Ask HN: What would you invest in if you were the CEO of Apple? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What would you invest in if you were the CEO of Apple?

35 pointssidcool56 comments

.. With the billions of cash lying around. Would you acquire/acqui-hire? Which tech would you invest in? Which new areas would you venture into? What else?

P.S. I am not Tim Cook.

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Nice try Tim. You almost had me with the p.s.

I’d invest in some moonshots -

Neural computer interface.

Bio-scanners so an iOS device can (further) become a medical diagnostic tool.

A high resolution (5k+) Apple screen that I can plug my laptop into.

More and more battery research.

500M-2B on launching Apple satellites, to scan the planet daily at sub meter resolution, data would augment many Apple endeavours and they could also sell

One word: privacy. They are already trying to create an image that what is on an iphone is yours, that osx does not send endless amounts of telemetry back to the mothership,etc.. But I think that in the next 5 years this image will become a very important differentiator.

In the near future there will be services like the amazon and google voice assistants that rely on you being the product and there will be services that you use in private without relying on them sucking up all your meta data.

Buy Nvidia or AMD.

The race to AI will be won by hardware. Apple right now will lose to Google and Amazon without some serious help and market advantage. Sure google can build a fab or rent one out, but the army of engineers employed at either and the scores of patents would put Apple miles ahead.

It’d also give them a the back door they need into the enterprise market. Sort of how they won the consumer market back from Microsoft with the move to mobile. They’d have an AI hardware platform available for enterprise... A-nX ARM chips and insanely good graphics cards powering servers. see ya later, Intel...

I think Apple could build hardware just as good as NVidia or AMD. Apple has a software and services deficiency.

I politely disagree, Intel can't even build GPUs as powerful as NVidia (or AMD) and all of it's offerings so far have been very sub-par in terms of massively parallel computing. They have an insane amount of knowledge on fabricating chips, researchers, and money (though Apple does too). At least, I feel that if Intel can't compete with NVidia and AMD in the GPU space neither can Apple.

Maybe with the return of the mac pro, etc, we'll see Apple focus on pure computing power in a new, unseen, way and I'll be wrong they need acquire... But short of something absolutely herculean ($100bn investment), I don't see them coming out on top.

Apple hasnt tried. Seeing how well Apple has done creating performant CPUs compared to Intel given the thermal and power constraints of mobile and how far they have come with GPUs for mobile, they could probably do well. On the other hand, the future is mobile. Has AMD and NVidia shown any skill in developing GPUs for mobile that are competitive with Apple?

Lots of big dreams here on what they could aspire to do.

The company is dangerously close to scaring off their customers because of poor software quality.

I’d set aside some money for QA...

Software quality at Apple needs a lot of help.

Every single product is suffering as a result.

I completely agree with you. I’ve been faithful since I was able to afford an iPhone in my mid 20s. I’ve determined that if something doesn’t change, this is my last iPhone. I’ll pile that on with the fact that Ive already decided not to get another MacBook for the same reason, and I went with an Amazon fire stick in my room instead of adding a second AppleTV.

I used to enjoy them because as a software developer, I want to come home from work and just have something I don’t have to figure out.

- Buy Tesla and spin out project titan to the acquisition. End the distraction and get back to base business

- Quadruple down on e-health. Microsoft gave up. No one should trust amazon, google or fb to do this with any semblance of privacy.

- create “Apple seeds” - companies building tech for the ecosystem but too small at the present to be part of Apple. - imagine ubiquity being an Apple subsidiary like Claris was

E-health solutions are likely to be pretty US-centric, investment dollars might be better spent on global opportunities.

And why try to create Apple seeds? Apple would be better off waiting until they emerged themselves and the acquire.

Do something crazy. Completely embrace FOSS.

Do something conservative. Invest heavily in battery research.

Make hardware the focus, make it incredible. Support software with money and project governance, but let the ties to the hardware go. Win purely on incredible hardware.

But software is clearly where Apple is suffering the most. They're still doing OK in hardware (perhaps because most of it is not in-house).

Which is why I think they should open the platform. Don't start from scratch, but relicense the OS to be compatible with FOSS and, say, make iTerm the default terminal.

This is going to sound crazy, but I've been thinking about it for the past few months.

A fully digital city:

* Imagine a full digital office: all of your files at easy access all around you

* Imagine reading Apple News on a balcony looking out at the city

* Imagine FaceTime, but being able to walk around a room with your friends

* Imagine digital storefronts where you can look at 3D models, then conveniently buy with Apple Pay.

* Imagine what 3rd party developers could do...

Yes, it's a moonshot, mostly science fiction. But the tech is almost there. The real trick, of course, is giving it mass appeal - making it widely accessible. But if there's any company that's built on making things accessible, it's got to be Apple.

Most of those already exist, they just have poor UX.

My files are all around me, conveniently stored on the //storageserver/share/ drive. File storage UI/UX hasn't changed for 20 years though.

I can stand on my balcony reading news from my phone, looking out at the town isn't so pretty all the time though, and I'm imagine it would be even less pretty if a "digital city" where the residents are present online more than off.

You can walk around on a webcam, it's just not sociable. Do you mean you'd like a drone following you? That would just be distracting for the person you're communicating with.

ARM64 servers.

This one is quite a low hanging fruit.

Apple has the most advanced ARMv8 based core, one that can rival Intel.

And the market is enormous, larger by far than iPad, or Mac.

Of course Apple being Apple they would ship entire boxes, and not just the CPUs.

It really would be nice if Apple had some rack-mount servers again for all the companies needing build farms for iOS apps.

Why not just sell kube instances? Most folk don't wat to own datacenters and there's a better markup.

Yeah, cloud is definitely an option too, but that might be a bit harder to pull off. Selling servers to AWS, GCC and Azure might be initially easier.

To throw out something different, I would buy Sprint and provide either very cheap or very high quality wireless connectivity to Apple devices, and I would build it into all Apple devices by default. Connectivity is so important to Apple’s devices and experience that I would take away the weak/expensive third-party link in the system. Sprint would also give Apple an impressive global tier-1 fiber network, but thats more of a cherry on top. Sprint could probably be acquired for less (far less?) than $30B. Apple could push device updates OTA, sell apps books movies music and tv shows, provide customer support.. all without requiring a subscription services.

EDIT: I’m sure there are loads of opportunities to optimize communication if you control both the device and network design, like building in mesh networking. For example, AppleTVs, with their permenant power connections and room for better antennae, could do a lot of heavy duty LTE comm, and send the “last 10 foot” comm to my unplugged phone over Bluetooth or wifi. Or one iPhone could fetch an update Apple and intelligently share it with other devices over LAN to reduce the load on the network when updates are pushed.

I'd invest in yourself, Apple.

Get your house in order. Fix OSX. Fix or scrap iTunes. Invest in FOSS. Fire your designers... Write a love letter to your developers in the form of fast, upgradable hardware. Write a love letter to gamers in the form of cheap but fast gaming machines. And make a laptop I want to own.

Spot on from what I was thinking.

If I were Tim Cook, I'd carefully consider the following problems:

1.) The input problem. Phones/tablets are great, but they can only do so much when our fingertips are still the best input device available. In the future, this will likely mean some kind of neural interface. But in the present, can we fill in the gaps with something better than Siri?

2.) The health problem. Our phones have the potential to become a wonderful personal diagnostics tool. Hell, I can't think of any device I've brought as deep into my existence as my iPhone. That said, we could get better. In my dreams, I would love to bleed on my phone to monitor whether my cardiac enzyme levels are rising. I would love to be able to get a reliable blood pressure/pulse rating from my phone. And I would love to be able to track a wide variety of health markers. A tool that could collect biological data and relate it to nutrition and exercise choices would be revolutionary. A tool that could provide North American level diagnostics to remote third world villages would be life saving.

3.) The jobs problem. As automation eats up more and more jobs, we either need some form of basic income, or we need new sectors that will employ the masses. The alternative is a society where 10% are consumers and the rest can't afford more than subsistence. This represents a potential crisis for brands like Apple. I have no idea how Apple could solve this, though I do have fear of how the masses would respond to an Apple sponsored basic income program.

> though I do have fear of how the masses would respond to an Apple sponsored basic income program.

What do you have in mind here? I have a hard time believing people would be upset if you offer them "free" money.

I have visions of problems coming from both ends of the political spectrum. I can almost hear a far right commentator talk about how giving out free money is an insult to paying customers who work hard for their money and got ahead by their own mettle. At the other end of the spectrum, I can almost hear a far left commentator talk about how this is the same old crony capitalism, dressing up marketing in generosity's clothes.

Edit - I should note that I highly doubt recipients would be anything but grateful. My concerns lie with an often very vocal minority who do occasionally create massive PR problems.

If the Right cared about how corporations used their proceeds in the public sphere, they should have taken a principled stand on the abomination that is Citizens United v. FEC.

Even though Apple is all about focus, I would integrate a little more data by buying Yelp and TomTom. Yelp for a time was pretty toxic but I think they're clean enough now.

I would also lavish attention on Apple Pay. Perhaps a logo program? I frequently ask, and hear others ask, "Do you take Apple Pay?" Having to ask burns a lot of the benefit. Then it often works inconsistently. At Whole Foods I sometimes still have to sign (negating benefit). At my local Safeway, payment will fail if you've also scanned your loyalty card.

On that note, perhaps loyalty programs could be integrated. Wallet supports rewards cards but it appears to be an extra step at checkout.

Merchants can order logos here, https://www.applepaysupplies.com but really it sounds like an infrastructure and training problem.

By logo program I meant a logo that could only be obtained by meeting certain standards.

1) invest heavily in a much better user experience: retail, hardware and software. Establish and organize deep, responsive feedback system. 2) invest in whatever it takes to eliminate all wires and adapters associated with Apple products 3) Double or triple the number of Apple retail stores. In addition to more big destination stores, develop smaller footprint stores that can go in smaller communities.

4) create entry level products for developing markets.

I’d be very cautious about buying anything big or lousy. Keep buying a series of small and easily integratable technology companies - like Powerbyproxi, purchased late last year. Have 3-5 internal investments on technology and products that nobody has thought of yet. Don’t be afraid to spend too much, but also make sure you can deliver to Apple standards.

If this sounds like business as usual the good. Apple has done very well so far.

I'd be bold and invest in creating a new product that will be of iPhone magnitude. I think if any company could do a google-glass like AR device and make it popular it would be Apple.

But do something. Don't miss NLP/AI because Apple is sorely behind and Siri is fast becoming a joke. In 10 years, Tim Cook may look like Steve Ballmer.

Also, hire more developers. good chat Tim

Open Source OSX/macOS, at least versions prior. Microsoft is going to beat Apple to it if it doesn't happen soon.

The core of MacOS is open source. What magic benefit will they gain from open sourcing the GUI framework?

One of the problem is Apple has been following its rule of Asset less. Since Steve came back, do not own manufacturing, do not own x, do not own y. The less asset the better. The reason were simple, Apple wanted to stay slim and agile. It was the reason why Apple was so late into Datacenter, they kept using the cloud until it was unbearable. They were late to CDN, they kept on using Akamai. But today's Apple isn't the same any more, and I argue Apple should be adding more asset, like CDN, DC, and its own Fibre.

Apple Stores: I think Apple should own more of those Stores property outright. It should aims to have key location or % of Apple Store to be an Apple asset. I just dont like the idea of paying rent. I know many argues paying rent gives you flexibility, but I think we are at a time where Apple could own half of those Stores as base numbers. Not to mention the Apple Stores opened Internationally is still far too low.

Wallet: That is like being neglected, membership card, license, Bank ATM Card, shouldn't Apple be providing solution to get rid of these.

iPhone as a Services: Or basically rolling out iPhone upgrade programme internationally, and add free iCloud Backup to it. This will need a pile of cash in the bank since revenue are now spread out.

TV and Router. I dont trust the current selection of Router for its software quality. And Apple should make a TV Set.

Gaming: Forget about Apple's Services or App Store revenue. Because most of those are revenue from Gaming. And yet Apple doesn't care about games on mac.

Maps: Maps in Japan is shit, Maps in South East Asia is shit. Maps in China is ok only because the data are from government.

Homekit: What happen to it?

iTunes: Rewrite it or dump it.

Time Capsule for iOS: Not everyone has decent Internet connection, or fast connection for iCloud. We need a simple solution that doesn't require a computer.

So you ask none of these are really new. I dont need anything new. I need Apple to stop making those pile of crap that they left behind. Start making those things great again. Apple Music in Japan is a complete pile of bloody mess. And they now are working on TV series.

It is NOT Good enough.

- buying assets - reduces flexibility. Apple can play one supplier against another. Apple already strong arms mall owners to get lower rents.

-TVs are low margin and even if Apple could increase its margins, TVs are bulky and not replaced that often - much less often than phones and even less often than computers.

-Routers - Apple can't do much to make routers easier to use than the tightly integrated model of ISP provided routers.

- the places that don't have good internet are probably poorer regions that couldn't afford iPhones anyway.

The least he can do is hire a small team and rewrite iTunes. It's such a PITA, and there is no web client. Tried Apple music 3 times only to return to Spotify.

Why? Who really needs most of the functionality of iTunes? Make an app that just does music, one that does Movies.

While agree with the sentiment and have done the same jump back and forth and sticking with Spotify, Spotify is losing money with a superior product.. so who is really winning?

The old Apple was all about making the best product for customers while making money.

The new Apple is all about making good enough product and making money.

It smells a little Microsoft to me already.

Battery technology? Having superior batteries would surely be a selling point for all of your products since most of them rely on a battery one way or another.

On talent to maintain quality with Macs & OS X, instead of only having all top notch human capital into iOS.

I would love for Apple to sell more types of Macs that were lust worthy besides the iMac line. But looking at this.

https://sixcolors.com/post/2018/02/apple-reports-its-holiday...

I think it would make more sense to make iOS devices that could replace the need for a Mac.

I'd buy Brompton.

If you're serious about personal mobility, start with bikes, not cars. And I would love to see what Apple - a company famous for making things lighter and easier-to-use - could do with bikes.

I'd start building microprocessors based on carbon nanotube transistors. Researches have already built prototypes, but the industry didn't pick it up yet. Time to get started!

The highest ROIs I know of is early education, 700% ROI. Invest in that.

Competent staff for our non core product lines, or kill them off.

Mac OSX is outdated and buggy. Apple does not put much effort into fixing it. It's past time to create Mac OSXI. They need to hire more software engineers if they can't do better than what they have now.

Architectural, MacOS has a firm foundation. They don't need a completely new OS like they did in the pre OS X days.

They just need to fix bugs. Rewriting from scratch is seldom a successful strategy.

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-...

Battery research of some sort. please. If an iphone could last just 1 week without a charge and that stayed that way for 5 years. It would sell me over android EASY

I'm not sure selling a phone that lasts 5 years is in the best interest of any phone company. And if it took that much just to sway you and company, then they might as well forgo this segment of the market because there are bigger fishes to fry. Don't get me wrong, the battery capacity will increase linearly but so will the consumption rendering about the same 1 day usage per charge.

Netflix.

I would invest in improving Topsy.com /s

I'm disappointed nobody knew Apple acquired Topsy and shut it down years ago!

Stock buybacks and/or dividends. The largest company in the world likely has poorer direct investment opportunities than their investors' alternatives, and likely does not need to engage in unprofitable empire-building.

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