“You don’t get to be the world’s most valuable technology company without the entire internet telling you that you’re doing it wrong,” Gary Marshall writes for TechRadar.
“Pundits, analysts, flamers and fanboys all have their own suggestions on what Apple absolutely needs to do to avoid oblivion – so which ones are sensible?” Marshall writes. ” Let’s find out, by going through the advice and seeing what we make of it.”
12 things Apple needs to do next:
• make a cheap iPhone
• make a giant iPhone
• Think Different about ads
• go into search
• buy Orchestra
• lose the Steve Jobs ‘Depression Mentality’
• make sure the iWatch is good
• get into the TV business
• fire Tim Cook
• start innovating again
• accept that it has peaked
• keep setting the standard
Much more in the full article here.
Wow, someone’s reading MDN comments. The list sounds like it’s straight from the keyboard of BLN and ppeterson.
Did either mention that Apple should buy Orchestra or mention ads? I also don’t recall either mentioning Appke getting into TV or even watches for that matter. The rest I will give you tho.
Start by a stock split so the ownership can be broadened. Fire advertising company and get someone that understands Technology. Not Cutie advertising but simple plain talk about the technology advancement of Apple. Advertisement should be focused towards Apple as the Innovator and not a copier like
Samsung has done for the last five years.
You can’t do a stock split while it’s falling. It would be a disaster now. It would turn it into a cheap junk stock. They should have done a 10-for-1 split when it crossed 500 heading up. As I was saying then. This is not my hindsight idea.
Where did you learn about finance? Stock splits don’t add or subtract value from a company. Splits are mostly psychological. Stock splits in theory do make a company potentially more attractive for small investors… As it is more economical (typically) to purchase larger blocks of stock, rather than one or two. Regardless, the value because of a split does not change.
Where did I say anything about the value of the company? Of course it’s psychological. Psychology is why the most valuable company on earth, the most profitable tech company in history is in a Wall Street tail spin, trading at 9.76 P/E while MSFT trades at 15 and Facebook trades at 1880. Reducing the stock price by splitting now would look, psychologically, like the stock is worth even less. If they had split it while it it was vaulting up, it might have opened it up to a lot of small investors who don’t want to buy one or ten shares but who might have jumped on the chance to buy 10 or 100 shares. Wall Street is all about psychology now. It has nothing to do with value. It’s just marketing, manipulation, and gambling.
By the way, no reason to condescend and belittle in these discussions. I don’t work in finance but I have a degree in econ. It seems like the great financiers are not doing us any favors these days anyway, so what’s your point?
The 13th thing Apple should do … Ignore everything said about the first 12 and do what they think is best …. I am extremely happy with the products and services they provide….Steve got them where they are ignoring the noise… Seems like a good path to follow….
Polite applause for recognizing how Apple got where they are and what they have to do to stay there.
This sounds lile typical complacency. Samsung and probably very soon some of the Chinese competitors will start lapping Apple in this race. Certainly Apple needs new income streams like iWatch and ITV and should straighten out its faltering supply chain. It shouyld also stoop being dependent on competitors like Samsung and LG.
I think more importantly the attitude is probably become too California
laid back and relaxed. Apple should develop an aggresssive, ambitious, and fired up work attitude like you find today in the Asian companies they are competing with. Maybe some of Apples top executives have actually made too much money and now care more about their yachts, fancy homes and free time than being part of the mobile revolution that is taking place. It looks like the shift of wealth that is taking place from the West to the Far East will be accelerated
as attitudes in the West become less ambitious and more relaxed.
“Samsung and probably very soon some of the Chinese competitors will start lapping Apple in this race.”
uh, they’ll have to wait for to come out with it first though.
“Apple should develop an aggresssive, ambitious, and fired up work attitude like you find today in the Asian companies they are competing with. ”
?? You clearly don’t have the first glimmering of a clue about this. Apple’s internal work attitude has been exactly that since the beginning (I worked there ’79-’85), and if anything is more fired up now that it was back then.
Typical complacency indeed. That runs rampant around this site. How stupid is this, you ask. Well, I’ll tell you with this simple answer. AAPL was $700. Tim Cook became the face of complacency and every time he showed that face, the stock dropped some more. Now AAPL is approaching the $300 range. Yeah, that “standing firm” called for around here is really working great. Really great.
One Thing Apple Needs To Do Next: Hire a team to rove the land and beat the living shit out of any pundit or tech writer that seriously thinks they know what Apple should do next.
Fire Tim is job one. Everything else is irrelevant. Actually it’s not so much about firing Tim; there might be a place for Tim at Apple. He’s just not a CEO. Not even close. Maybe a CEO of a ball bearing manufacturer but not of a high profile consumer tech company.
Just so you all know… I am a HUGE Apple fan and product user for 25 years now. But I’m not a fanboy. I think Steve was an absolute genius but I don’t just agree with everything he did, nor everything Apple does. I get why he picked Tim but I think it was a mistake. Apple needs a CEO with big ideas and a big personality, not an operations manager. Steve did the safe thing by picking a dull guy who would do nothing great and nothing terrible. I wish he had rather taken a risk and picked someone who might have failed but might have done something great. Tim Cook will never “make a dent in the universe.”
It is true that Tim is not as Charismatic as Steve, few are. However, I think he really gets what Apple is about and is working hard to achieve it. As usual, we don’t see what Apple is doing till it gets released. Recall that six years elapsed between the release of the iPod and the iPhone. Also, Steve pushed some things that weren’t all that great. Remember the Cube? How about the shower curtain colored iMacs? Socks for iPods?
I attended the shareholder meeting last Wedneday. When Tim speaks off the cuff in answer to questions he comes across much better than he does in the prepared presentations like at WWDC. Tim doesn’t have to create anything himself. He needs to provide the environment in which creativity can thrive.
By the way, the shareholders, people with actual skin in the game, voted better than 99% in support of Tim Cook.
Update iWork
Update Aperture
Throw in updating Final Cut Pro 7 to 11? .. Kill ImovieX not-so-pro vista for youtube.
You know nothing. Final Cut Pro X is incredible. Updates, yes. Killing it would be a massive disservice to the technology world.
Source: Me, cinematographer and editor
Apple does not need to make a giant iPhone nor a cheap iPhone. That’s what Samsung is for. Those giant Samsung phones are grotesque. I don’t want to see anything like them at an Apple store. Apple needs to continue making premium products at a premium price for a premium market. Apple is BMW. Samsung is Hyundai.
WRONG. With all due respect, people want a choice, and the market has determined that a larger screen is/was desired. As for BMW vs Hyundai.. keep believing that as long as you don’t care about market share or stock price. It’s wrong anyway, even BMW has different models and price points. Another thing. Most people couldn’t really care less about their phone, they just want it to work and be functional at the right price. If you think everyone gets OFF over a phone, you’re nuts. I have the 4s and the screen size is now one of the SMALLEST available. Don’t you think a bigger screen and therefore bigger and longer battery life ALONE would sway more people to APPLE? Give me the 128 gig 5 inch plus 3-day-charge phone. The first thing most knuckleheads do is buy a case, making the phone bigger, SMALLNESS is not a desire. ANYONE who bought a mophie, like myself, ONLY desire more battery life and forego SIZE. Tim Cook really missed this. THE DAY the Iphone 5 came out and was UNDERWHELMING, the stock sank. Case closed.
I do care about stock price. The stock price soared as Steve led the market rather than following it. People who just want a phone that works are not Apple’s market. That’s what Motorola thought.
It’s a complicated question about product proliferation vs volume, quality, brand identity and such. Having said that, I’m in favor of Apple having a little more variety in the products. There is an iPad and iPad mini. Why not a larger iPad? Same thing with phones. I don’t think it would hurt to have a couple different sizes. Maybe this would only garner 10% share but 10% of 100M or so is a big number and prevents the competition from getting that.
It’s the first reasonable, polite argument I’ve seen here all day. You make two good points. There might not be anything wrong with offering two iPhone sizes. Your other good point is that it’s complicated. Steve was a once-in-a-generation (or more) business genius and he usually got it right. Now it’s harder with him not around. Hard to say whether offering more choices is good business or not. I tend to think it’s not. When Apple offered many models and configurations of Macs, they nearly went out of business. And I know that when I’m buying something, if there are options, it makes me put off the purchase while I try to decide what’s best. As long as there is only one current iPhone, I will always upgrade immediately.
Just in case you haven’t noticed, BMW makes different levels (prices) and sizes of automobiles. Or do you think they only make the 3 series? Think before you speak.
I wasn’t analogizing Apple as a numbered-series car manufacturer. I was comparing them as a luxury, innovating brand, which is very appropriate. And, actually, if you *think* back… The last time Apple had numbered-series computers with multiple lines and multiple configurations per line, the company nearly went out of business. The first thing Steve did when he came back was put an end to that nonsense.
Apple, please proceed FORWARD. Do not step backwards. I know I read rumors, but please improve upon, or reinvent your products. Let them retain THEIR identity. I am disappointed that the Macbook Air always seems to be the last one – at anything! Your “new” models of any item no longer are so different from the “last” model, that the change is major. I think you waste time and money and loose customers with piddly improvements and purposely-avoided improvements. I do not see myself buying anything other than Apple – it will be (or is already) fewer and further in-between because of the decelerated rate of your innovations!
Thanks Alcancun for your post, my sentiments exactly.
Now ONE, just ONE thing that journalists should do. Report the news, as opposed to projecting views (leave that to the editors).
You all look more and more like bunch of turkeys running around with your heads cut off while the head are lying on the ground yelling…”Apple should do this, Apple should do that.”
Report the news, hey you might even bring back some integrity to the profession.
Forget Orchestra – I would settle for a symphony and a quartet.
Fire up the jug band. I volunteer to empty the jug so they can get started.
So the writer of the article has experience running a most valuable company on the planet like Apple?
Looks to me like he’s making fun of pundits in general.
Apple dominated with the iPod. 4 different sizes, styles, colors, & prices. We need 3 to 4 different iPhone sizes, styles, colors, & prices. People want iPhone cause of it style, iOS, & apps. Make it easy for people to buy the iPhone.
My list of changes at Apple. This is where Apple should expend some of its extra cash.
4.9 inch screen iPhone. Every client of mine with two exceptions wants a large screen iphone.
Assign regular development teams to the following projects so they can be improved on an annual basis. Hold quarterly webinars to request product suggestions and find and fix software bugs.
Currently, reports indicate that iWorks and iLife teams are formed to complete a project and then moved to other projects. This is why consistent improvements are far and few between.
iWorks
iLife
Aperature
Final Cut
Create or buy a strong competitor to Quickbooks and Quicken
iWeb
Integrate iWeb with other Apple products to create a turn key small business package. (Wordprocessing, Page layout, Spreadsheets, Database, Web Publishing, payments, accounting)
Include the package with every mac. This is how Microsoft won the office wars in the 90’s. Why not turn the tables?
I, personally, don’t want a bigger iPhone. I like my little iPhone that fits in my smallest pocket and doesn’t look like a portable TV sitting on a dinner table or bar. And the iPad or iPad Mini is perfect for when a bigger screen is needed. But everything else you said is on the money.
Just one more thing…
Make an OS X app for iCloud that can access all our docs stored on iCloud and manage all our iCloud account business. iCloud is the future, for sure, but it doesn’t quite cut it to have it hidden in the OS… Yet.
Updates – where do you think all the money at Apple is going
Cheaper iPhone
MacPro- on its way
iLIfe – on its way
Convergence of Mac os and ios for Macs – progress and on its way (natural scrolling and ios storage being HFS+)
iMac and Macbook touch screens – on its way ( see patents)
NumberOneThingAppleNeedsToDo: hire Wozzie as chairman of the board. Tim can stay as CEO.
just my 2 cents
By virtue of his identity as Apple employee Number 1, and his outspokenness about Apple designs, he is already a person of influence in the general media and could function as an ex officio board member. I say that because it would scarcely seem to do any harm, given the crescendo of negativity and the gathering of pallbearers, combined with complacent leadership and half-hearted marketing. A sideshow may be just what the doctor ordered.
Woz is smart and he was there in the garage, yeah, yeah, but he’s a big old programmer nerd. Don’t get me wrong! I’d love to hang out with the guy! I have good friends like him! But they’re not running companies. Apple needs someone who would bring the “one more thing” factor back to that stage. Neither Woz nor Cook has it.
I agree and said so long ago. Woz constantly criticizes Apple and the decisions and direction it is taking. Well Woz, come back and put your money or rather ideas where your mouth is and prove to Apple and the world you know what you are talking about and have what it takes to keep the company you co-founded so long ago the technological leadership it has demonstrated since Steve came back and left us with. You have the potential to keep this legacy going and at the same time breath some much needed fresh air into this company. Woz come back and bring your vision with you, we would welcome it and forgive any missteps you take along the way. Your first mission in my opinion, get the shareholders to approve the purchase of iRobot corporation. I so dearly want to own a fully functional Apple iRobot before I die. OK that last part was me but there is some chance Woz might agree.
NEXT THREE THINGS APPLE TECH WRITERS and ANALYSTS NEED TO DO (this includes peepeterson):
1. Shut up
2. Shut up
3. Shut up
NEXT 7 THINGS APPLE NEEDS TO DO:
1. Flying iCar
2. iCamera
3. iWatch (given)
5. Appleland theme park
6. Text search engine called “Ask Steve”
7. Buy T-Mobile
8. Develop exclusive content, like Netflix’s TV series House of Cards, but with a weaselly tech CEO instead of U.S. Senator doing the evil deeds. Also a high-adventure, must-have urban warrior game in which tech pundits are the menace; to be followed by a sequel featuring a new adversary, political pundits.
And one more thing…
8. Horde the cash. When it reaches a $trillion the stock price won’t dip below $1000.
wait I thought 3 was “fix me a sandwhich” and 4. was “Shut up”…………..no?………….
actually TechRadar is off by one…
1.R
2.E
3.S
4.U
5.R
6.R
7.E
8.C
9.T
10.J
11.O
12.B
13.S
• make a cheap iPhone
WTF!!It’s already practically free with a contract. How about overhauling the 6y.o. interface
• make a giant iPhone
agreed
• Think Different about ads
yep. they’re kinda stale and circa 2007-ish a.k.a the relevant days. and ditch the toy piano music sheeesshhh it’s just creepy now.
• go into search
yeah…just what we need–another Google…REALLY!
• buy Orchestra
duffukisorchestra?!?!?! [[[….googling…]]] oh I see…buy what you can’t be the best at and rebrand it
• lose the Steve Jobs ‘Depression Mentality’
(see above “13 things list” post)
• make sure the iWatch is good
yeah, but first, convince people that watches aren’t antiquated and useless
• get into the TV business
ooooookaaaaaaayyyyyy still on the tv thing i see, what’s next a watch…eh heh e-heh heh e-hhmmm
• fire Tim Cook
well you got a point there I must say–but make it look like it was an accident, arright!
• start innovating again
STOP relying on innovation and the “next new cool thing” to keep customers interested in your products
• accept that it has peaked
finally someone said it!!!!!
• keep setting the standard
…and then stagnate, get lapped, “reset” the standard, get lapped, tank stock, reset the reset the standard yawwwwnn
Apple needs to do what Apple does best: surprise us with great new life-changing products. Incremental improvements aren’t good enough. They need to have their own worldwide wireless network that plays nice-nice with inferior products but works flawlessly with iPhones and iPads. Getting them out if Verizon and AT&T would be the next best thing. Then buy Disney.
Apple doesn’t need to do 12 things. No company does. Set fewer, higher goals and meet them. You don’t want to end up like a rudderless Microsoft.
my recommendations:
1) stop messing with iOS device sizes. roll out more impressive updates and sell the old model cheaper as you do today: just do it better and faster. Absolutely no need to waste resources on a new cheap iPhone or a bigger one.
2) Go global with better distribution, more consistent pricing, and more diversified manufacturing.
3) get better at talking to the public and to your investors. That means more transparency in some things, better guidance in some ways. It means getting infectiously optimistic product specialists to announce new products more regularly, and it means doing a much better job in advertising. It is understood that Apple must maintain a superb retail division.
4) DO NOT “buy” or “go into” different businesses just because someone else is making money at it. Do what you do best: invent new markets.
5) get back to focusing on product innovation that delivers nothing but the best user experience.
6) Learn from your mistakes. multiple flubbed hardware releases, shoddy Maps, OS X bloat, aging products, rapid loss of market share in key areas, etc: Apple needs to put these setbacks behind them. Investors are punishing Apple for them, perhaps excessively, but Apple is pretending like all is wonderful and gives no indication that it has learned a damn thing.
That’s about it. If accomplishing the above 6 points requires sacking Cook, then so be it. He is way more timid than Steve ever was, and that is the quickest path to also-ran status.
The rest of Marshall’s list is rubbish; in some cases self-contradictory.