Apple, Forges Ahead To Keep Up with the Competition

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new phones and a new watch
The New iPhones 6 and 6 Plus, and the iWatch

Apple introduced its new products and promptly lost 38 billion dollars of stock value within one hour. There were glitches in the launch of the two new larger iPhones 6, the Apple Watch, and Apple Pay; the show was late getting started, the Apple link for streaming would only work on Apple products and many of the viewers watching received the audio in Chinese. These are minor glitches for most companies, but not for a company who prides its reputation on high tech performance.

iPhones 6 & 6 Plus
The New iPhones 6 and 6 Plus

The new phones seem to be a necessity or maybe a desperate redesign, because the competition is capturing a larger share of the market with bigger screens. The new iPhones 6 & 6 Plus are sleeker with radiuses on the both sides on the glass edges. The iPhone 6 has a 4.7 inch screen with one million pixels and the 6 Plus has a 5.5 inch screen with two million pixels.

The larger screens will be good for videos and for people with poor vision, but many men have abandoned the belt holsters to store the phone in a dedicated trouser pocket; the larger sizes may be awkward for these users. Older people with vision problems and kids who use the phone for videos may appreciate the larger screens, but does the demand justify the increase in size? Apple probably came out with the two different sizes to hedge their bets, but the market will determine whether the redesign was practical.

The phones are equipped with image-stabilization, but this upgrade only allows Apple to catch up with the competition and not an example of cutting edge innovation.

Apple Pay was introduced to compete with PayPal and Google Wallet, but after the security leak and the criminal downloading of celebrity photos and videos, this new app may be slow to get started. Apple is hoping to align the program with iTunes 800 million subscribers, but the “walled garden” primrose path may be treacherous until security is upgraded.

Jony Ivy, senior vice-president of design, introduced the iWatch in a prerecorded video:

Jony Ivy, introduced the iWatch in a prerecorded video, but it was a poor characterization of Steve Jobs and lacked the conviction of a man who knows he is introducing a superior product to the world.

Creating beautiful objects that are as simple and pure as they are functional, well, that’s always been our goal at Apple. We designed Apple Watch as a whole range of products enabling millions of unique designs. I think we are now at a compelling beginning actually designing technology to be worn, to be truly personal.

Within an hour, 38 billion dollars of Apple’s stock value disappeared, when the shares dropped from $103 to $96 a share. For many investors, Apple was no longer the innovator of great technological advances, it became just another company scrambling for market share.

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Well, as of today, most of that money is back on the ledger even if it was a blip to 102.74 NOT 103. This is TYPICAL of what happens with AAPL stock on announcement day. After all the people get done saying that Android, M$ and other have already done that, AAPL comes along and makes a profit on it. It’s estimated that AAPL will net about $2.4 Billion with Pay..minimum. When you get an ‘older woman’, my wife…saying she likes the Watch you’d best get ready for some serious sales. People can bash  all they want but in the end, it is a money printing machine. Oh and I’m doing quite well with it, I’ve seen over 25 years of the same darn thing.