“Apple is the largest company in the world, but success is fleeting. While the numbers are impressive, they don’t come close to painting an accurate picture about how much trouble Apple is really in,” Bryan Clark writes for The Next Web. “Apple’s rise under Steve Jobs was historic. Its fall under Tim Cook is going to be much slower, more painful.”
“Tim Cook can spend days waxing poetic about profits but even a modicum of ability to read between the lines is all it takes to realize it’s mostly bullshit,” Clark writes. “Overall revenue looks great, but the iPhone actually missed Wall Street’s projections this quarter. On Wall Street, this is nothing new, unless we’re talking about Apple. Apple rarely misses its numbers. In fact, it often overshoots them by such a large margin you wonder just how qualified the analysts making the predictions really are. This year is different. Apple swung. Apple missed.”
“Apple lives and dies by the iPhone. iPad sales are flat, iPod’s are all but irrelevant, and while Mac sales are up, they’re nowhere close to the workhorse that can continue to carry Apple should they experience a downturn in iPhone sales. There is no Plan B,” Clark writes. “What made Apple an iconic brand is gone. Steve Jobs is almost entirely responsible for Apple’s cult-like following… Jobs created a movement of decidedly minimalist devices that required not much more than an occasional charge and a user that knew where the power button was. ‘It just works’ became a battle cry.”
“We once watched as Jobs and his eye for detail created technology that was just short of perfection. Now we watch as Tim Cook eyes Wall Street and spins earnings reports. The software that ‘just worked’ is slow and glitchy. The hardware is buggy and underpowered,” Clark writes. “And these are just the problems that Apple has a legitimate chance to fix.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Just getting this in our database for future reference, but not all of this is crazy talk: Apple should take the “it used to just work, but doesn’t so much lately” point to heart. Apple has grown very quickly in recent years. There are now far more post-Jobs newbies than Apple employees who really understand the Apple mindset that made it insanely great. How well is Apple University working, really? We referenced Apple’s faltering attention to detail back in January with: Open letter to Tim Cook: Apple needs to do better.
Recently, when complaining to an Apple employee who was hired in the post-Jobs era about the unfinished nature of the Apple TV, we were told, off the record, of course, and paraphrasing: The key is that you already bought one. We already have your money. It’ll get updated however we decide to update it, if we even decide to update it. 99.9% of buyers will readily accept and be satisfied with the “all new Apple TV” despite the issues.
That is the sort of attitude that kills great companies.
Apple management and Apple shareholders should take notice.
MDN:
That “Apple employee” was an official Apple spokesperson I assume…rather than another ‘Ant’…? 😉
This article could not be more accurate!
Apple is heavily reliant on the iPhone with no plan B.
Tim Cook is an incompetent CEO with no vision, and he’s ruining a once great company.
Just look at the new products: hobbled Macbook, trashcan Mac Pro that can’t be upgraded, Apple stupidwatch, buggy Apple Music, screens that peel, and shoddy iOS and OSX updates for the past 4-years.
Not to mention product launch botches galore, 2 chips for the same phone (one good and one bad), using Apple as a gay political soapbox, giving billions back to greedy non appreciative, arrogant shareholders, etc.
And if you don’t like Tim Cook then you must hate gays… yeah, that sounds logical.
EXACTLY!
Sounds like an imaginary caricature, a botched attempt at mind-reading. Sorry, but that’s too arrogant to be believed. I doubt if Tim Cook feels that way.
Obviously, Tim Cook isn’t going to feel that way. As CEO, if he did feel that way, I’d pretty worried.
Sounds more like an Apple Store door greater, or a Microsoft Store employee posing as an Apple employee.
Exactly
It that were a real Apple employee, then MDN should out him. For the benefit of Apple and all its customers.
Or something? Lol. In terms of software quality assurance, its down the drain. Entropy catches up to the best of companies.
Sent from my iPhone
>
For once I couldn’t agree more with MDN. Sadly.
Absolute rubbish!
For comparison, let’s compare the iPhone released in 2007, with no App Store, cut/paste etc… (Steve Jobs had to be convinced that an App Store would be a good move, as indeed putting iTunes on Windows similarly). iPhone was a work in progress and evolved to what it is today, unbeatable!!!
Now to the Apple TV just released. Clearly, this is the release 1.0 of a new platform, with an App Store to go, with some rough edges that will be resolved over coming software releases.
Apple inc. is STILL the Apple inc. of Steve Jobs, under the expert stewardship of Tim Cook and his senior team!
Totally agree here with Lambrettamike
In fact I might go as far as to say it’s BETTER.
I still have software issues when Steve J running the ship and there was still some not so apple ads to boot.
“Apple inc. is STILL the Apple inc. of Steve Jobs, under the expert stewardship of Tim Cook and his senior team!”
Jobs built Apple and cherry picked his team, he was know for the best ability ever to pick winning teams, look at Pixar…
He achieved his dream and built Apple and picked the right person in Tim Cook, to take it ‘unchanged’ to places where no one has ever gone.
He picked the right person with the right abilities and qualities to do so.
Apple’s best days may be behind them, but their best years are still to come….
Taking the long — and literal — view, as you just did, is wise; in fact the exact opposite of a fool with a megaphone stirring the herd to restlessness for selfish reasons.
Please understand, though, that is a double-edged statement.
Apple had incredible announcements before Steve left us, days where we all looked at the new MacIntosh, iMac, iPod, Mac Pro, iPhone, iPad and saw the future. Tough years, though.
Apple can now reap the harvest from the Book of Jobs and never look back…or forward, if they choose. I think there is still room to build on that foundation.
From the Holy Trinity of work (the Mac), play (Apple TV) and travel (the iPhone) Apple need only expand on these arenas. But if they plan to keep innovation alive, they had better maintain the Mac platform. Period.
In mobility, they gave direction to the next century in 2007. Don’t screw it up.
It is Apple’s biggest eternal contribution to Mankind. I am serious.
The AppleTV will help meld all of Apple’s efforts into Work, Play and Entertainment, tying the home to the office and the road. Seamless.
I haven’t mentioned the Watch because it is simply an extension of the Phone, but a VERY important step in the communication of information.
The Car, the Home, the Jet/Train will widen already paved roads into shipping lanes.
Bringing employment to Americans could also become their 21st century legacy, if they choose. I’m betting they will.
The Book of Jobs, the Holy Trinity, the eternal contribution to Mankind starting with the Jesus Phone. I’m starting to catch on, brother. See you at the next revival meeting! 😃
“the iPhone actually missed Wall Street’s projections this quarter”
Like the opinions of the “analysts” has ever had any link to the reality of Apple.
“iPad sales are flat”
Oh no! Not everything sells like the iPhone.
“copied ad-nauseam”
Everyone looks to Apple see what to do, and that means Apple is no good – um – how exactly?
“should they experience a downturn in iPhone sales……. The Apple Watch is great, but it’s never going to carry Apple like the iPhone until it works like one.”
His central thesis — it’s really bad to have one product making such a higher percentage of Apple’s income. He should read “Focus” by Al Reis.
“Windows and Android? —— Two companies that are innovating, not searching for identity outside of a singular product.”
Wowwwwww!!! That’s funny.
“Similar Android models are self-contained and only require an occasional sync.”
Wonderful. You could have a self-contained Stupidwatch.
“The software that “just worked” is slow and glitchy.”
SOME of it. Well – that’s a fair criticism. Migration Assistant didn’t work on my new iMac. Has always worked flawlessly before. Had to spend a couple of days transferring programs and data manually, and then checking everything.
Apple is not perfect – sure. But it is
– the largest company on the planet
– the company that every other computer and mobile company looks to so they know what to do. (And an occasional bit of innovation by other companies doesn’t change that overall context.)
Any MDN headline appended with “…or something” signals clickbait written according to an anti-Apple agenda and unable to marshal a persuasive argument based on factial evidence and logic, instead relying on emotion, wholesale conjecture and fallacy. Such articles are usually a compendium of negative stories and accusations and in no way should be considered a balanced assessment of Apple’s performance as a leader in the consumer technology industry.
Self-appointed seers suck. Anyone can have two-cents opinion. No one except Apple knows what’s in the product or project pipeline. Certainly no outsider does. One would think after predicting Apple’s demise the next quarter after all these years, these tea-leaf readers would simply give up. Any company can fail because the future is unpredictable. Since when does a quarter a two reflect the long-term outlook of a company. Why they keep choosing Apple doesn’t make any sense unless it’s to simply grab eyeballs or produce clicks.
One wonders. . . do seer suckers wear seersucker suits when they are doing their seer sucking?
Steve Jobs has left his legacy in Jony Ive, Tim Cook, and their staff. I think Bryan Clark is missing this. This is rubbish.
lets not forget that steve jobs personally picked tim cook as his successor. obviously steve saw something in tim that he liked and believed in. the worst thing for Apple is their success. Now everyone loves to hate Apple because of it. If Apple is so doomed why is every technology company scrambling to copy everything they do?
Because other companies are learning to it better, day by day, bit by bit. That is what they are learning – Apple did it better at the beginning but have just forgot they need to keep doing it better day by day, bit by bit.
Got this terrible ‘no-choice-must-buy’ keyboard with the new late 2015 27 inch iMac Retina. It is a definite candidate for the throw-out rubbish collection. Kerbside junk. Shame is I loved the iMac but I had to send the whole computer back to get a refund on the keyboard. Apple is crazy – lose a customer, lose a sale. Whatever your problem is they have a ‘policy’ to defeat it. In this case their policy on buying new iMac forces customers to buy peripherals they don’t want and don’t need.
I’ve just had to spend most of the day copying back all the apps, documents and files I copied to the new iMac, back to the old iMac.
Then they screwed up the courier to pick up the iMac – I had to take it to the nearest Apple store using and RMA number – after more than hour on the phone to idiots in one country or another who were all using the same Apple PR song sheet – meaningless pap.
My attitude to Apple right now is toxic.
Loyalty lost is very hard to win back.
If Apple stop treating me like a customer I’ll stop being one.
So rather than keep a keyboard you didn’t want, you spent how many hours? Your time is of so little value? Yeh, sure.
And you had wiped your old computer before being fully up and running on your new one. Yeh, sure.
No, I don’t believe you. Especially since I a new 27″ iMac with, I presume, the same keyboard – and have no problem with it.
I read this story and think, so what? What is the point? Sounds like an Apple Hater looking for a topic to justify their bias. A topic that has been well hashed and rehashed by others with equal lack of specifics. Trying to manipulate Apple stock?
We buy Apple products because we enjoy them. If you don’t want to, then don’t. More for the rest of us.
TNW are anti Apple… Nothing new under the sun.
Lame site btw
If at all, this should have been linked using a donotlink URL.
Hey MDN, who are all these noobs you keep referring to? They’re certainly not in the executive ranks.
Let me translate what he said to reflect accuracy:
“In fact, it often overshoots them by such a large margin you wonder just how qualified the analysts making the predictions really are. This year is different. Analysts swung. Analysts missed.”
Yes, analysts’ predictions this year were no better; They still seemed as unqualified. Hint: It’s about analysts not Apple.
Oops, I should have said that “This year is NO different.”
What a bunch of bull shit!!!!
One employee does not make up Apple. This employee needs to however go back and learn how Apple works or should be fired.
Even if your new no Apple employee should say anything like that to the media because Apple does not go by these values, “as they already bought it and we don’t care after that”. No.
The iPhone 7 will transform into a hovercraft that will carry the owner to any destination without using roads at 200 MPH, will be completely safe and self driven. AAPL will drop because it wasn’t a transporter. Apple is not a good enough company. People (including MDN) bitch if a product is too late in being released and if rushed out to be revised over time, they bitch again. The company will continue to thrive because the culture is unchanged.
Man, I sure am glad that this guy shared this info. There’s no way that Tim Cook knew any of this until this guy shared it. Or perhaps Tim realizes that products like the iPhone come around once a millennium and that in the mean time real, well-managed companies leverage those one-time successes in big ways and small to grow the company incrementally for years to come. And don’t sit around hoping for the next big thing.
Name one industry that Apple has entered where the incumbents aren’t shaking in their boots. Name one.
Life cycle of companies and products are a fact. And i dont see a solid long rise in Apple unless something drastic happens. There is no treading water in business your either growing or decomposing.
Oh look. The new anti-Apple meme continues apace.
*yawns* to you Bryan Clark who writes for The Next Web.
U-suck as a journalist. 💤