Apple’s disappointing second quarter earnings – including the first-ever drop in sales for the iPhone – sent the company’s stock tumbling for eight consecutive trading sessions. It was the first such drop since 1998 and, coupled with comments by activist investor Carl Icahn that he has, it accelerated worries about how Apple will deliver the strong future growth that investors have come to expect. Coming off more than a decade of blockbuster products, Apple – the most valuable company in the world based on market capitalization — has become so large that Wharton experts say it is now confronting the law of large numbers, which suggests that its high earnings and growth in share price will eventually slow. At this point, what Apple needs is its next iPhone – but Wharton experts caution that it will take more than moonshots to cement robust future growth for the company. Moreover, it’s unlikely that the company can come up with a new hit product that will rapidly improve sales immediately. In the meantime, the iPhone is coming off a strong upgrade cycle, the iPad has lost momentum, and the Apple Watch, hasn’t moved the needle as significantly as many past new products.

“No company can grow forever. Apple has had an extraordinary run, and it’s still a phenomenally successful company,” says, a legal studies and business ethics professor at Wharton. “Few companies in history have ever had a product as successful as the iPhone, so it’s a bit much to expect that Apple find a second one.” An Expectations Problem? Apple’s sales for the fiscal year ending Sept 30, 2015, were $233.7 billion, up from $182.8 billion in fiscal 2014. By contrast, in fiscal 2011, Apple sales were $108.2 billion, which was up from $36.54 billion in fiscal 2009.

Wall Street is expecting Apple to grow revenue by under 4% in fiscal 2016, compared with a 28% revenue expansion in the last fiscal year,. While the smartphone market globally may be hitting the saturation point, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that the iPhone, which accounts for 65% of the company’s revenue, can still take share from Android users and grow globally. Though the earnings announcement was disappointing in the face of past successes, Apple is hardly hurting: Second quarter net income was $10.5 billion on revenue of $50.6 billion. A year ago, Apple reported second quarter earnings of $13.6 billion on revenue of $58 billion. Cook said that Apple’s iPhone business is still strong. “From an upgrade perspective, during the first half of this year, the upgrade rate for the iPhone 6s cycle has been slightly higher than what we experienced in the iPhone 5s cycle two years ago, but it is lower than the accelerated upgrade rate we saw with iPhone 6, which as you know, was a big contributor to our phenomenal revenue growth a year ago,” said Cook on the April 26 call. “We continued to see a very high level of customers switching to iPhone from Android and other operating systems.

In fact, we added more switchers from Android and other platforms in the first half of this year than any other six-month period ever.” Nevertheless, analysts are anxious about what Apple has in the iPhone pipeline in the future. “There was massive pent up demand for larger screens. This led to the mother of all upgrades when the iPhone 6 was released,” explained Macquarie analyst Ben Schachter in a research note. “We don’t think this is anything structural and will be solved by time. However, a second issue is a more significant concern.

We believe that the lack of new ‘must have’ innovative features will lengthen the upgrade cycle. If iPhone 7 doesn’t surprise with meaningful new useful features, we worry that consumers won’t upgrade.” “No company can grow forever. Apple has had an extraordinary run, and it’s still a phenomenally successful company.” –Kevin Werbach In other words, the smartphone market is starting to look more like the PC industry, where there is little to differentiate different companies’ product lines and customers stretch the lifespans of their systems for longer than vendors would like. “The market is gradually shifting from smartphone introduction to smartphones on a replacement cycle,” says Werbach.

“That’s simply not going to be as dynamic a market opportunity, although it will still be a very good one. Microsoft is still doing fine after personal computers shifted from a rapid growth market to one based on replacement, although it’s not the rocket ship it once was.” But it’s clear that Apple’s once-hot product line is cooling., Apple’s iPhone revenue was down 18%, iPad revenue fell 19% and Mac revenue fell 9%.

On the bright side, Apple’s services category (which includes Apple Music and iCloud subscriptions, software sales and App and iTunes store revenue) was up 20% to $5.99 billion in the second quarter. Apple’s “Other Products” category, which includes Apple Watch, Apple TV and, increased 30% to $2.19 billion. “The next two to three quarters will be critical for Apple because there’s a problem of expectations for both the iPad and iPhone,” says Saikat Chaudhuri, an adjunct professor of management at Wharton and executive director of the school’s. “There’s a natural maturation process, and Apple is big and slowing down.” ‘One Great Innovation Can Last for a Decade’, a management professor at Wharton, says that Apple’s conundrum isn’t unique. Many companies such as Microsoft and IBM have developed new technologies to grow quickly, but then are forced to reinvent their businesses.

“One great innovation can last for a decade,” explains Hsu. “But the broader issue is that the smartphone category has matured and many people have multiple devices. It’s hard to sustain the iPhone growth and create new products because Apple is following up the most popular product in history.

“There’s no doomsday picture here,” adds Hsu. “But the iPhone peak may have already passed.” Indeed, Apple projected further deceleration in sales as third quarter revenue is expected to be $41 billion to $43 billion. Average selling prices will also fall due to the launch of the iPhone SE, a 4-inch phone device that’s less expensive and aimed at emerging markets. “It is becoming clear that Apple has a significant iPhone growth problem on its hands,” said Neil Cybart, a former Wall Street analyst who follows the company via his subscription. “The combination of a slowing iPhone upgrade rate and declining number of growth catalysts for expanding the iPhone’s addressable market will make it very difficult for management to report unit sales growth going forward given its current strategy.” However, a marketing professor at Wharton, isn’t worried about Apple. “Customers are more in love with Apple than ever before.

I’d be worried if Apple customers were switching to Android and Mac users were going to Windows,” says Fader. “There has been crazy growth, but Apple still has health and stability. Maybe Apple doesn’t have to swing for the fences.” “The next two to three quarters will be critical for Apple because there’s a problem of expectations for both the iPad and iPhone.” –Saikat Chaudhuri After all, Fader adds, Apple’s greatest asset is its loyal customers. “The customer base is much more important to cash flow in the future,” says Fader, who notes that Apple will have to monetize its customer base better through cloud services and subscriptions. Hits and Misses One factor behind Wall Street’s concerns about Apple is the realization that there may not be another iPhone-like hit that can drive the company’s growth in the future. For years, rumors have surfaced about Apple getting into televisions and even automobiles.

The Apple Watch is a new product line with potential, but it hasn’t approached the sales levels of the iPhone or iPad. “If Apple came up with a new product it may help,” says Chaudhuri.

“Apple needs something new because rolling out next-generation products like the iPhone or iPad only carries the company so far.” Reports of an Apple car have been rampant. Apple’s entry into the auto industry could prove significant, but at the expense of profit margins. For instance, while Ford had 2015 annual sales of $140.56 billion, the company’s net profit margin is projected to be 5.6% this year compared to Apple’s estimated projected 21% for fiscal 2016. “It is not easy to become an automaker. I don’t know why Apple would take those profit margins,” says Chaudhuri.

Werbach agrees that Apple shouldn’t fall into the trap of producing commodity hardware whether it’s a new category or the iPhone. “Apple’s key challenge is to preserve its premium brand value when it comes to hardware. People pay more for Apple hardware, even in markets where everyone else faces commodity margins. It gives them a unique advantage,” Werbach says. “If that goes away, Apple is unlikely to be able to differentiate enough on software and services to maintain its margins.” Fader says Apple needs to be careful about focusing on hit products as a way to drive sales. “Apple is going to have to be about running the business better than creating a ‘wow’ moment all the time,” says Fader. “How much of Apple’s future revenue is going to be product sales vs.

The product upgrade approach is working for Apple, but the value is in all the stuff surrounding the hardware.” While chasing an automobile could be in Apple’s future, Fader says the company shouldn’t seriously consider the market for “10 to 15 years” — but it’s fine to have “a toe in the water.” “Customers are more in love with Apple than ever before.” –Peter Fader Chaudhuri says that Apple can still develop hardware hits, but it will have to look to new markets. For instance, he argues that Apple’s partnership with IBM to develop corporate apps highlights how the company is aiming to target the business-to-business market. In addition, Apple could be more of a player in the Internet of Things, networks of sensors that are. “Apple could play a role in telematics to even how automation is run,” says Chaudhuri.

“There are other areas to exploit.” One way that Apple could develop new products and markets is through acquisition. To date, Apple has bought companies that can be easily integrated into its products, such as its 2014 purchase of Beats Electronics for $3 billion, which included the popular line of headphones, an audio hardware business and a streaming music service. Fader says Apple could acquire big brands in the future and fold them into the Apple culture.

Maybe Apple even buys Tesla, he adds, which is one of the few startups in the auto industry to seriously challenge industry incumbents. According to Hsu, the larger question is about Apple’s ability to develop new products through its own research and development. “Apple will still play a big role, but it’s more about design for the company. Apple is more of a visionary, but doesn’t have a R&D heritage,” says Hsu. “Apple’s role has been to redesign existing categories.” Beyond the Balance Sheet Given the pressure facing Apple, it’s not surprising that Cook has emphasized services and subscriptions for the last two quarters.

“We feel really great about the early success of Apple’s first subscription business, and our music revenue has now hit an inflection point after many quarters of decline,” said Cook during the earnings call. He noted that App Store revenue was up 35% in the second quarter. “One billion-plus active devices are a source of recurring revenue that is growing independent of the unit shipments we report every three months.” While Apple searches for its next category to tackle, Fader says the company needs to focus more on selling services to its installed base of customers. “Apple’s most golden asset is the one that isn’t on the balance sheet.” –Peter Fader To Fader, Apple’s growth conundrum is analogous to software companies that have to transition from business models that revolve around licensing to one focused on subscriptions and cloud services.

The difference for Apple is that its growth to date has been mostly about hardware. “Apple will have to move from selling things to retaining customers and selling services and subscriptions,” says Fader. Chaudhuri agrees with Fader, but has doubts about Apple’s ability to be a leader in services. “I don’t think Apple has it in its DNA to be a strong services provider,” he says. Fader says there is historical precedent for a company to transition to a new model. Adobe Systems was among the first companies to transition to cloud services, he notes, and Starbucks refocused on customer experience, easing transactions and then selling its customer base more products through a loyalty program and apps.

“Starbucks also used to be about selling a product, but realized that the competition caught up,” says Fader. “Now it’s about a customer base, experience and related things to monetize.” Apple still has work to do, according to Fader.

“Apple isn’t No. 1 in any cloud category,” he notes. “For instance, Apple Music has a user experience comparable to Spotify, but it can’t sell services without a shiny new object to attract customers.” The challenge for Apple is that it doesn’t have the analytics or customer knowledge that rivals like Amazon or Netflix have. “Apple has been and predictive analytics behind the scenes,” says Fader.

“The key to victory will be valuing the customer base.” Apple should study Starbucks, says Fader. “Because of data and analytics, Starbucks has made it very easy to order more coffee,” he points out. Ultimately, Apple has to see its customer base as its primary asset much like Amazon does. “Apple’s most golden asset is the one that isn’t on the balance sheet,” says Fader. For Personal use: Please use the following citations to quote for personal use: MLA 'Why Apple Must Move Beyond the ‘Wow’ Moment.'

The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 06 May, 2016. 03 December, 2018 APA Why Apple Must Move Beyond the ‘Wow’ Moment. Knowledge@Wharton (2016, May 06).

Retrieved from Chicago 'Why Apple Must Move Beyond the ‘Wow’ Moment' Knowledge@Wharton, May 06, 2016, accessed December 03, 2018. For Educational/Business use: Please contact us for repurposing articles, podcasts, or videos using our. Additional Reading. Technology From the burning of wood and coal to nuclear power, developing energy sources has sparked societal advancement. But energy transitions take a long time, as we are learning with solar and wind power, notes a new book.

Management Falling demand for sedans and a determination to be prepared for a mainstream transition to electric and autonomous vehicles drove GM’s cost-cutting plan, say experts. Sponsored Content Philadelphia’s Office of Innovation and Technology is creating a roadmap to ensure the long-term coordination of its wide-ranging projects. Anonymous Apple’s path to growth is through privacy.

Google’s primary business model is collecting information on its users and selling it to marketers. Customers are becoming more and more aware of the risks and nuisance they endure with this model.

Aside from fighting in court for customer privacy, which has been nice to watch, Apple has begun to note that it provides a more secure data environment for those of us using its products. This is going to be an increasingly salient marketing point, and it strongly differentiates them from their chief rival.

Earlier this year I had mentioned that I had been blogging on Watts Up With That for over 10 years straight. Because of that I felt the need to take a sabbatical this summer, and I asked readers for.

Many, many, people generously responded with offers of help, offers of visits and lodging, and many other things. I’m eternally grateful to all those who have stepped up to help to keep this website running during my absence, as well as those who made my rest and relaxation possible. We added a crop of new moderators who have kept comments flowing, and I thank you for what is essentially a thankless job.

I want to give particular thanks to our own Charles the Moderator a.k.a. CTM, who has kept WUWT populated with stories while I took some much needed rest. I also want to give thanks to the many guest authors who have contributed stories and to our regular authors Eric Worrall and David Middleton who have regularly published stories here. If I’ve missed anyone, it’s not intentional.

Those of you that have been watching closely have noted that I have published a few stories this summer (when the mood struck me) as well as recently a series of stories for hurricanes Harvey and Irma, I also outlined the watching the total solar eclipse. I have to tell you that was truly the experience of a lifetime. As of yesterday (Monday 10/2) I’m officially back and I feel good. I’m recharged and I have some fresh ideas that you’ll see taking place here on a regular basis. I also have a book in the works and another new project which I will outline at a future date that holds promise for putting climate modeling and climate modelers feet to the fire.Details on that will be forthcoming in a future post. Amazon Deal: In the short term I’d like to ask our readers to take a moment to look at the sidebar and the advertisement for the.

This is an invention marketing of our own Charles the moderator, and I’m running this ad as a favor to him in thanks for all he has done. If readers have a need for such a device I urge you to take a moment and purchase it. He also has a very special chocolate that prevents gastrointestinal distress for people that are sensitive to certain types of sugars. Some of the things that you’ll see in the coming weeks:.

Some site reorganization – for example some of the reference pages are getting a bit stale due to broken links, I will be working on those. A new front page format – the current format does not keep stories front and center very long and as a result useful conversations often get pushed out of sight. A good example is the which has scrolled off the main page after just two days. In-line ads from Amazon.com – (an example is above) these will be fairly unobtrusive and will link to deals of the day and lightning deals, and of course things like. Roy Spencer’s recent success in publishing two eBooks on Climate and Hurricanes owe their success in no small part to WUWT readers. This is a no-additional-cost way for readers to support WUWT, as it nets small percentage of each Amazon purchase. Regular features will return – such as “quote of the week” and “climate craziness of the week” plus some new features.

Comment submission improvement – some comments end up flagged that should not be, some tuning is needed to keep the flow going while weeding out junk comments or comments that violate site policy Of course, I’m open to suggestions any of you might have for making WUWT better and more effective. Leave a comment if you have an idea. Again, my sincere thanks to everyone for all of your help, let’s make the next 10 years is even better! George: Keep in mind that that your family may actually be whispering, so as not to disturb you. My Father was quite deaf in his later years.

Some was age related, most of the real damage to his hearing occurred during his Navy service. In any case, my family got it into their minds that my hearing was similarly and seriously affected. To the point where they scheduled me a visit with the hearing doctor. I insisted that my wife also get her hearing checked. I did lose the ability to hear the highest frequencies.

But very little hearing degradation over the rest of the frequency spectrum. Which does explain why certain electronic gizmos beeping fail to bother me; e.g.

The battery charger signaling a full battery. But the rest of my hearing was in excellent shape. Turns out my wife’s hearing has degraded across the normal frequency spectrum and her hearing is slightly impaired. Spouse and kids have not mentioned my hearing since. I do not mention my wife’s hearing, ever!

I already know her opinion regarding ‘her’ ever wearing a hearing aid; so, I’m not going there. Best of luck with your hearing, George. I actually have a 33 1/3 RPM LP disk which has a 20 kHz sine wave recorded on it.

And when I bought it, I could actually hear that tone. I some how doubt that I can hear much above ten kHz any more. I guess I should get that out and play it. My best LPs still sound better than my CDs.

There are several recordings, where I have a /CD version re-mastered from the same tapes used to make the original LP version. And yes the LP version sounds better (no quantization noise). And a pipe organ still sounds like a pipe organ, both highs and lows.

My stereo system has real speakers; that CAN reproduce a 32 foot Organ pipe; unlike those Bose two inch cube sub contra bass woofers, and can do it with about 4Watts of Amplifier power. But I do have a problem hearing speech either on TV, but not on the radio.

Clear diction seems to be the distinction. Not to belittle the sterling efforts of Charles the Mod. On here, but his “Q-Lav” is nothing new is it? Sorry Charles, old bean, but You did not invent this. Actually a search for the “Q-Lav at Amazon turned up the vendor page which lists many alternative devices, some of them at less than 25% of the price you ask. It serves the same function as this or even this,many others Research is the thing surely, before committing oneself to any recommendations, or even the expense of producing and “inventing” a thing, which already exists in profusion in the marketplace. I am sorry Charles, but this isn’t going to make you millions, or even fund your expenses.

Better luck next time, and research is the key. Haha yes, ATheok, but coconut shells a bit hard to squeeze though, and I liked your piece about Ronnie Burthe, and the “Anger”.

– reminded me of someone from my own past 😆 but why are mostly all of these portable bidet things colored blue? This Google image search shows a great variety of devices, and whilst CTM’s large capacity Q-Lav might be handy in a home bathroom situation, it is reportedly quite heavy when full, and indeed fairly bulky for the camper/hiker. I quite liked the look of the very small nozzle attachments for ordinary drinking water bottles, as these could even fit in a jacket pocket perhaps. And Aphan, don’t get the wrong end of the stick, though I’ve no idea what you are about, since the blog you link to in your moniker, is marked as private and unviewable.

I’m sure that CTM finds his device personally useful, but I disagree with Charles’ assertion that his is “The Best Portable Bidet on the Market”. Maybe though, Al Gore would find it’s larger capacity most useful for washing all the cr.p away that emanates from that other orifice of his which is above his waist level? Why not actually send him a complimentary example, with full instructions of course. 😉 What’s wrong with the good old personal xylospongium, like the Romans used?

That’s my preference anyway, but no vinegar please!!! Note: On couple of occasions we discussed here detection of the gravitational waves generated by colliding black holes as observed by LIGO – Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. “STOCKHOLM/LONDON (Reuters) – Three U.S.

Scientists won the 2017 Nobel prize for physics on Tuesday for opening up a new era of astronomy by detecting gravitational waves, ripples in space and time as foreseen by Albert Einstein a century ago. The work of Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish and Kip Thorne crowned half a century of experimental efforts by scientists and engineers.” Congratulations to the laureates, not forgetting the rest of engineers who designed built and maintained the facility. Scientists won the 2017 Nobel prize for physics on Tuesday for opening up a new era of astronomy by detecting gravitational waves, ripples in space and time as foreseen by Albert Einstein a century ago.” A new era of astronomy sounds just like what they are creating. Very exciting! Black holes merging with other black holes and neutron stars, and revealing the secrets of the universe in the process, with these new gravity wave detectors.

Welcome back, Anthony. The people you put in charge in your absence did a very good job. Thanks to all of you for the most interesting website on the internet. I’m not competent to comment on the three named individuals: (I believe three individuals is the max allowed), but the selection of the observation of Einsteinian Waves is certainly an achievement worthy of the Nobel Physics Prize. Perhaps one of the most important of recent years. So as ” Particle Physics ” bows out; exit stage left, with Higgs Boson in hand, Gravitational Waves makes its appearance, to start a new era. Just think about it; the ONLY emanations from the Physical Universe that can convey information of potential use to us (or just of interest) are Electromagnetic Radiation, and Gravitational Waves, those involving the only two infinite range forces we know of; the Coulomb Force (which blows) and the Gravitational Force (which sucks).

2017 is a year to mark on your calendar. It’s good to have you back. I have one suggestion for the good of the blog. I get turned off by inappropriate attack comments directed at some of the mainstream (i.e. Consensus or pro-agw) commenters. IMHO, some of the very best comments come from guys like Nick Stokes and Steven Mosher.

Much more often than not, their comments are met by outright hostility. From time to time hostility may be what is deserved, but not very often.

I don’t think many people here want this blog to become an echo chamber, but the best way to achieve that status is to continuously berate contrarian commenters. For one thing, this behavior is rude and uncivil. And another thing is that it lowers the quality of the discussion in attacking the commenter rather than challenging the statement.

Some may say that the commenter is asking for it because of something he/she said some time ago, or some other equally fallacious reason. I say that, even if there’s something to that, there’s a time to move on and try to treat people with respect. If people do not respond in kind, then I guess you try something else. But most of us know what is gratuitously hostile and will make a good faith attempt to respond graciously. One of the problems with blogging is that anonymity often breeds lack of accountability. We feel we can say any old thing to people we never meet. I’ve done this myself but I’m trying to do better.

Ivankinsman and Griff are perhaps the least objectionable warmist regulars we’ve had here since 2009 (when I started following the site), but are treated more harshly than their predecessors. Their comments shouldn’t be taken too personally—they are repeating the standard warmist “line”.

This gives us an opportunity to rebut it that we wouldn’t otherwise have. To impress persons not yet on our side, we should not try to shout down such comments, but provide links to rebuttals, or anyway to at least summarize such rebuttals.

Also, we should concede a point when they are right. “Nick Stokes/ Steve Mosher” Really? “In this post I take down the second part of Nick Stokes idiotic claim: “Steven Goddard produces these plots, and they seem to circulate endlessly, with no attempt at fact-checking, or even sourcing.

I try, but it’s wearing. My source code has been out there for years. Nick has no excuse for his ignorance” “The source code is ghcn.py. Nick can see exactly how the calculations are done. They are a simple numerical average of the USHCN monthly final minus the numerical average of the monthly raw temperatures, per year.

Math doesn’t get any simpler than that. A third grader should be able to understand” “Nick has no excuses for his ignorance or his ongoing attempts to misinform the public. Next time he or Mosher claim my work is not reproducible, tell them that they would need at least third grade math skills to accomplish that”. “Really?” And your evidence is that something I said has pushed Tony Heller into his usual incoherent ranting. Just look at two items in that. I said that people circulate these graphs with no attempt at fact-checking. So his response is that he posts code, and so I am ignorant.

But the point would then be, do those who circulate the graphs ever run Heller’s code? I’m betting no-one does. And as for this ” They are a simple numerical average of the USHCN monthly final minus the numerical average of the monthly raw temperatures, per year. Math doesn’t get any simpler than that. A third grader should be able to understand” It’s simple, and just wrong.

There were (USHCN has been for years) 1218 stations in the final set. There were a varying number, usually somewhere around 900, in the raw set. He subtracts the average absolute temperatures, and says the result is due to adjustment. But they are different sets. The 900 raw stations may just, on average, be warmer or cooler places than the 1218 final.

Wow Many Thanks Spencer Pernikoff For Macbook Pro

If there is inhomogeneity (lat, altitude etc) you either have to use the same set, or carefully correct for the difference. Else you get things like the. It is clear Nick never read Tony’s posts about you, since you said several things completely wrong about what Tony actually said. You also are avoiding his criticism posts about you,not a single post from you there. Meanwhile that “Goddard spike” blog post, has Tony thanking them for pointing it out: ” stevengoddard May 10, 2014 at 7:59 am Anthony, Thanks for the explanation of what caused the spike. The simplest approach of averaging all final minus all raw per year which I took shows the average adjustment per station year. More likely the adjustments should go the other direction due to UHI, which has been measured by the NWS as 8F in Phoenix and 4F in NYC.” How come YOU left this part out?

You are destroying your credibility every time you do that. Dear Anthony, A suggestion (written publicly to hopefully get some affirming or negating comments to give you an idea of whether this is “just Janice’s thing” or not): WUWT has improved over the course of 10 years in many ways, but in one way it has deteriorated over the past 2 years or so. The bricks of the site are still present (though there seem to be an awful lot of squishy, too-much-lukewarm-water-in-the-mixture, ones this year. (ahem)), i.e., lots of good science articles. There is, nevertheless, something missing. That something is you. WUWT was a great website when your warm, witty, generous, personality shone throughout its pages.

WUWT is still a good website, but, I wish it were GREAT again (smile). We enthusiastically contributed to send our shining star to the AGW (I mistype that all the time — and left it this time, lololol) meeting last December, eagerly looking forward to a few “our man in the street” reports or, at least, a summary. We never heard how your paper presentation went. We never heard anything about that conference at all.

You had your reasons. Then, this summer, you went on a well-deserved, lovely, sabbatical, again enthusiastically supported by us WUWTers.

While you thanked us nicely, there was no fun journaling/summary of “My Summer Vacation” — as you did when you travelled to Australia years ago, “Gosh, I’m zorched, living a life out of a suitcase on the yellow brick road in Oz. Two presentations today, flying, driving, walking, running. It’s a whirlwind tour. All my travel photos are taken from car windows, airline windows, airports, or at weather stations.

First, Emerald, Queensland I felt right at home ( ) The mortar that holds the bricks of WUWT together, making it not “just a pile of nice bricks,” but a lovely structure, a shelter, a place where people enjoy sitting down and talking awhile is the warmth and courtesy provided by sharing yourself in articles like this: “ I love trains, they’ve been a part of my family for nearly 100 years. My grandfather made steam locomotives and my dad created a steam train ride.” ( ) Okay.

I think you get the idea. WUWT will continue to be a good site (if the bulk of the articles don’t slip and slide any farther down the muddy slope of the lukewarm swamp (AHEM! If you want it to be GREAT, however, you’ll have to put “you” back into it. The “human interest” element is missing, now. It will (likely has) cost you readers. And you may just think that’s just fine!

Just my two cents (and something I’ve been thinking about for many months, now). Your WUWT friend, Janice. I’d have to agree, the content has, since Anthony has been away, been okay and appreciated but, in my opinion, has been too opinion led. It has had more the feel of some of our warmist friends sites without the scientific rigor that I expect in WUWT. As a consequence I’ve found myself less inclined to read the articles or to skim read, whereas before I would sit myself down with a nice cup of tea and see how many articles, with comments, I could get through! Great to have you back and no disrespect meant to any of the contributors!

Anthony, welcome back. After your well deserved rest from blogging and opportunity for reflection, I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on the whole global warming/climate change story. You have seen countless claims, lies and arguments in all sorts of directions over many years. What do you conclude or take away from that experience?

What are your words of wisdom, conclusions, predictions and recommendations? I would be fascinated by that and I know you would be quite forceful in your comments. However, I realise that this site also tries to be even handed and offers a forum for most, if not all, points of view. What I am suggesting may be counter productive. You may not wish to proceed in that direction. If I were in your position I would have to think seriously about the suggestion. Nevertheless, it would be interesting for your audience and perhaps for you, too but I respect your judgement on this.

Keep up the good work. A few months (or years) back you stated a desire to create a reference section with products from the USA Climate Reference Network.

I had the same idea and went ahead and created a set of products available here: For instance, here is the Sept 2017 summary for the entire USA48 domain using all 114 sites: You will see the USA48 domain averaged +0.1 F above “normal” for the month of Sept 2017. Anthony, if you are interested in collaborating on this, let me know.

Thanks for all you have done these past 10 years. In this moment I am literally ecstatic.

Anthony is back AND there are MORE ADVERTS. And as a bonus there is an opportunity for my bottom to be cleaner than ever (thanks ctm – sorry to hear them on the other side calling you WUWTs resident asshole expert, a trifle rude I reckon but whether better or worse than “den1er” may be debateable). QLav bears a remarkable similarity to a piece of kit we had in the labs in the 1980’s which was used by the lab tec’s to clean the test tubes and flasks, usually with IPA. We called it the squeegy bottle.

Good luck with it, Charles, I gotta support invention. Anthony – Looking forward to seeing the new tweaks to the site and your own posts. There is rarely a day I don’t look at WUWT and feel I must say something. The readership here is certainly a broad church. My only suggestion is that you open up the discussions to consideration of alternative theories (e.g. We promise to talk about them nicely and not be rude to one another (honest). Werner I do not understand your objection to the idea.if your are posting as an author you have edit rights to all comments on your post — you will see the little link “edit” to the right of each comments header line.

You could, if you wished, edit content of those comments such as bleep strike through, snip offending portions, or vanish the comments and leave an explanation as to why it was deleted. If you are being posted as a guest, you will not see “edit” next to each CommenterName Date Time heading to comments. I only very rarely am forced to snip out part of a comment — and only do so when there are gross and blatant violations of WUWT policy.

I ignore simple bad manners and ill-humor — but do not allow things like calling people Nazis or vague threats of violence against persons. An occasional enforcement of the very clear policy to be collegial, civil, and constructive keeps the comment section cleaner and tends to weed out those who only wish to tear down others. If you author here, you are responsible for the comments section under your post — responsible for your own civil interaction with commenters and in some small way, policing the comments. It is unfair to post and then expect someone else to handle the responses for you. Werner I agree with you, even to the detail you mention.

However, I also apply Anthony’s standard of letting people be as they are, much as I would in public or while attending a public function. Even when offended by the sloppy and profane speech of others, I do not correct them in public — if the offense continues, I turn and walk away and speak with others.

Only if another gets so far out of line that they have violated public norms might I speak out to correct them. I’m sure you have your own way of coping with the lack of civility and the rising tide of profanity — it doesn’t mean we approve but, like supervising children on a playground, we only correct the worst of the behaviors. I hope this helps.

Great to have you back Anthony. Without the monumental work you have carried out for the last decade and more there would be a chasm of unfilled knowledge about the tripe purporting to be science. Armed with facts read from your blog I recently tried to have a conversation about the flawed computer modelled science of climate with a lecturer from a Carolinan university. Within fifteen minutes of him deflecting ad nauseum he started emotionalising on how we only have a few short years left to rate the planet for our grandchildren. It started out and ended being very cordial but he simply closed the conversation down when he knew i knew my facts and that i was respectfully not going to accept his deflections. Anthony, Like others, my continued best wishes to you and I look forward to the upgrades to WUWT. I usually cringe when you say upgrades but they always turn out well.

Welcome back! Charles did a magnificent job with everyone’s favorite web site! Interesting finds — he kept things moving and fresh. And the guest bloggers held our interest and quenched our infinite thirst for all things brain-expanding. Most of us are here I suspect because we love to learn and we learn from the posts and the comments as well. There’s nothing better! Thanks to everyone for making WUWT the special place it is!

Anthony, you’ve helped each and every one of us. When the world was irrationally waving their hands, predicting disaster after disaster without substantive evidence or rational explanations; you gave us a home. An honorable, clean, organized home as reasonably swept clean of trolls, trollops, adolescent internet bullies, egocentric CAGW devotees, etc. Truthfully, you kept published articles and following comments far cleaner than is possible in any other venue. In spite of tremendous growth and international reach, you keep WUWT remarkably clean and sane. As you’ve helped me and us, it was extremely easy to help you. Let us know when you need another break, gear, trip to conference, whatever.

Side note: While your replacements did not, can not replace Anthony at WUWT helm. Your replacements kept WUWT publishing, expanding and keeping us silly fans quite busy. Their articles were not nor could be Anthony’s articles.

That does not make any of the articles bad, just different; or in a few cases “tongue-in-cheek” or “half-baked”. Those articles were/are enjoyed by us all! We did miss Anthony, “at the helm”.

Kudos to CTM, David Middleton, Eric Worrall, Willis, Kip, Andy and the rest of the writers for their efforts! May WUWT enjoy such wealth of moderators and authors for years to come!

Thank you Anthony, CTM, Eric, David, Willis et al! Yes, welcome back Anthony.

I think you put your foot in it ever so slightly by saying you were back so soon! I have to agree with Janice: all those who so ably supported the site in your absence just weren’t you. What was missing was the atmospheric—I doubt it can be canned, at least I hope it can’t— Essence of Anthony™ Now you are going to have to tell us a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l about your vacation! Don’t be shy. 🙂 ) Take as many articles as you like, and spread them out a bit, pace them gently, but not too much coz we wanna know!. Thanks to everyone while you were on holiday.

We can all thank you for your excellent instincts throughout the spectacular growth of your blog. So glad you took the time to step back for a good look from a distance. Clarity of the whole does not come easy when you are too close. I watched the eclipse not far from where you did and I found that it gave gave me perspective and a sense of awe that few other things have.

Perhaps it did this for you also. It seems to me that great leaders know when to step Into the fray and when to let others do their best. Best of luck to you and thank you. Welcome home Mr. You’ve built a sanctuary for free thinking and learning, a sheltered haven from the BS(bad science). And if you think about it, even though you were away this site is still churning and alive, you’ve created a monster of a blog!

A award winning science blog. An anomaly in the either net, something to be very proud of. Relinquishing some of the daily duties from this experience means you can direct your attention towards more important endeavours with WUWT or other projects.

This monster can’t be killed! All respect, Lance A Lamont. Anthony, welcome back. You ask for suggestions any of you might have for making WUWT better and more effective. My suggestion to make WUWT better is that you come back on a PART-TIME basis. This pinche blog can swallow a man whole and not even burp. We’ve proven that the blog can run without your participation.

Surely it can run with you on a half-time basis. My strong suggestion is that in your mind you FIRST set aside some goodly chunk of your non-working time, hopefully half, for your kids, your family, your other interests, your kids, your book, your friends, your kids, and all of the rest of your life. Then devote the rest to WUWT.

Whatever is left will be plenty. Best regards to you and yours, glad to hear that you are doing so well, w. Welcome back. I am a very frequent reader who reads lots but never felt the urge to contribute. My plea (not so much to Anthony as to the general readership) going forward is to have fewer and less polarizing comments pop up. It’s ok to agree to disagree!! The balanced scientific debate we all cherish will not be achieved by divisive comments and caustic personal attacks.

I would be happy to see these moderated out! WUWT will not be taken fully seriously with ill-tempered and ill-timed shouting matches. Keeping the moral high ground pays off, even when you feel your opponent does not. Keep up the great work! On the eclipse: yes, it was impressive. From home it wasn’t 100%.

But sitting on the deck seemed a better idea than fighting the traffic and looking for a viewing area a few miles south. For anyone interested, I have a video which combines two views, one of the sun, and the other a view looking south over the track of the shadow taken from my drone we are at 550′, so with a couple of hundred extra, the view is pretty good, you can see the light on the other side of the shadow. Anyway, if you are interested.