AAPL and Apple

[hanera]

@Jil

With this news, I infer that Apple is cutting its costs in all front after the revised forecast. This is rare revision, happened 2nd time in the history of Apple.

That means Apple will silently move out (or rescind) all expansion projects, including Austin project, until future growth is revived.

hanera may not like to hear this, but Apple shelved similar expansion projects in the past until growth was visible.

manch first posted the 200 people news in this thread, yours is the third or fourth posting

Refer to my comment to his post,

@hanera

Mis-reporting by CNBC, sound like those 200 are retrenched, actually they are merely re-assigned. The newly recruited Doug Field restructures the Titan team Bob did the same thing when he first joined the team.

Above re-assignment (not retrenchment) + hiring slowdown (not freeze as widely reported), IMHO means…

@hanera

… those in cost centers would have a hard time getting people while those in the growth segments would continue to get people.

That is to say, Apple is not rescinding or slowing down expansion/ growth projects. Is controlling cost or go where the talent are…

@hanera

Another article talking about the plateau-ing portion of the S curve… essentially theme d. The plateau has started in 2015, so far Apple manages it quite well till the tariff war that causes China economy to decline much faster than expected from Nov 2018 + anti-Apple sentiments because of the early Dec 2018 arrest of Huawei CFO (Jim Cramer said is an uncharted territory when ask what is the impact on Apple). Apple has been able to compensate for the S-curve with slightly higher price iPhone X series, growth of services (App store, Apple Care, Apple Pay, iCloud, Apple Music, licensing, impending Apple Video Streaming, future healthcare services), stars (Air Pods, Apple Watches) and wild cats (HomePods, future healthcare/ AR products) and controlling the rise of operational & HR expenses (building Apple campuses in other tech hubs is a cost control as well as go where the talents are measure).

Expanding in Austin (& those mentioned in Dec by TC) is a long term strategy so I expect it to continue unabated, more likely would force hiring there and “freeze” (slow down drastically) hiring in SV. IMHO, cost of operation in SV is getting too expensive for businesses, and cost of housing is getting too high to attract people to come here. Businesses have to compensate employees for the high cost of living and people have to be convinced their career prospect would be enhanced significantly to be willing to live in million dollar shacks (or rent, ego would be hurt especially when they come from places like Atlanta and Austin where they could be staying in 4000 sqft mansion).

Other than Santa Clara city, San Diego and Austin are the places for …

@hanera

Austin offer semiconductor engineers who can advance the customized-chip efforts that help Apple wring more money out of its iPhones, iPads and Macs.

I have never like Titan, and have been wishing it dissolved right from the start when I heard of it in the news. See my comments,

@hanera

The newly recruited Doug Field restructures the Titan team Bob did the same thing when he first joined the team. Somehow I feel Apple won’t be coming up with a car apparently still not clear of what is the correct direction to take. From whole gadget to software only and now apparently changes in direction of what software. TC said healthcare is the future, so bringing Doug Field is perhaps his last effort to revive Titan, failing which, all in Titan would be re-assigned. Titan is a heavy cash drain.

A typical house in northern suburb of Atlanta

A typical house in northern suburb of Austin