One Finite Planet

One Finite Planet

Will Apple One Day Ditch the Mac/MacBook?

Date Published:

John C Dvorak of suggests in this article that Apple is ready to ditch the Mac.  Is this realistic?  The idea that the Mac is a problem for Apple is something I have suggested in conversation on several occasions, so there are a least two observers, and from different perspectives, seeing that Mac products no longer fit well within the Apple portfolio.  The two perspectives:

  • the messages from apple marketing signal end of the Mac (Dvorak)
  • the mac is at odds with Apple revenue strategy and new customer base (Me)

For background on the marketing signals, see the Dvorak article. Here are my additions.

Mac Revenue: Poor Cousin to iPad Revenues

Apple gains a better profit per unit on iPad Pro vs MacBook.  Every iPad or iPhone continues to earn Apple revenue once it is sold, but the MacBook sale is much more a one off.  Computers run application programs.  With the iPad all of those application programs must be purchased through Apple, while with the Macbook, they can be purchased direct whoever produces the software.  Wish to add an Adobe application?  For the iPad, Apple will earn revenue but for the Macbook, the purchase can be direct from adobe.  The same for every application, and this mounts up.  While a MacBook can initially be more expensive, and thus the initial sale generate more revenue, the iPad wins over time.  Remember the initial revenue is only a percentage margin.  Apple has to do a lot of work for that revenue and has high costs. If there is a cost overrun the margin is reduced.  But with that commission on a sale of Adobe Photoshop, Apple has basically no cost, and the revenue is all profit.

This means that for Apple, the MacBook can be a competitor to the iPad Pro, and every sale of a MacBook can result in a loss of revenue in comparison with an iPad sale.

Apple New Customer Base

Part 2….coming soon

Table of Contents

Categories

RCS – The SMS successor and blue bubbles vs green culture war.

The world and usage of SMS has moved on since the introduction in 1992, and the system lacks many features now seen as essential including, even the ability to see if a message has been received.

Apple has its own proprietary “iMessage” SMS/MMS successor for communication between iPhones within the Apple walled garden and the bubble wars, Facebook has its own messages system and has “What’s App”, but is there room for a true SMS successor that is not a walled garden fully controlled by one technology company to create division into “tribes”, and instead is able to connect all devices just like the original SMS system?

RCS is simple to enable and is the best messaging solution for Samsung and other Android phones and to end culture wars and walled gardens.

Read More »

WordPress.com to the Next Level: Plugins, Elementor, CoBlocks?

Something completely different. A discussion on how this site is hosted: on wordpress.com.

Anyone who has started a “blog” or other site on wordpress.com, may get to wonder, what are the options for upgrading the website? What is the value of the free, personal or premium plans and beyond? What real world benefits are there, and, alternatively, what would you lose and/or gain from moving away from wordpress.com. This is a page discussing being in that situation. If you are not considering having a website, it may be of little interest.

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Images, Making Animated GIFs & Solving colour problems.

This is part of series of pages I will be adding on things I have learnt as part of building this website, and I will soon try and enable following by topic (when I get this page working), so people can separately select notification on building websites and/or population or other issues, without being notified of things outside their interest. Standby for that update.

Meanwhile this page provides general help on making an animated GIF for a series of images, specific help on a challenge with animated GIFs, and a list of sites with free images as a resource for those building images.

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Hydrogen Future of Fool’s Gold & Scams: “Where does the hydrogen come from?”

The race to stop CO2, has led to many ‘scams’ projects involving hydrogen, but it is not always clear who is being scammed: the public, or the proponents of hydrogen projects. What is the attraction behind the obsession with hydrogen? This is a look at the motives, the myths and the facts around hydrogen projects.

Spoiler: There are some valid roles for hydrogen, but hydrogen has no remaining role as an energy source, and even any potential role as an energy carrier is highly questionable.

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