Jond, as for China, we have yet to see how they will affect growth, since the iPhone was only released out there starting with this (2nd) quarter. My take, is that Apple will only be selling more iPhones. We'll find out in a couple months or so about Q2.
Yinzer .. there's always of group of people who have a strong 'personal freedom' mentality and can't stand it unless they can put their own personal stamp on things .. for whatever reason. The whole aftermarket industry is there to feed the needs of those kinds of people. But that group is not equal in size (as you suggest) to the group who accepts things for what they are. As large as the aftermarket industry is, the amount of people who customize their vehicles is a fraction of those who don't. The majority of the people on Prime are also in this same minority in that we're typically interested in mod'ing our cars .. whether wheels; stereo; exhaust; FI; etc .. which might be compared to those who like to hack their phones; or their XBOXs; or whatever and they will legitimately claim that the end product is 'purpose-built' or 'better' than the factory one. But when it comes to the electronic things in our lives, things are just getting more complicated every day and when you start mixing the hardware (phone) with the software (apps) and maybe screwing with the OS, then I'm not saying it can't be done .. it's just that you become the integrator/tester and I know this from my I/T and personal experiences, that after a while it just gets to be more hassle than it's worth. Did you build your own 'purpose-built' PC or home theater server from scratch too? If so, I'm betting it's probably running Linux because you can't stand Microsoft lock-in. The point I'm making is not that you can't do it .. or that it might be better .. but unless you're a hands-on DIY kind of person, an integrated experience is going to provide an overall better experience and I think that's what Apple is trying to be known for. It's not that they're any less functional or any less complex .. it's just that they usually work first time and don't need a full-time help team.I'm with the second group of millions who prefer more purpose-built devices and I'm correct too.
Yinzer .. there's always of group of people who have a strong 'personal freedom' mentality and can't stand it unless they can put their own personal stamp on things .. for whatever reason. The whole aftermarket industry is there to feed the needs of those kinds of people. But that group is not equal in size (as you suggest) to the group who accepts things for what they are. As large as the aftermarket industry is, the amount of people who customize their vehicles is a fraction of those who don't. The majority of the people on Prime are also in this same minority in that we're typically interested in mod'ing our cars .. whether wheels; stereo; exhaust; FI; etc .. which might be compared to those who like to hack their phones; or their XBOXs; or whatever and they will legitimately claim that the end product is 'purpose-built' or 'better' than the factory one. But when it comes to the electronic things in our lives, things are just getting more complicated every day and when you start mixing the hardware (phone) with the software (apps) and maybe screwing with the OS, then I'm not saying it can't be done .. it's just that you become the integrator/tester and I know this from my I/T and personal experiences, that after a while it just gets to be more hassle than it's worth. Did you build your own 'purpose-built' PC or home theater server from scratch too? If so, I'm betting it's probably running Linux because you can't stand Microsoft lock-in. The point I'm making is not that you can't do it .. or that it might be better .. but unless you're a hands-on DIY kind of person, an integrated experience is going to provide an overall better experience and I think that's what Apple is trying to be known for. It's not that they're any less functional or any less complex .. it's just that they usually work first time and don't need a full-time help team.
YMMV
Hi! Thx for the reply. By purpose-built, I meant I preferred an ios like ios6 that was purpose-built for touch control, vs ios7.0 that veered from purpose-built and arbitrarily replaced all touch-friendly skeumorphism with an over-simplified "flattened" text-based interface that I felt could work better with a mouse interface but not so well with touch interface. On the flip side, then www.icloud.com was cleansed and flattened to look more like ios7 with a minimalist "simpler" interface with few lines and cues to differentiate different areas of the screen and with flat artwork that still looks like a Fisher Price kid's product on South Park. All those retina display pixels and all that simple artwork... As for customizing, I don't want to mess with my ios, I just want it designed well and to "just work" from the getgo. For me personally, ios6 and prior ios's worked much better than ios7, and the pre-flattened icloud.com was much easier to use.
At any rate. Good news! Just upgraded my iphone4 to ios7.1. *BIG* improvement in speed and UI over ios7.1's artsy too-thin font and hazy low-contrast brightness. Fonts are thicker, contrast is greater, backgrounds (folders, docking area at bottom of screen) are more defined and no longer blend into the background, and now you can choose to have button outlines for command text. Instantly feel a large improvement. I have yet to look at the calendar app but I hear they brought back some of the pre-ios7 interfacing.
Oddly, the most noticeable improvements harken back closer to ios6 appearance and UI. Hmmmm....
Go upgrade. I'm happy to have a more workable iphone again!
Thanks, that was interesting. So this is all the 'snappiest' it's gonna get. I think this will make the wait for the iphone 6 more tolerable now.
I'm thinking that's may be the 5.5" phablet version of the iPhone 6...Alleged iPhone 6 front panel. Judging by comparison, this appears to be the 4.7" iPhone that's rumored to debut in September. The other rumored size is the 5.5" iPhone that is said to debut later.
http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/154239jolgq7p77r4g4187.jpg
I'm thinking that's may be the 5.5" phablet version of the iPhone 6...
Reference:
http://www.anonimg.com/img/cd051ab6135f7db3f0f15520ef4cbbe2.png
Alleged iPhone 6 front panel. Judging by comparison, this appears to be the 4.7" iPhone that's rumored to debut in September. The other rumored size is the 5.5" iPhone that is said to debut later.
I would love a larger screen on the iPhone, but more edge to edge on the same width phone vs a physically larger phone.
From experience in other (but similar space) domains, configurable hardware doesn't allow for the most robust, enhanced & optimized software. I'm trivializing it a bit, but long-story-short: iOS is what made the iPhone what it was...