>Apple has always had a self-servicing program for medium-sized and up clients. They don't need this program at all for that and it's not how any Fortune 500 will be doing their servicing.
This. I dont know how many times this needs to be repeated before we could stamp out that narrative Apple is doing it for Fortune 500.
> Disappointing news for him and for me, although I can understand the business justification.
Understanding the business justification is why I don’t understand why people think Apple products are overpriced. Not a single other tech organization wants to provide customer service other than Apple, even one with as much cash as Microsoft. Why should I not reward Apple for putting their money where their mouth is?
Obviously, anything less expensive than Apple products makes it unfeasible to offer customer service in person and only merits waiting in a phone queue.
> I do wish Apple would come up with a solution to this problem though.
That wish is in the opposite direction of Apple’s brand identity: “let us handle everything for you with our white glove service [you can pay, right?]”
> In what other industry are people willing to pay at least more than twice, for the same hardware?
The whole premise is incorrect, so the conclusions are incorrect. The hardware is not the same, and even if it was, clearly the software makes a difference to the user.
The whole Apple fashion status trope is tired and has never been true. The amortized cost of an Apple device in my 15 year + experience with them has always been less than the competitors. Especially if you add my troubleshooting time.
Not to mention they’ve been selling iPad Minis for $400 for 7 or 8 years, and they now have an iPhone at $400. Their stuff works, they offer physical stores you can get technical support at, and they seem to be the best offering for privacy conscious users.
> their core business is selling expensive devices to the user
Only until Tim Cook reverses that trend. “Services” revenue has been growing like crazy and will continue to do so as Apple pursues ever more aggressive strategies to shove ads in our faces.
Steve Jobs’ last mistake was appointing as CEO someone who cares about money this much over good products.
> Are you really saying that Apple has no competition in computers?
Of course not. A company need not have a monopoly in every market they compete in. For example, Apple produces an office suite (iWorks), but due to the competitive nature of that industry doesn't make money off of it.
Apple doesn't have a monopoly on computers, but it does not make much profit off of them. Most of its profit comes from smartphones, where they do have a monopoly on the upper portion of the market, and also within their own walled garden.
> Apple is a first party supermarket that lets sellers self-promote
Apple works hard to change that though. Apple made 26% of their revenue from services last quarter, it was less than 10% 8 years ago, that is where most of their growth is coming from.
They did use to make most of their money selling products, but now they started to exploit their platform dominance to make money from all other areas of it as well. Apple today isn't the Apple you bought into 10 years ago.
> Apple now seems to care more about maximizing profit and cutting costs in every possible area than providing a good customer experience.
Isn't maximizing profit the entire point of a company? Providing a good customer experience is just one way to maximize profit. Apple doesn't care about you, they never did.
> Apple's supply chain is more than 1,000 companies. Do you really think Apple has the expertise and personnel to replicate what 1,000 companies have spent decades mastering? Not likely.
As one of the richest corporations on the planet which always smugly tells everyone how nice they are and how much they respect people?
Yes, fuck yes. They're not a mom and pop shop. They're a corporation that finds millions to lobby governments against making your electronics repairable. They can redirect those to paying the manufacturing workers directly.
Actually it is. Well actually it is about hardware sales. iTunes is contributing only ~5% to the revenue while iPhone sales alone are over 50%. So giving hardware away for cheap and making it up in volume won't really work.
> This is pretty much the opposite of their stated strategy, which is to make money off services
I’m sure their internal strategy is to make money on the hardware, software and services. Basically everything. As Apple has shown, it’s not necessarily the worst plan.
>They definitely aren’t focused exclusively on maximising profits: they already have all the money, and they make plenty of things that don’t start life as a cash cow (Apple TV, AirTags, even iPads for a while).
Which part of Apple TV, AirTags, or even iPad were not profitable from the start? Even assuming you mean AirPod instead of iPad.
While I dont disagree ( or agree ) whether Apple make these decisions on security or repair priority. Apple under Tim Cook have been very much a maximising profits company. Every single step, big or small he has been extremely cautious of revenue and profits compared to Steve Jobs. And the reason why Apple has managed to give precise forecast every quarter.
> Apple never wanted the enterprise. Hardware sells to the enterprise are low margin, require babysitting and they require backwards compatibility forever.
I agree with much of this, except the idea that enterprise sales are low margin. Once you lock in an enterprise customer, the cost of switching to another provider becomes a large barrier. Your margin is dictated largely by the cost of your product, minus the cost of the competitor's, plus the cost of switching. If the cost of switching is high, the margins can also be high.
Apple does not derive its margins from the cost of switching (changing phones is relatively easy). They do generally have a better product, but they also provide incredible branding around being the best. Apples margins are dictated by cost of Apple's product, minus the competitors, plus value of affiliating yourself with their brand.
This. I dont know how many times this needs to be repeated before we could stamp out that narrative Apple is doing it for Fortune 500.
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