It’s actually pretty simple: they have created the perfect conditions.

First, theirs is not a customer but a fanbase. People want to be part of the apple universe because they are fans of it.

Second, they have made it extremely difficult to get out once you enter their ecosystem.

So basically you have a good bunch of people who are fans of their products (so not buying because of functionality but because of fidelity), and another good bunch that are captives of a previous decision and can’t get out easily.

There are other minor groups in their customer base, but they aren’t that relevant to make a dent in their sales if Apple loses them.

If this had a 4g module and possibility to install messaging apps, il dump my smartphone for this one without blinking. My phone is basically a chat machine, but I miss so much those blackberry keyboards with physical keys…

Personal experience. Every time I see an extremely stupid tweet, it comes from a blue check.

Twitter made a great job with the paid blue check. It’s so much easier now to detect an idiot just by looking if they have a paid blue check. In Reddit it will be the same. If someone joins a paid sub, you can already say they are an idiot.

This is not about you, but about them. It’s not that you need a subscription. It’s that they need you to have a subscription.

I agree. But I’m not sure it’s possible to have enough tax auditors to combat something that is so prevalent in my country.

I do. But so what? Since they are small businesses we should let them evade taxes? Tax evasion is a problem, and I agree we should go against all those billionaires, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore the smaller evaders.

This is all perfect when you live in a responsible country where people pay their taxes. Instead, when you live in a place where paying your taxes is seen as something stupid, the less cash, the less space for tax evaders.

I loved it when COVID came and the government started giving all these businesses owners (bars, hairdressers, etc) a subside based on the profits they declared the year before COVID and they all went mad because they were getting 600€/month (which, ironically is the amount they declared to have earned monthly the year before COVID).

HE is training it? Oh boy… Expect absolute meltdowns every time you call it for the right wrong name or tell it it’s wrong in its statement.

I can’t but agree. 3k is more than enough to pay even for home stuff. You can buy plenty of things under 3k in a single purchase. And if you’re willing to buy further than that, then I’m sorry but you’ll need to put society first. If you’re willing to buy full cash a house, I’m gonna think you’re money laundering and you can go fuck yourself.

The problem with the left everywhere is they don’t have the balls to actually take action. They all talk about tolerance and how dialogue should make people change and be the politicians language. No. Certain things shouldn’t be tolerated. Fascism and nazism are two of those. Democracy is above anything else. If a subject is trying to undermine democracy or the institutions protecting it, they should be considered a national threat and dealt with accordingly. The problem is that the left is afraid of being seen as “authoritarian” so when a fascist comes and openly says they want to fuck democracy until it becomes a dictatorship, leftists just say “hey now, let’s sit down and talk”. No, my dude, we don’t “sit down and talk” with a fascist. We punch them in the face and tell them “fuck you, if you want to be a dictator, you’re a threat for our country and will be dealt with as a terrorist”. 80 years ago, we argued with Nazis by shooting them. We forgot and now we’re having them in our governments again.

They’re on their way to participate in the only Balconing League of the world. They’re winning by large.