a company, focussing on just pro users is not really a sustainable business model. Apple wants to appeal to the mass and they're doing that really well. Pros are demanding, hard to please and always want more. Not the right type of customers for a company that produces devices at the scale of millions.

 

[belvdr]

Apple is a consumer electronic company indeed. They will get on new product type as and when a opportunity arrives and the market is ready. That has been the idea of Apple throughout and Tim Cook is actually doing well with it exploring new markets.

On a separate note, as a whole Apple is moving from being just a product company to a product and services company. Services is where most of the innovation and resources are going in for Apple. Till date there is no other company on the planet that can rival Apple with the seamless merge between both product and services.

iPhone brings them the most revenue, its natural for them to focus on that more than anything else. Plus the shelf life of an iPhone is way less that macs. With the smartphone culture at present people are far more willing to buy an iPhone every year than a Mac. That's just how it is.

Everyone is moaning about the pro users but from the perspective of a company, focussing on just pro users is not really a sustainable business model. Apple wants to appeal to the mass and they're doing that really well. Pros are demanding, hard to please and always want more. Not the right type of customers for a company that produces devices at the scale of millions.

From what I've read, people are not buying new phones every year like they used to. I don't believe Tim Cook has actually explored new markets. Maybe I'm wrong, but revealing the iPhone and the iPad were exploring new markets. Tim has only expanded on existing products.

I, too, see Apple doing more in services than product. Consider their initiatives in streaming TV, Apple Music, and iCloud storage, the services segment is still growing, as opposed to the product segments. Consider their Q4 2016 results, services had a YoY increase of 24% while all product segments decreased. It is this reason I see Apple concentrating on mobile devices (iPhone, iPad) and services. They can sell services and the device used to consume those services. I compare this to cable TV or ISPs: sell the subscription and rent the device to connect it.

 

[Carnegie]

Don't confuse a company's primary product with its purpose. To me, Apple is a personal computing company - putting computing power into as many hands as possible. Today, that's phones - phones and tablets have put the power of computers into far more hands than PCs ever did. And not just when they arrive at work, or get back home - that power is ever-present.

It's likely that computers and what they can do will become even more deeply embedded in our lives. I expect that Apple wants to be a major part of that future, no matter what form the next generation of computing devices takes.

The Apple-that-was existed in a different world. Time marches on. The gripes I read in this thread remind me of the complaints of authors accustomed to pounding out their manuscripts on manual typewriters. There was a time when people interested in computers were interested in the future. Clearly, that's not always the case.

That's right. Apple is and always has been a personal computer company. Where form factor changes have made sense (based, e.g., on technological advances, consumer preferences, societal trends, and productivity needs), Apple has followed - or, quite often, led the way.

That continues to be the case and is why the iPhone is (generally and fairly considered to be) Apple's main product category today. Apple still does robust business with other form factors, to include laptops and desktops. It's just that it does extraordinary business with the form factor that currently makes the most sense when it comes to meeting the majority of the computing and connection needs of most people - i.e., the handheld device, e.g. the iPhone.

Apple's laptop and desktop business only seems less significant (than it used to be) in relative terms; in actuality it's bigger than it's ever been. iPhones haven't displaced laptops and desktops when it comes to what Apple does, they've been added to what Apple does - just as iPods and digital content sales were. Moving forward, other form factors will likely make more and more sense and will thus become a bigger part of what Apple does - what Apple does to meet the personal computing needs of its customers and the world.

 

[Brenster]

Having visited the Trafford Centre, UK store last night, I'd say they're this far from being just a phone company.

• I'd gone with the hope that they'd have the new iPads on show, planning to check one out before upgrading from my mini 2. All they appeared to have out were iPad Pros. Tables and tables of Pros. No pencils though. Asking one of the staff members he pointed me at a wall side table which had 3 of the new machines on, interspersed with the Pros. They had none in stock though, and the Air 2 has been withdrawn from sale. How many iPads does Apple believe it will sell like this?
• The Watch table was depressing. Each 'side' of the glass topped table had a row of watches in various finishes and with the various bands. There are now as many holes in the row as there are watches as certain watch/band combinations have been dropped. Looking over at the bands section of the accessories, there were no other bands than the new multi-coloured nylon bands. So you can't buy a watch with a leather band, nor can you buy a leather band separately.
• The macs now barely take up a couple of tables (this in a store who's floorspace was doubled a couple of years back). Take away the macbooks and the MacBook airs and you have a couple of iMacs and one lonely dejected Mac Pro.
• At least there are phone adapter cables agogo, needed as there is now a disconnect between USB C only on their laptop models barring the air and old style USB connectors on the iPhone & iPad pack in cables and the rest of the iMac lineup. What historically would have been a single step forwards for the entire product line is now being staggered over several years as each product line moves to USB C several months apart from one another.

The impression I got was that the entire shop floor was geared to selling iPhones, with everything else a poorly displayed and stocked second. I appreciate (my) Apple halcyon days of 2003-2012 are not about to return in the guise they had - time has moved on, technology has moved on etc. I'm just not sure that Apple sees itself as anything other than an iOS company from here on in - the pricing of the mac line and the stagnation of the OS & hardware relative to the competition doesn't fill me with hope.

 

[Tech198]

They're a consumer electronics company. They also have the mentality that the IOS devices will be surpassing and eventually replacing its Macs. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, but they tend to spend more time and energy with their iPhones and iPads

True that.... But still need a computer for local storage, backup of large amounts of data... Apple is turning attention more as a phone company, but its not gonna be the only option. If Apple wants to play that game, they must give uses other options like ports on devices for long term, local storage for fast access of huge amounts of data....

If Apple excepts us all users to only use iCloud and that it how it is, it will not be unlimited storage, and therefore, will not be for everyone. Since we always want more storage, plus not everyone will be willing to pay for it either..

 

[TraderScooter]

I fully believe that's the direction they are trying to go. It may be true that our phones will someday be as powerful as a MBP, and will easily plug into input devices so that we can get work done (large displays, keyboards, etc), but we are a long way off from that happening.