Is Apple losing their minds!!!?

[DBZmusicboy01]

With all this saving budget crap and caring more for profit than innovation? They price things stupid and less choices too. Like soldered RAM for the Mac mini and the stupid iPad retinia mini 3 1GB for the iPhone 6 and 16 GB based storage for memory and such.
So many things that they are doing stupid.
If they can either lower the price a bit more or add more specs for something that we are already paying a lot for.
They should have a better respect towards people. 2012 WAS the last good year for Apple and some of 2013 was okay too but 2014 has been Apple's most ridiculous year.

 

[ucfgrad93]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[greg555]

With all this saving budget crap and caring more for profit than innovation? They price things stupid and less choices too. Like soldered RAM for the Mac mini and the stupid iPad retinia mini 3 1GB for the iPhone 6 and 16 GB based storage for memory and such.
So many things that they are doing stupid.
If they can either lower the price a bit more or add more specs for something that we are already paying a lot for.
They should have a better respect towards people. 2012 WAS the last good year for Apple and some of 2013 was okay too but 2014 has been Apple's most ridiculous year.

The market will decide if they are right or wrong. If their sales and profits go down because of these issues then then they are wrong and you are right. If sales and profits stay at their current high levels then they have made the right business decisions.

 

[mobilehaathi]

With all this saving budget crap and caring more for profit than innovation? They price things stupid and less choices too. Like soldered RAM for the Mac mini and the stupid iPad retinia mini 3 1GB for the iPhone 6 and 16 GB based storage for memory and such.
So many things that they are doing stupid.
If they can either lower the price a bit more or add more specs for something that we are already paying a lot for.
They should have a better respect towards people. 2012 WAS the last good year for Apple and some of 2013 was okay too but 2014 has been Apple's most ridiculous year.

Friend, it's always been for profit.

 

[numlock]

The market will decide if they are right or wrong. If their sales and profits go down because of these issues then then they are wrong and you are right. If sales and profits stay at their current high levels then they have made the right business decisions.

the infallible market argument.

whats missing in your list of answers is for instance the possibility that different decisions could have brought even more sales and profit.

and then there is the fact that leaving an ecosystem may be an extremely hard choice/endeavour and the alternatives not pleasing for various reasons.

Friend, it's always been for profit.

i dont see him saying or implying it wasnt for profit before. as he says "more for profit than innovation". its a matter of balance.


some will mention removing floppy drive from the original imac and host of other examples but i dont think its a case of glorifying the past. some of their decisions and tactics like the ones you mention i dont think many would have predicted few years ago.

 

[smoledman]

Apple will sell gazillions of everything they put out. At this point it just doesn't matter anymore.

 

[12vElectronics]

$183 billion in revenue.

Ya OP. Apple is losing their minds.

 

[Lylyluvda916]

I think it's actually smart if Apple to try and get into as many homes as possible. Due to the economy, many people are buying older gen Apple products or simply can't afford the latest and greatest at all. There are people that love apple and have loved apple but have had to settle for cheaper products that they can afford rather than products that cost more and are what they'd prefer to have.

I'd think that most average consumers would be happy that they can now afford products from a company that has appealed to them for a long time. This is the reason why many of their old phones/products still hold great resell value.

 

[sonicrobby]

Think of it this way. Apple is making record number of sales. Even if their choices are "stupid", people are buying. Why would they change that?

It is your decision to buy their products. If you dont like anything they came out with in 2014, then I suggest not buying any of it. I highly anticipated the mac mini refresh, and it did not meet my expectations. Thus instead of complaining about them making a product that I personally wanted, I choose to keep my 2012 mac mini and not upgrade to the new one. Simple as that.

 

[kilcher]

Gotta love the armchair CEO's who think they can do a better job of running Apple...

Yes, I personally question some of their decisions but regardless of how "bad" some of them may seem to me it's as if they can do no wrong. If they can get away with it then why not, I don't blame them at all.

 

[hotpotato123]

Gotta love the armchair CEO's who think they can do a better job of running Apple...

Yes, I personally question some of their decisions but regardless of how "bad" some of them may seem to me it's as if they can do no wrong. If they can get away with it then why not, I don't blame them at all.

Apple used to be what they were because of their radical innovativeness.

Then, as the empire grows stale, and the innovator dies and the 2nd and 3rd generation leaders take over, the ethos becomes "if we can get away with it, then we do".

That is not the end, because the empire carries on with its size and momentum, but eventually it must come to an end.

Apple's present attitude shows we are on a downward slope already.

 

[TechGod]

Apple used to be what they were because of their radical innovativeness.

Then, as the empire grows stale, and the innovator dies and the 2nd and 3rd generation leaders take over, the ethos becomes "if we can get away with it, then we do".

That is not the end, because the empire carries on with its size and momentum, but eventually it must come to an end.

Apple's present attitude shows we are on a downward slope already.

What BS.

 

[hotpotato123]

What BS.

Are you the sort of person who -- in your professional, social and general outlook -- is a student of history, or are you the sort of person who refuses to learn from the mistakes of others, who likes to say BS as a cool expression for anything that you didn't think of?

 

[theSeb]

It is always interesting to read these provoking and well-reasoned arguments from some of the business and thought leaders here.

 

[farmkittie]

Another negative Apple thread claiming Apple is stupid and lacks innovation. I wish I were that stupid and non-innovative. Jeeesh. They're still building high quality products. Like people have said, I am also disappointed in the Mac Mini upgrade but I'll wait to see if they improve it when the new Intel chips come out.

If I thought Apple was stupid I think I would have moved over to another brand by now but so far, so good. I wonder, do Apple fans go over to Android forums and rant about how stupid Androids are? I don't know what the Android forums are but, I'd be surprised and disappointed if so. Live and let live. I don't think either Apple or Samsung/Google/Android are in danger of being squeezed out so let them all create products and let people decide which ones they want.

But I guess thread rage is better than road rage.

 

[kilcher]

Apple used to be what they were because of their radical innovativeness.

Then, as the empire grows stale, and the innovator dies and the 2nd and 3rd generation leaders take over, the ethos becomes "if we can get away with it, then we do".

That is not the end, because the empire carries on with its size and momentum, but eventually it must come to an end.

Apple's present attitude shows we are on a downward slope already.

I would agree with that. Their "innovation" over the last few years has basically consisted of blowing up the iPhone into an iPad and shrinking down the iPhone into a watch. And the watch WILL be a niche market for sure, much like Apple TV. There really isn't anything I would consider "new" and exciting.

Apple Pay is an exciting development though, both from a consumer standpoint and a business / revenue stream standpoint. I also think they'll have to do something exciting in the TV sector at some point - whether that be an actual TV or set top box.

Apple seems to be a company that takes a great product and improves upon it a little each year, not one that has to blow your socks off every year. To an extent that's a good thing. You take something consumers love and make it better, you don't confuse them. It's worked for them thus far.

So yeah, I question some of their choices (16GB iPhone 6?) I'm not going to pretend I know more than they do. Eventually they'll fall, most of them do, but for now they seem to be making all the right choices, even if we can't quite figure out how or why.

 

[rdowns]

Apple used to be what they were because of their radical innovativeness.

You mean when they were the first ones to develop and market an MP3 player? Or when they were the first to develop and market a touchscreen smartphone? Or was it when they were the first to develop and market a tablet computer? Must be when they were first to develop and market a smart watch.

 

[Oli20]

Gotta love the armchair CEO's who think they can do a better job of running Apple...

Hahaha, my thoughts exactly. If I had 5 dollars for every time someone questioned Apple's choices only to find out a few years later they were all part of their grand plan I would be retired!

 

[mobilehaathi]

i dont see him saying or implying it wasnt for profit before. as he says "more for profit than innovation". its a matter of balance.

It isn't as if there is some sliding continuum between "innovation" on one side and "profit" on the other. Forgive my cynicism but "innovation" is just the latest marketing buzz word and largely meaningless. Not to mention that Apple intentionally inflates their claims of innovation precisely for the sake of profit. It also allows them to make obvious profit grabs by soldering RAM to the logic board, et alia.

I suppose if the OP is realizing this now, they're a bit late to the game...

 

[TomTomHatesCats]

With all this saving budget crap and caring more for profit than innovation? They price things stupid and less choices too. Like soldered RAM for the Mac mini and the stupid iPad retinia mini 3 1GB for the iPhone 6 and 16 GB based storage for memory and such.
So many things that they are doing stupid.
If they can either lower the price a bit more or add more specs for something that we are already paying a lot for.
They should have a better respect towards people. 2012 WAS the last good year for Apple and some of 2013 was okay too but 2014 has been Apple's most ridiculous year.

Apple has never had consumer-friendly prices, so no surprises there.

As far as their 2014 product line, Mac Mini and iPad Mini 3 were basically useless upgrades, but you can't really complain about the 5K iMac in terms of cost.

 

[Huntn]

For perspective, consider if you'll get a better user experience with another OS. I don't like Windows 8, Windows 7 is better, but not better than the MacOS imo.