“2016 has been a rollercoaster of a year, with political upheavals the world over and a constant stream of high profile celebrity deaths. But the tech world hasn’t been without its dramas either, and one company that’s been keeping pundits and analysts at the edge of their seats throughout the year is Apple,” Adrian Kingsley-Hughes reports for ZDNet. “And 2017 looks to be an even tougher year.”
“iPhone sales are weakening, and analysts are predicting that things are only going to get worse,” Kingsley-Hughes reports. “Next year’s 10th anniversary iPhone might kick off a huge upgrade cycle, but beyond that the consensus among analysts seems to be that the trajectory is headed downwards.”
“As for everything else that needs a refresh, Apple doesn’t seem in any rush to do anything. It’s almost like it’s stretched to the limits by the demands of making and continually refreshing the iPhone line,” Kingsley-Hughes reports. “To top it all off, Apple hasn’t even managed to get its AirPod wireless earphones out in time for the holidays, allegedly due to an audio sync issue. This is a pretty big fail for a company that was crowing about how awesome the AirPods were only a few weeks ago.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: 2016 is the nadir for Apple. Kingsley-Hughes offers no real evidence that 2017 will be “even tougher.” In fact, we emphatically believe that will not be the case.
I may be a bit of a cynic at times but lazy ‘me too’ jumping on the band wagon without any argued logic in articles like this really does piss me off. They offer nothing to the art of writing at all and seem to exist purely to keep mind dead hacks or wannabe hacks in business for the sake of it. ZDNet is at the forefront of this waste of space, turning it into an art form on occasion which some might say is a skill in itself.
See, that’s a fundamental property of echo chambers. I agree with you on that.
Where we “might” differ, is that you can’t give credibility, blindly, only to the ones that suit you. Well, you can, but you would be a hypocrite.
Actually as much as the Chicken Little, YKBAID, Tim Cook Sucks scenario plays out around these MDN parts I see 2017 a major year of upswing for Apple and making all the doomsayers a buncha Captain Dunzels. It’s become an impending “put up or shut up” year for them. And I think they know it. New amazing Mac Pro anyone? (Hope springs eternal.)
ya know.. i agreed with you in 2014, thinking 2015 will be THE year… then the end of 2015, I heard Tim AGAIN saying the “we have a amazing pipeline of NEW stuff” and a year goes by and we get a nice book of pictures… wow.. blown away…
Tim, Where is the:
MacPro
MacMini
Apple TV 4k, remote, etc
Stock to meet demand for NEW MacBook Pros (reminds me of the year they had no new Macs to sell for Christmas a couple years ago)
iMac
Displays
Ear Pods
FIX iTunes (mess)
… i could go on and on…
it’s such shame we just accept that this is how it is and how its going to be.. what I disagree with, in the past 3 years Apple left A LOT of money on the table with the lack of product re-freshes… and the lazy approach to running Apple… and the stock reflects that
Fix iTunes?!! Come off it already. It’s been “fixed” a number of times in recent years. Many thought the fixes a great improvement. But people by nature are apt to disagree and some didn’t like the fixes. iTunes is pretty good for what it does. Some say the real answer is to break iTunes up into separate apps for each type of format. I say, rubbish! It would cause needless confusion. Media management really ought to be a basic operating system function. Make iTunes disappear and roll it into the Finder.
Have you ever searched a large library?
It’s there, wait, now it’s not.
Search again, there it is.
Also, I was first user from day 1. Back then, before Apple had its store together, you could link your AOL account with iTunes with a credit card. Obviously Apple does that better and I would prefer Apple to have my CC info over AOL. However, Apple force migration, killing off all old AOL account. Now those purchases all of us early user made are useless, as Apple doesn’t allow yo to merge two of your own personal accounts.
iTunes also has way too much inside that app. They should have spun various other apps with a better focus on what it does. – i.e.: iapps, igames, ivideo, iFireTimCook Please
Think positive! Tim Cook will soon reveal his brilliance. Everything that has happened till now is immaterial. Tim Cook will out Jobs Jobs. Yay! Way to go, Tim.
I can’t stand Tim Cook’s poor leadership. I could write a book about all of his mis-steps. So I was looking to purchase a new MacBook Pro, ya know the ones announced like 2 months ago, and sure enough, NONE available until Jan 9!!!!!! Now I could wait and I can live without one, but what about all the lost sales for a holiday season? As a stock holder I am SO pissed off right now. In fact I find myself pissed off at Apple (ya know my favorite company, outside the ones I own) and this guy just needs to GO!!!!
13 inch.. not in stock for weeks – http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro
PLEASE sign this simple petition to get this clown out of this important job. I am willing to bet ANYONE other than him would do a better job. TIM COOK HAS TO GO!!!!
https://www.change.org/p/apple-board-of-directors-remove-tim-cook-as-ceo-of-apple
But hey Eddy Cue is off to vacation. Fire all the bums.
Eddy Cue is the drunk uncle Eddie from National Lampoons Vacation… THIS is WHY Apple never sealed the deals with the TV Networks to be a strong eco-system player for Apple TV.
Just look at how much of a cluster… iTunes is. Even it’s management for users sucks. Not a fan of Eddie
“We have exciting things in the pipeline.” – T.Cook 2012
“We have exciting things in the pipeline.” – T. Cook 2013
“We have exciting things in the pipeline.” – T. Cook 2014
“We have exciting things in the pipeline.” – T. Cook 2015
“We have exciting things in the pipeline.” – T. Cook 2016
“Pipeline? Aw heck we don’t need to
worry about a lil’ ol’ pipeline. We’re makin’
so much money we can just relax, mosey
down to the ol’ fishin’ hole, lean back, kick
our shoes off, and sip on shine all the
live-long day.” – T. “Opie” Cook 2017
MDN: “2016 is the nadir for Apple. Kingsley-Hughes offers no real evidence that 2017 will be “even tougher.” In fact, we emphatically believe that will not be the case.”
Are you sure that 2015 was not the zenith and 2016 is the beginning of a downward slope? Other than a moderately well received Apple Watch 2, a moderately received iPhone 7/7+, a set of MacBook Pros (that for many are not “Pro” machines) that have an embarrassing backlog of orders, and such, Apple’s 2016 has been lackluster at best. And, don’t try to say that sales of these items were exceptional or even close to it. Up until 2015 Apple loudly announced unit sales. Why? Because sales were almost always significantly better than years before. Now it is rare that Apple issues hard numbers. Why? Because sales are flagging. There is absolutely no other reason for it.
The list of missing or marginal updates in 2015/2016 is much longer than 7thheavenband states, and we have absolutely zero reason to believe 2017 will be any different.
I can only suggest that when a trend is established it is easy to extrapolate.
Anything said about the future is pure speculation. A person can be optimistic or pessimistic about the future, but can never actually be certain about what the future holds in store. I have to admit Apple seems to be sputtering with everything (or at least that’s how the news media shows it). I just don’t think it would be that hard for Apple to turn things around if it really tried to do so. I’m sure they’re still making pretty decent products for the average consumer but that’s just my opinion. I’d like to see Apple compete with the Windows camp but I guess that just isn’t Apple’s style. Why Apple would try to destroy itself doesn’t make any sort of sense to me. I would think it should be easy for the top executives to look at the rest of the industry and make any corrections if needed. Today is today and tomorrow is tomorrow. Hopefully, the future will be better for Apple and shareholders.