Here Comes The iPhone Apocalypse

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According to this article, the forecast for Apple is doom and gloom. Then again, people have been saying that forever. Oh well, this picture from the article was worth the click all by itself. ;)

In the course of a decade, Apple went from the Mac company to the iDevices company. The next 10 years will be even more challenging as the company faces tough competition from Asia which will erode its iPhone market share.
 
I think Apple will have a challenging future. Same with Samsung, HTC, and the rest. Competition will be fierce.
I'll be curious to see if the iPhone SE sells well. The $399 model will probably move a lot of models. There is a lot of demand for the Apple brand. I'm not arguing the OS or the tech - just go to an Apple Store and watch the crowds.
 
evilsofa said:
Apple haters were predicting its doom in the 1980s, and Apple didn't even have $200 billion in reserves back then. :rolleyes:
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To be fair, in 1997, Apple was close to bankruptcy. Fortunately for them, Microsoft saved Apple. While certain industries have been said to have been dying for awhile, while they really haven't (I'm looking at you PC Gaming), I don't think this is the case. When you look at Apple's beginnings and their iDevice era, they really were the first to do something. But hubris brought them down the first time. Apple use to be the hobbyist and gamer's choice of PC back in the early 1980s, but Steve Jobs for some reason wanted to disassociate Apple with games, and we know how that turned out. And they lead the mobile device era with some of the better software out there. Let's face it. Android is terrible. It's painful to develop for, and the openness leads to no standards. But it's cheap, which has helped it with the Eastern markets. Sooner or later though, someone will come out with an actual useful mobile device though that has none of Apple's restrictiveness, and is developer and user friendly.
 
Nytegard said:
Sooner or later though, someone will come out with an actual useful mobile device though that has none of Apple's restrictiveness, and is developer and user friendly.
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Sooner or later, someone will come out with a fast, good and cheap car, too.
 
Nytegard said:
Sooner or later though, someone will come out with an actual useful mobile device though that has none of Apple's restrictiveness, and is developer and user friendly.
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Good luck with that... It's generally one or the other. Walled garden with limited hardware options or open/more complex with lots of hardware choices.
 
I'm not sure anyone in charge at Apple has the guts to make major changes to anything anymore. I'm not a Jobs was god kinda guy... just saying in the last 5 years everything Apple has done has been pretty safe. Iphone gets a new version, Ipad gets a new version, I think you could even say the Terrible Apple watch was safe. Apple has always been best (sales wise) when it didn't compete on specs. The last 5 years it has just become another Tech company pushing the specs a bit every cycle, if they stick with that plan yes they will have a ruff next 5 years as the low cost competition gets more and more mature.

Apple has never been a big R&D Spending machine. (compared to the other big guys) They need to pour some extra funds in the next few years and try and land some killer proprietary idea. Samsung for years has spent an insane amount of funds. Rumors are they will launch a foldable display smartphone this year, but who knows. Apple needs to invest in some crazy idea, with the idea of getting some new killer i something out in the next few years. The apple watch isn't likely to take off... but who knows perhaps some cutting edge Apple version of google glass would explode in 3-4 years from now if apple poured in a ton of funds and made it happen.
 
Apple have been slowly innovative, but not revolutionary in a long time. It's fine to be safe, makes "cents" to milk what you can, but it also slows you down and can allow another company to pass you. The "old" is "new" iPhone would've needed something more to really hit it home, raw speed isn't enough long term IMO.
 
What are you looking for in revolutionary communications and entertainment innovation now? Something that's so good that handheld phones, televisions, PCs and the Internet become obsolete... but what would that even look like? It isn't just Apple that isn't being revolutionary here.

I'm thinking brain implants but we're so many decades away from doing anything with that; for now all we've got are some very crude implementations with cochlear implants (that sound so awful that they're only worthwhile if you've got no hearing at all) and artificial retinas (the Argus II is billed as allowing blind people to sort their laundry but they aren't talking about being able to read).
 
Did they suddenly get rid of all the vain stupid people who want to be up to date on tech but don't to understand it one bit? If there was a purge of about 50% of society, maybe they'd go down fast. Otherwise they aren't going anywhere all that fast.
 
Doubtful considering there is only one other real option. I love the Windows phone platform but, basically, Microsoft has done a terrible job with it.
 
Steve said:
The next 10 years will be even more challenging as the company faces tough competition from Asia which will erode its iPhone market share.
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I don't think market share is that important. iPhones have been way behind android in market share for years now mostly because of cheap phones, but that's not where the profits are. I think the real question is what happens to the high-end (high margin) smartphone market in the next 10 years.
 
Nytegard said:
And they lead the mobile device era with some of the better software out there. Let's face it. Android is terrible. It's painful to develop for, and the openness leads to no standards.
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My experience has been the opposite. iOS is far more difficult to develop for. Objective C is a horrific language to work with; Swift is only marginally better. And iOS updates break things all the time. And the restrictive nature of development is an onerous bear.

Android's big problem is that Google has turned the platform into a complete trainwreck of ugliness and poor usability. The actual programming API is pretty idiotic as well, even though the technologies are easy to work with.
 
We need to get something straight here. Don't believe anything that ZDNet produces since they're Microsoft shills. They shill for Microsoft in the worst ways. Everything they produce about Windows 10 paints it as flowers and sunshine. And don't get me started on Ed Bott and Mary Jo Foley, they're two of the biggest Microsoft shills that ZDNet has.

They can't write an article at all without mentioning Microsoft and how wonderful they are. Paid shills.
 
I love this guy's comment...

Oh look, mommy! It’s another “Apple is Doomed™” article. Can I read it mommy, can I? Oh please, mommy, let me read it! I like scary stories where Apple goes out of business overnight and little Larry’s and Sergey’s Android phone is the only thing people can buy now.

Apple, proudly doomed™ and going out of business since 1976. I wonder where the poser who wrote this screed will be in forty years?​
 
trparky said:
We need to get something straight here. Don't believe anything that ZDNet produces since they're Microsoft shills. They shill for Microsoft in the worst ways. Everything they produce about Windows 10 paints it as flowers and sunshine. And don't get me started on Ed Bott and Mary Jo Foley, they're two of the biggest Microsoft shills that ZDNet has.

They can't write an article at all without mentioning Microsoft and how wonderful they are. Paid shills.
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Apple fanboy alert!
 
How so? Just about everyone here knows how infinitely stupid Microsoft has been as of late. What with their shoving Windows 10 down our throats in ever increasingly shady ways whether we like it or not. And let's not forget about the telemetry data that Windows 10 sends to Microsoft headquarters. We don't know what's contained in that telemetry data and since Microsoft has been less than honest about the telemetry data we have to assume that Microsoft knows everything that we have on our PCs. Talk about a privacy threat if I've ever heard one.

I run Windows (Windows 10 by the way) because I'm a gamer. You're pretty much forced to run Windows if you're a gamer and Microsoft knows this so they figure that they can abuse us all they can since there's no other viable platform for gamers to play PC games on. Linux is a joke, they can't get their act together. And the Mac doesn't have decent enough GPU power in them to be a viable desktop gaming platform. So... your choices are as follows for gaming on the PC. Microsoft. Microsoft. And did I mention Microsoft?
 
We tend to forget; for us, apple stuff pretty much is just annoying. For the average person who just wants stuff to basic work, and is willing to pay extra for it, well, they love apple products. Especially the vast majority of women. I don't agree with them, but I understand.
 
Well I mean sales could collapse completely and Apple will be there... I mean do they even manufacture anything? Look at HP, it has been mismanaged with a vengeance.. Still there limping along... Money in our big business first economy gets you a lot of leeway.
 
jpm100 said:
Did they suddenly get rid of all the vain stupid people who want to be up to date on tech but don't to understand it one bit? If there was a purge of about 50% of society, maybe they'd go down fast. Otherwise they aren't going anywhere all that fast.
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Most people can use an iPhone. It's easy, it's popular, and it's extremely simple to use. That's the selling point. It's like a Fisher Price toy. They don't have to understand how it works. Just tap, tap tap your way to your apps and they just go.

ManofGod said:
Doubtful considering there is only one other real option. I love the Windows phone platform but, basically, Microsoft has done a terrible job with it.
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:/ Man, don't do that. :( I love the Windows Phone. But, when I do my next upgrade, I'm going to the iPhone. Windows Phone is excellent. WP10 is great. A little laggy on my phone (Nokia 928), but it's a great OS. Microsoft just doesn't support it very well. The carriers support it even less. I really wish Microsoft would put more faith into building the WP platform. They've tried, but IMO they always half assed their attempts. Paying dev's, helping dev's is fine. They just didn't do much on the carrier side.

I'd really like to see a great Surface phone running WP10. :D

I'm not good with Android phones. I always try using custom ROM's, changing things, reimaging... I can't leave it alone. They are fun and powerful. But, they just open it up to letting me play too much and I get sucked into it. Not the fault of Android, but my own.
 
evilsofa said:
What are you looking for in revolutionary communications and entertainment innovation now? Something that's so good that handheld phones, televisions, PCs and the Internet become obsolete... but what would that even look like? It isn't just Apple that isn't being revolutionary here.
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Hit the nail right on the head. The big innovation was making portable cell phones do computer things - the smartphone. Now I finally have a portable device that can make calls, text, email, play music and videos, browse the web, play games, and even perform like a mobile computer. I'm not sure what else I could ask for... All of apple's products have merged into one device, and it does it well (as does android, and windows phone, etc.)

There's nothing left except to make it as powerful as my desktop, while still fitting in the palm of my hand - and that's why we're in the tech spec wars. I don't know what else Apple is supposed to do - these damn phones have already replaced like 50 "things" that once were part of my life.
 
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