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One-Trick Apple

Today is tap-tap.


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We saw an Apple server in Raleigh NC. Not OS X Server - a real Apple server. It was gorgeous.

It was accompanied by an Apple engineer who told us he worked in Minnesota. He showed us the stats on the box. Apple servers were not priced at the high end. They were priced at the reasonable level. And they were great. Even back then they could interact with iPod.

Someone at VT traveled to Cupertino to inspect these servers, then quietly went back home and ordered a fleet that became the 5th most powerful supercomputer in the world.

Those were the days. What's today? Today is tap-tap.

The server OS remains, but Apple's server hardware is gone. The laptop fleet has been decimated, leaving only a few crippled models with a ridiculous 'touch bar' (because they've decided no one is supposed to touch a screen if the device is bigger than a tablet). One port and a special bag (carry-on luggage?) full of dongles. Makes sense?

Tim Cook says he doesn't understand why anyone wants a computer. OS development falls under the mobile department today, and the computer programmers (if there are any left) get the crumbs off the table.

BI published a forecast last month.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/apple-iphone-8-to-succeed-must-buck-history-2017-7/

They pointed out the following.

  • The global smartphone market has stopped growing.
  • Today, 50% of all smartphones sold on Planet Earth cost less than $200.
  • But Apple is boxed-in to the high-end of the market. Its phones cost at least three times that.

Finally:

  • For iPhone 8 to be a success, Apple must do something it has only ever done once before: Grow sales faster than the market as a whole and take market share from other companies.

But it's not just that. Apple are betting the farm on iPhone. This from the company that was equated with the 'Mac'.

But the Mac nosedived, Gil Amelia brought in Steve Jobs, Steve got the ownership of Objective-C and brought along NeXTSTEP, and Jon, and Avie, and all the rest. And NeXTSTEP, today called Cocoa, is iOS - what powers iPhone. And iPad. And the watch. And all the rest.

One system, so many uses. But the servers are gone, and even the computers are dwindling.

Are computers dwindling in the market outside Cupertino? IBM wouldn't think so. And Microsoft - Microsoft! They're making their own hardware today!

This advert's going in high rotation on ITV channels in the UK. Several times per hour.



Are they going to sell any?

Apple computers still count for about 1/3 of their revenues. iP*s count for the rest. The iPod quickly became Apple's breadwinner back in the day. But back in the day, Apple had a good product line - and no touchbars.

1/3 of all revenues is nothing to be ashamed of, but having a diversified selection of products is just smart planning. And providing industry 'staples' is even more important. The last generation of MBPs were powerhouses and about as perfect a laptop as one could want - and then Apple went and did what they've done so many times before. Good old One-Trick Apple.

In case you didn't notice, their computer OS ('macOS (High) Sierra') is in trouble. Flustered die-hard fans simply don't know what to do. The hardware gets impossible and the OS gets perplexing. The simplicity that's supposed to be there - that used to be there - is gone, replaced with a conglomeration of ravenous monsters, each of which rivals an IBM OS.

But an IBM OS powers a mainframe, and Apple systems - by their own volition - power watches.

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