Apple First Quarter Results (opens in new tab)

It’s hard to address this without writing an essay, but what Apple has done is largely introduce annoyances, without actually hurting workflows. That’s not nearly enough to get people to switch platforms en masse. The Nvidia situation is a good example of a problem of the magnitude that will actually get people to migrate off of a platform, but the markets that need Nvidia on local hardware is small enough that it hasn’t made much of an impact.

But look at the other markets, why would anyone switch off of the Mac for other use cases like development, A/V editing, Adobe Creative Suite apps, or design? This is debatable, but you could make the case that Apple is best-in-class for all of those, and there’s no other platform you could make that case for (e.g., Linux is clearly worse for A/V editing, and Windows/Linux for design, both missing core apps - note also I’m excluding high-end specialized hardware you’d find at a studio for example).

Migrating off of platforms is a huge hassle, and although they’ve skirted the line, they haven’t actually crossed it by hurting workflows (outside of Nvidia).

(In fact I’d argue that the worst casualties of Apple's bad Mac years were advantages that only Apple had. Apple had a thriving indie software ecosystem that produced one of the greatest platform exclusives in modern history, Sketch. That doesn’t happen anymore because Apple's approach to the Mac App Store prevents it. But that was an advantage only Apple had and therefore they could afford to lose it, because there’s nothing else to switch to that also had it. Apple were willing to sacrifice there own advantages for their security crusade, but they weren’t wiling to go all the way and block apps like Adobe CS and VS Code from running on the platform, which the security model they have been pushing for would require. Because blocking those apps would actually have resulted in lost market share, because those apps run on Windows.)

Might just be that hn comments aren’t representative of the wider population.

Gosh, sheeple, valuing battery life and speed above all else.

When will these people listen to Stallman?! It is CRITICAL TO EVERYONE that we be able to compile Hurd from scratch.

You could re-post this exact comment but make it about Windows in 2005. Short term success can mask long term problems.

This proves again that MacOS is not worth using anymore. Apple has no financial interest in producing desktop or laptop os in "general computing" sense. Actual Apple product is the iPhone and iServices. Everything else is in category of companion device. And yes, people don't care about security and freedom they care about safety, social perception and ease of use.

Last fall I took my early era MacBook Air to Apple and ordered a battery replacement for $99. It came back with a new motherboard too. Essentially a new machine, and it took two interactions: drop-off and pick up.

Last fall I bought two Dell desktops (for a client project) and neither has working Bluetooth/WiFi. One machine has been fully out of commission for 2 months and the other is limping along with weak WiFi and no Bluetooth.

The Dell is upgradeable and I could put 3rd party cards in there and get along. But they’re brand new machines under warranty. I’ve had two tech visits and traded more than 45 emails with Dell tech support and I’m still waiting on full system replacements that will ship in February sometime. I bought these machines in November.

Right to repair or not, I trust Apple non-right-to-repair hardware over Dell “I could repair it myself” desktop hardware.

The user experience of dealing with both companies negates the right to repair concern for me, on these right now.

I think the inability to repair Apple products is right on par with the rest of the industry really. My Samsung mobile phone is just as difficult to repair as an iPhone.

Also, when it comes to computers (I use a Mac), there is also another factor. Apple devices may be difficult (and expensive) to repair, but they are certainly popular, which means one can find plenty of online resources or even spare parts, where applicable. And, one can actually find a local store that repairs Macs and take the computer there, if throwing money at the problem is an option.

Quite recently, I came across a case of a Lenovo laptop whose user had somehow activated bitlocker and forgot the password. Wasn't interested in the files, they just wanted to be able to use the computer again. I tried to find a way to reinstall the operating system and, I kid you not, there was literally no obvious way to boot normally from a usb device nor Lenovo provides any meaningful documentation or, Heaven forbid, the boot image to reinstall. It was actually kind of difficult to even determine the model of the device, as there have been several generations with the same name, each with a different processor and efi firmware. It was almost as if the model never existed.

We can laugh all we want for Apple's expensive and un-repairable devices, but the above nightmare cannot happen in the Apple ecosystem. You can even get the device to an apple store and they'll happily take your money and fix your device (if it's not severely damaged of course). This is not unique to Apple, e.g. Dell has excellent support and documentation. But this is a quality that is very important and yet it is often overlooked.

It's not "hate", most people don't know and don't care. They want things that "just work". And, for many people, Apple's devices do that.

I’m all for the right to repair.

The other day I put my phone through a full washing machine cycle though, and it didn’t need to be repaired. That’s incredible. It came out of the machine looking brand new.

I’m a little torn. Can we have repairable devices that are this stable and robust, and have such an incredible form factor?

Considering this phone will last me 4 or 5 years, it’s a good value and extremely dependable. I want more repairable things, I just don’t know how they’d make it happen in a way that keeps them competitive.

One shitty thing: my left AirPods Pro clicks and pops, and the only solution is a complete replacement. Apple is willing to replace them at no charge, but I can’t stand the waste. What will they do with them? Recycle and landfill? These things really are a repairability nightmare and I don’t think I can justify buying then again.

My personal experience has been very positive though. The need to repair is remarkably rare.

I reaaaaaally dislike the implication that Apple is against people's rights to repair their own devices because, frankly, that's nonsense. You can support "right to repair" while simultaneously opposing the current proposed bills. I think people should be able to do whatever they want to their devices once they've purchased them but I don't think that Apple should be forced to provide them with the parts, tools, and manuals to do so. That doesn't make me anti-RTR.

For most people Apple's products live beyond the expected life range (compared to the rest of the industry).

> So Mac sales are up from 2019Q4 by $1B.

Technically, up $1.7B from that quarter, but why are you comparing 2021Q1 with 2019Q4?

2021 Q1 $8.675B

2020 Q4 $9.032B

2020 Q1 $7.160B

2019 Q4 $6.991B

Clearly the uptick in Mac sales is due to the pandemic and work from home, because 2020 Q4 was prior to the release of M1 Macs, and Mac sales had been flat for several years prior.

It's difficult to determine the effect of M1 Macs on the last quarter sales, because they weren't available until mid-November and were also very supply-constrained.

I'm curious what the uptick will look like for the next round of devices that get the M1, perhaps with 32GB memory options.

If you are a developer relying on tools like docker and ruby, beware of the M1 chip as there are still lots of incompatibilities. https://www.driftingruby.com/episodes/a-rubyist-s-apple-m1-r...

They also bought-back several hundred million shares. Most tech companies are slowly diluting share holders with their quarterly RSUs, while Apple is continually shrinking their overall outstanding share count.

The main question is, do you believe they can keep it up, and I for one do. Their eco-system gets stronger every year.

Not quite a league of their own but a short list of companies for sure - Microsoft posted revenue of $43B this quarter (not as high as Apples $110B Q) but with a 32% net profit margin.

What's 'beat' mean in this context?

I've never seen this issue in 15 years of Mac OS X/macOS use. Is this via the browser (which?) or the command line or some other tool? When I download something, it shows up in the filesystem immediately, or as near to it as to be "immediately" in human terms.

Does it not “show up” because it’s being downloaded to a temp directory and moved over when it’s done? That’s a pretty common thing.

Your comment isn’t clear enough to explain what is happening. What’s your setup (browser and everything)? You claim a bug without giving enough information about how the bug appears. Because if this bug were as widespread as you make it sound, we’d hear about it.

Which still doesn’t accept or pass on purchase GST credit.

It's a simple as the perception that Apple is a hardware company and Google/Facebook are information services company. It's much easier to draw a connection between Google/Facebook operating legally in China (and having their products subject to PRC information controls) and suppression of liberal/democratic ideals, than Apple selling hardware devices that are information-agnostic to the same.