I feel like Apple is working really hard at trying to get their customers to hate them. Price / Value is diminishing.
More like shareholders get 19, customers get 1. I believe Apple has fallen completely in love with "
another quarter of record revenue & profit" and that is put above all else. It shows in so many ways, particularly in all of the nickel & diming. These new M3 Macs look incredible and then you dig in and see cost-saving moves like reducing memory bandwidth (some M3 configs are BELOW M1), reducing performance cores, etc... and shenanigans like spinning how one can now "save $100" on an entry-level MB by spending $300 more.
Give this a watch and keep your mind focused on cost-cutting/profit-maximizing above all else. How many of these are "subtractions" for customers to make more for shareholders? How much is marketing trickery implying at least the same as before but is actually less than M2... and sometimes M1?
Through that "maximize shareholder value" lens from a consumer- not shareholder- perspective, a lot of those points are aggravating. Of course, if one is more shareholder and assume most will buy anyway, hooray for Apple for fattening those margins in tricky ways.
A true consumer should reasonably expect M3 > M2 > M1 > Last Intel in
ALL ways. Instead, we're getting shenanigans that make M3 < M1 in select ways... not because it was Apple's only option... but because they
CHOSE to build it this way. Why step back from established gains in prior generations? 💰💰💰
Yes, as a for-profit, public company, maximizing shareholder ROI is an
obligation... but they would be farrrrrrrr from the first to make that paramount above everything and burn the source of those profits goodwill down to nill. What typically happens is that customers reach their 'enough is enough' breaking point and vote with their wallets as a group. Until then, happy shareholders = happy superiors = bonuses earned = accolades/promotions/etc.
If some of us whine- even loudly- but then pay up anyway, we are simply stoking the very same fire. If we don't like it, we have to stop buying... and many others need to do the same for any corporate Goliath to take notice. Only through painful discovery in revenue downturns can management wake up to the concept that a better balance between shareholder value and customer satisfaction needs to be struck. Consumers- not shareholders- are where 100% of that "record" money is sourced. Delight consumers or they MAY finally choose to vote with their wallets. There is not an endless supply of accumulated goodwill from the "good old days." Halos can tarnish if what makes them shine is not maintained.
Else, those who defend that all is ideal and practically perfect in every way are basically right with each confirmation of "another quarter of record revenue & profit." Loudly whining followed by readily buying does not a customer value gain make.
productivemess.com
