Daring Fireball: Sharing the Stage | Hacker News Reader

Daring Fireball: Sharing the Stage

daringfireball.net

45 pointsrkrishnakumar26 comments

At this stage, I feel like the only way Apple can have another '...and one more thing' reveal that makes us go "wow!" is if they have something software related that they've kept under wraps.

A complete rethink of iTunes would be such a thing.

But we also thought this was true before the iPod, and before the iPhone, and before the iPad . . .

Did anyone really go 'wow' for the iPad? It seemed like the next logical step. It's definitely a computing device in a form-factor that people have been wanting for a while.

Yes, a lot of people did.

You and me, maybe not. However, my daughter, mom and mother-in-law loved it (and still do).

Size of the input screen makes a huge difference in tactile response and usability.

The "Apple TV" (i.e. an actual TV by Apple) could be a possibility. Like the iPhone and iPad--a lot of rumors, but no one really knows what it looks like, how it would work, etc.

Surely there is every possibility that the next "one more thing" would involve the creation of an entirely new, rather unexpected market segment.

I could see the iphone "sharing the stage" with a phone peripheral -- say a camera equipped bluetooth headset.

ok, so Apple have an entire event devoted to the iPhone. How on earth are they going to fill the time?

Here's the new iPhone* It's a bit thinner and lighter than before. the battery runs a bit longer. it has a bit better camera and it runs iOS 6 which you've all seen before. er, thanks for comming...

* there's absolutely no way this will be called iPhone 5. It'll be iPhone 6, the New iPhone or just plain old iPhone - my money's on the later

"How on earth are they going to fill the time?"

What time are they trying to fill? The event ends when they're done showing what they want to show. If that's 90 minutes, that's "the time". If it's 30 minutes, that's "the time".

What did they introduce besides iphone/ios 5 at the 4S release event? [strike]Oh right[/strike] nothing else.

Why the unwarranted douchey ending in your reply?

You're right, not needed.

How did they fill the time last time? It's not like they've never had an iPhone-only event before.

this is true, but they have felt increasingly thiner on content over time. I understand John's reasoning behind having an iPhone only event, but my concern is that there's simply too little material - we have the 6th generation of a device where the highlight feature is likely to be a new (usb3 and/or thunderbolt) connector. Everything else will be slightly more of what we've all seen before

Edit: After a bit more thought (not too much, getting kids out the door for school atm) here's what I see:

From the sounds of things, there's 3 (possibly 4) new product launches expected before the end of the year - iPhone, iPods (+iTunes?), iPad jr and possibly new ATV content. It also looke like there's only 2 events expected - one on the 12th Sept and the other early Oct. If the iPad jr rumour has any basis, then I'd think that's be the device that gets the stage to itself.

So, here's my revised guess: Sept - iPhone + iPod Touch + iPod Nano + (hopefully) iTunes. Oct - 7" iPad + new atv content

Jim Dalrymple hinted that there will be two separate events, so take that as you will (if you know him or are familiar with his infamous "Yep", then you should pretty much consider two separate events a guarantee.)

Gruber didn't seem to even consider the possibility that there are not enough new things to announce for iPhone and ios, and that the event has been stuffed with other product announcement.

This year's update already has as much as last year's did so yeah that possibility should probably be discarded.

iPhone socks!

TL;DR; Ipad Mini is not ready.

>Back in February, MG Siegler, among others, noted a remarkable milestone:

>Last quarter, Microsoft brought in $20.89 billion in revenue. Apple brought in $46.33 billion.

>Put another way: Apple’s iPhone business alone is larger than all of Microsoft’s businesses combined.

That is because the OEMs sell the hardware for Microsoft. If you include the OEMs revenue, the math will be very different. It's that Apple moves a lot of hardware through its accounting books, because it sells the hardware directly after buying it from Samsung, Foxconn etc. Whereas MS tries to get only the profit and leave the revenues(with a tiny margin) to Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Asus etc. etc.

Therefore, profit is a better metric to compare rather than revenue since it takes moving hardware out of the picture. Anyone have those details?

On a side note, anyone else really tired of the Gruber-Siegler-Asymco blog mesh trying to project Apple's competitors like Android and MS in bad light by taking a very slanted look at numbers and other things? Granted, Apple's great and is unquestionably the most valuable company in the world.

I know that Apple fans like these blogs and HN consists of a lot of them, but it kind of gets tiring after the nth time of them getting featured on the HN front page and it's same old predictable kind of posts boosting Apple and bashing Google/Android/MS.

A side note to the side note, very ironic and funny that Paul Thurrotts' Winsupersite.com is hellbanned on HN. Shows what a section of HN is willing to stoop to, to push their convictions and agenda on everyone.

“profit is a better metric to compare rather than revenue since it takes moving hardware out of the picture. Anyone have those details?”

For the quarter that ended March 31:

Microsoft, $5.11 billion [1]

Apple, $11.6 billion [2]

For the quarter that ended June 30:

Microsoft, $0.19 billion [3]

Apple, $8.8 billion [4]

[1] http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2012/apr12/04-19fy...

[2] http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/04/24Apple-Reports-Seco...

[3] http://www.microsoft.com/investor/EarningsAndFinancials/Earn...

[4] http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/07/24Apple-Reports-Thir...

Anyone know how much of Apple's profit is from the iPhone(the original point of comparison in the article)?

http://investor.apple.com/common/download/download.cfm?compa...

Check out page 26, which gives you a good breakdown of their various divisions. (Although, I don't remember if it is net or gross now, and I'm on an iPhone so it is difficult to go back and check; Apple makes about $170 margin on an iPhone, however, for conversion, so maybe 30%.)

That $0.19 billion (at your [3]) becomes $6.93 billion, when adjusted for one-off charges (including $6.19 billion impairment of goodwill). Otherwise, it looks like a disaster for MS.

The one-ff charges don't count? What number is on the tax forms?

This is the first time I've ever heard someone accuse Horace Dediu "taking a very slanted look at numbers and other things."

If anything - I think Horace is keenly awaiting someone (Microsoft, Samsung, Nokia, RIM) who can disrupt Apple - so he can commentate on how it happened.

I'll agree that Siegler/Gruber pander to their audience though.

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