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.
