“No company wants to report that its sales have declined. But when you’re Apple, which has consistently seen its revenues grow for more than twelve years, it’s not just bad news but a serious kink in a joyful narrative of boundless possibility,” Zachary Karabell writes for The New Yorker. “Earlier this week the company — the most valuable in the U.S. — told shareholders that revenues had declined by thirteen per cent. Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, did his best to spin the numbers — temporary currency fluctuations were to blame; sales will rise again as the iPhone SE continues its rollout; the company will rebound thanks to ‘the incredible strength of the Apple ecosystem.'”
“But Cook couldn’t assuage fears about the biggest reason for the revenue decline: a twenty-six-per-cent drop in sales in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, accounting for fifty-eight per cent of the over-all decline in Apple’s growth,” Karabell writes. “The company’s stock price promptly plummeted.”
“When China’s economy slows, as it has recently, Apple’s revenues are inevitably hurt. But Apple also got a perhaps more worrisome sign for the long term just days before its quarterly earnings report, when China blocked its citizens from accessing iTunes Movies and iBooks—just the latest move showing that the country’s response to U.S. tech companies’ ambitions will be to fortify its borders. Where much of the planet has embraced the Internet as more or less open and transnational, China is striving to make it closed and national,” Karabell writes. “While China’s move might disappoint some customers, it’s of a piece with its goal of fostering domestic competitors to Apple and its Silicon Valley peers. Last year, Xiaomi, a company barely five years old, sold more smartphones in China than any other company. Estimates place Xiaomi’s valuation at more than forty billion dollars, and its devices aren’t just competing with Apple on price and functionality; they are starting to win the war of cool.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Xiaomi is “starting to win the war of cool?”
Horseshit.
The rest of this specious, uninformed “piece” is equine feces, too.
China has a lot more to lose than they have to gain by “slamming the door on Apple.” — MacDailyNews Take, April 22, 2016
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Apple reports earnings miss in Q216 – April 26, 2016
China could slam door on Apple, says top global risk expert – April 25, 2016
China’s increasing censorship hits Apple, but Apple might punch back – April 22, 2016
China shutters Apple’s online book and movie services – April 22, 2016
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