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[sevenlayermuddle]

And guess who they are...?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45050213

Love ‘em or hate ‘em (most here seem to be the latter), you gotta admit, they are good at making money.

Personally I admire them as, basically, they sell hardware.   Anybody can make money selling software, even very bad software can make buckets of $$$ if you are lucky, and software is easy to make.  But hardware is much harder to make and even harder to make money from it, so credit to them, imho.

[Ronski]

I also admire Apple (especially their marketing department) for being such a successful company, BUT (as you know) I hate them for the way they (appear to) rip off their suppliers and their customers. The pure fact they are so profitable just goes to show they could afford to pay their manufactures more, and charge customers less. Unfortunately I think Samsung, and MS are going the same way, they've seen Apple push up prices and they are doing the same.

PS. There's only one thing of Apples that I wished I'd bought, and that would of been a shed load of shares a very long time ago.

[renluop]

So, what's a million, billion, trillion, zillion!? What would it be in 1900 £s? For values are but a way to express comparative worth at current prices. My first months in a City bank branch involved noting sort codes of cheques for the then Town Clearing.

Someone saw a cheque for  a million and a cry would go up: today there'd not be a whisper, even were those obsolete workings still alive.

[Ronski]

Apple Inc share price.

25/09/1981 $0.25
20/08/2004 $2.20 At this point it just steadily climbs with a couple of big dips along the way
31/07/2018 $190.29

I actually thought it had been a lot higher, but not according to Google

[Black Sheep]

I don't have shares in the company, nor follow their exploits .................. but I do know a quality engineered product when I see one, and they are at the top of their game where that is concerned.

Maybe that's why they are where they are .... confidence in their product from users and investors alike ??.

[sevenlayermuddle]

I think that’s true, BS. 

Some people will always buy high end goods, and don’t mind paying over the odds.  That applies to everything from favourite brand of coffee, through exotic cars, and even services such as premium/business class airline tickets.   Usually though, the desire for quality by the select few is countered by the demand for cheapness by the masses.

Apple seem to have the knack of making a product that is good enough to command a premium, yet still just about affordable to enough folks, so that it still sells in huge numbers. 

And a small secret known only to Apple’s long term customers... when you factor in product longevity, they are not actually that expensive after all.

[chenks]

but I do know a quality engineered product when I see one, and they are at the top of their game where that is concerned.

tell that to the macbook users when their keyboard failed due to 1 spec of dust!

[Ronski]

But surely a quality engineered product should be fairly easy to repair,  Apple make it as hard as possible to repair hardware, to the extent of making software blocks in some cases if non original parts are used.

[Black Sheep]

tell that to the macbook users when their keyboard failed due to 1 spec of dust!

There's always at least one bad-luck story ... whoever you are .... I tend to use 'the bigger picture theory', myself. 

[sevenlayermuddle]

But surely a quality engineered product should be fairly easy to repair,  Apple make it as hard as possible to repair hardware, to the extent of making software blocks in some cases if non original parts are used.

I have no problem with their repairs policy, it does make it harder for cowboy bodgers or even well-intention, but stupid, diy-ers, to mess things up.

If I owned a bargain basement Japanese micro car (I don’t), it would not bother me to let Halfords carry out repairs.

If I owned a Lamborghini (I don’t), I’d want to take it back to a dealership, and it would not surprise if Lamborghini make it hard to do otherwise.

[chenks]

Not a bad luck story.
More like form over function and over engineered where it wasn't needed. But that's what happens when the VP of industrial design is on ego trip.

[sevenlayermuddle]

tell that to the macbook users when their keyboard failed due to 1 spec of dust!

Have you had personal experience of an issue with a keyboard failure caused by a single spec of dust, or is this something that has been reported in the press?

Not that I am suggesting press reports on tech topics are anything other than 100% accurate.

[chenks]

Plenty of real world examples showing key failures due to dust - their new butterfly keyboards are the cause.

It's why they've just tweaked the design by adding a membrane that covers the internals, doesn't help those with the original design.

A very prominent apple vlogger had such an issue and showed exactly what the problem is and the half assed replacement program that was put in place once it became widespread.

So no, not just "press" talk. But the sheep will never accept the evidence, everyone is just using it wrong of course.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Have you had personal experience of an issue with a keyboard failure caused by a single spec of dust...

Plenty of real world examples showing key failures due to dust - their new butterfly keyboards are the cause...

Shall I read “No” from your response?

On a more general note, and this one may keep marketing consultants in pointless jobs for decades, but I wonder why so many “Apple haters” are people who have never been Apple customers?

Not that Chenks has given any indication whether or not he/she has ever been an Apple customer, my question stands, either way. 

[kitz]

*Hands up* as being an ex-apple user.    I started with an ipod, then ipad, then apple tv etc ......  and can understand why they are popular, because everything just works well together.   At the time I thought my ipad was sexi as heck, but I became disillusioned after one of the forced iOS updates when it just stopped being functional and had to be replaced before its time.   There were a few other annoyances such as how the charging leads broke, the extortionate cost of extras such as chargers, leads, inability to expand storage. 

I replaced the ipad with a galaxy tab, which had same specs as the more up to date ipad but was almost half the price.   I can get official Samsung chargers and leads for less than a fiver compared to (from memory) ~£28 for Apple.   My galaxy tab is now about as old as my ipad was when it became unusable yet its still working perfectly and no slow downs.  Since then I've gradually moved everything over to Android.   As a user I just felt ripped off by their pricing and ridiculous cost for extras.     

I get what some are saying about Lamborghini and service, but for me that was also an inconvenience as there not being an apple store near here.   I also get that people may like to go for certain brands...  but again I've just upgraded my phone with an S8 which is on a par with the iphone 8.   I got a cracking good deal because the s9 is now Galaxy's latest model and it came as a package deal  (Prime day special) with additional 256GB storage card, S8 Clear view smart case, spare leads, adapter.. and wireless charger for about half the cost of the 256GB iPhone8.     It is an absolute no brainer - whilst it may not be a Lamborghini, its a Ferrari with extras for fraction of the cost. 

I don't dislike Apple products, I dislike being ripped off by paying over the odds and I'm now an Android convert.