“As a technology enthusiast, I love Apple (AAPL). I believe that this company absolutely understands what it takes to build a quality device from software to hardware, and it’s also clear to me that nobody does it better than Apple,” Ashraf Eassa writes for Seeking Alpha. “I love my iPhone 5s to death and I can’t wait to buy an iPhone 6 (or whatever it’s called).”
“While I believe that Mr. Nathan Brooks’ assessment that Apple is ‘living on borrowed time’ may be a bit on the extreme side (i.e. I don’t think Apple’s sales will fall off a cliff in a fashion similar to Nokia’s), I don’t fundamentally disagree with the notion that from a growth perspective, Apple’s best days are clearly behind it,” Eassa writes. “But this does NOT mean that Apple is dead.”
Read more in the full article here.
Seeking Alpha sucks, can read all the drivel without signing in. MDN should post a warning with such links.
Why would anyone even consider that “Apple is dead”? This is clearly a case of saying that something is not true to make the gullible believe that this ridiculous notion may be true.
Apple is far from dead. They are a company experiencing a massive change in leadership and they are still adapting to that change.
Their products are still current and their fans are numerous. Apple isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
Yeah… and a hundred and fitty billion in the bank’s a pretty good hedge as well.
Exactly, with a bank balance like theirs and profit margins like theirs they aren’t going anywhere.
Maybe they’ll use it to go to Mars with SpaceX. Then the next series of Macs and iOS devices will be hardened for alien environments. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the new campus looks like a spaceship.
As long as they keep innovating, and pushing the envelope, and keep building products people don’t even know they want yet, they will always be in the game, and in front of the pack
And they said Jobs had a reality distortion field. Who the hell is this clueless bozo? Probably gets money from Samsung to print such drivel. I’m really sick of Apple naysayers.
Another bonehead tech writer with nothing to say but columns to fill. Those who underrate Apple WILL end up with pie all over their kisser. Basically WHAT THE HELL DO THESE ASSWIPES KNOW ABOUT WHAT APPLE IS PLANNING? Answer: NOTHING! Speculation, conjecture, arbitrary lip flapping, egotistical pie-hole’s spewage and pointless analysis do not do anyone any service.
This is the best comment I ever read.
Apple’s growth strategy is multi-pronged:
Mac: grow marketshare in a declining desktop and notebook market by making desirable products with the latest tech and high specifications at a competitive price – often lower than similarly spec’d machines from other vendors.
IPhone: focus on premium market and gradually work down the scale to capture tier 2 and lower buyers – a la iPod. Leverage leading position in high tech to relegate Samsung and others to the position of “followers”. There will be another tier of iPhone in the next year or two to complement the two current models and capture the next tier of buyers.
iPad: in a fast growing market Apple is only interested in tier 1 buyers but will introduce new models to grow the market for desktop replacement. Eventually, as the market stabilises at a lower growth rate, Apple will introduce tier 2 models as they have done with iPhone 5C.
These strategies will provide incremental growth while maintaining high margins.
Growth, in significant terms, will come from Apple’s entree in new markets. We won’t really know where this will be until Apple announce a product, but they will be large markets where Apple will use their design genius to relegate everyone else to history. There is almost an infinite number of these markets.
TV: Apple’s strategy is to own the delivery mechanism, like they do with iTunes for music already. Cable is the main competitor here, but as you might have noticed, cable subscriptions are in decline. Exactly how Apple will achieve this is unknown, but perhaps the Apple TV / apps for content model suggests a general direction. Look for a product which offers a-la carte entertainment via the cloud with a simple user interface and loads of functionality.
Apple is not a product, or product set – it is a business model which can be applied to any market. Hence Apple’s best days are ahead of them.
We aint seen nothing yet…
I don’t really see why Apple would be anymore prone to dying than say Hewlett-Packard or IBM. I think any company can be damaged shifts in technology. No one ever said Dell was dying but for all intents and purposes it became practically irrelevant due to the shift to mobile computing. I’d always wondered what the real reason of why Apple became a doomed company. Are the products considered too expensive? Is it because Apple doesn’t have enough clout in the enterprise? Or possibly the products don’t quite follow conventional thinking? I would certainly think that as long as a company is willing to adapt to change it can certainly survive. One would also think that a company with huge amounts of capital to work with would have more options than a company riddled with debt. I have never heard anyone say that H-P is on the brink of bankruptcy although its finances are a mess and the management always seems in turmoil.
I constantly hear this argument of what would happen to Apple if consumers stopped buying iPhones. I suppose things like that could be said of any company that gets most of its revenue from a single premier product. I guess it could happen but I wouldn’t think it would be very likely for tens of millions of people to all decide to stop buying iPhones at once. Nokia probably sold a hundred different models of cellphones but that didn’t stop the company from collapsing. These people always singling out Apple for collapse don’t make any sense at all.
The unconventional part has to be at least partly responsible for the constant skittishness, but a number of analysts have pointed out the specific point of worry — a frighteningly limited product line. No diversification = no insulation from commoditisation or consumer mood swings.
A lot of us appreciate, of course, that other things are at play in this story, and that they mitigate the competitive danger. But the market consensus has never really believed that. Analysts generally make the safer bet — that as great a warrior as Achilles is, he can’t keep winning forever.
“from a growth perspective, Apple’s best days are clearly behind it”
Words from a cabal of Nostradamus wannabes, sages of the market, for whom the future plays out like a tableau vivant. Yet it isn’t clear to some analysts who are seeing $700 and even $1000 in their presumably inferior crystal balls. If one thing is “clear,” it’s that there is no consensus even within the small tribe to which these mysterious savants belong.
If Apple really has the small market share that Apple haters are always crowing about, how is there no more room for Apple’s growth in the marketplace?
Seems to me that even with all of Apple’s success so far, there’s still huge potential for growth.
What a silly article, in the incorrect headline, the word Apple should be replace by the following, Crackberry, Nokia, Dell boy and HP Sauce
Most people on here won’t know what those last two reference. Not clear what company is actually positioned to take the business they desire from them. Samsung for example isn’t taking that particular share from Apple while others will increasingly threaten their own products over time as the next also-run develops a trend amongst that particular audience.
Paraphrasing Mark Twain: The reports of Apple’s death are greatly exaggerated. (And bat-shit crazy.)
Pure, unadulterated rubbish.