“The very first iPhone, announced ten years ago today, was not exactly a surprise. By early 2007, Apple fanboyism was rampant and rabid. In the run-up to Steve Jobs’ now famous Macworld keynote, blogs—remember those?—were all abuzz,” Davey Alba writes for Wired. “It was almost anticlimactic that early January day when Jobs finally got up onstage and, with a wave of his hand, changed the idea of mobile phones — and personal computing — forever.”
“At the end of 2006, Apple was a $70 billion company. Little more than seven years later, its value had grown more than tenfold. Its record $18 billion profit in the third quarter of January 2014 is still a corporate record. Apple’s retail stores pull in more profit per square foot compared to any other company in the US — including luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co.,” Alba writes. “The reason for this massive, universe-altering success? The iPhone, which famously accounts for two-thirds of Apple’s revenue.”
“Now Apple is facing a turning point, and once again the iPhone is the reason—but not in a good way this time around. The smartphone market is saturated,” Alba writes. “After 10 years, the iPhone can no longer serve as Apple’s growth engine. The company now faces the same challenge it did a decade ago: figuring out what’s next.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We don’t see any evidence offered by Alba in his piece that proves the iPhone is slowing Apple down.
Yes, from the outside, Apple seems distracted. We’re hoping that this is a side effect of building and preparing to move into the Campus 2 spaceship. The sooner they get in there, get settled, and get back to work, the better!
We believe in the vaunted “pipeline.” From little birdies, we hear things that give us much hope and fill us with anticipation. We expect Apple’s 2017 to be markedly better than 2016!
That’s the problem, nothing new in 10 years. iPhone is fantastic, wildly loved but you can’t rest on what you did 10 years ago. C’mon Apple! Please update the Mac and come out with something crazy unexpected. Like a touch screen power computer device. Merge iOS and macOS and get out of the car business already.
Get a Surface if that’s what you want. I don’t want no stinking touchscreen Mac. For me, an iMac/ iPad Pro combo would take care of my illustration / ProAudio needs.
Tim Cook is dragging Apple down, not iPhone.
Yes my friends. Let’s keep the same anti-Apple lyrics from yesteryear…
Apple has reinveted the way we behave in the modern tech world. Now we want more. We don’t know what we want but we want it now. Cueless Spoiled brat. Another one who want its 5 minutes of fame writing about Apple.
Get a life. Go away. Miserable writer.
Anyone who understands the dynamics of tech and corporations can see that Apple is in trouble as an organization.
Falling sales, falling market share in PCs, tablets and I believe phones (yes I know about the “109% of the profits part – but those things pass in a downtrending business).
Ballmer also raised revenues for years as he hollowed MS out, but left Nadella a big left to resurrect the shell with new innards, and the guy’s delivering.
From Tim we get…. ….watchbands and new tee shirts for store employees (that’s Angela earning her crazy salary). And deprecation of the Mac base that built the company.
Lose mind share and it’s HARD to get it back.
(The watch itself was not his baby.)
Don’t even get me started on Angela; biggest waste in history.
Dude, haven’t you heard?
Apple isn’t a computer company now (how along ago did they change the name now?), it isn’t a devices and software company, and not even an “ecosystem” company, rather it’s a “lifestyle” company.
Gag me.
I don’t really see how a company with over 100 thousand employees can get distracted by a spaceshi… I mean campus, but hopefully you’re right. And I’d like some Macs to fall out of that pipeline soon. Specifically, desktops.