Crab Apples

Much bytes have been devoted here to Apple's woes of late. And to whether, or not, these woes have any macro implications. Evidence is mounting that there are.

About a year ago, some opined that prepaids are cheaper, but:

Prepaid phone plans, where you pay the full price for a cellphone and then pay lower monthly rates without a contract, seem to offer what most budget-conscious people want. So why haven't they really caught on?

So, today we find that the tide has turned.

NPD said 32% of smartphone units moved in the quarter were prepaid, up from 21% in Q1 of last year.

Thousands of dollars a year to make phone calls? Of course not. These smartphones do much more, but that more can, generously, be characterized as self-distraction. Do people addicted to Angry Birds have a life beyond their particular version of self-abuse? Apple's (and what passes for tech these days) problem is that it has, with purpose, steered away from productive tech to entertainment. Toys. Mattel knows how to do that on a continuing basis. Apple hasn't shown that it can create a new toy from scratch. Google Glass may be worthless as a productive widget, or even as an entertaining toy, but it was created from scratch. Steve never did that.