
Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again - humantiy
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/technology/apple-earnings-iphone.html
======
DLA
NY Times made a mess of this story and slanted it toward their agendas.
Horrible reporting.

Apple beat most estimates. Revenues grew. All time high revenue from services.
Forward guidance was raised.

[https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/07/apple-reports-
third-q...](https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/07/apple-reports-third-
quarter-results/)

~~~
ajross
That's a bit spun too, though. Revenue is up just .93%. Net income is down
12.7%. And they beat the estimates because the estimates were expecting bad
news, as the overall trend has been stagnant for about two years.

Those just aren't good numbers for a company that, over the past decade, has
been literally the most profitable in history. They aren't "bad" numbers, but
for Apple they're sort of a disaster. The iPhone gravy train is running out of
steam, basically.

~~~
mort96
When are we going to stop expecting exponential growth though? Or should the
exponential growth just continue indefinitely? Is there no value in having a
nice S-curve, ending up as one of the most profitable companies in history,
and then just staying insanely profitable for a long time in a sustainable
way?

~~~
ajross
We _have_ stopped expecting exponential growth, that's what the linked article
is about. "Slowing Growth" is literally in the title!

And that means things, like for example the stock has to decline and/or
dividends increase because it becomes more productive to put that money into
companies that are growing. Investors care about news like this.

It seems like a lot (a _lot_ ) of readers here are looking at the article as
if it says "Apple sucks. Their products suck. No one should buy this junk.
They're going to fail."

That's not what it says. It does say that Apple, as an investment, is changing
from one kind of thing (a growing tech behemoth) to another (a basically
static industry giant), and that change is news.

~~~
mort96
I was commenting on the idea that "for Apple, [these numbers] are sort of a
disaster". I agree that Apple changing from a growth company to a static
company is interesting to investors.

~~~
bitcoinbutter
Disaster is certainly hyperbole. It would imply their business is in jeopardy
or something. All this means is a lower P/E ratio in the future. Apple has an
absurd amount of cash on hand, and are still earning huge profit.

~~~
leereeves
> All this means is a lower P/E ratio in the future.

Apple's P/E ratio is around 17, which seems perfectly reasonable for a mature
company these days. Investors aren't expecting growth.

------
MaysonL
And the stock increased over 4% in after-hours trading, as increases in non-
iPhone hardware sales and services overcame the decrease in iPhone sales.
Earnings per share slightly beat the consensus forecast.

An interesting quote from Cook in the press release: _" The balance of
calendar 2019 will be an exciting period, with major launches on all of our
platforms, new services and several new products"_

~~~
gonational
If one of these _major launches_ is a MacBook Pro with the same (or better)
specs (esp video graphics) as their latest MacBook Pro, but without a
TouchBar, they will get at least $2,500 from me.

If one of these _major launches_ is an iPhone X-like phone with a thumbprint
reader (home button or otherwise), they will get at least another $1,000 from
me.

~~~
noncoml
I don’t even mind the touchbar. Just give me back the Escape key!

~~~
koolba
I thought this was a joke as I haven’t used a recent Mac in a while but
apparently it’s not. There really isn’t an escape key!

[https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207358](https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT207358)

~~~
Rebelgecko
It's extra fun when touchbaragent hangs and you can't force quit anything

~~~
luminiferous
Personally, I just remapped capslock to esc, since I never use capslock. The
touchbar does seem to hang more often nowadays, though. Especially when I'm
trying to adjust the volume.

------
jandrewrogers
That iPhones were less than half their revenue, while still growing overall
revenue, is a positive sign. Apple has done a good job of diversifying their
revenue base over the last few years. It will be interesting to see how large
wearables and services can become as revenue sources, I suspect they are still
quite early in their growth.

~~~
vannevar
Still, the company hasn't released an innovative hardware product since 2008.
That's a long time for them. If Apple can't innovate anymore, regardless of
whether they have continued financial success, are they still really Apple?

~~~
zepto
Ignoring the Apple Watch, which dominates the category and is a clear success.

~~~
vannevar
Fair, but the Apple Watch has largely been an iPhone accessory rather than a
standalone product. You could also point to AirPods. They sold a lot of them
because a lot of people had iPhones. But neither is anything like the iPhone
or the Mac in terms of defining a product category. Eventually, the Apple
Watch is just going to be an iPhone on your wrist. More of a derivative, like
the iPad.

~~~
zaptheimpaler
The iPhone is a product that completely transformed the world and defines what
a smartphone is. There are 3 billion of them so almost half the world owns a
smartphone.

If your bar for "innovative" is seriously that incredibly high, prepare to be
disappointed..

~~~
vannevar
Agreed. But what are the contenders since 2008? The iPad and the Apple Watch.
The iPad was really co-developed with the iPhone for all practical purposes,
as the original iPad prototype inspired the phone. You can definitely make a
case for the watch, but it's an extension of the phone in so many ways.

~~~
zaptheimpaler
There aren’t any thats my point. Its like they made the first ever car 10
years ago after lifetimes of horse carriages and you’re disappointed theres
nothing else of that magnitude yet.

~~~
vannevar
But it's not like nothing innovative has been released by others. There's the
Echo, there's Google Glass, even the Pebble watch, which I would argue was
more innovative (as watches go) than the Apple Watch two years later. Are any
of them as financially successful as the iPhone? No, but I'm not saying Apple
hasn't been financially successful, only that it has not been as innovative as
it was in the past.

------
S_A_P
I have thought long and hard about upgrading my iPhone 8 to one of the new X
models, but I don't like the lack of a home button. I guess I am officially
old now, but I dont want to look at my phone to unlock it. I like that I can
reach in my pocket, and unlock it with my thumb as I retrieve it. It may be
user error, but I see several co-workers have to really train the phone on
their face to unlock with Face ID. That would drive me nuts. the swipe up
gesture just seems annoying, and on my iPhone 8 is unreliable to bring up the
control panel. they need to do what they did before and copy the other vendors
that put the fingerprint reader on the back of the phone so that the nice
bezel free design can be implemented.

~~~
brian-armstrong
I'm fairly shocked to find that a community of seemingly technically competent
people would forfeit their 4th amendment rights in order to save a few seconds
keying in a passcode. This small detail feels like a microcosm of tech in
general currently :/

~~~
gnicholas
Who’s forfeiting anything? If you don’t want to unlock your device for law
enforcement, just use the sleep/lock button to make your phone require the
passcode (which the police can’t legally compel you to give, I believe). It
takes several seconds to key in a reasonably secure passcode, and it ceases to
be secure if you type it in view of any security cameras. Also, if you open
your phone 50 times per day, it’s way more than just a few seconds.

~~~
brian-armstrong
You're counting on your ability to (and memory to carry out) access and
disable your phone after encountering law enforcement?

------
samfisher83
This is how it did compared to expectations

EPS: $2.18 vs. $2.10 estimated by Refinitiv consensus estimates.

Revenue: $53.8 billion vs. $53.39B estimated by Refinitiv consensus estimates.

Q4 Revenue guidance: $61 billion to $64 billion versus $60.98 billion estimate
by Refinitiv consensus estimates.

iPhone revenue: $25.99 billion vs. $26.31 billion estimated by FactSet.

Services revenue: $11.46 billion vs. $11.61 billion estimated by FactSet.

[https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/30/apple-
earnings-q3-2019.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/30/apple-
earnings-q3-2019.html)

~~~
terminalhealth
These estimates are amazingly accurate or is my amazement inappropriate?

~~~
awinder
The number of human man hours invested into that guidance number is vast. As
accurate as that number is (and for what it is), people are going to make and
lose a lot of money even still. Basically I’m saying — check your amazement
because it’s amazement all the way down.

~~~
kennysmoothx
"check your amazement because it’s amazement all the way down"

I like that sentence a lot.

------
reilly3000
I'm bullish on AAPL because of their planned services. Anything they roll out
has a gigantic audience and will have immediate revenue impact. They have a
tremendous bully-pulpit inside their users devices, incomparable email lists,
and a habit of making TV commercials people like to watch. The fact that they
are adding 4 lines of business (banking, ad-free gaming, news, and streaming)
is going to sustain double-digit, high-margin growth for the foreseeable
future.

If I had money play with I would buy after this earnings report dropped; but
it looks like the stock price isn't getting beat up.

------
ilikehurdles
Apple beat out EPS and Revenue estimates and the stock is trading up in after-
hours. This is a headline for the cap-wearing anti-Tech Company crowd, as has
been typical of the New York Times over the last year or two.

------
ceezuns
I don't understand why these articles think that people will just keep buying,
like in the past decade the lifespan of devices has become bigger and bigger.
I'm typing this post on a 2013 Macbook and I'm sure a lot of other users are
using older laptops than that, that run perfectly fine. Like does the media
just expect people to be buying new stuff again and again?

I don't know if I'm just missing the point or something...

~~~
augustk
Sooner or later you will have to buy a new device due to planned obsolescence,
i.e. when (security) updates are no longer released. But then you can of
course install a free operating system instead.

~~~
scarface74
In the case of iOS devices, Apple just released a series of patches for
devices back to the iPhone 4s that was introduced in 2011.

~~~
megaremote
And they only just stopped supporting 2009 imacs.

~~~
scarface74
I was purposefully leaving Macs out. My 2006 era Core Duo Mac Mini stopped
being supported in 2008 (?). I was able to install Windows 7 on it, give it to
my mom and it will still be supported until 2020 by Microsoft...

------
peaktechisnow
Why would you link the NYTimes for a business article? They don't have a clue.
These results are excellent (particularly wearables growth) and they guided Q3
revenues well ABOVE Sell side estimates. China decline rate improved
dramatically to only -4% Y/Y.

~~~
mffnbs
I thought this headline sounded overly pessimistic when seeing it after
actually reading the report...

------
darkteflon
“Is Apple still capable of innovation?” must be one of the most tedious and
clapped out topics in all of tech. No one can even remotely agree on a
definition of what constitutes “innovation” and yet people keep showing up to
dash themselves against the rocks chasing their 5 minutes.

If you’re sitting at home playing armchair quarterback with this stuff, all I
can say is I hope you’re not responsible for managing any actual money.

------
skrowl
iPhone sales continues to decline (down another 13% vs this quarter last
year), but services are making up for it

~~~
rubicon33
And they will continue to decline as long as a $200 Android phone can do
literally ~95% of what a $1400 iPhone can do.

Seriously, there's just no good reason for a general consumer to purchase an
iPhone today. Build quality on the Android devices even in the $200 realm are
damn near what the iPhone offers.

For the record: I've used iPhones since 2010. I've never had an Android until
this year. It came time to upgrade, and I did my research. Simply put, there's
nothing on the flagship iPhone that most vastly cheaper Android phones can do.
I'm not a fanboy, I vote with my dollar.

~~~
stock_toaster
> there's just no good reason for a general consumer to purchase an iPhone
> today

* iOS (I prefer it over android)

* customers already tied into the apple ecosystem

* more of a focus on privacy (admittedly, this one is probably debatable)

~~~
toper-centage
So it's a mix of Stockholm syndrome and lazyness to change and tweak the
system a bit in a more privacy friendly way.

~~~
snazz
Unlocking the bootloader, flashing TWRP, and installing LineageOS without
Google Play Services is roughly equivalent in privacy to an iPhone. I wouldn’t
blame my grandma for choosing to buy an iPhone instead!

~~~
lern_too_spel
A phone with Google Play Services collects less data than an iPhone.

To wit: Apple knows every app you ever downloaded, and there is nothing you
can do about it. Every time you click on an address link, it sends the address
to Apple, and there is nothing you can do about it. Any time an app looks up
your GPS location, that location is sent to Apple, and there is nothing you
can do about it. If you want to write apps for your own device, you need to
give card details to Apple, and there is nothing you can do about it. A phone
with Google Play services doesn't suffer from any of these problems.

~~~
jdofaz
How do you stop Google Play services from sending your location to google
without disabling Location Services?

~~~
lern_too_spel
If you disable Location Services, which is an option presented on initial
setup of the device, apps can still request the GPS permission directly (the
default behavior in most location libraries), not sending your location to
Google. This is not possible on iOS. Every location lookup will send your
location to Apple.

~~~
jdofaz
How do you know iOS sends all location lookups to Apple?

~~~
lern_too_spel
Because Apple says so.

"By enabling Location Services for your devices, you agree and consent to the
transmission, collection, maintenance, processing, and use of your location
data and location search queries by Apple and its partners and licensees to
provide and improve location-based and road traffic-based products and
services."

It will also send your location to Apple when no app is requesting your
location:

"If Location Services is on, your iPhone will periodically send the geo-tagged
locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and
encrypted form to Apple, to be used for augmenting this crowd-sourced database
of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower locations."

Unlike on Android, you cannot get your location without sending this data to
Apple:

"To use features such as these, you must enable Location Services on your
iPhone"

[https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207056](https://support.apple.com/en-
us/HT207056)

------
40acres
I believe that Apple’s next big thing will come in the form of AR consumer
hardware and a detached Watch. Recent expansions of their chip design org and
acquisition of Intel’s modem business reinforce my confidence in their
execution, iPhones are still big business and services are rising. There is
little reason to doubt that Apple has more than enough resources to take it
through until the next breakthrough.

------
paul7986
2019 is another year I’m stuck with my iPhone 8 from 2017. I use to upgrade
every year then some genius at Apple thought bigger phones are the only way to
go from here on out. Maybe that person no longer works there?

Also Touch ID over Face ID or offer both or I’m not interested along with
millions of others!

~~~
dntrkv
The iPhone XS is basically the same size as an iPhone 8 with a screen that is
1" larger.

~~~
paul7986
I can not hold my previously owned XS in one hand and text one person then go
back to text another without moving the phone’s position in my hand. Thus I
took it back ..bad UX that makes me exert effort my iPhone 8 doesn’t.

Also no Touch ID..pick phone up without looking at it and boom phone is open.
Face ID forces user to do more work..swipe up and look. Two more steps I
didn’t have to do previously. Those to me as a UX professional who strives to
make things easiest as possible equals bad UX. Forcing the user to exert more
effort they didn’t have to before.

Apple has always been about ease of use..yet the person in charge of UX
(Johnny Ive) thought making things an inch harder would be no big deal, yet
look at the amount of phones they aren’t selling these days.

------
nabla9
At these valuations Apple makes sense only when seen as an alternative to
other investments. S&P 500 as a whole has P/S ratio that indicates lower
return of investment for the next decade. At least Apple will be able to make
profits.

~~~
seldonnn
Every investment is an alternative to another investment...

------
klauslovgreen
I think the trouble is that the devices are getting too good and there is
really only incremental improvement every year so the upgrade cycle is getting
longer.

I typically get the latest phone every year (but it starts to feel
unnecessary) - iPad's and Mac's, however, last a lot longer (several years)
for me these days.

I wonder where the real innovation is going to come from? AI, AR?

~~~
lunchables
Airpods and Apple Watch are both relatively new products in Apple-terms and
have many years of incremental improvements ahead of them.

If you are looking for something as big as the iPhone, I think you might be
disappointed. But, it is a pretty poorly kept secret that they are working on
self-driving cars and some kind of "TV".

And Apple has been pretty clear about focusing on growth in services now that
they have this massive base of deployed devices.

------
uwuhn
I would pay lots of money for an Apple Bluetooth Mechanical keyboard. Like
$300+ easily if it's good.

~~~
mrpigeonpants
I'd expect Porsche to put out a minivan first.

~~~
mixmastamyk
They put out a SUV, and all the laughing didn't stop it or purchases.

~~~
mrpigeonpants
Thats a great point. There's a precedent of them heading in that direction.
Although with Apple, they're trying to make keyboards that can be activated by
a light sneeze or slightly higher than usual barometric pressure.

------
garysahota93
Do you think they would ever monetize iMessage? Imagine making iMessage cross
platform, but only available to paying iCloud Subscribers. So I could pay $10
/ month for upgraded iCloud storage and get iMessage on my Android phone. I'd
pay for that.

~~~
Marsymars
I'd love that. I have an Android phone and already pay for iCloud storage for
Apple Photos even though using it with an Android Phone adds considerably
friction to the process. I'll be getting rid of my Nest Camera in favour of
one that supports HomeKit Secure Video next time my Nest Aware account comes
up for renewal.

An approach I'd like for iMessage is to make it free for anyone, but only
functional if at least one member of a conversation has an iPhone or paid
iCloud subscription.

~~~
garysahota93
I like that approach! Very plausible and consistent with services like Cisco
WebEx and such that require one "admin license" and as many guests as
possible.

I just recently switched from Android to iOS and there's a lot I miss about
Android that will never come to iOS. I'd love to have that flexibility but
cross-platform compatibility too.

------
novaRom
I just visited a local shop where I tested different smartphones including
iPhones. Lots of similarly looking models, most with Android. Most are below
300 Euro. An average buyer cannot probably see big difference between phones
priced at 1000 and 200 Euro.

------
hal-9-000
Not related to article but.. I have a change request for HN, put some kind of
marker next to links which require payment/signingIn/signingUp or whatever the
f __k stops you from consuming content right away.

------
immichaelwang
Apple needs new sources of revenue. Anything marginal like cheaper iphone
models won't cut it.

I like the recent wave of acquisitions. Smart cars? Smart homes? Iterations of
Apple Watch - deeper connection to the body itself?

What's next for them?

~~~
izzydata
Does there have to be something else? What are the implications of a company
growing forever? In 500 years are there going to be only 3 companies because
they acquired everything and nothing else makes products?

~~~
mr_crankypants
It seems that the endgame we're unwittingly asking for is _WALL-E_.

~~~
whatshisface
The hitch in that plan is that only _one_ company can have their P/E ratio
justified by being Buy-n-Large 100 years from now.

~~~
mr_crankypants
I suspect that that fact and our beliefs around it are being reflected in
market prices, albeit with some heavy discounting for the uncertainty inherent
in there still being so many companies out there.

So many people's first instinct to respond by buying more shares of that
company, thereby driving its price and market cap higher. That's a reaction
that implies that we think that the general trend _is_ toward Buy-n-Large. If
we expected regression to the mean to be the driving phenomenon, then we'd be
more likely to respond by selling.

(Disclaimer: I'm not suggesting that's actually how things work, just that a
lot of us behave as if we think that's how it works, or should work.)

------
VvR-Ox
Clearly they shouldn't have stopped producing the iPhone SE or it's successor
in the same shape.

Also they messed up really hard when they introduced the new MBP keyboards
which now all have to be replaced.

The iPad started to be useful much too slow and in the meanwhile less and less
people would even consider it when comparing with a surface.

There is one more thing: The ecosystem seemed to be cool some day. Now it's
nothing special anymore and it's not really magical how many things don't work
together (because software, bugs, whatever...).

I buy the nice devices as used parts because they had times when they produced
some cool stuff that I still like to use. Maybe not with their OS but this
will probably change when less money gives them more pressure to be innovative
again.

------
martin1b
No surprise. No innovation. All stopped around 2011.

They've been coasting since then. Difference sizes of the same product. The
watch was about as far as they've wandered out of their comfort zone.

~~~
walls
Yeah, its not like they made some headphones that 20% of the people you see on
the street are wearing.

~~~
martin1b
Wireless headphones... and a stylus that costs $100.. They're breaking new
ground there. Sounds like they have great marketing department. That's not
innovation.

------
hcnews
Doesn't Google pay Apple ~10 billion$ for TAC nowadays? I am hoping someone
with time will lookup the increase in Google's spend and Apple's revenue.

------
billabul
serious, I never understood why a company must steadily grow, isn't that in
contrast to the limited economical resources we have globally?

~~~
crispyporkbites
We don’t have limited economical resources globally.

Wealth creation is not zero sum, 100 years ago we had far less wealth than we
had today and in 100 years we’ll have a lot more.

Sure, an individual company can stop growing but everything must continue to
grow in aggregate to push humanity forward.

~~~
billabul
Thank you for your answer but: if we need to back the economical resources
with real assets, don't this translates to limited economical resources?

------
susan_hall
What new product can they offer? What new ideas do they have? Is there any
sign of the originality that was on display 10 years ago?

------
pedro1976
Its quite remarkable that some people value the fact that estiamtes have been
beaten or not.

------
rhacker
The iPhone costs too much now.

People are realizing they can buy a OnePlus 6T or Samsung 9 for half the
price.

My wife has been fed up with our older Android phone and said - we're going
back to the iphone. We looked up the prices for the latest, second latest,
third latest iphone models and then she said - why don't we get another
OnePlus.

------
meerita
New iPhone should be announced on September. Let's see what's going on.

------
h1d
Apple can only stay afloat by exchanging people's faith into money by raising
product prices when they have stopped innovating.

------
0898
"Slowing growth." Honestly.

------
dwighttk
Apple should just spin off _everything but iPhone_ into a company that people
who need quarterly growth can invest in.

------
neonate
[http://archive.is/El570](http://archive.is/El570)

------
woodgrainz
Revenue was up 1% YoY.

------
IloveHN84
Another justification to the more increased prices expected in newer Keynote

------
dionian
yes, definitely sell your stock, I want to get more at a good price

------
stevewodil
Stock is up 4% after hours on the earnings beat.

------
awareBrah
Of course slowing growth, they got rid of the headphone jack. What did they
expect?

------
novaRom
'Apple experience' for me today is lag. Beginning from lagging volume bar on
iPhone, going through iTunes, and up to UI. Everything feels slower than on a
much cheaper Android phone with 3.5mm jack.

------
stanislavb
They should fix their keyboards and things might start working again.

------
jes5199
there’s something wrong with Apple lately. They ship hardware that’s worse
than what they had five years ago, and their software has more and more
embarrassing bugs. Seems like management problems.

~~~
jstepka
CarPlay is amazing and keeps getting better. The new beta 13 is a solid
upgrade from 12 -- even as a beta.

~~~
jes5199
yeah, but buying a new car is just not ever a good idea

------
NicoJuicy
Services are making up for it, but they are losing a vast amount of their base
customers.

13% drop in sales won't make their services popular.

They should have launched 5 years ago, they had way more advantage then.

They do still have a big consumer base, but 13% is a lot and it doesn't seem
to go upwards.

~~~
SlyShy
Seems unwarranted to assume they are actively losing customers. I haven't
bought an iPhone in years because I still use a SE, and I still use my 2015
MBP. They haven't lost me in any real sense just because I haven't contributed
to a sale _recently_.

~~~
NicoJuicy
I'm not the only one that thinks so, but the Apple fans are still here ( only
-1 downvotes after 17 hours though, considerably less than in the past)

[https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/31/wall-street-analysts-
worry-a...](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/31/wall-street-analysts-worry-about-
apples-iphone.html)

------
igravious
Apple: Revenue Growth 1% (quarterly)

Huawei: Revenue Growth 23.2% (half-yearly)

Apple: Revenue ~$258 billion

Huawei: Revenue ~$105 billion

Apple: R&D $14 billion[0]

Huawei: R&D $15 billion[1]

Apple: Employee Count ~132,000

Huawei: Employee Count ~188,000†

\---

I'm going to take an unusual step here. Please, please don't downvote this
post for pointing this out! I'm just highlighting for contrast, not for
criticism. Trying to start a conversation.

\---

[0] [https://www.nasdaq.com/article/apple-aapl-earnings-after-
the...](https://www.nasdaq.com/article/apple-aapl-earnings-after-the-bell-
tuesday-can-the-iphones-slump-be-reversed-cm1185985)

[1]
[http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/09/WS5cac0859a31048422...](http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201904/09/WS5cac0859a3104842260b5265.html)

† “Huawei had over 188,000 employees as of September 2018, around 76,000 of
them engaged in Research & Development (R&D)” (I presume Apple has tens of
thousands employed in r&d, anybody any idea roughly how many?)

edit: _sigh_

~~~
saagarjha
What fraction of Huawei's employees work on mobile phones?

~~~
igravious
No idea. Good question.

------
liberte82
Apple has been stagnant since Steve Jobs died. His momentum keeps the company
moving forward, but they haven't had a fresh idea since he passed.

~~~
sxcurry
Except for AirPods, Apple Watch, .....

~~~
jes5199
nobody wants those. AirPods are expensive, ugly earbuds that you have to
recharge for some reason, and the watch is just a way for your phone to
distract you more frequently.

~~~
applecrazy
This seems more like an individual opinion rather than market data.

The Apple Watch is the world's most popular watch.

AirPods have exploded in popularity among youth as a status symbol.

Both are selling relatively well, even if you may think they're inferior
products.

~~~
jes5199
“most popular watch” is not really a high bar, is it?

~~~
applecrazy
5-7 million units sold per quarter and 36% market share in the smartwatch
category[1] isn't enough for you?

[1]: [https://www.macrumors.com/2019/05/02/apple-
watch-1q19-market...](https://www.macrumors.com/2019/05/02/apple-
watch-1q19-market-share-counterpoint/)

------
exabrial
Multiple factors I can think of, I'm sure there's more

* Competing brands with better hardware quality (Pixel's camera vs iPhone) * Competing brands with less opinionated design choices (headphone jacks, expandable storage, et all) * Highly specialized supply chains prevent flexibility in part choices/manufacturers (ex: designing custom screws for iMac chassis, rather than using off-the-shelf parts) * Unnecessary complexity in designs (The HDMI/lightning adapter is actually a computer that essentially runs a program in RAM) * Trade wars cooling relationships with everything from shippers * Walled garden of iMessage preventing soft user migration

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antidaily
Or... none of those things. LMAO.

