Business

The linked article is a detailed criticism of Apple, and ends with this quote from Phil Schiller, from his appearance on John Gruber’s WWDC Talk Show, back in June of 2015:

We don’t need to be told how great we are, and how big we are. It’s not about that, and we don’t want it to become about that. It’s not about P/Es, and it’s not about market value. I mean, sure, the finance team has to worry about that. But for the rest of us, it’s about: Are we making the best product? Do people love what we do? Is it changing lives? And if it isn’t, then beat us up until it is.

Take some time to read the whole piece. There are some common themes (notably, the way Apple approaches UX and content discovery), and the sense is that the author is truly trying to help spot problems, rather than (as the title suggests), point to Apple’s inevitable doom.

Debbie Wu, Nikkei Asian Review:

Key iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry is mulling a joint investment with Apple topping $7 billion for a highly automated display facility in the U.S., Chairman Terry Gou said Sunday.

Note that Hon Hai Precision Industry, Ltd, trades as Foxconn. They are one and the same.

And:

“Apple is willing to invest in the facility together because they need the [panels] as well,” Gou told reporters after the company’s annual year-end party in the Nankang district of Taipei. The U.S. production site eventually would create 30,000 to 50,000 jobs, the Taiwanese tycoon said.

And:

In addition to the proposed display facility, Gou said Foxconn plans a new molding facility in the U.S., with the state of Pennsylvania a possible site following investment discussions with local officials.

And:

Gou also said Smart Technologies, a Foxconn-controlled interactive display startup based in Canada, may move south of the border now that U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled his intent to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Very interesting. This seems just the beginning of the evolution of Apple’s production process.

Neil Cybart, Above Avalon:

During the last few years of the Steve Jobs era, it was Cook (and Apple SVP Marketing Phil Schiller) who were tasked with coming up with Apple’s corporate strategy. This allowed Steve Jobs to spend time with Jony Ive and focus on the product. Said another way, Tim Cook was the one that allowed Steve to be Steve.

When it came time to relinquish his CEO title, Steve selected Cook as his successor. While the move was met with controversy outside Apple, the selection signaled that Steve didn’t look at the CEO position as something that needed to be held by a product person. Much of that belief likely resulted from the fact that Cook had been handling many of the traditional CEO duties himself as COO for years.

And:

Tim Cook is leading a different type of Apple than that which existed under Steve. Things are done differently, down to how decisions are made and then communicated throughout Apple. This leads to a theory that may seem controversial today but is becoming increasingly clear as time goes on. It is impossible to grade Tim Cook as CEO without grading Cook’s inner circle.

While Cook has at least seventeen VPs and SVPs reporting directly to him, a very high number, there is evidence that many of the key decisions regarding Apple’s strategy are determined by a much smaller group of SVPs. This team likely includes Eddy Cue, Phil Schiller, and Jeff Williams. The three have been at Apple since the 1990s, experiencing Apple at its best and also worst. Eddy Cue joined Apple in 1989.

And:

The removal of Scott Forstall as SVP of iOS back in 2012 takes on a new level of importance when discussing the topic of Tim Cook and his inner circle. It has been reported that Forstall did not get along with other Apple executives. While we have never officially heard Forstall’s side of the story, which is odd, Cook’s desire for a powerful inner circle does support the theory that Forstall was removed in order to position this tight-knit group of Apple SVPs as a type of brain trust. Forstall was clear in his ambitions to one day be CEO. Cue, Schiller, and Williams don’t hold similar ambitions. Instead, ideas are bounced off each other and disagreements are hashed out within this group before being funneled to the rest of the company. Forstall threatened to throw off this dynamic and risk having Cook’s leadership structure collapse.

There’s a lot of insight here. Neil Cybart does an excellent job breaking down the big picture, explaining the complex model that is the Apple executive team.

Whether you agree with the grades at the bottom or not, the post itself is definitely worth making your way through.

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:

Earlier this month, Swift creator Chris Lattner announced he will be stepping down as director of Apple’s Development Tools department to lead Tesla’s Autopilot engineering team as VP of Autopilot Software.

Joe got these two quotes from Chris:

I’ve been writing code for more than 30 years, and 16 of those years have been in the developer tools space. I love it, but I am ready to move on to something else. Autopilot is clearly incredibly important to the world because of its ability to save people’s lives (and increase convenience). It is also a very, very hard technology problem and my experience building large scale software and team building is useful. Of course, I’ve also been a huge Tesla fan for some time.

And:

This was a very difficult decision, because I care deeply about the technology and people at Apple and because I could see myself staying there for many more years. In the end though, the opportunity to dive into a completely new area and work with the amazing Tesla Autopilot team was irresistible.

Class statements, both. Tesla is lucky to have him.

I wouldn’t say nobody noticed, but clearly the wave of publicity centers on the AirPods, rather than on the W1 chip. That quibble aside, Matt Weinberger, Business Insider, writes:

The magic happens when you’re using a W1 headset with an iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or Mac.

First, you turn it on next to your unlocked iPhone or iPad. Second, you click “connect.” Now they’re automatically paired with any other Apple gadget that’s signed in to your iCloud account. Switching from iPhone to Mac and back takes a click.

And:

Apple’s W1 confers other benefits, too. When you’re using it with an Apple gadget, the chip grants tremendous range — with the Beats Solo3, I was able to vacuum my entire small house with my phone charging in the bedroom without losing audio. Better yet, W1 uses some kind of magic optimization technique to greatly extend battery life.

And:

It means Apple has something that no Android phone — or Windows laptop, for that matter — can match. It also opens the door for a world where people are always wearing their headphones, with Apple’s Siri only a tap away.

Apple’s competitor to the omnipresent Alexa is hiding in plain sight — in the iPhones and iPads that more than a billion people own and in the wireless headphones that Apple is so keen to push. In other words, the W1 brings together all the pieces of the Apple puzzle, from Siri to Beats to the iPhone, in a way that hasn’t been done before.

Interesting point. While Alexa is winning the early adopter battle, Apple is planting seeds with the W1 Bluetooth chip for a much longer play. If you buy a device with a W1 chip inside, you’ll see immediate and tangible benefits to switching over to a macOS or iOS device.

Zac Hall, 9to5Mac:

AirPods are a totally different product than my wireless Bose QC35s which have longer battery life and active noise cancellation not to mention superior audio quality, but AirPods were easily preferred as my travel earphones after real world testing for a few reasons.

Nice detailed overview on pros and cons (mostly pros) of flying with AirPods. I do tend to travel with noise canceling over-the-ear headphones, but Zac makes the AirPods sound like a reasonable alternative, especially if packing space is tight.

Good read.

Rene Ritchie, commenting on the September iPhone 7 rollout:

Where before you could press firmly on your iPhone 6s display to trigger 3D Touch and get a reassuring “thump” in response, with iPhone 7 you get a broader, deeper, more sophisticated range of responses.

Some of them are delightfully subtle: Spin through a date or time picker and you can feel a slight “tock” for each number. Thumb across alternate characters on the keyboard and you can feel a little “tick” for each accent.

Then this discussion of Nintendo Switch haptics, from the NeoGaf forums:

The demo that blew my mind was the marble box.

Imagine you are holding a small wooden box, with x amount of marbles inside. As you move the box, you can feel them move and clack against each other.

The Joy-con can emulate this feeling incredibly well, I was able clearly feel three separate marbles rolling down the side of the Joy-con and then each hitting each other as they got to the bottom.

What started as something simple (vibrate mode) has matured into a subtle science with broad applications.

Good post from Rene. Looking forward to seeing this evolve.

Note that you can do this in both iOS and macOS. On macOS, tap the Details button (upper right corner) on an individual thread to reveal the Send Read Receipts checkbox.

Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac:

Apple is rising the prices for apps and in-app purchases in a few countries following changes to exchange rates and taxation policy, with customers in India, Turkey and the United Kingdom to see price increases.

In the United Kingdom, one of Apple’s largest markets, app prices are rising up more than 25% following the weak pound exchange rate after the Brexit vote. An app sold for $0.99 in the US will now cost £0.99 in the UK, up from £0.79.

That is an increase of about 25% and similar rises will be seen at every price tier when the changes hit the App Store in the coming days. A Tier 2 priced app now costs £1.99 in the UK up from £1.49. An In-App Purchase that previously cost £7.99 will now be priced at £9.99, like the ‘All Worlds’ upgrade for Super Mario Run.

Interesting post. Read the comments. This obviously runs much deeper than an App Store price rise.

Click through to the main Loop post for details on some experience with Best Buy shipping AirPods in only 3 days from order. Your mileage may vary.

[VIDEO] Lots of rain and water accumulation. Should help point out any leaks before all the finish work is done. Still a fair amount of work to do, but things are really taking shape. Video in the main Loop post.

Mac Rumors:

In the U.S. last month, an estimated 75% of revenue from headphones sold online came from wireless models, up from 50% in December 2015, according to Slice Intelligence. Apple’s new AirPods led the way, capturing an estimated 26% share of online revenue in the wireless headphone market since launching on December 13.

And:

AirPods stole the top spot from Beats, which took an estimated 15.4% of online revenue in the wireless headphone market, down from 24.1% between the start of 2015 and December 13. Given it owns Beats, Apple appears to have actually taken nearly 40% of online revenue in the market since launching AirPods.

I regularly see Apple’s traditional white EarPods as well as Beats over ear headphones out in public. But I have yet to see a single pair of AirPods in the wild. I expect this is wave, still too far from shore to see. Could also be a sign that people tend to use AirPods in more private settings.

But given the huge sales numbers, I think this will change, especially in cold weather climates as Spring arrives and more and more people are hanging around outside.