“In a couple of weeks, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) will hold its Worldwide Developers Conference (“WWDC”) from June 13th to June 17th,” Bill Maurer writes for Seeking Alpha. “While everyone is expecting the usual operating system upgrades, investors are looking for ways to get struggling product sales going again. While this year’s conference looks to be dominated by Apple’s growing services business, perhaps a surprise or two could get everyone excited.”
“There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about Apple opening up Siri and potentially preparing an Amazon Echo rival,” Maurer writes. “While it would be nice for additional Siri capabilities, consumers will be looking at the newest operating system for its battery life and storage size. Longer battery life would be a key reason for consumers to upgrade to the iPhone 7. I also believe the company should look at scaling back compatability as a way to drive upgrades.”
“A third version of the Watch’s operating system is expected at WWDC, but what about a second version of the actual product?,” Maurer writes. “That could be a surprise at this year’s event, if Apple announces a launch date that’s in the near future… The biggest surprise, however, would be if Apple finally launched its [Apple TV] streaming service that has been in the works for quite some time.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We suspect that Apple has a much more refined idea of what Apple Watch should be with a year+ of user data on hand. We expect some big doings with the next iteration of watchOS. As for Apple TV, a surprise announcement (or even – *gulp* – launch) of skinny bundles just might be the shot in the arm for which Apple’s share price is waiting.
Great accessibility features would be welcome too. On iOS, when the speech synthesizer detects non-Latin characters, or when it encounters a lang change in xml, it changes the voice to the voice of the language. So πιρα is spoken with the Greek voice… Assuming I put the Greel letters in right, lol. But on the Mac, it is spoken with the English voice as Greek letter pi, Greek letter iota, Greek letter ro, Greek letter alpha. This can get very very annoying if someone uses the unliterated version of their name in email “from” fields and such. See the Internet for other things blind people want fixed, lol, but besides that, the Mac can only go forward. So much can be done with accessibility, and Apple has room to keep smashing the companies that, for the longest, have had a huge monopoly on us, and thousands of dollars, see Jaws for Windows.
“Struggling” sales.
FUD is so predictable these days, following the old rules of propaganda:
A BIG LIE
A big lie (German: große Lüge) is a propaganda technique. The expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his 1925 book Mein Kampf, about the use of a lie so “colossal” that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.”…
The phrase was also used in a report prepared during the war by the United States Office of Strategic Services in describing Hitler’s psychological profile:[5][6]
His primary rules were:
never allow the public to cool off;
never admit a fault or wrong;
never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives;
never accept blame;
concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong;
people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one;
and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.
Sound familiar? The above might as well by the lyrics to the Apple Bear Bullshitter’s Anthem.
♬🍎🐻🐂💩♩♪♩
Let’s focus on Apple’s REAL problems. How about that, for a change?
Curry. Ever heard of Godwin’s law?
Idiot.
I know you are but what am I?
This was obviously NOT a case of Godwin’s Law, ‘idiot.’ This was a direct quote specific to an on topic discussion. Ever heard of not being an ass? Or is this your role in life, self-denigration turned outward at others? You might want to stop that.
“Struggling” sales. (AAPLer)
Mein Kampf = My Struggle
I think that’s why you cited Hitler—because of the subliminal translation, not because you wanted to provoke a rebuke for invoking Godwin’s “Law.” I claim that Betteridge’s “Law” of Headlines also fails in this case. Not trying to curry favour with you, just helping out with a mercy save.
Clever as ever. But read through Godwin’s law. It’s not relevant to my quotation specific to methods of propaganda. As I pointed out to ‘idiot’, it was on topic.
Those are Donald Trump’s rules.
Bob Hope’s wife once asked him, “What do you want written on your gravestone?”
Bob replied, “Surprise me.”
two weeks from now…
I don’t believe Apple would ever consider intentionally scaling back compatibility to force upgrades. I know, we frequently hear this refrain from some, but I’ve never observed it. Apple is very focused on the user experience.
If they add a software feature to one of their devices that might stumble on an older device, they more frequently allow that feature to stumble, vice denying the user the option to take advantage of it. Similarly, if they make a hardware change, it’s more likely to meet some design objective vice trying to push the user into upgrading to newer hardware.
Now, that isn’t to say Apple doesn’t make design/configuration options that are designed to encourage people to select a higher priced option. We’ve seen that recently with the 16GB/64GB/128GB options in memory availability, where 16GB may be tight, and 64GB might be too much, and 32GB isn’t offered.
We should all “struggle” like Apple. Sheesh.
Dick Tracy !!!!
It’s at the point now where anything Apple adds just dilutes the effort on their existing products and services, which have been wholly lackluster of late.
Am I the only one who doesn’t think some box or cylinder sitting on a table “listening” to me is great? Why would I need something like that when I’ve got Macs, iPads, iPhones and watches that can do that?