Since84
Moderator
To infinity and beyond!
Posts: 3,933
|
Post by Since84 on Sept 28, 2017 2:19:41 GMT -8
|
|
4aapl
Moderator
Posts: 3,655
|
Post by 4aapl on Sept 28, 2017 6:21:52 GMT -8
"Let's use baking cookies as an analogy. Your inputs are flour, butter and sugar and your key equipment is an oven. If you bake 100 cookies, but 75 of them are burnt then your yield is 25 percent. If you're catering for a party and need 80 cookies, then you can either do four rounds of baking, buy more ovens to make larger batches (which takes time and money), or stop burning cookies. That's the best solution: Not only does the high failure rate smoke up the kitchen, but it wastes buckets of money from discarded ingredients and slows down your output rate. " This has been a common problem for a long time, maybe more-so with electronics, but really across everything that's manufactured. And really, manufactured via automation or manually. AMD had just made it through this with the K6 chip about 20 years ago when I interviewed there. Everyone was ecstatic then, likely because they had been overstressed earlier trying to get the yields up. But even older technology had the same things. I worked as a Process Engineer at MOT just out of college, where we were trying to increase yields. A half percent increase from say 94 to 94.5% on just one of the many products that went through that particular fab might increase earnings by $500k. And that was using 30 year old photolithography tools, that really should have everything dialed in long ago. I'm sure it's crunch mode right now, trying to get the yield up on whatever parts of the process are the low performers. And while the fabs have their own people, based on job listings I've seen over the years, I'm sure Apple has people there attempting to help out and increase those yields quicker. But in the end, it's probably similar to what they say about a commercial kitchen at a hopping place, that you just don't want to see it because it's hard to handle the chaos. They have their ways, and it all comes together. Let it be, and wait for the masterpiece to come out. (and truthfully, you're already sitting down at the table. You'd rather wait an extra minute or five to have it done right, than have it come out early and not be fully baked)
|
|
|
Post by sponge on Sept 28, 2017 7:53:31 GMT -8
A couple interesting observations. The Apple rep at the Victoria Gardens store said that they sold more iPhones last Friday then they did last year when 7 came out.
Second the Fed Ex manager said that they ship an average of 40 phones back to Apple for upgrades. Fed Ex has 1500 locations in US. If you add UPS and Post Office, then Apple has managed to get aleast 20 million iPhones in the US on the upgrade program.
The crazy part is that they sell the refurbished units for 2x more then pay customers who return them.
I think Deutsch Bank is nuts. Apple is selling record number of iPhones, most are waiting for the X, and their margins keep growing.
|
|
|
Post by osx10 on Sept 28, 2017 10:39:53 GMT -8
So the head of the FCC Ajit Pai is demanding today that Apple activate the FM chip in their phones - While a great idea in theory, I don't believe this works well when traditionally the wired headphones connection also served as the antenna.
Back in the day, Apple had a slick fm tuner dongle that worked with the early iPods.
Yes, you can stream music, but FM would be nice in emergencies and for Sports broadcasts. Most major leagues don't stream games for free.
Yet another Governmental demand upon Apple -
|
|
|
Post by rickag on Sept 28, 2017 12:25:46 GMT -8
So the head of the FCC Ajit Pai is demanding today that Apple activate the FM chip in their phones - While a great idea in theory, I don't believe this works well when traditionally the wired headphones connection also served as the antenna. Back in the day, Apple had a slick fm tuner dongle that worked with the early iPods. Yes, you can stream music, but FM would be nice in emergencies and for Sports broadcasts. Most major leagues don't stream games for free. Yet another Governmental demand upon Apple - I wonder what the basis is for this FCC demand?
|
|
chinacat
Moderator
AAPL Long since 2006
Posts: 4,431
|
Post by chinacat on Sept 28, 2017 20:31:31 GMT -8
|
|
|
Post by macglenn on Sept 29, 2017 6:07:17 GMT -8
So the head of the FCC Ajit Pai is demanding today that Apple activate the FM chip in their phones - While a great idea in theory, I don't believe this works well when traditionally the wired headphones connection also served as the antenna. Back in the day, Apple had a slick fm tuner dongle that worked with the early iPods. Yes, you can stream music, but FM would be nice in emergencies and for Sports broadcasts. Most major leagues don't stream games for free. Yet another Governmental demand upon Apple - I wonder what the basis is for this FCC demand? act.credoaction.com/sign/fire-pai?sp_ref=339219207.4.183456.o.1.2&referring_akid=.11332123.yF6lR2&source=clickcopy_sp
|
|