At the beginning of the pandemic, I wrote that that Apple products are maturing and argued that eventually, Apple will become a services company. I revisit that prediction to see how it is panning out.
Leave a CommentTag: Service Operations
Even in this uncertain climate, some supply chains are doing well. Apple going by their 2020 Q1 reports has got some positive news to share. I wrote last year on the blog, while discussing Peak iPhone, that iPhone as a product is maturing and argued that, Apple will soon pivot to become a services company. More evidence is now in.
I revisit the thesis in this post. Apple earned a record $12.7 billion in services revenue during the first quarter of its fiscal year — a year-over-year increase of roughly 17%, growing faster than the rest. Add to this information, the margins are higher than every segment, with margins exceeding 65% in services — Apple will increasingly focus on services going forward.
Leave a CommentA look at how service jobs are changing the nature of US workforce. In Dec 2019, there were more women than men in the workforce in the United States. I briefly ponder why this is the case.
Leave a CommentAn economy that has grown beyond belief is the e-commerce delivery market in China. It has become so central to modern Chinese life that the “food-delivery” has been dubbed as one of the 4 great inventions of modern Chinese civilization. For instance, Luckin Coffee (second only to Starbucks in China) has grown on the legs of its delivery business. No other product, not even pizza, exemplifies the need for exceptionally fast delivery need than hot coffee. […]
Leave a CommentWhat are the pitfalls of Direct-to-Consumer business models? I use Tesla’s growth to talk about product service bundles.
Leave a CommentThe past is more opaque than the future. Even when we know the “rough” history of what transpired, it is sometimes hard to imagine, how things were before the natural evolution into the current “normalcy” occurred. I imagine that, very soon, it would be astounding to consumers that Amazon did not own any stores, and Apple did not make any phones. How was life before that? In this respect, Barbara Garson’s The Electronic Sweatshop is revelatory, because it discusses a mind-and-place that is hard to imagine because many automated things came to be. For examples, she writes (Pg. 177), When typewriters were first introduced, their operators were also called “typewriters”. Later they became typists. So far in the electronic office,…
Leave a CommentIn 2013, a guy who was trying to pitch a company, called DoorBot, that sold security doorbells, went nowhere on Shark Tank, as the sharks rejected his offer. The founder Jamie Siminoff positioned the idea at $7M. Here is the video. Last year, the company was valued at $460M. Last week, the company, now called Ring, was acquired by Amazon for $1B. This is not a post to castigate the poor assessments of Ring’s original business idea: As ideas evolve they get better, and some cosmic confluence of interests can be helpful for a firm. — Ring, at one Billion USD, is a tremendously expensive acquisition for Amazon. In fact, Ring is Amazon’s second-biggest acquisition, after Whole Foods. Similar large…
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