| Cult of Mac

Apple is missing out on billions in subscription fees

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Apple waives developer fees for nonprofits, others in 8 additional countries
Apple should be squeezing more money out of customers. Or so one analyst thinks!
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

Apple’s Services division is growing rapidly, but according to analyst Gene Munster it is still leaving billions of dollars on the table by failing to monetize its software in the way that it could.

Munster says that Apple should be following other high tech companies by charging monthly subscription fees for Pro Apps, aimed at audio and visual professionals. These apps include Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro X, Motion, Compressor and MainStage 3, each of which Apple currently sells for a one-off fee.

‘Apple should pull the plug’: 10 iPhone predictions from 2007

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iPhone predictions from 2007
They must have been holding their crystal balls wrong.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

iPhone turns 10 Predicting the future is tough, even for the experts. That’s the only lesson we can learn from looking back at these horribly misguided iPhone predictions that greeted the device at its launch 10 years ago.

Before most people had even wrapped their fingers around Apple’s first-gen smartphone, tech pundits, analysts and competing CEOs were already writing off the iPhone as a disaster similar to Apple’s previous excursions into video game consoles and the like.

Here are just a few of the laughable reactions that greeted the iPhone in 2007.

iPhone takes top spot on holiday wish lists

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These are the gifts you're looking for.
Apple products are set to be the top gifts this year.
Photo: Kristina Alexanderson/Flickr CC

People can talk about declining iPhone demand all the want, but when it comes to which tech products the general public want to see under their Christmas trees this year, there is no doubt about it: no brand can beat Apple.

Speaking with CNBC this Monday, Apple analyst Gene Munster shared his firm Piper Jaffray’s research into desired holiday gifts — and found that the iPhone, closely followed by the MacBook, beat other items including the Xbox, PlayStation, GoPro camera and more to land the top two positions in the list.

Apple Watch 2 will be 40 percent slimmer, claims dodgy analyst

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Apple Watch
The next Apple Watch might be a lot thinner.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

The next Apple Watch might arrive sooner than expected, based on a new rumor claiming Apple’s new wearable will be unveiled in June.

Not only is the new watch ahead of schedule, it may even sport a 40-percent-thinner design, hopefully without compromising on battery life.

Almost sounds too good to be true, right?

Gene Munster thinks virtual reality will be the ultimate iPhone killer

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Virtual reality was one of the first iPhone accessories Apple considered. Photo: USPTO/Apple
One of Apple's previous VR patents.
Photo: USPTO/Apple

Hit-and-miss Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster (a.k.a. the “Apple television set is coming” guy) has a somewhat wacky theory in his latest note to clients: that Apple will not only announce its own virtual reality project at some point in the future, but that this will prove to be the real iPhone killer.

And that Apple’s totally okay with that.

Apple Car may ship in 2021, with a price tag of $75,000

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Apple car concept art shows what Cupertino might put on the road.
Coming soon?
Photo: Aristomenis Tsirbas/Freelancer

At $17k, the Apple Watch Edition is currently the most expensive product Apple sells.

But according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, that record is likely to be obliterated when the Apple Car finally ships — since his projected price tag of “around $75,000” would put it at around four-and-a-half times the cost of Apple’s high-end wearable. Or the equivalent of 100 brand new iPhones 6s handsets.

Apple’s fight with the FBI does nothing to harm its brand

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Apple takes second spot in list of UK's best employers
Apple's brand value is safe and sound.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

People may be split over whether or not Apple is doing the right thing by defying the FBI by refusing to create an iPhone backdoor, but according to a new report, Apple’s squabble over privacy isn’t likely to have much of an impact on its brand appeal — however much Donald Trump wants people to boycott the company’s products.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster this morning revealed the results of a survey of 1,0002 Americans — suggesting that an equal number of people are more or less enamored of the brand as a result of the recent news, while the majority of respondees claim not to know anything about the story.

All the big Apple analysts are predicting iPhone sales decline

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iPhone 6s
Ain't that just the way that sales go down, down, down, down.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Apple has never reported a decline in iPhone sales. That may be about to change, however, with seven top Apple analysts all predicting that the company is either experiencing — or on the verge of experiencing — a drop in the number of iPhones being bought.

Gene Munster admits he got Apple all wrong (again)

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iPhone 6S
The iPhone Upgrade Program could be a monster hit for Apple.
Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac

Hit-and-miss Apple analyst Gene Munster has admitted he couldn’t have been more wrong about the likely customer uptake of Apple’s iPhone Upgrade Program, the $32+ per month scheme designed to get new iPhones into the hands of people happy to pay a monthly fee to Apple.

Top Apple analyst believes a 4-inch iPhone isn’t worth Apple’s time

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Will the iPhone 6c be a flop like the 5c?
Would the 4-inch iPhone be a waste of time?
Photo: Gadgetmac/Flickr

We’ve heard plenty of conflicting reports about when we should expect a new smaller, 4-inch iPhone “c” from Apple, but Piper Jaffray’s resident Apple analyst Gene Munster suggests that Cupertino would be wasting its time by releasing a sequel to 2013’s iPhone 5c.

Why? Because, Munster claims, customers don’t really want smaller handsets at all.