“‘Poor’ Apple — the bad news keeps coming,” Caroline Craig writes for InfoWorld. “This week, research reports confirmed that Android dominates as a smartphone and tablet platform, Samsung devices bested iPhones in a respected consumer satisfaction survey, Apple Store employees lodged complaints about unfair wage practices, and working conditions at Apple’s suppliers in China continued to draw fire. Some weeks, you just want a do-over. Then again, when you’re the world’s most valuable tech company, news like this probably doesn’t sting quite so much.”
MacDailyNews Take: Bothe the smartphone and tablet reports came from the same compnay, Strategy analytics, and their “research” has been called into question or discredited outright. See related articles below.
“With new Apple products not expected until the fall, the company is in a fallow period that leaves it vulnerable against competitors with more frequent product introductions,” Craig writes. “But recent market trends also raise questions about Apple’s perennial unwillingness to compromise profit margins to increase sales. Maybe it’s time for the company that cherishes its rogue rep to, ahem, ‘Think Different.'”
Craig writes, “News that Samsung is eating Apple’s lunch in China could be the tipping point”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Apple naysayers will soon choke on their crow.
Related articles:
Strategy Analytics claims Android now dominates tablet market – July 31, 2013
No, Samsung has not dethroned Apple in mobile profits – July 28, 2013
Apple had a bad week? Which week are we talking about?
Yes, Apple had a bad week back when Steve got forced out… But that was some time ago. The have recovered somewhat since then…
That week when Foxconn had to get 90000 people more to fullfill orders for Apple. That was really sad week. 🙁 /s
I guess even “typical” investors are NOT paying attention to the stupidity from the media anymore. This supposedly “the bad news keeps coming” week for Apple has AAPL up over $20.
If the goal is to drive AAPL down, it isn’t working…
I think after the last few weeks of news and quarterly reports, investors may finally be realizing that Apple is looking pretty good in comparison.
While the entire industry is in a rut and Apple’s competitors are laying eggs all over the place, Apple itself is doing quite well, even despite the lack of many new products this quarter.
If this is a ‘bad week’ for Apple, I’ll take one any time.
This bad week, where Apple lost market share to everyone and unfortunately became the company with the highest market cap again. When any company acquires the highest market cap it is a sure sign the company is doomed.
MDN: “The Apple naysayers will soon choke on their crow.”
Not as long as sites like this keep linking traffic back to them.
Just don’t click on the link.
Another waste of ink.
Caroline, No!
What is this kook smoking?
The news this week hasn’t been any worse than the piling-on of bad news Apple has been facing since … well, forever. So why should this week’s news spur Apple to any more action than anything else?
Besides, the share price isn’t reflecting the bad news (for a change), and we’ve got new products on the horizon to get excited about. So this little dose of FUD is absolutely useless.
Caroline needs a new job.
Poor’ Caroline Craig — the bad journalism keeps coming
What bad week? These agencies who write up B.S. stories and call them facts? They have no real data to go by except for Apple. Apple is the only company that reports actual sales of its products. Not just shipments which could be way higher.
Bad week? Nope. Don’t believe it then go to an Apple store and then look across the way at a Microsoft store. Now who’s having a bad week? It ain’t Apple!
This is just garbage spewing forth. It reads as much. “Some weeks, you just want a do-over” really? What is this, The [bleeping] View? If Apple could do this week over then they would not have labor issues in China, yeah, that’s it.
This article is beyond asinine.
A bad week for Apple would be when Tim Cook does a Michael Dell. Until then, it’s all gravy, gentlemen.
Wait until you read the DOJ’s wonderful plan to settle the Apple book selling fiasco.
Give their customers a Google and an Amazon button to hit, when they want a book, for the next 2 years.
Horseshit!
I’ve read it. What it tells me is that the DOJ, headed by Eric (contempt of Congress) Holder, has been bought and paid for by Amazon, and probably Google too. The “fixed” prices of $12.99 and $14.99 were MAXIMUM prices that Apple would accept in its on line store, while letting the publishers set any price they chose beneath those ceilings, out of which the publishers would get 70% and Apple 30%. Apple did not set ANY prices other than those maximum limits.
One requirement for an anti-trust violation is a dominant share of, or control of the market. Amazon has 65% of the ebook business. How is it that Apple could force a significant number of customers to pay more if Amazon is selling 65% of the ebooks sold? Ebook prices actually went DOWN under Apple’s deal with the publishers, and the publishers made more profit.
In the late 1800’s it was standard procedure for the robber barons to corner the market on a commodity (like ebooks?), then lower prices to the point where little or no profit was made on sales (Amazon’s profit level?) in order to drive the competition (Apple?) out of business. This was the entire reason for the institution of anti-trust laws. Somehow Amazon and the Obama administration have turned the anti-trust laws inside out, resulting in the laughable situation where Amazon’s fixed pricing structure and 65% market share are “protected” from Apple’s open pricing and 9% market share. Who’s getting fleeced? The consumer. Thanks Obama. Sorry I voted for you. You’re a great con man, and I know what I’m saying there because I’ve seen some of the absolute best.
Jesus H. Christ (I have always wondered what the ‘H’ stood for. Howard? Horace?), Apple can’t win for losing, despite the fact that the Strategic Analytics report has already been proven as wrong, and Apple is actually doing quite well (though I am waiting for them to appeal the ebook ruling).
…And sponsor / fund a class action lawsuit against Amazon for illegal predatory pricing.
I think that Apple would have to appeal the decision against them first, though that’s something that I hope that they would also pursue.
Seems everyone has realized this except the DOJ. Would be funny if both were found guilty of anti-competitive practices. Never going to happen but imagining it is funny.
@brian mcneal
you, sir, are an uncouth lout of the first order. sad state of the world when atheists blaspheme the name of Jesus without blinking an eye. please don’t imagine you can do this with impunity.
You’re a Christian (supposedly). Forgive me:)
You guys deserve it. You have been annoying us for decades and this is the only way we can fight back. Besides, you are an adult! You know better than to have imaginary friends.
Wow! Your name is “Christman!?” That’s quite a name to live up to!
@j.eric
Now what? Starting an Intifada against the unbeliever, or just burn the witch? Make your choice, fundamentalist.
@Brian McNeal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_H._Christ
More like Bad Decade: the 1990s. As much as I love that decade for the movies, music, and video games, I still understand that Apple was at rock bottom in that era. It wasn’t until the iMac was created in 1998 that Apple began their new Golden Age. The only thing good about the 2000s was Apple’s Renaissance. Awful movies, music, TV shows, and George Bush plagued the first decade of the 21st Century.
The stock keeps dropping on good news and creeping up on bad news. I don’t understand it so keep having a series of bad news weeks Apple, until at least the stock gets back to $700. 😉
Poor Apple! The stock only went up 10 points.
As a non-fan boy I can take the legitimate good news with the legitimate bad news regarding Apple. And there has been plenty of both in the last several years. But this certainly not been an exceptionally bad week for Apple. Especially considering the last 10 months. I don’t own rose colored glasses. I don’t need to spin everything to make Apple look good all the time. Only fools do that. Nor do I believe the inaccurate negative articles about Apple. I’m smart enough to do good research and understand the truth when I see it. That said, the competition is not giving up. Nor is Apple. Apple seems to be holding its own lately with promise of good things to come. We’ll just have to see how many of these promises and interesting rumors come to fruition for Apple. You can hope in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up the fastest. Facts speak the truth. “Just the facts ma’am”. I’m a realist. Facts are all that matter. Objectivity is all that matters. By Christmas we should know how well Apple is doing. But this is certainly not a bad week for Apple, especially when looked at in perspective.
Nice to hear some rational assessment, don’t get much of that where Apple is concerned sadly.
This is one of the best comments I have ever read on this site. It seems like there are very few reasonable people on this site. Some people here should take off the fanboy glasses and look at the facts. I agree with you on everything in your comment.
The spin on everything does get to be too much here on MDN so when Apple does actually have a tough period this is not the place for reasonable adult discussion. However, there’s something frustrating about Apple’s release schedule and the article above, which is mostly nonsense, touches on this by pointing out the moribund product introduction schedule. I think once a year to announce all your products is keeping the shine off of Apple for too long. It’s been almost a year now that we’ve been hearing about “things in the pipeline”. A more staggered approach to releases would be welcome.
The snarkiness of her first sentence told me all I need to know…
Why is it that Google, Android, Samsung releases and real ease anything – that means wow “what innovation” what has Apple released?
But Google, Android, Samsung releases nothing. Just stuff over and over. I;m defending Apple as much as ATF does Google, Android, Samsung innovate “every week” that means squat?
Each is waiting for Apple to release whatever it will – just so they can copy it – THAT’S their only form of innovation.
Google, Android, Samsung thow crap into the marketplace that 99% means nothing but people just assume they are just so innovative. It’s actually funny on a daily basis to watch.
When is someone going to snoop around Samsung’s factories?
The only bad new for Apple in many years has been the stock. The one thing Apple DOES NOT HAVE ANY CONTROL OVER.
The Story Author Can’t afford to buy apple so the story author is working on selling Apple short to make $$$ on Apple…
Apple will do so well the author will wish they got into apple stock at todays price…sorry too late…
Selling a stock short can amount to infinite losses. I hope you’re not investing.
These reports about the so-called superior market-share of Android and Samsung always intrigue me, enough that I do my own, entirely un-scientific, survey, when I’m somewhere that gets large numbers of people, with a high proportion tourists. London is ideal, it’s a city with a large commercial centre, and centuries of history, so you get a great mix of people from all over the world.
I was last there a couple of weeks ago, visiting the Natural History Museum, using the Tube, and watching Goldfrapp at Somerset House, and all the time I was looking at what phones and tablets people were using.
By far the overwhelming majority had iPhones. Particularly Asian visitors, and especially the younger ones, teens and early twenties. The few tablets I saw being used, and being used as cameras, were all iPads, without exception.
A rough figure would put iPhone usage at around 90+%, so where’s the Android dominance, then?
Perhaps the owners are too embarrassed to be seen using them in a cosmopolitan, public place, where they might look like a back-country yokel… ;^)
Relying on unscientific study cannot possibly lead to accurate conclusions.
Moreover, London is one of the most expensive cities on the planet, hardly a good example of Apple’s future growth opportunity. Apple’s already saturated that market, now it has to compete with other handset makers in other regions. So far, Apple simply hasn’t done so well on new handset sales. Apple under Cook is coasting along on handsome App store profits. Problem is, coasting along for years without completely new shiny new hardware in this industry is a VERY poor strategy. The next iPhones had better pack a real wallop, otherwise Apple’s mobile profits will continue to die from a thousand paper cuts from competitors that MDN fanatics casually dismiss.
It is interesting that Foxconn is almost always referred to as an Apple supplier or assembler. Foxconn is huge and assembles products for many companies. Apple has actually been the most proactive and successful company in trying to improve labor conditions at Foxconn. But the negative news is mostly targeted at Apple.
News that Samsung is eating Apple’s lunch in China could be the tipping point
Wow! A 2-for-1!
A) An idiotic August Effect bullshit article.
B) Apple DOOM!
September can’t come soon enough.