For GRG55

[jpatter666]

Re: For GRG55

Those service revenues are primarily a function of the installed base of iPhone users.

What makes it difficult to escape the Apple ecosystem?

Learning some new ergonomics to switch to an Android phone is understandable, but not impossible (although I tried and dislike the way the Android works - for me less intuitive than Apple).

Is it the apps? And already purchased file content?

As people move more to streaming services, for example instead of buying and downloading a music file from iTunes, is the Apple ecosystem moat in danger of being filled in slowly?

YES.

Saw this coming ages ago. Apple (under Jobs) had a special genius for finding new ways for technology to enhance our lives, but the flip side of that coin was an almost paranoid need for complete control of the environment. This has always led to Apple opening up new systems and gradually losing them to competitors which caught up (and often surpassed) technologically and then undercut the pricing.

It was this Samsung S3 commercial where I realized peak iPhone was here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJafiCKliA8

iWatches and headphones are still about, but Apple hasn't had a major product breakthrough in a decade.

And what apps *do* you use that comes from Apple? Used to be all about the phone, now it's all about the apps and Apple really doesn't have anything there either.

Obviously I'm no Apple fan, but from my point of view Apple is a company that's been coasting on its reputation for a decade.

[jk]

Re: For GRG55

how easy is it to get music out of itunes? or photos out of iphoto? [if you wanted to move this content to another device]

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: For GRG55

how easy is it to get music out of itunes? or photos out of iphoto? [if you wanted to move this content to another device]

Photos come right out.
Music is locked in

[touchring]

Re: For GRG55

Can the batteries on an iPhone be replaced with new ones? There's nothing else wrong with my phone.

You may want to delete unnecessary apps that may run down the batteries and enable WIFI where possible. From experience, WIFI seems to use less battery than cellular data. But it maybe better just to spend $40 every 3 years or so to rid of the headache.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: For GRG55

YES.

Saw this coming ages ago. Apple (under Jobs) had a special genius for finding new ways for technology to enhance our lives... This has always led to Apple opening up new systems and gradually losing them to competitors which caught up...


...Obviously I'm no Apple fan, but from my point of view Apple is a company that's been coasting on its reputation for a decade.

I've been a huge Apple fan for more than 30 years, but I agree with your conclusion.
Apple is coasting on its reputation and its products are now just also-rans.
I'll be moving away from Apple computers and phones as I cycle these devices out. I'm typing this on my last Macintosh, a 2010 iMac.

The glory days for Apple seem 100% tied to Steve Jobs. The years Jobs was away and Sculley ran Apple their computers drifted into bland mediocrity. The OS was still light years ahead of things like Microsoft windows 2.0, so they survived until Jobs came back. The great Apple products had a superior quality of design and manufacture. They were expensive but worth every penny. In hindsight it seems that Jobs personally drove the company to excellence and accepted nothing less.
Here's my favorite story of how great they once were.

I got my second iPhone. First I made a backup of the old one to my Mac. I took the new phone out of the box and plugged it into the Mac. A box popped up and said something like this:
"We see you've connected a new iPhone. Is this a replacement for Thrifty's iPhone or for someone else?"
I clicked my name.
A new box popped up that said "Would you like to set up this new iPhone exactly like the old one?"

I clicked YES. A gray bar chugged along for about 3 minutes and then the Mac chimed a pleasant bell sound.

The new phone was exactly like the old one. The screen background. The rings tones. All the text threads. All the photos. Even the icons on the main screen were in the same order. It was perfect and elegant and delightful.

Those days are long gone. The OS for computer and phone get ever buggier and more bloated and harder to use. Cryptic dialog boxes pop up asking dumb questions with vague choices. The interface between core apps on the desktop are now inconsistent and no longer obvious.
Apple has clearly stopped striving for perfection and innovation and adopting an attitude that it's close enough, ship it. It seems they've lost interest in hardware and software and would rather be some other kind of company.

For what it's worth, it seems Microsoft has picked up Apple's old attitude. The latest Microsoft products seem rock solid and delightful and now they are the ones that "just work"

[GRG55]

Re: For GRG55

I am sort of a hybrid. I've never owned a Mac computer. All my desktops and laptops are Microsoft. Office and the other software seems designed to run on a Windows platform so I never saw an advantage to using a Mac. I have 2 active Windows laptops and a desktop (that runs an IFR flight simulator) at the moment.

Was assigned an iPhone 4S by a company I was hired by in 2013 to undertake a turnaround on one of their divisions. First time using a "smart phone" (I used Nokia GSMs while overseas) and first time ever allowing email on my phone (I had managed to resist the siren call of the Blackberry the prior decade). That's the only reason I have an Apple phone; it was their company standard at the time.

I ended up with an iPad only because the majority of aviation software applications only run on an Apple tablet. Even the professional pilots use only iPads. I suspect that has something to do with the operating system?

Oh, and I have one of those original "classic" iPods with music on it. I had been a Sony digital player fanatic while living and travelling abroad, but Sony screwed everyone by dropping its music format and moving to MP3, so I ended up moving to iTunes and an iPod. That was about 10 years ago and it's still running fine, although I rather dislike the iTunes software that runs on my Windows computer for the library.

[thriftyandboringinohio]

Re: For GRG55

Here's a fun fact. Microsoft Excel was originally available only for Macintosh. Back then Lotus 1-2-3 running on MS-DOS was the big spreadsheet for IBM PCs.

I'm convinced I got my first two promotions because I hauled my personal Macintosh Plus into the office to run Excel. All my coworkers were running green-screen MS-DOS with Lotus 1-2-3. They had to type in obscure text commands at the prompt line, and the monitor showed the spreadsheet as pure text.

I had nine windows open on a high-res graphical display using standardized pull-down menus and I was dragging and dropping spreadsheet sections and creating beautiful charts. I paid over $3,000 for it back in 1986, including a dot-matrix printer. Best money I ever spent. I still have it, and an even older Apple Lisa, as a souvenir.

This last iMac I'm typing on right now? I'll drop it off at Goodwill.

[GRG55]

Re: For GRG55

Here's a fun fact. Microsoft Excel was originally available only for Macintosh. Back then Lotus 1-2-3 running on MS-DOS was the big spreadsheet for IBM PCs.

I'm convinced I got my first two promotions because I hauled my personal Macintosh Plus into the office to run Excel. All my coworkers were running green-screen MS-DOS with Lotus 1-2-3. They had to type in obscure text commands at the prompt line, and the monitor showed the spreadsheet as pure text.

I had nine windows open on a high-res graphical display using standardized pull-down menus and I was dragging and dropping spreadsheet sections and creating beautiful charts. I paid over $3,000 for it back in 1986, including a dot-matrix printer. Best money I ever spent. I still have it, and an even older Apple Lisa, as a souvenir.

This last iMac I'm typing on right now? I'll drop it off at Goodwill.

LOL. In 1986 I was running 1-2-3 on a dual 5.25 floppy drive equipped Tandy 1000 in my basement. But the software I messed around with the most back then on that machine was dBase. I almost bought a Lisa.

Before the next year was out I had upgraded to a 286 processor Toshiba T3200 laptop, with a 3.5 inch floppy drive that held much more data than both floppies on the Tandy. At the time I thought it was like moving from my first car, a Volkswagen Beetle, to my 240Z, just over a decade earlier. Vroom, vroom!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrJgjmAPzmE

[seobook]

Re: For GRG55

Those service revenues are primarily a function of the installed base of iPhone users.

What makes it difficult to escape the Apple ecosystem?

Learning some new ergonomics to switch to an Android phone is understandable, but not impossible (although I tried and dislike the way the Android works - for me less intuitive than Apple).

Is it the apps? And already purchased file content?

As people move more to streaming services, for example instead of buying and downloading a music file from iTunes, is the Apple ecosystem moat in danger of being filled in slowly?

In general iPhone users tend to have far more disposable personal income than Android users. So getting in front of that audience is critical, especially if one is raising money from venture capitalists or working with other tech bros who are more likely to use iPhones.

App makers have to keep their apps current to stay with the most valuable users. And some older phones won't allow the installation of an app. Want to install the Interactive Brokers Mobile App on your iPhone 5C? No can do. iOS 11 required. And the newest OSs only go out to certain devices of a certain class or above.

Even some existing apps already installed on a phone might stop working because at some point the company making the app requires an upgrade because they changed how their back end servers interact with the on device apps. So there is a bit of a circular lock in there.

And then the difference between privacy policies of Apple and Google may matter to some.

There are two other layers of lock in.

• One is the content stored in iCloud, especially if you have data stored across multiple devices & as mentioned music is locked in to a proprietary format which requires stripping the DRM off it to get it to play on some other devices.
• Next is the social communications layer. When you SMS someone it may cost money, but if you have a wifi connection and the other person has an Apple device it sends as an iMessage.

Over time (unless the EU aggressively steps in) I would expect more layers of lock in on payments and subscription management for apps.

In China WeChat is largely the social layer with tons of mini apps that can be portable across devices, but outside of China and Europe Google has a tight hold on Android & if you don't like or trust Google you almost have to use Apple by default or have no smartphone.

In addition to all the above, what is the one fashion accessory you can take everywhere, use everywhere, and not get called a stuck up snob for showing off? An iPhone, IMHO.

That distinction probably doesn't matter when the model is almost exact from year to year, but it makes a big difference when there is a new iPhone model that looks significantly different & in some way special. That shallow difference can be the difference between finding the right mate or getting curbed for owning an Android. The signaling matters.

[GRG55]

Re: For GRG55

In general iPhone users tend to have far more disposable personal income than Android users. So getting in front of that audience is critical, especially if one is raising money from venture capitalists or working with other tech bros who are more likely to use iPhones.

App makers have to keep their apps current to stay with the most valuable users. And some older phones won't allow the installation of an app. Want to install the Interactive Brokers Mobile App on your iPhone 5C? No can do. iOS 11 required. And the newest OSs only go out to certain devices of a certain class or above.

Even some existing apps already installed on a phone might stop working because at some point the company making the app requires an upgrade because they changed how their back end servers interact with the on device apps. So there is a bit of a circular lock in there.

And then the difference between privacy policies of Apple and Google may matter to some.

There are two other layers of lock in.

• One is the content stored in iCloud, especially if you have data stored across multiple devices & as mentioned music is locked in to a proprietary format which requires stripping the DRM off it to get it to play on some other devices.
• Next is the social communications layer. When you SMS someone it may cost money, but if you have a wifi connection and the other person has an Apple device it sends as an iMessage.

Over time (unless the EU aggressively steps in) I would expect more layers of lock in on payments and subscription management for apps.

In China WeChat is largely the social layer with tons of mini apps that can be portable across devices, but outside of China and Europe Google has a tight hold on Android & if you don't like or trust Google you almost have to use Apple by default or have no smartphone.

In addition to all the above, what is the one fashion accessory you can take everywhere, use everywhere, and not get called a stuck up snob for showing off? An iPhone, IMHO.

That distinction probably doesn't matter when the model is almost exact from year to year, but it makes a big difference when there is a new iPhone model that looks significantly different & in some way special. That shallow difference can be the difference between finding the right mate or getting curbed for owning an Android. The signaling matters.

Interesting perspective. Thank you.

i hadn't thought if the privacy differences, a topic that is back in the forefront with all the discussion about contact tracking.

[jpatter666]

Re: For GRG55

In general iPhone users tend to have far more disposable personal income than Android users. So getting in front of that audience is critical, especially if one is raising money from venture capitalists or working with other tech bros who are more likely to use iPhones.

App makers have to keep their apps current to stay with the most valuable users. And some older phones won't allow the installation of an app. Want to install the Interactive Brokers Mobile App on your iPhone 5C? No can do. iOS 11 required. And the newest OSs only go out to certain devices of a certain class or above.

Even some existing apps already installed on a phone might stop working because at some point the company making the app requires an upgrade because they changed how their back end servers interact with the on device apps. So there is a bit of a circular lock in there.

And then the difference between privacy policies of Apple and Google may matter to some.

There are two other layers of lock in.

• One is the content stored in iCloud, especially if you have data stored across multiple devices & as mentioned music is locked in to a proprietary format which requires stripping the DRM off it to get it to play on some other devices.
• Next is the social communications layer. When you SMS someone it may cost money, but if you have a wifi connection and the other person has an Apple device it sends as an iMessage.

Over time (unless the EU aggressively steps in) I would expect more layers of lock in on payments and subscription management for apps.

In China WeChat is largely the social layer with tons of mini apps that can be portable across devices, but outside of China and Europe Google has a tight hold on Android & if you don't like or trust Google you almost have to use Apple by default or have no smartphone.

In addition to all the above, what is the one fashion accessory you can take everywhere, use everywhere, and not get called a stuck up snob for showing off? An iPhone, IMHO.

That distinction probably doesn't matter when the model is almost exact from year to year, but it makes a big difference when there is a new iPhone model that looks significantly different & in some way special. That shallow difference can be the difference between finding the right mate or getting curbed for owning an Android. The signaling matters.

Disposable income: That used to be a factor (I see a lot of reports on that but most are five or so years old). It's not anymore IMO; in fact because there are so many Android vendors, there will be some who make very expensive phones (folding, etc). Also, the status symbol value of iPhones got undercut by Apple itself with their putting out cheaper iPhones.

Privacy: This is an area Apple has hyped, I'm not certain on the reality behind it, but I concede they're making more of an issue than Google.

Apps: One area where Apple still has an advantage is iPhone/iPad symmetry. I still haven't found what I consider a decent competitor to an iPad. The only Apple product I own.

I'll be watching the younger generations (nephews/nieces) to see which way they jump. Always the leading indicator.