Linked List: February 1, 2017

Wednesday, 1 February 2017

Week-Old Claim Chowder for Bloomberg Regarding iPhone Average Selling Prices ★

Alex Webb, writing for Bloomberg last week, under the headline “Apple iPhone Price Under Pressure as Buyers Seek Cheaper Devices”:

Apple Inc. results next week will likely show iPhone sales growing again, bucking a year of declines. That’s the good news.

But in a sign that customers are opting for less expensive models, some analysts predict that the average selling price for the handsets likely declined over the holidays, a crucial period for Apple. Some purchasers are settling for older iPhone 6S models, rather than the iPhone 7, introduced in September, analysts said.

“Recent smartphone customers increasingly are opting for the iPhone 6S,” Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz wrote in a note to clients this week as he downgraded his recommendation on Apple stock to hold. “We detect increasing concern among industry participants that smartphones in general have evolved technologically to become more than good enough to serve most users’ digital needs over multiple years or until the device breaks.”

iPhone ASP in the year ago quarter: $691.
iPhone ASP announced yesterday: $695.

The problem here isn’t that a few analysts got it wrong. Analysts get this stuff wrong all the time. The problem is that Bloomberg’s headline took analyst speculation and treated it as fact. Turns out the headline was completely wrong. The iPhone is seemingly not under any price pressure, and the ASP even went up a few bucks. Oh, and in the same quarter two years ago, iPhone ASP was $687, and three years ago (the last year before the higher-priced Plus models were in the mix), iPhone ASP was $637.

Bonus Peter Thiel claim chowder, from the same article:

“We know what a smartphone looks like and does,” billionaire technology investor Peter Thiel told the New York Times recently. “It’s not an area where there will be any more innovation.”

You Don’t Hear So Much About the iPhone 7 Headphone Jack Anymore ★

Benedict Evans on Twitter:

Highest-ever iPhone sales. Reminder: technologist complaints about Apple products are generally a good counter-indicator for consumer demand.

Timothy Buck:

Yep. The uproar over headphone jack was ridiculous. Clearly the market didn’t care.

It feels like ancient history already, but there were reviews of the iPhone 7 that spent more time on the removal of the headphone jack than anything else.

Also worth pointing out that the severe delay in shipping AirPods didn’t hurt sales of the iPhone 7. (Or if it did, not enough to keep it from breaking the record.)

Update: NPR’s headline on Apple’s earnings: “Even Without A Headphone Jack, iPhone 7 Boosts Apple’s Sales”.

Jackass of the Week: Barron’s ★

This is an actual headline at Barron’s today: “Apple: Investors Are Happy, But What About Consumers?”.

They sell 78 million iPhones in a quarter and Barron’s thinks it’s a legitimate question whether they’re making customers happy?

The real test comes later this year, when Apple releases its next iPhone, marking the smartphone’s 10th anniversary. As the stock makes gains, investor expectations for the debut head ever higher.

The “real test” is always the next iPhone with these people. Always.

Innovation, perhaps. But the new Macbooks [sic] have faced more than their usual share of criticism, including a rather lukewarm review from Consumer Reports about the battery life of the devices. Apple has since provided a software update that Consumer Reports says fixed the issue.

There are many reasonable complaints about the new MacBook Pros. But they’re nuanced. The only reason to dredge up the Consumer Reports saga — which is about a Safari developer debug mode bug that even Consumer Reports admits has been fixed by Apple — is to create the illusion of drama.

Bloomberg: Apple Working on ARM Chip for Macs to Run Power Nap Features ★

Interesting scoop from Mark Gurman and Ian King:

Apple engineers are planning to offload the Mac’s low-power mode, a feature marketed as “Power Nap,” to the next-generation ARM-based chip. This function allows Mac laptops to retrieve e-mails, install software updates, and synchronize calendar appointments with the display shut and not in use. The feature currently uses little battery life while run on the Intel chip, but the move to ARM would conserve even more power, according to one of the people.

The current ARM-based chip for Macs is independent from the computer’s other components, focusing on the Touch Bar’s functionality itself. The new version in development would go further by connecting to other parts of a Mac’s system, including storage and wireless components, in order to take on the additional responsibilities. […]

However, Apple has no near-term plans to completely abandon Intel chips for use in its laptops and desktops, the people said.

It’s interesting to ponder how this might work from a software perspective. With the current Touch Bar, there’s a conceptual wall between the Intel side and the ARM side. The “Mac” stuff all runs on the Intel side, and there’s an iOS computer on the ARM side that only does Touch Bar-related things.

I don’t think this use-the-ARM-chip-during-Power-Nap idea would involve emulating x86 code on ARM — you’d lose the energy efficiency advantage of ARM, which is the whole point. My guess is that Mac apps (and OS services) that want to take advantage of it would do so via small extensions, compiled both for ARM (for these future MacBooks) and x86 (for all other Macs).

Apple Considers Legal Options Against Trump’s Immigration Order ★

Tripp Mickle, reporting for the WSJ:

Apple Inc. is weighing legal action and continuing to press the Trump administration to reverse its executive order on immigration, Chief Executive Tim Cook said in an interview.

Mr. Cook said hundreds of Apple employees have been affected by the order, which suspended entry to the U.S. for refugees and travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations. He added that he continues to contact “very, very senior people in the White House” and impress on them why repealing the executive order is important not only for Apple but for the country.

“More than any country in the world, this country is strong because of our immigrant background and our capacity and ability as people to welcome people from all kinds of backgrounds. That’s what makes us special,” said Mr. Cook. “We ought to pause and really think deeply through that.”

Good for Apple, and good for Tim Cook. I wrote last week that I was mildly disappointed that Cook’s initial response, in the form of a sure-to-be-leaked company-wide memo, wasn’t strong enough. Telling the Wall Street Journal that the company is looking into legal options to oppose it is pretty strong.

(I mentioned my disappointment in Cook’s memo on the just-released new episode of The Talk Show, too — it was recorded before this interview with the Journal was published.)

The Talk Show: ‘Yay or Nay to Their POV’ ★

Matthew Panzarino returns to the show. Topics include Apple’s Q1 2017 financial results (including record iPhone sales and continuing cooling iPad sales), issues with LG’s new 5K UltraFine display (not so fine if you use it near a Wi-Fi router), the tech industry’s response to Trump’s immigration ban, and the highlights at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.