Slog Comments
Is Apple Becoming the Walmart of Personal Electronics?
1
Does it need to be said that most people are still paying for this crap with credit cards? You think folks are actually saving up for any of this? With what disposable income?
3
National Geographic had an interesting article recently on rare earth elements. Supply is often stretched so thin that popular Apple products (and other touch screen devices) are often built with rare earth metals bought from Chinese mafia.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/0…
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/0…
4
Wow, no mention of the fact you're a Apple stock holder Goldy, when you 'report'? Hope you enjoy profiting from 'exploitation' of Chinese workers.
Do as I say...
Do as I say...
5
@4... The only reason you know about the Apple stock in my IRA is that I have repeatedly mentioned it as a disclaimer. So eat me.
6
As someone who doesn't like pared-down, simplistic OSes and casual, iPad-friendly games, I can't help but groan a little every time there's a post here about Apple's increasing market dominance over those areas of tech people actually care about these days... even if I have yet to actually start running out of new stuff to look forward to seeing in Steam.
7
Profound misreading of Apple vs Walmart in terms of behavior. Walmart has had (and may have less these days) a lock on consumer products, and, like Costco sometimes does, negotiates incredibly hard-ball deals that give it a price advantage, and sometimes an exclusive lock on products. But it's rare they have an exclusive. It's more that they have a price that might be considered improperly low because of the way they exert pressure that puts competitors at a disadvantage who must buy the same product at a higher price.
Apple, by contrast, is purchasing raw materials from the supply chain, in some cases reportedly locking down the inventory it requires to produce its products by buying the entire output. I haven't seen a suggestion yet that it is stockpiling, buying in order to deprive another firm (but without manufacturing an item of its own), nor getting predatory pricing due to its size.
It's still problematic if Apple, with its 30%+ profit margins, can lock down components to such an extent that its competitors can't provide price competition, and Apple is through this method able to charge a price higher than if some parts of the products in question were freely available in larger quantities.
But I think the issue is scarcity. Apple is buying stuff that's scarce from companies willing to sell to it. Apple in some cases is buying product well ahead of the rest of the industry's interest. Apple bought a huge number of 10-inch capacitive touch screens for the iPad when everyone else though those were ridiculous.
Apple, by contrast, is purchasing raw materials from the supply chain, in some cases reportedly locking down the inventory it requires to produce its products by buying the entire output. I haven't seen a suggestion yet that it is stockpiling, buying in order to deprive another firm (but without manufacturing an item of its own), nor getting predatory pricing due to its size.
It's still problematic if Apple, with its 30%+ profit margins, can lock down components to such an extent that its competitors can't provide price competition, and Apple is through this method able to charge a price higher than if some parts of the products in question were freely available in larger quantities.
But I think the issue is scarcity. Apple is buying stuff that's scarce from companies willing to sell to it. Apple in some cases is buying product well ahead of the rest of the industry's interest. Apple bought a huge number of 10-inch capacitive touch screens for the iPad when everyone else though those were ridiculous.
9
Or maybe Apple's competitors always pass on opportunities to buy up raw materials in the supply chain because they have good reason to believe the products they'd make with those materials would not sell.
Not because Apple's products are better, of course. It could not possibly be that. It's the mind control. And guess who has locked up the world's supply of tinfoil? It's... it's... noooooooooo!
Not because Apple's products are better, of course. It could not possibly be that. It's the mind control. And guess who has locked up the world's supply of tinfoil? It's... it's... noooooooooo!
10
Glenn @7,
Well, to be honest, was a bit of a hyperbolic springboard, but I don't think we disagree all that much on the larger point. Apple's new economy of scale has changed the equation (as has it's huge cash reserve) in such a way that it makes it difficult to compete with Apple, feature for feature, on price.
It's interesting that one the most effective competitors has been Samsung, which also manufacturers components.
Well, to be honest, was a bit of a hyperbolic springboard, but I don't think we disagree all that much on the larger point. Apple's new economy of scale has changed the equation (as has it's huge cash reserve) in such a way that it makes it difficult to compete with Apple, feature for feature, on price.
It's interesting that one the most effective competitors has been Samsung, which also manufacturers components.
11
@10 - It will be interesting to see Apple compete with Samsung in the television market while using them as an OEM, if that turns out to be the case.
12
@6 - You consider Lion a pared-down, simplistic OS? In what way?
Or maybe your were talking about the iPad?
Or maybe your were talking about the iPad?
14
@12
I haven't used Lion before, but I doubt it reverses the direction Apple software has been following for a long time. I'm thinking of the whole of OSX since its inception, iOS, and what I understand is a trend across the industry, led by apple, towards bringing mobile device OSes and desktop OSes closer together.
The idea is to make "seamless" OSes for people who "just want things to work" with a minimum of fuss. As a vaguely specific example, I'm thinking of some post on Slog last month or so about eliminating traditional file structures and instead having systems that just try to know and subsequently serve up the files you need. I don't know if this was some future Apple product or Windows 8; in either case it's Apple-inspired.
If people want to go for the "It just works" mentality and boil their computers down into media-serving appliances that require a minimum of input, I won't begrudge them that. It's not the way I like using computers, however, so when everybody else predictably follows Apple's lead, the "it just works" mentality spreads at the expense of the "i like fiddly buttons and settings and seeing how shit works" approach I prefer.
(in before some variant of 'fuck you, get with the times')
I haven't used Lion before, but I doubt it reverses the direction Apple software has been following for a long time. I'm thinking of the whole of OSX since its inception, iOS, and what I understand is a trend across the industry, led by apple, towards bringing mobile device OSes and desktop OSes closer together.
The idea is to make "seamless" OSes for people who "just want things to work" with a minimum of fuss. As a vaguely specific example, I'm thinking of some post on Slog last month or so about eliminating traditional file structures and instead having systems that just try to know and subsequently serve up the files you need. I don't know if this was some future Apple product or Windows 8; in either case it's Apple-inspired.
If people want to go for the "It just works" mentality and boil their computers down into media-serving appliances that require a minimum of input, I won't begrudge them that. It's not the way I like using computers, however, so when everybody else predictably follows Apple's lead, the "it just works" mentality spreads at the expense of the "i like fiddly buttons and settings and seeing how shit works" approach I prefer.
(in before some variant of 'fuck you, get with the times')
15
mmmmmmmmm keep slurping that Jobscock Goldy, you only have a few more years left at most
also how does a company with 5.2% of overall unit sales lock down a supply chain
also how does a company with 5.2% of overall unit sales lock down a supply chain
16
Welcome to 2001. Remember the original iPod? It was smaller than anything of comparable functionality for years. Why? There was only one supplier for the 1.8" hard drive mechanisms that the iPod used (Toshiba,) and Apple wisely secured a 5 year exclusive contract for their entire production capacity.
Not news.
Not news.
17
"The only reason you know about the Apple stock in my IRA is that I have repeatedly mentioned it as a disclaimer."
What, no disclaimer for the suffering you put Apple's Chinese workers through in order for your stock to grow and make you richer?
Do as I say...
What, no disclaimer for the suffering you put Apple's Chinese workers through in order for your stock to grow and make you richer?
Do as I say...
18
Apple is doing everything it should have done...in 1995.
But it has no cloud and no network.
It sells files and storage while the whole world is streaming.
But it has no cloud and no network.
It sells files and storage while the whole world is streaming.
19
"cloud" is a stupid word and lots of people won't be streaming squat, especially when wireless data rates are so ridiculously high
20
Oh, boo-fucking-hoo.
"We built our business on selling cheap shit for low margins, and then our Asian subcontractors realized they could ALSO sell cheap shit for low margins, and then Apple comes along OUT OF NOWHERE and sells well made kit for high margins, and INVESTS in their supply chain, and who could've ever seen this coming? Why won't they compete in a race to the bottom with us?!??"
Apple has been competing on price with the iPod for years. Remember 2005, when they had the world largest supply of flash memory, were dominating the music playing space, and you couldn't find a better value for cheaper?
"We built our business on selling cheap shit for low margins, and then our Asian subcontractors realized they could ALSO sell cheap shit for low margins, and then Apple comes along OUT OF NOWHERE and sells well made kit for high margins, and INVESTS in their supply chain, and who could've ever seen this coming? Why won't they compete in a race to the bottom with us?!??"
Apple has been competing on price with the iPod for years. Remember 2005, when they had the world largest supply of flash memory, were dominating the music playing space, and you couldn't find a better value for cheaper?
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