I think the HTC deal will work out much better than MOTO. Google bought MOTO back in 2012. Google was under different leadership and IMO worse than Pichai. Also back then Android’s position was less secure than now. Big Android OEM’s like Samsung had some clout. Google couldn’t go all out and compete with its “customers”. But in 2017 what choice does Samsung have?
Necessity is the mother of invention. Or something like that. More competition is better for end users.
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In future, smart mobile will replace laptop. Yes, Google wants to challenge both Samsung and Apple in mobile world. If google does not enter mobile world, they will be out of date soon. They must capture at least 20%-25% mobile market to survive and grow.
Apple is moat is IOS software + semiconductor expertise.
IOS is written is C++, faster (but tough to make apps) better quality while Android is java based, slower but easier to make apps.
HTC is far better than Motorola, in performance.
There’s data that google makes more revenue per iPhone than android phone. Also, iPhone makes more revenue in 1 quarter than android has made in its entire existence.
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Long long long time ago when Apple was been shopped around like an useless company, what is Apple’s moat? What is Apple’s moat going forward? In any case, I have always thought Apple’s moat is its ability to stand in the intersection of technology and the humanities.
The stock market is finally falling — and Apple is to blame (AAPL)
But Apple isn’t the only headwind facing the market — there are also some overseas pressures exerting downward influence. The Stoxx Europe 600 headed for its biggest decline in two months as the political crisis in Spain escalated, while dismal earnings reports surfaced from a handful of European companies.
However, you can view this as a buying opportunity if you believe in Jeff Saut,
Strategist Jeff Saut: The 8-year-old bull market still has up to nine more years left
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Mo problems with these damn new phones!!!
Stop panicking about poor Apple Inc iPhone 8 sales
It would have been insanely risky for Apple simply to release a new iPhone generation at a starting price of $999 without offering anything new at more traditional price points. Though the iPhone X is obviously a sleek and compelling device, Apple can’t run its business under the assumption that every potential iPhone customer is able or willing to spend at least $999 on a new smartphone.
My guess is that, in the spirit of hedging its bets, Apple made sure to crank out a lot of iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus phones – and ensured it had enough production capacity in place so those could carry the current iPhone product cycle if customer reception to the iPhone X is poor.
The supply-chain cuts that we’re hearing about, then, could very well be Apple cutting back on iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus production – because its data tells it that many potential customers are waiting for, and willing to buy, the pricier iPhone X when it lands.
Relax, it’s now a ‘super-long’ iPhone cycle
Fundamentally, we think AAPL should remain ontrack to achieve >$11 EPS in FY18 and potentially >$12 EPS in FY19 driven by – Higher ASP’s, Higher Gross-margins but lower units (vs. buyside expectations 90-days ago).
You may be right, but in so many cases, people are just about to kick the can and want to sell that house they lived in since the 60s that has accumulated so much value and now, single and tired they just want to get it over with.
I have a program we use to defer the capital gains for 30 years. Everything is done through escrow, seller receives whatever he is supposed to receive without paying taxes, the buyer receives property free and clear.
I am doing this for a guy owning 20+ properties. He will sell them one by one, then he will use that $ to buy a humongous property. He doesn’t need to worry about time constraint.
Just bought a 7plus for $669
Who needs an 8 …$150 more for remote charging… whatever ??
I never buy the latest anything… Don’t wanna be their Beta test dummy
You need to account for California state tax, Obamacare tax etc.
See??? Never, ever, dilute the drug…
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A month in I now agree with @sfdragonboy. Releasing the 8 and X in the same year is a mistake. Maybe Apple should have pushed the X to Spring 2018 and leave more room for the 8 to grow. Apple can’t make that many X anyway. But then the Asian supply chain would have leaked like crazy and people will know a better, sexier phone is on the way anyway. There is no good way to square the circle.
Now the 8 looks like an old bad phone even though it’s the new flagship.
Luckily the company is run by world class managers and not some armed chaired liberal arts journalists and technically competent individual contributors.
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Ignore those journalists. Almost every year, you hear of weak sales and production cuts. Long time investors are numb to these kind of news, is like calling wolves, only newbies to the company bother with this type of news. Share price hardly react to such news anymore. Since ATH at $164.94, share price declined by 4.6% as of today. Compare with FB, -4.4% since ATH; AMZN -10.2%; GOOG -2.5%. You would realize is just normal trading fluctuation, completely no reaction to such news.
Since there is no good way to square the circle, don’t you think Apple management is the best guys to make the judgement call? There is no way that Apple can release iPhone 8/8+ only because the blogosphere has already rife with iPhone X, if Apple doesn’t release iPhone X that day, AAPL would tumble… plus many side effects. I won’t call it a mistake because of some journalists say so… may be if you have the same transparency as Apple management, you may call it brilliant or the only workable way.
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After Steve Jobs died many people predicted Apple’s demise. I was one of the minority who called that BS. Jobs had many competent managers by his side and he didn’t make all the decisions.
But now looking back it just seems to me quite a few of Apple’s decisions seemed “off”. The biggest example maybe Apple Watch. At launch the product was half baked. Its message was muddled and software interface confusing. Do people still use the honeycomb to find apps? It’s hard to think SJ would have OK’ed that product. He might pushed it out to get it in better shape before launch, share price be damned.
The iPhone lineup is now pretty complex and confusing. Gone is SJ era’s “good better best”:
Apple used to say it’s a focused company. Everything it sells can fit on one single table. Well, you better have a humongous table now…
All Tim cook’s fault!!! SJ rolling over in his grave!!!
STEVE JOBS TO TIM COOK: Don’t Do What I Would Do–Just Do What’s Right
Apple watch is half-baked? So is the first iPhone 
Steve Ballmer: $500, fully subsidized, no physical keyboard… the most expensive phone…, 2G when there are many 3G phones on the market, only available for AT&T in USA, GSM and no CMDA, … so on and so on.
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Unfortunately, it does not sound great with Apple now.
Content reproduced here:
Apple Inc.’s iPhone 8 posted the weakest sales of any of the company’s new smartphones in recent years, according to estimates by two market-research firms, raising the stakes for the higher-priced iPhone X as advance orders start on Friday.
In the U.S., Apple’s largest market, the iPhone 8 and its larger 8 Plus version accounted for 16% of all iPhone sales in the September quarter, according to Consumer Intelligence Research Partners LLC. By comparison, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus accounted for 43% in the same period last year and the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus accounted for 24% in the same period in 2015. Other signs indicate similar underperformance globally.
Soft iPhone 8 sales stem partly from confusion over the trio of phones Apple is releasing this year—and could reflect buyers waiting for the iPhone X, which boasts edge-to-edge display and facial-recognition technology. It ships Nov. 3 and starts at $999.
The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, which started shipping Sept. 22 and start at $699 and $799, offer wireless charging, improved processors and new camera capabilities over preceding models but feature the same basic design.
Many consumers have decided the improvements in the iPhone 8 are too incremental to justify the higher price tag and instead opted to buy less-costly, older models or wait for the iPhone X, said Mike Levin and Josh Lowitz, co-founders of Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.
“They signaled to their customers: Don’t buy the 8. Their customers listened,” Mr. Lowitz said.
Mr. Levin expects poor iPhone 8 sales to weigh on Apple’s quarterly results when it announces earnings Nov. 2. Sales of the device might improve after consumers can compare it to the iPhone X in stores, but he said Apple has “cornered themselves and really have to deliver this [iPhone X] extremely well.”
As of a month after it started shipping, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus combined accounted for 2.4% of iPhones in use world-wide, according to market research by Localytics, which analyzed data from more than 70 million Apple devices. That was less than half the share claimed by its predecessors, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, a month after they started shipping, and the lowest for a new iPhone since at least 2014, the firm said.
The iPhone 8 got less promotional support from resellers than its predecessor. In the U.S., wireless carriers largely offered discounts on the iPhone 8 with trade-ins of old devices rather than the free iPhone 7 deals some offered for trade-ins last year, according to Jefferies.
During a call with analysts last week, Rogers Communications Inc. Chief Executive Joseph Natale said there was an “anemic appetite for the iPhone 8” across the Canadian wireless carrier’s network and “lots of anticipation around the iPhone X.”
Wall Street analysts have waived off tepid demand for the iPhone 8, saying weaker demand for it could benefit the company if it sells more of the pricier iPhone X. Sales of more iPhone X devices would boost average iPhone selling prices and potentially lift annual revenue.
Still, Apple must prove consumers will embrace the iPhone X’s higher price tag—and demonstrate that it can make enough of them. The iPhone X—which Apple is releasing six weeks later than usual for a new iPhone—has been dogged by production challenges, including problems over the summer that delayed typical manufacturing timetables by at least a month. It also had an imbalance of components critical to its facial-recognition hardware.
Production issues have stoked concern that iPhone X supplies will fall short of demand until the March quarter, about a quarter later than usual, said Gene Munster, who heads research at venture-capital firm Loup Ventures. However, he and analysts don’t expect annual sales to suffer, so long as supply matches demand by June.
He and other observers will be watching preorders for the iPhone X, which begin Friday at 3 a.m. EST. If the shipment date for an iPhone X order is within one-to-two weeks from the order date, that would indicate weak demand, Mr. Munster said. He added that if it slips to eight-to-12 weeks from the order date, that could indicate strong demand or significant production issues.
Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook is expected to speak about preorder demand and iPhone X supply during a Nov. 2 call with analysts, Mr. Munster said. More preorders of the iPhone X than the iPhone 8 would be a good sign for investors, he added, but if Mr. Cook doesn’t say anything then investors “will fear the worst.”
Write to Tripp Mickle at Tripp.Mickle@wsj.com