“For several years, Apple Inc. (AAPL) has been the world’s most valuable company based on market cap. Its rise largely has been driven by the wild success of the iPhone family of products,” Douglas A. McIntyre writes for 24/7 Wall St. “As worries increase about whether the iPhone 7 sold well over the holidays and can keep a quick sales pace until the iPhone 8 is introduced, probably late this year, challengers have a better chance to catch it than at any time in recent history.”
“Apple’s market cap is currently $618 billion, well ahead of Alphabet Inc. at $540 billion and Microsoft Corp. at $484 billion,” McIntyre writes. “Behind Microsoft, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has a market cap of $402 billion, and Exxon Mobil Corp.’s is $374 billion.”
“The Nikkei Asia Review recently reported that iPhone production in the first quarter of this year will drop 10%,” McIntyre writes. “That is because, according the analysis behind the article, iPhone holiday sales were slow. If Apple did not ship more than 70 million iPhones in the final quarter of 2016, investors likely will turn on the stock and could trigger a kind of brutal sell-off like the one that marked last spring.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, because Nikkei reports of “product cuts” have always led to missed iPhone unit sales expectations. Oh, wait, they haven’t.
SEE ALSO:
Nikkei: Apple to decrease iPhone production 10% in first quarter of 2017 – December 30, 2016
Nikkei proclaims ‘iPhone 7’ Dead On Arrival; bemoans Apple’s ‘lack of innovation’ – May 12, 2016
Japan’s Nikkei, The Wall Street Journal blow it, get iPhone demand story all wrong – January 16, 2013
Did Apple reduce 4-inch Retina display orders due to improving yields? – January 15, 2013
Analysts: iPhone 5 demand ‘robust;’ ignore the non-news noise – January 15, 2013
Apple iPhone suppliers decline on report orders cut by 50% – January 15, 2013
Apple swoon erases $17 billion from stock market – January 14, 2013
Apple iPhone 5 production cut signaling a new product release? – January 14, 2013
Apple drops to 11-month low on old reports of component cuts – January 14, 2013
The strange math of Apple’s alleged massive iPhone 5 component cuts – January 14, 2013
UBS analysts: Apple iPhone component order reduction ‘old news’ – January 14, 2013
Apple pulls down U.S. futures – January 14, 2013
Apple shares drop below $500 after reported cuts in iPhone 5 parts orders – January 14, 2013
No.
The Nikkay crap comes out EVERY Year at this time…..WRONG to use any of it….!!!
Yes I know,,,,FUD……ApPLe is dOomEd……!!
NOT!
The way their media bashes Apple and their winging of the locals I think it’s safe to say that YES Apple will keeps it’s title of world’s most valuable country, at least until they find that massive nuclear program in Iraq. Keep looking losers.
It’s quite easy for Apple to lose its market cap crown. Apple isn’t creating any incentive for potential investors to get into Apple. It appears Tim Cook isn’t interested in growing Apple’s revenue or attracting investors to the company with any sort of futuristic strategy like the rest of the major tech companies are doing. The fact that Apple is pretty much ignoring the cloud business and doesn’t want to compete with Alphabet in search pretty much sums up Apple’s passive attitude. Apple doesn’t appear to be making any interesting moves to expand its business, at all.
Other companies are branching out while Apple stays still and puts full dependency upon its zero growth iPhone business. Rival tech companies will continue to encroach on Apple’s hardware business while Apple doesn’t even try to fight back. Apple has plenty of money to make moves but isn’t lifting a finger. Tim Cook seems too occupied with moving into the luxurious Apple Campus 2. It’s not that Apple is doomed. It’s just that Wall Street hates companies with no aggressive tendency to cripple rivals.
“zero growth iPhone business” …. LOL
an iPhone business that has generated billions of dollars, will keep on generating billions of dollars & keep the naysayers crowing for yet another (10th year) that “the ASP of the iPhone is bound to fall this year”, just as it didn’t in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and now 2017.
Apple Inc. are far ahead of any other tech company with their A7, A8, A9, A10…. mobile processors, that everyone else has been paying vast sums to the tech media to keep inventing nonsense about Apple Inc., that is laughable.
The only thing worth saying about Wall Street is that they don’t have a clue!!
You obviously don’t understand what the share price (and market cap) really are – they are just what members of the public pay each other to own (on paper) a piece of Apple. If the share price dropped to $1, Tim Cook would still have exactly the same money and assets to play with as he has today.
Google will keep the corporate mega-ponzi crown by a whoppingly gigantic margin.
Not if Apple continues behaving like they have in the last two years.
Fun apple Fun! Is a big part of the game… do someting fun and exciting … tease us.. make us wonder/anticipate about increadible possibilities on the horizon. There is reason why your PE is so low…. you are way to opaque ! Riding Apple is like a ride in thick Fog!
Respect Pro/power Users……. give them a roadmap they can count on and trust so they wont be afriad to invest in the platform…. you are systematically pushing your loudest and best advocates away to the competition …
Apple AI is horrible…. even at the most basic level ( contextual word recognition/spell check) is jurassic as compared to other platforms. You cant afford this in any shape or form Apple.
AI is the future .
You are loosing ground in the education sector… ..
In general …you have gone from being a dynamic company who kept everyone full of excitement in anticipation of next great thing … to a boring/slow company who keeps the fans chewing on their nail in anticipation of another bla/disapointing product release.
Bring the Excitement and the Fun back Apple !
I feel like the iPhone 7 although a great phone and selling well, is sort of a sacrificial product. I think the iPhone 8 will be the phone that really wows us again. Without the criticism that came from removing the headphone jack. The 7 had to take the heat.
Apple will still stay in the game.