We already highlighted the 5 big hits from Apple in 2018. How about talking, now, what didn’t work very well for Apple? After all, 2018 was not one of the best for the company despite having been worth more than $ 1 rail, $ AAPL is now in the $ 150 range (resulting in a market value of ~ $ 715 billion), as a result of many related debts mainly to the future of the iPhone (which, as we know, no longer sells, sells more than in the past).
Let's go to our list!
Prices
I do not need to talk about the prices of Apple practiced here in our dear country. Everyone knows that, here, Ma's products are overvalued in a mixture of strategy (choice of the company itself) and taxes (the famous Brazil cost). But the truth is that the values ​​of Apple products are bothering even Americans.
It is difficult to say exactly where everything started, but if I were to take a chance, I would say it was with the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar in 2016. From then on, everything was increasing in price the maximum exponent of this new strategy was the iPhone X, which adjusted the base of new flagships from Apple for no less than $ 1,000. But the fact that it was not just the iPhone that saw its price rise: basically all the company's products have undergone a good readjustment in the case of the Mac mini, for example, we are talking about a whopping 60%!
Yesterday price surges: MacBook Air: 999 -> 1199 (+ 20%) Mac Mini: 499 -> 799 (+ 60%) iPad Pro 10.5: 649 -> 799 (+ 23%) iPad Pro 12.9: 799 -> 999 ( + 25%)
This is unreal. I find it hard to believe that only a handful of people are talking about this.
– Rodrigo Araujo (@rodrigoaraujo) October 31, 2018
Is Apple pricing its products off the market? Personally, I think that from the Cook era.
70%: Yes12%: No, prices are good18%: Increase justified
.
Yesterday's increases: MacBook Air: 999 -> 1199 (+ 20%) Mac mini: 499 -> 799 (+ 60%) 10.5 ″ iPad Pro: 649 -> 799 (+ 23%) iPad Pro 12, 9 ″: 799 -> 999 (+ 25%)
That surreal. It is difficult to believe that only a few people are commenting on this.
Remembering that this scenario was outside; here, it got to a difficult level to even comment on, with MacBooks Pro costing up to R $ 58,600, Macs mini up to R $ 34,200, iPads Pro up to R $ 15,600 and so on.
The confusing of the notebook line
If on the one hand Apple got it right when it launched the new MacBook Air with Touch ID, it left the notebook line pretty confused. If you are looking for portability (and taking into account some other aspects that we cannot discard, as a specification), what is the ideal notebook: a 12 ″ MacBook or a MacBook Air? Is it worth buying a MacBook Pro without Touch Bar or a MacBook Air with Touch ID?
The fault, as we can see, of the new MacBook Air that came to occupy a larger space than the old notebook; and there would be no confusion if Apple simply took the MacBook and MacBook Pro without a Touch Bar, for example; by making all these options available to consumers, Apple escapes its main “tradition” that having a simple and very self-explanatory product line, facilitating the customer's choice and avoiding possible frustrations.
To further complete this mess, the company still offers as an option to purchase the old MacBook Air. Cad the courage to simplify things, Apple ?!
AirPower, where are you ?!
AirPower, Apple's wireless charging base, was announced in 2017. The expectation was that such an accessory would hit the market in early 2018. Well, the year has passed and no AirPower.
I have no doubt that there are great explanations for why the product has not yet seen the light of day all of them beyond justifiable, I'm sure. What I do not “forgive” is a company that always spoke ill of competition (that many present products that are still in the prototyping phase just to shout to the four corners that were the first to launch such a thing) to make this mistake, announcing something that was still in an unfinished phase of the project that ended up failing to be ready in a timely manner.
This after many other delays and problems involving other products like AirPods, HomePod, etc. What a paper, Apple
The polemics of batteries
The problem happened in 2017, but the result itself we feel now, in 2018. Unexpectedly (at least for the company), users discovered that the performance of iPhones was being intentionally reduced in order to save already worn out batteries in a possible way. unexpected shutdown. In other words: if your iPhone's battery was getting old, the device was running slowly.
Of course, nobody liked that and Apple had to apologize publicly, putting into practice two measures: 1. offered to exchange batteries for a promotional price (much more affordable, for a specific period); 2. launched a software update that made everything clearer regarding the functioning / performance of the system, even giving the option for users to disable the reduction of the CPU's processing power, if they so wish.
Even with all these attitudes, the story was ugly for Apple, which found itself entangled with several collective actions spread around the world not to mention some fines that the company took from governments that did not like the deliberate attitude of the company at all.
Fight with Qualcomm
If Apple feels hurt, it has more than to seek justice. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The problem here, that such a fight ended up hurting customers.
In a nutshell, Qualcomm has always been Apple's partner in providing modems for iPhones; in 2017, however, a big fight between companies broke out: Ma felt harmed by having to pay not only for the component (modem) itself, but also for having to pass it on royalties (a certain percentage of the final value of iPhones) for the company.
Whether or not Qualcomm can charge on two different fronts, the justice it has to say; but, due to this fight, Apple was forced to use Intel chips, which are admittedly worse than Qualcomm's in speed.
To top it off, in 2018 we had the return of a scenario that happened last time ago, when Apple launched the iPhone 5s: most likely because of the technology used in Intel modems, the American models of the iPhones XS, XS Max and XR they are not compatible with all 4G bands used here in Brazil. If in 2015, 2016 and 2017 customers could enjoy their trips to the USA and buy an iPhone peacefully at an Apple store without worrying if it would work perfectly in Brazil, in 2018 this debt came back to surround us.
It is worth noting that iPhones purchased in the USA do work in Brazil; however, they only support two of the three 4G bands (3, 7 and 28) used here. It is a direct consequence of this lack of support for band 28 in American models that such iPhones cannot connect to what we call 4.5G.
Whether this is the result of the use of Intel's chip by Apple, we are not sure. Still, there is a consensus that Qualcomm's modems are better technologically speaking, for example, the company is already ready for 5G while Intel is still running to make everything the way Apple needs it.
As I said, Apple needs to stand up for what it thinks is right, but it's a shame that customers get hurt along the way.
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Obviously, we are talking here about a very opinionated article; and you, would you put any other Apple stumble of 2018 on this list?
