After a historic run as the innovation, value-added (in terms of market capitalization), and image leader, Apple has now hit a bump in the road — or is it a crater? What do YOU think is next for Apple?
Will Apple be able to recapture its recent glory or will it become more “ordinary” in its product offerings? This is, after all, the company that has given us the revolutionary iTunes, iPods, iPhones, and iPads; the jury is still out on the Apple phone. Here are some observations about Apple.
According to Bloomberg News, via Advertising Age [Note: These comments appeared on April 25, prior to Apple’s most recent quarterly financial report.]:
“The world’s most valuable company forecast in January that revenue would drop for the first time in more than a decade as iPhone sales slow. Analysts will probably be reassured by a sales decline that doesn’t outstrip Apple’s projections for the quarter that ended in March.”
“Apple’s stock has fallen 18% in the past 12 months amid mounting investor concern that customers are upgrading their phones less regularly. That could mean that demand for iPhones, which accounted last quarter for two-thirds of Apple’s revenue, has peaked. The company’s introduction last month of the lower cost iPhone SE was partly seen as an effort to secure new customers in countries such as China or India — emerging markets where a growing middle class has a mounting appetite for status symbol consumer products.”
Click the image to read more from Advertising Age.
After Apple announced its earnings, made these observations for the New York Times:
“The technology company’s dazzling 13-year run of quarterly revenue growth [has] ended — a casualty of Apple’s already immense size, weakness in key global markets like China, and the lack of another hot product to pry open the wallets of customers. Apple said that revenue for its second fiscal quarter, which ended in March, declined 13 percent to $50.6 billion as sales of its flagship product, the iPhone, fell, with little else to take its place.”
“Nearly half of the smartphones sold in the United States are iPhones, and Apple may be reaching the saturation point among potential customers in other developed countries. Rival smartphone makers using Google’s Android operating system continue to challenge the company with powerful, less expensive devices. Over all, Apple sold 16 percent fewer iPhones in the quarter compared with the same quarter last year.”
Click the image to read more from the New York Times.
Although Apple undergoes a bit of recession recently, I don’t think this recession will influence apple a lot. There is no doubt that Apple is the most famous smartphones’ manufacture company in the world. Almost all my friends are using iPhone, iPad and macbook. Every time I pass by the Apple Store, there are lots of customers inside.
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I don’t think this bump in the road will be much of a problem for Apple. They’re always working on something new and I’m sure it’ll be a matter of time before they come up with something exciting. Unfortunately, I feel like they’ve run out of options when it comes to iPhones, iPods, and iPads since they can all do the same things and come in many variety of sizes so everyone is satisfied. It’s time for them to broaden their horizons into new categories of electronics, but it may take a little while for them to get there. However, I think that they will be able to get there and come out with something brilliant.
Even though Apple has reached a bump in their iphone sales, I don’t think it would affect the company in the long run. After all, iphone is the best-selling smartphone in the world. It might be true that people are not regularly upgrading their smartphones. In the long run, if Apple launches new product again, I’m sure that people would buy its product again. It is not likely that an iphone user would switch to Android system, as they can’t get used to the other system. And I believe that Apple is truly becoming an icon in the smartphone market.
We’ll see. 🙂
I think that this is something that Apple should take seriously. They haven’t really done anything super innovative recently and also there is no big hype for the next iPhone. Me personally, when my contract ends in fall 2016 i don’t know if I want to get the new iPhone or something else. I think that Apple has to create a thing that just changes life as we know it. I don’t know what that could be but I believe that this is the start of the decline of the Apple phone empire. Maybe not a huge crater for Apple but maybe more of a very nervous looking pothole.
It is amazing but understandable that Apple got their first loss in 2016. It will happen to every company. What makes us admiring is that Apple kept their profits in decades! It is obvious that Apple cannot attract customers like before. The new products of SE is nothing new but retrogressive. So there is no doubt that customers won’t buy this meaningless products. Apple has to find a new way to hold their market, otherwise, other company will catch this opportunity. Steve Jobs said that we will tell our customers what they need. However, this sentence may need to be change now. Individuals want more than before. They have their own thoughts. Customers are tired of Apple products now. Apple need to focus more on customer’s needs. Google always want to provide new things for this world like self-driving car. Google even wants to build a new intelligent city! It will be a hard time for Apple if they still doing the same things like old. Their miracle cannot be retake in a short time.
I don’t have such imagination to think about what Apple would happen next, but I personally a little bit disappointed about its products in recent year. When the iPod and iPad was launched, I thought they are amazing since to some extent they replaced mp3 players and computer at that time. But for iPhone, it seems there is no any innovative upgrade, just change the screen, update the chip, etc, and these are benefited by the overall technical development. In other words, although Apple a new iPhone each year, I think the new one is not value enough for rational customers.
Apple is not in a great spot no matter how you look at it. They have been the leader in technology innovation and I believe that they are finished their run. I think it’s time for us to look for the next apple.
Apple has been in a very good spot over the course of the last decade, as people love their products and are brand loyal to Apple products. This is probably because people always got a quality product that they could trust from Apple, while other competitors in the market lagged behind. But as Google took over the Android marketplace and unified the operating systems and companies like Samsung and HTC began to up the quality of their phones, Apple began to see a spike in competition. Some previous owners of Apple products might be inclined to switch to another company because Apple does not make the best smartphones on the market, like they once did.
Besides competition and users shying away from Apple, the advancement of phones as a whole has slowed down over the last several years. One of the most prominent “tech guys” on YouTube, Marques Brownlee stated in his latest video (1) that although recently we have seen less new feature on smartphones, it does not mean that there isn’t more left to add. He highlights Apple’s lackluster cameras on their phones and also discusses how dual cameras may be coming to the next generation of Apple phones.
I doubt that Apple will keep falling like they have recently. They have enough consumer interest and the right minds at the company to rebound. I expect them to do so with the upcoming holiday season.
Sources:
(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVL0ybe18yI
I don’t think that a small bump will impact Apple in the long run. They’re an established powerhouse in the technology field and they know how to market their products. Plus, they always find their way around in the news in promoting their products, especially when a new iPhone comes out. They will be fine.
I think Apple needs to come out with the great product. But Apple’s Cook believes the so-called “doom and gloom” among investors was a huge overreaction. Cook expressed confidence in Apple’s ability to grow its market in India, the third largest smartphone market in the world. While the smartphones in use so far have been primarily the low end due to economics and network capabilities up till now, Cook said he sees India like “China was maybe seven to ten years ago” and that “there’s a really great opportunity there.”
When it comes to apple one of their issues tends to be is the competition in the marketplace. There are phones, tablets, and laptops that are more cost effective and sometimes better then apple. With that people are starting to purchase those other products which is hurting their opportunity to make the most money that they can. Whether it is a new product line, or possibly lowering prices which is against what they believe in, they have to find a way to be dominant again in the marketplace.
I don’t think that this bump will create a huge problem for apple. Apple offer various different products and apple has also created a great name for them selves and people really trust the brand. I think people will always be buying apple products, and i don’t think this will really effect apple that much. The problem for apple though is that they are behind with all the latest technology compared to all the other companies. I think apple will catch up with everyone else and come out of the hole they created for themselves.
They don’t have to catch up. They need to leap head to restore the former luster. 🙂
It is always a shock to me whenever Apple’s stock falls or they’re not doing well. For that reason, I think this bump in the road will not hurt Apple. In my opinion, Apple is the largest and most well known smart phone company. Other brands try to adapt the same look for their own products. Not only iPhones but all devices are overall incredibly easy to use and are worth the money they cost. I know very few people who don’t have any Apple products let alone less than 2 devices. That is why I believe Apple will be in the running for the long run.
This bump won’t create a huge problem for apple. Apple offer various different products and people really trust the brand. No matter what, the loyal apple customers will always be buying apple products because it is very easy to use. Though some people see it priced a little too high, the quality of the product you get is worth it.
Unlike other companies Apple has competition in multiple fields (laptop, phone, tablet) and they still manage to be at the top in these sectors.
Apple will be in business for a while as they always innovate new things.
Apple needs another breakthrough product to recapture its mojo.
To be honest, most time i can’t say the differences between iPhone and iPhone X’s. Particularly i can ‘t understand why Apple lauched a iPhone SE sold at a lower price, because high-tech with a high price is a part of Apple’ image. Maybe, you can’t imagine that you just need to spend a one third of price of iPhone to get a very similar smartphone in China from XiaoMi and HuaWei. The similar shape, size, style and even features, so why people should continually purchase iPhone. In the past time, Apple for me, meaning a special attraction, thus, for now and future, whether Apple can keep providing an irresistible attraction is the key point.
There are lot of discussions about Apple after it launched iPhone SE. Some people think this product implies Apple is not innovative as it used to be. I am agree that Apple need to make some changes and launch something new to meet consumers’ expectation. With the development of Android and other systems, Apple need to take more efforts to keep the market leader position in this highly competitive industry.
In my opinion even though Apple’s revenues and iPhone upgrades seemed to drop, they will still be able to get back up and be able to sell more products. Their revenues dropped but in my opinion other countries do like the iPhone SE. Plus, Apple has created many devices that are easy to use and easily synced through the iCloud, which helps save time if you’re an Apple user, since you connect and sync your devices. I think Apple needs to attract more new customers and keep them, since they already have loyal customers who are Apple based followers. Within time, Apple will be able to get their revenues and their finances back up and come out with a product that will be on high demand. My opinion, this is not the end or the final crash for Apple.
I think that this is a bump in the road for Apple. Despite the decrease in sales for Apple, I believe that they can bounce back. I think that they will come up with a new product within the next year or so and it will put the back on track as a very successful company.
This is something that I have thought for a while. It really does seem as Apple is going stagnant in the market and it is actually alarming to see that their stock has fallen 18% so quickly. People seem to be bored with Apple, as they have not put much innovation out there in a while. Phones like Androids, however, have been keeping up with the times and constantly innovating and improving their products.
To be able to sustain profits for a decade is remarkable for any company and I believe Apple’s “bump in the road” is only temporary. In the market of smartphones, tablets, and iPods they’ve developed the software of each product so much that both physical and data size is the only differentiation between them. Although they face an issue of what to give consumers next I feel they still lead in technology and will roll over this bump.
Apple hitting a slight bump in the road shouldn’t be too much of a worry. There hasn’t been a sufficient difference with their devices and i believe that once they come out with another large innovation their sales will come back to how they usually are and will continue o impress consumers however if there isn’t many new things in future phones, there might be more than just a “bump” in the road for Apple.