“Lost in the hand-wringing over Apple’s iPhone 13% year-over-year slide in sales is the recognition that, in just 10 years, Apple’s iOS devices have generated more than $1 trillion dollars in revenue for Apple, according to Asymco founder Horace Dediu’s analysis,” Matt Asay writes for TechRepublic. ”
“With $980 billion in iOS device revenues, and another $100 billion from services, Apple has built one of the most impressive businesses of all time,” Asay writes. “Can it endure?”
“While it’s possible that Apple will cut into Android’s installed base, the real opportunity for Apple isn’t the hardware it obsesses over, but rather the software running thereon,” Asay writes. “Or, rather, the cloud that infuses that client-side software with data. This is Apple’s game to lose, given its propensity to tightly align hardware, software, and cloud.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: After a prolonged bumpy start, Apple’s cloud services have come a very long way from the iTools/.Mac/MobileMe days to arrive at where they are today. It’s a bright spot on Tim Cook’s resume as Apple CEO. With Apple’s cloud services, the sky is truly the limit!
Really
Well I don’t use them. Apple allowed space is inadequate. Happy to use Dropbox some google for things I don’t care if they look at.
$1 Trillion is no small number but Apple still remains the number one candidate for becoming a failed company. I simply do not understand why all the negative perceptions are aimed squarely at Apple. Can Apple endure? That is a question that can be asked about any company on the planet. There are always changes in the future that can be quite unpredictable for any company. Is it so inconceivable Apple couldn’t acquire a cloud business to supplement its revenue? Apple has more than enough money to do so.
Well, companies can live on for decades without any innovation. Consider Sears for example. Every few years they trotted out a new Kenmore or Craftsman built by contract manufacturers and just assumed that loyal shoppers would flock to their established tried-and-true brand when they came into the store to buy the same brand name items available anywhere else.
Apple does the same thing now, the brand name items are 3rd party apps that are available for the same price or with better features on Windows or on Android. The infrequent Apple hardware updates seem to push Ive styling and anti-user design choices rather than benchmarking the competition’s performance and blowing them out of the water with superior user-focused design in areas that matter — like battery life and connectivity.
Apple’s reliance on the iCloud will be its downfall. Especially since the iCloud is just a marketing term for Amazon Web Services with the fat Sears, ahem, Apple, markup.
‘I simply do not understand why all the negative perceptions are aimed squarely at Apple. Can Apple endure? That is a question that can be asked about any company on the planet. ‘
Let change Apple to Orange, so it’s no longer endure the negativity from the press, analysts, naysayers, haters, critics, competitors. etc, etc.
Apple will endure just fine. I think we all just want Apple to succeed wildly, not just endure. IBM endured themselves into irrelevancy. So has Microsoft almost. No one wants to see that happen to Apple.
I know this is wishful thinking and nothing could be further from the minds in the isolated consumer oriented world of One Infinite Loop in Cupertino… but if allowed to fantasize for just a moment…
I would love to see Apple create an Enterprise Level AppleID system with:
– Managed AppleID’s. One per employee.
– Domain Registration
– Web Hosting
– Email Services
– CRM (Competes with Salesforce)
– Software Purchase Management
– Hardware Tracking
– Mobile Device Management
– FILEMAKER CLOUD SERVICES (building cloud based apps for
macOS and iOS using FileMaker under Enterprise AppleID)
– SaaS – Managed Storage with permissions etc.
– BACKUP
– Enterprise Messaging
– E N T E R P R I S E C A L A N D A R I N G
– Enterprise Communication
– Enterprise CRM (Competes with SalesForce)
Basically just use your imagination.
I feel though that Apple sees cloud services as somewhere to put snapshots.
They very consumer oriented. Who am I kidding. They’re only consumer oriented.
If they did that sort of thing though, I’d open a booth in the mall and SELL WATCHES FOR THEM.
I’d have much more free time, and probably need the money as they took over my business.
What you want is practically there. This is why they partnered with IBM. Yes it is third party. However it allows Apple to get into the enterprise game faster. You can find a lot of issues with IBM; however there is no one with over a century of experience like IBM. They have the business relationship skills and manpower that Apple could not produce overnight. It is also a long term game that lets IBM take most of the risks. IBM is already in businesses that Apple has no idea what to do. That’s not a dig, it has just not been their focus. Enterprise is slow, that is both bad and good. Once in companies tend to stick around for a long time. That’s why it MS is in a great position for PC’s. Mobile has been MS’s billions of dollars downfall. It is a wide open now, but that won’t last for long. Getting some big institutions, like hospitals, will be a great first step. The big prize will be governments will be the big winner, especially military. Again, no one has the longevity in that market. It can also keep Apple’s hands clean in PR terms. IBM has had little problems with selling equipment to both sides in a war. Another big thing is support. AppleCare is great; however it is not 24/7. That’s something unacceptable in large institutions. This is something IBM has and can easily expand with new products. A lot faster that Apple could.
I don’t see IBM doing anything as clean and as simple as I am describing. They’re looking to sell services that will not come cheap. If Apple modifies their services to behave rationally instead of the bassakward way they are designed now… people would flood to them. Apple just has no idea how businesses run.
Watson would be nice, but most businesses don’t really need access to a multibillion dollar Expert System platform.
People need to SECURELY store and share files, manage documents, manage mobile devices, and do it with no more than one tech, and have it scale from Bob’s Burgers to a shop with a couple hundred Macs and iOS devices scattered around the world.
I don’t see anything like that coming from IBM. I see, “We’ll set up an appointment more for our consulting team to analyze your business needs and take it from there.” You can smell the complexity that will follow.
Imagine being able to remotely support iOS devices through Apple’s Enterprise Cloud.
How about Document Management?
Watson API…
Enterprise Adaptable Siri. “Siri? Where is John Benson?” “John Benson is in the north conference room. He is flagged for do not disturb. Would you like me to page him anyway?”
And if it was all Windows friendly?
You could build serious vertical market solutions using FileMaker and market them through the app store. Industry over night.
Bullshit.
I want to buy a new MacBook Pro but can’t because I want upgradeable memory and upgradeable SSD, preferably with two installed, also bluetooth that connects, and text that I can read without being faded out…Woud settle for a new Mac Pro that would be upgradeable too with out a bunch of cables running everywhere.
Another turd who wants is 5 minutes of clicks.
Ho, hey mister turd, Apple is and always will be a dual company : Hardware and Software. No other company is like that. Guess what it is the core of their success. The revenues generated by software from Apple is called colateral benefice from selling hardware. It the top of the cream… As days goes on, flocks more and more people to their platform. Once you get in, its harder to leave. The rest is known.