If Apple continues to report falling iPhone unit sales numbers every quarter, all the while delivering on revenue growth, anyone covering Apple will need to point out time and again that product sales are down, regardless of what the actual finances are. So why take the PR hit on sales numbers when you can just not release them?
In a world where everyone will soon have a smartphone as surely as electricity, and the middle class will likely have a tablet or some form of computer, Apple has elected to be more like Tiffany or Mercedes rather than Walmart or Hyundai. That means speaking to as an aspirational clientele for whom brand, form, and function are all of a part, and where the higher price point is at times a sotto voce aspect of the appeal.
It is hard to argue with that strategy, although it does make Apple a different sort of company than it was a decade ago, away from owning the market with a range of prices and products and toward a premier provider in a mass world. It is also hard to see that strategy not producing incredible profits and cash for the coming years, absent some tectonic disruption in communications akin to the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, which is not evident but not impossible. In some sense, it is back to the future for Apple, which began in the 1980s selling a high-priced, elegantly designed Mac that eschewed the mass market.
But just as this week’s Apple event giveth, there’s also the suggestion that it might taketh away; some Apple products and technologies find themselves in limbo after the announcements of the week, meaning that the writing may perhaps be on the wall for them.
Of course, not all of these products and technologies will die immediately—some may linger on for a while yet, and a few of them may not stay dead. (As the Air and mini showed us, sometimes they’re just hibernating.) But Apple has a habit of being brutal when it comes to cutting the dead weight from its lineup, even when it comes to killing those things that it once considered its darlings.
It’s not surprising that Apple will continue throttling iPhones. It’s not like it only did it in the first place as a prank; it actually does serve a purpose. But at least now you’re aware that it’s happening—and more importantly, have the ability to stop it.
Apple has today started rolling out the App Store Connect API to developers. Promised back in June of this year, the new API will allow developers to automate some TestFlight tasks such as creating groups, managing public links, adding and removing testers, and assigning builds to groups.
With nine of the top ten global retailers using iOS devise in their business, it’s clear Apple’s mobile devices are what we expect to find when we go shopping.
People usually praise the Segway and Kamen's efforts to remake transportation. But occasionally someone will ask if Kamen considers it a failure. When that happens, he often thinks of the Wright Brothers.
"They certainly weren't giving out frequent flyer miles by 1920," he said. "But I don't think anybody would say, 'Hey Wilbur hey Orville, how do you feel about that failure?'"
And in the emerging world of micromobility, a catch-all term for small, computerized electric vehicles, Kamen is a visionary with a place in history.
My back is hurting today. I cannot sit still for long. I've gotta figure out, someday, a workflow that involves walking around with an iPhone.
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Just finished reading (actually: listening) These Truths, by Jill Lepore. A wonderful and insightful book that made me think and re-think a lot.
Not that I mind too much, but the audiobook version I was listening to (from Audible) contains quite a few mistakes made by the narrator, as well as a few page-turning sounds. The biggest problem in the editing was probably that the last chapter was repeated again at the end of the audiobook.
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Thanks for reading.