“Ten years ago, Steve Jobs introduced a touchscreen minicomputer that wrapped in a digital music player, email, maps and web browsing,” Ari Levy writes for CNBC. “To say that Apple’s iconic co-founder, who died in 2011, ushered in a new era of innovation would be the understatement of the device’s dominant decade.”
“Apple has sold some $650 billion worth of iPhones, with well over half snapped up in the past three years. In fiscal 2016, iPhones generated revenue of $136.7 billion, making that single product bigger than all but 35 companies — in the world,” Levy writes. “‘It’s hard to think of a product that’s more important,’ said Kevin Landis, chief investment officer of Silicon Valley investment firm Firsthand Capital Management, which owns Apple shares among its $300 million in assets under management. The iPhone represents ‘just an amazing fundamental shift that only happens a couple times in a lifetime,'” he said.”
“The 10-year anniversary of the iPhone arrives at a time of dramatic change for the Cupertino, California-based company. IPhone sales are coming off their first year of decline, and analysts are projecting meager growth from here,” Levy writes. “‘The next iPhone is a chance for Apple to regain some of the excitement that the company had in the past,’ said Walter Price, an Apple investor and managing director at Allianz Global Investors in San Francisco. ‘”I hate to say it’s the last chance, but it could be a really important turning point for the company. If they do not execute on the opportunity, then they may just be relegated to a slow growth, annuity type company.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The shortsightedness is appalling.
The next [Fill in the blank with “Mac” or “iPod”] is a chance for Apple to regain some of the excitement that the company had in the past. I hate to say it’s the last chance, but it could be a really important turning point for the company. If they do not execute on the opportunity, then they may just be relegated to a slow growth, annuity type company.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
What does Apple have to do? Honestly, when they release a revolutionary product (10 years ago today) they’re derided, when they listen to the market and buy back shares and improve the product category steadily over a decade, they’re derided, when they make literally ALL off the profits in the mobile industry they’re derided. When they have more cash on hand than most fourtune 100 companies are worth, they’re derided. A MacBook Pro is built well enough to stop a damned bullet, and no one cares. But Lenovo released some plastic all in one that looks like a Klingon dagger and that’s “amazing”?
I can’t wait til this September when the tenth anniversary iPhone is released and laps the field with true wireless charging for all of these idiots to go “that’s not a big deal, where’s the SD card slot” …….. what a bunch of fucking disingenuous pricks.
Oh and shortsighted too. Why can’t any of these people look beyond “the next quarter”? It’s like all of the large companies that shut down stores and lay off thousands of people… that will not save the business! Yeah it’ll juice the stock short term, but that savings is only a one time hit especially if they own the real estate like Macy’s and sears do. What they should really do is cut executive pay on contracts of longer than 1 year, and then you get a perennial savings. Then take the amortization on the real estate, roll that cash back into high efficiency lights, water services, etc. And then over the next 5 years or so you’re saving the same amount of money as getting rid of all those people, except it’ll be more and lasts longer, and those people get to keep their jobs. What are they teaching in business school now? This is not what I learned.
Oh and you can’t cut your way to prosperity. You have to invest in your people, your process, and your products. The more you slash, the more it looks as though you’re in trouble and then it starts self perpetuating cycle that actually brings you down. I swear having an MBA now isn’t the same as when I got mine.
Oh, I am not surprised CNBC bashing Apple constantly. Because Apple attracted many readers and clicked baits and also shake off some weak hands. Readers and followers got to use critical thinking to find real diamonds in a rough in any articles.
Other companies never ever seem to face these headwinds. Hmm.
Apple–Proudly Going Out Of Business for Three Decades…
Good grief.
The writer is a clueless wonder. I’m sure he’s heard everyone bitching about the dire state of the Mac and assumed it carried over to iPhone as well. But Apple is executing on the iPhone. Each iteration they make it harder and harder for their would be competition to catch up. They are winning the mobile phone wars.
It’s just too damn bad about the Mac though… 😟
Apple needs to ‘do evil’ and wantonly kill millions of small businesses like Amazon or Google, which dabbles in free software copying and killing off legitimate developers. NOT! but that would make the suits happy?
Ari Levy is a Tech-errorist, and member of the ignorant, that spreads propaganda and shouldn’t be taken seriously.
Apple is the most hated and feared company by globalist-corporatists. They want Apple gone.
No they just want them back to their “niche” status so they can steal their work, sell it as their own, profit off of it, and not get caught for it….
So which is better?
To be floating high in the water, with $Billions in the engine room stocked full of five star engineers who have complete control over their ships design and propulsion…..with a weather report citing ‘possible’ headwinds?
Or…
Half submerged in a jerry built rust bucket, holed below the waterline leaking profits, with a low grade fuel supply from a company selling sea water to dehydrated victims and who cares-not whether you sink or swim?
Gee that’s a tough one.
An iPod… a phone… and an Internet communications device. Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. It’s one device, and we’re calling it the iPhone! Apple reinvents the phone.
When Apple made the Mac, it was doomed because one product accounted for nearly all of it’s profits.
When Apple made the iPod, it was doomed because one product accounted for nearly all of it’s profits.
Now that Apple makes iPhones, it is doomed because one product accounts for nearly all of it’s profits.
I think I can discern some sort of trend here.
“Apple’s iPhone, 10 years old Monday, faces big headwinds going forward”
Hmmm, well I guess if you’re looking into the future you are going forward. I guess that’s better than having a headline that says “”Apple’s iPhone, 10 years old Monday, faces tail winds going backwards”.
In fact both are ridiculous statements and there is not enough data to make any prediction about future events with any degree of certainty.
However, when I was a young journalist (last century…OUCH!) my editor once instructed us to “Never let the truth get in the way of good story”.
Now I’m going to move forward, into the future at a moderately fast pace. Um, or something like that because now I’m really confused as I try to understand the space-time continuum.
Oh for the days when you could just repair the manifolds and dump the warp core and everything would be OK.