“Ben Bajarin, analyst with Creative Strategies, a technology consultancy, points to promising signs in the iPhone and iPad’s 64-bit A7 chip and iOS 7 operating system. ‘The last year was about setting the foundation to build upon for the next decade plus,’ he says,” Tim Bradshaw reports for The Financial Times.
“The iPhone and iPad continue to sell in record numbers and remain among the best-selling devices in their categories. Apple sold 33.8m iPhones in the three months to the end of September, including less than two weeks of its latest devices,” Bradshaw reports. “UBS forecasts that Apple will return to double-digit earnings growth from the March quarter, totalling 15 percent for fiscal 2014, even though annual revenues are projected to be a more sluggish 7 percent before rising to 10 percent in 2015.”
“But some Apple employees are starting to grumble that, under Mr Cook, the company is putting too much emphasis on operations and not enough on innovation. The innovation question will continue to hang over Apple until it enters a new product category – something Wall Street’s growth forecasts assume it will do next year,” Bradshaw reports. “Upgrades to the iPhone 5s, including a 64-bit chip and an extra processor to handle motion data, pave the way for an iWatch or new in-car features, while Silicon Valley and Wall Street whisper about Apple’s purported plans to revolutionise television.”
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