Book a time to check out Creative Cubes at creativecubes.co

Register your interest here: creativecubes.co/locations/south-melbourne/

Absolute President of the United States (or anywhere for that matter) material!

From a statistical standpoint, I disagree with the basis of much of your (Josh) contentions against Apple/HomePod. Firstly, I don't see how the iPhone X didn't work out/is a flop, sure they sold fewer phones than the previous year (76m rather than 77m) but that's to be expected given base model iPhone X is 43% more expensive than, say, the base model iPhone 8 (USD), yet sale numbers were not 43% less or even close, they sold 1 less million iPhone's total and obviously increased revenue. It was obvious they'd be eating into the sales of the iPhone 8, however selling 30m iPhone X's at a 43% premium, the maths work out and it's a success combined with, as you pointed out, offering the iPhone 8 for people not willing to spring for the X, as well as the coming SE upgrade for budget conscious to enter the Apple ecosystem. Apple experimented with their anniversary phone, yielded extra revenue and profit, brought in high conversion rates of Android to iPhone in certain countries, and have a blueprint to work from, as they said, their phone for the future. www.statista.com/statistics/263401/global-apple-iphone-sales-since-3rd-quarter-2007/ www.kantarworldpanel.com/global/News/Stellar-iPhone-X-performance-in-GB-China--Japan It's (obviously) in every companies best interest to retain their customer base, however, it's not about boxing in the ecosystem, it's about maintaining the formula that has kept customers from leaving. For Apple, this is providing stellar function and interaction between its products, building that singularity and enhancing that ecosystem. It's no surprise that the HomePod, without an iOS device, is a mediocre smart assistant, that's because rather than being a generic superb Bluetooth speaker, it's dipping into the market that possesses 50% of smartphone market share and hitting two birds with one stone, giving iOS users the Home device they want in the booming smart home industry, as well being the benchmark setter for speaker quality in that footprint. It's no different to the AirPods or the Apple Watch, without iOS devices they are terrible on their own, however within their design scenario they are the industry leading devices. iPhone users do not benefit from Amazon Alexa or Google Home anywhere near as much as Androids do, their ideal choice will be the HomePod, and with close to 50% of entire smartphone marketshare on iOS, that's more than enough funds coming in for Apple's R&D team to continue that upward trajectory across all of their products. I definitely have complaints with Siri, especially in Australia, however, I can't complain about the image or direction Apple is taking, and that is one that any of the other smartphone manufacturers would be envious of. I've also hated that Spotify has limited functionality with Siri, however having used Apple Music for the past few months now (free 6 months with Telstra) I find it just as adequate as Spotify if not better, seeing as I have a few language learning audiobooks uploaded I put on my iTunes and they have synced to my MacBook, watch and phone for access anywhere. 9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/wireless-market-share.jpg?quality=82&strip=all&w=1000 www.asymco.com/2017/09/25/a-small-screen-ipod/ www.statista.com/statistics/266572/market-share-held-by-smartphone-platforms-in-the-united-states/ As you can see from this, iPhone/iOS has continued to grow, whilst Android based has stagnated at that 50% mark, where a bunch of companies fight for that slice of the pie. At the end of the day, competition is good, but on a macro level Android companies individually are hardly competing with Apple. Samsung can stick to their guerilla marketing tactics against Apple, but what companies such as Google have realised is that the actual success in converting and winning over more customers has moved on from just the individual products, it's the entire ecosystem you are buying in to. Simply having a little bit more RAM in your phone etc, a slightly better camera, aren't enough anymore to be a game changer, it's all software and user experience and what they have to offer. Great series btw, I thoroughly enjoyed watching, maybe put time-stamps in your description for when you switch topics, and yea, get a tripod etc haha, don't restrict yourself from banging the desk!

Love that more and more people are vlogging their business careers! informative

Nuheara IQbuds are doing a great job for a company that was a crowdfunded start up 18 months ago. They're now in almost 2000 retail stores globally, as well as online through Amazon and Best Buy. I think they're still the only crowd funded company that is listed on the ASX. Major competitors in this market segment have fallen over or vanished - eg. Doppler Labs, Kanoa - yet this little Aussie company is going gangbusters. The product itself is excellent and is awesome in a variety of situations, whether that be office, gym, commute, plane, or pub