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Did Apple retail prices get too high in 2018? Consumers say way yes. - USA TODAY
Netflix kills in-app subscriptions on Apple hardware - Engadget
Google's Messages app now getting spam protection - androidandme.com

Did Apple retail prices get too high in 2018? Consumers say way yes. - USA TODAY

Posted: 29 Dec 2018 06:59 AM PST

Jefferson Graham USA TODAY

Published 10:46 AM EST Dec 29, 2018

Apple has for years been a premium brand that rarely, if ever discounted products. Period.

Every year, the company could raise prices on products, and consumers would not only happily pay, but stand in long lines for the privilege of doing so.

So when Apple started putting misleading, but seemingly consumer-friendly posters in front of Apple Stores at the end of 2018 offering a new iPhone model for $300 off (with trade-in of your current phone), you know something different happened for the company this year.

Consumers fought back.

Many analysts have reported that in the wake of poorer-than-expected sales for this year's crop of iPhones, Apple cut back on production, including on the $1,100 iPhone XS Max, the $999 iPhone XS and the XR, the "budget" model that replaced the previous entry-level new phone, the $349 SE. The price for the XR (the one Apple is hawking discounts for): $749.

"This should be a wakeup call for Apple," says Daniel Ives, an analyst with Wedbush Securities. "They swung, and they really missed."

The prices on the new phones are "far too high," says Terry Walton, a tourist from Auckland, New Zealand. He has an iPhone 7 and didn't even consider any of the X-series iPhones because it still works just fine. Upgrading "didn't enter my mind at all," he says.

(Walton's daughter, Olivia, thought of moving on from her old iPhone 6S, but dad didn't agree. "With the new update, it's failing a bit, but that's fine," she says.)

It wasn't just iPhones that got price hikes. Apple also upped the cost of the top-of-the-line iPad to $1,000 as well (or over $2,800 for a loaded model) and added $300 to the cost of the Mac Mini and new MacBook Air computers.

The iPhones got the most attention, because it's the premier product for a company that gets 65 percent of its revenue from the devices. The XS Max model is the most expensive iPhone ever.

Unlike past years, however, Apple didn't offer consumers much that was new for the 2018 models. The flagship XS and XS Max phones had more power, but that didn't resonate with consumers who thought their old iPhone 6S and 7 devices ran just fine. The XR has the premium edge-to-edge display of the X series iPhones, minus the second camera lens of those models and shinier OLED screen, but it's $400 more expensive than the older, entry-level current model.

Analysts say the XR phone experienced the biggest resistance from consumers.

But don't cry for Apple. It will still sell over 200 million iPhones this year. It's just that analysts like Ives expected Apple to sell as many as 220 million phones. "We reduced it to 210 million, and now think it could go even lower, to 205 million," he says.

The rest of Apple's lineup was mixed. The HomePod, Apple's pricey, $349 connected speaker answer to the Amazon Echo and Google Home speakers those companies were practically giving away in holiday sales for $25-$50 fizzled. A new, lower-priced $329 iPad did do well, according to Stephen Baker, an analyst with the NPD Group. "This iPad will have its best holiday in years," he says.

Apple said in October that it won't reveal sales numbers for iPhones any longer, so analysts will just have to take their best guesses in 2019.

Let's remember that Apple still makes great phones. The new models were the best of the breed. It's not the lack of new features so much as that older iPhones are so good, many people don't feel the need to upgrade. Not for $1,000 and up, anyway.

"If I could see a huge difference in a new phone, then maybe I'd be more prone for it, but $1,000 for one or two new features ... I knew I wasn't getting it," said Keith Skinner, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

And I wonder if there's any new feature consumers really would care about more than an all-day battery, unbreakable screen and camera as good as Google's Pixel 3 for shooting in low light.

Apple historically redesigns iPhones every other year (2018 was the "S" year, when models get slight upgrades) so in September, we could see the company go back to the drawing board and really wow us again.

Or not. But, here's hoping!

In other tech news this week

People apparently bought Fitbits and a whole lot of Google Home and Amazon Echo speakers for the holidays, as evidenced by a look at the app store charts, where consumers needed to download apps to run the new products. The Alexa app took the top spot on both the iOS and Google app stores' lists of the top free apps the day after Christmas while Fitbit was in the No. 5 slot. Google Home took the No. 3 spot on the Android Play Store and came in seventh on the iPhone. Among other popular apps on both stores: the Tile app, for the popular tracker, was 20 on iPhone and 47 on Android; iRobot Home, for controlling the robotic Roomba vacuums, was 40 on iPhone and 91 on Android; and the Ring app, for the video doorbell, was 41 on iPhone and 65 on Android.

Despite the hacking, theft of personal data, frequent apologies from the social network and terrible grades for 2018 from the press, co-founder Mark Zuckerberg says he's "proud" of the year Facebook has had. "Building community and bringing people together leads to a lot of good, and I'm committed to continuing our progress in these areas as well," he wrote on his Facebook page.

New Year's Eve could be a bit less celebratory for Verizon Fios TV subscribers if the pay-TV provider doesn't come to an agreement with Disney. The two media companies are negotiating a new contract to keep Disney's channels including ESPN, Disney Channel and ABC stations in New York and Philadelphia among subscribers' channel choices. But the current contract expires Monday, and both sides are currently playing hard to please.

Did your Instagram look different Thursday? You weren't alone. An Instagram test that changed the way users go through their feeds went wide across the social network. And the internet was not happy with the potential new changes. The apparent update, which appeared to be in the process of rolling out to users, changed the way people viewed feeds. As opposed to the normal method of scrolling down vertically through posts from the people you follow, under the test format users needed to swipe and tap through it, similar to how you navigate the company's Stories feature. By the end of the day, Instagram scrapped the new look.

This week's Talking Tech podcasts

Peter Csathy's tech predictions for 2019

How to get started with Amazon Echo and Google Home

How to get used to X-series iPhones

Peter Pham's favorite tech products of 2018

10 essential apps for your phone

Meet Innermap, the new mindfulness app from Mitra Manesh.

And that's our last Talking Tech newsletter for 2019. Don't forget to tell your friends to subscribe at http://technewsletter.usatoday.com. We'll be back at you next weekend with a sneak peek at the Consumer Electronics Show, which launches January 6th with press previews. In the meantime, please listen to the daily #TalkingTech podcast and follow me (@jeffersongraham) on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

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Netflix kills in-app subscriptions on Apple hardware - Engadget

Posted: 28 Dec 2018 06:58 PM PST

New and returning Netflix subscribers with iOS devices will find themselves unable to sign up through the iOS app. The streaming platform has confirmed to VentureBeat that it no longer supports "iTunes as a method of payment for new members." It started testing the change in select markets back in August and rolled it out to everyone in the world in November. Those who want to pay for a subscription will now have to do so via the platform's website. That includes those who used to pay via iTunes if it's been a month since they canceled their subscription.

As VentureBeat noted, Apple takes a 15 to 30 percent cut from in-app subscriptions, and that has been a growing point of contention between the tech giant and app developers. Now, Netflix can pocket all the proceeds from its iOS customers -- and the additional money it can earn by not sharing with Apple will likely be substantial, seeing as it occupies the top spot in the list of iOS apps with the largest revenue.

While bypassing iTunes payments could affect smaller applications, we doubt this decision will impact Netflix's subscription numbers in any way. Besides, the streaming titan knows what it's doing: it dropped the option to pay via Google Play earlier this year.

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Google's Messages app now getting spam protection - androidandme.com

Posted: 28 Dec 2018 03:56 PM PST

Google’s Messages app is a clean and simple way to text, lacking customization but making up for it with simplicity and web messaging support. The latest addition to the app is spam protection, though it comes with some caveats.

This seems to be a server side rollout as most devices aren’t getting this option yet. However, those who do are getting a pop up at the bottom of the app offering the feature and allowing you to turn it off.

Why would you turn it off? Spam protection can’t be a bad thing, can it? Well it does require Google to collect data from you. Message contents are safe, but data about the messages themselves will be collected and sent to Google for this feature to work.

If you’re all about privacy, you’ll want to turn this feature off. You can do it from the pop-up or by heading to Settings > Advanced > Spam protection. For the rest of us, if SMS spam is an issue, this should help quite a bit. The feature should be rolling out to everyone soon so keep an eye out!

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