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Apple COO Jeff Williams 'Very Aware Of' Concerns Over Apple Product Cost

Sunday February 24, 2019 3:04 pm PST by MacRumors Staff

Apple COO Jeff Williams spoke at Elon University on Friday, Feb. 22 and spoke of his history in joining Apple in 1998. The Times News covers his talk in detail. Williams also took questions from students in the audience. One student asked Williams if Apple had any plans to reduce prices considering the seemingly large margins on Apple products based on analyst reports.

Williams dismissed those reports, suggesting the actual cost of development isn't considered:

“The stories that come out about the cost of our products [have been] the bane of my existence from the beginning of time, including our early days,” Williams said. “Analysts don’t really understand the cost of what we do and how much care we put into making our products.”

He goes on to explain that to build the Apple Watch's activity tracker, Apple built a physiology lab with 40 nurses and 10,000 participants. Still, Williams conceded it's an area that they are paying attention to:

“It’s something we’re very aware of,” he said. “We do not want to be an elitist company. That’s not — we want to be an egalitarian company, and we’ve got a lot of work going on in developing markets.”

The Times News article goes on to cover Williams' talk about his reasons for joining Apple back in 1998, as well as how it feels to be part of a company that has been so successful.

Pricing on Apple's flagship phones has been cited as a factor in iPhone sales underperformance in the last quarter. Apple's flagship iPhone has increased in price over the years with the most recent iPhone XS Max starting at $1099.

Related Roundup: iPhone XS

Tag: Jeff Williams

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Nik

7 months ago

Dismissing huge margins by citing stuff like R&D etc ... meanwhile, just look at the actual profits (profit, not revenue) they have according to their own earning reports. The whole argument falls apart when looking at the actual numbers.

Example: NOTHING can justify the ridiculous SSD upgrade prices (even with same performance metrics) but pure greed. Greed which begins to damage their image.

Rating: 152 Votes

Naraxus

7 months ago

Very aware but not going to do a goddamn thing about it because his CEO wants to nickle and dime every customer he has left.

The arrogence of this company is off the charts

Rating: 96 Votes

PixelDestructor

7 months ago

how much care we put into making our products

Wanna explain why macOS has been ignored for years if you care so much about products? It still has bugs from years ago that have never been patched, forget new features.
Why has the Mac Pro still not received an update? Why is the MacBook Pro forcefully sold with a Touch Bar? If you care so much about your products why are you still selling the 6th Generation iPod Touch or the 4th Generation iPad Mini? There are so many segments of Apple's product line that show a complete lack of care and attention to detail compared to just 10 years ago.

Rating: 92 Votes

Loki.Mephisto

7 months ago

Quote: "It's something we're very aware of," he said. "We do not want to be an elitist company. That's not".

Subtext: "Which is why we price our SSDs so very reasonably. The upgrade to 1 TB barely is 1000 bucks for what is available for less than one quarter of that in retail. Hence we overcharge by 4x only, isn't that very generous of us?"

Rating: 68 Votes

now i see it

7 months ago

 executive defending . yawn

Rating: 65 Votes

bartolo5

7 months ago

I can perfectly afford most of current Apple products at their current prices but I simply refuse to, out of principle. To name a couple of things that irritate me:

* Not including a fast charger in the box after paying $1000+ for their flagship phones is ridiculous
* Forcing me to buy a macbook pro with touchbar (instead of traditional keyboard) for semidecent current intel specs with huge markups is ridiculous. Touchbar is an antiproductivity tool IMHO.

I'm perfectly happy paying Apple premium prices for their products but there needs to be a justification. Current tactics are just obvious cash grabs that are turning everyone off.

Rating: 60 Votes

BasicGreatGuy

7 months ago

I think that Apple needs to take a serious look at future pricing. I don't think a lot of people (especially those in their 20s) will continue paying increased prices, even with new products and technology. The monetary saturation point is approaching quickly.

I appreciate Apple products, service, and overall mission. However, I am not going to pay $2k for a phone. I have no problem holding onto my devices longer, instead of upgrading regularly. Even if one has money, that doesn't necessarily mean one should throw it into the wind.

Rating: 56 Votes

iop

7 months ago

> “It’s something we’re very aware of,” he said. “We do not want to be an elitist company. That’s not — we want to be an egalitarian company, and we’ve got a lot of work going on in developing markets.”

Hmm... This statement definitely contradicts reality.

Rating: 48 Votes

Lone Deranger

7 months ago

Williams dismissed those reports, suggesting the actual cost of development isn't considered:He goes on to explain that to build the Apple Watch's activity tracker, Apple built a physiology lab ('https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/20/inside-apples-secret-apple-watch/') with 40 nurses and 10,000 participants.

Cool story bro! But that ever growing pile of cash Apple is sitting on says otherwise. Apple is raking it in hand over fist. With that in mind, your obscene price increases is hardly ‘caring’ now is it. :rolleyes:

Rating: 36 Votes

IbisDoc

7 months ago

"Analysts don't understand the work we do to maintain massive profit margins. They just have this unhealthy obsession with price."

Rating: 33 Votes

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