“When it comes to Apple, up is down and down is up. For some time now, analysts and tech pundits have demonstrated an uncanny ability to view encouraging news about the company through a pessimistic lens. What’s more, it remains mind-boggling that these same people — who are tasked with keeping a closer eye on Apple than anyone else — continuously glance over important metrics while issuing reports that lack even a semblance of nuance or relevant context,” Yoni Heisler writes for BGR. “Nowhere was this dynamic more apparent than in the investor backlash Apple received after recently announcing it would no longer release quarterly unit sales for the iPhone, the Mac, and the iPad.”
“Apple has been doing exactly what analysts and industry observers have been demanding for years: preparing for a world without [short] iPhone refresh cycles,” Heisler writes. “Analysts and pundits over the past few years lambasted Apple for not having a post-iPhone succession plan. Now, in 2018, Apple has demonstrated that it can not only survive amid flat iPhone sales, but actually thrive. The numbers simply don’t lie.”
“Shouldn’t this be viewed as a positive rather than a negative? The reality is that Apple today is more well-rounded a company than it was a few years ago. And yet, analysts are still enamored with iPhone unit sales exclusively because it gives them an easy, and arguably lazy and outdated, way to measure the state of Apple’s business,” Heisler writes. “Faced with longer refresh cycles, pundits have for quite some while said that Apple is too reliant on the iPhone and that it needs to find new revenue streams or, at the very least, generate more revenue per iPhone unit sold, Without exaggeration, Apple has done exactly that, and now these same pundits and analysts are all of a sudden becoming hyper focused on iPhone unit sales. Per usual, Apple is damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Of course, hypocrisy doesn’t matter when there’s stock price manipulation to be done!
As we just wrote:
In fiscal year 2018, Apple’s revenue grew over $36 billion to $265.6 billion. For the current quarter, Apple has guided for revenue between $89 billion and $93 billion, a new all-time record. (That’s revenue of roughly $1 billion — with a “B” — per day.)
When analysts learn to see without the unit share blinders Apple has just removed, hopefully their eyes won’t pop out of their heads when they finally see those huge numbers and realize how very much more is to come.
SEE ALSO:
Here’s why Apple is ending unit sales reporting of Mac, iPhone, and iPad – November 28, 2018
The end of iPhone, Mac, and iPad unit sales reporting is not bad news for Apple – November 27, 2018
Is Warren Buffett adding to Apple under $175? – November 26, 2018
Explaining the recent Apple selloff, and why the stock looks undervalued – November 23, 2018
Apple is no longer worth anywhere near one trillion dollars – November 23, 2018
Apple to lower iPhone XR pricing in Japan in order to boost sales – November 23, 2018
Why the bad news on Apple keeps on coming – November 23, 2018
In the darkest hour of Apple’s ‘white-knuckle period,’ some investors are loving it – November 21, 2018
Misreading Apple’s supply chain and iPhone XR demand – November 15, 2018
iPhone XR production cuts not due to soft demand – analyst – November 10, 2018
Nikkei claims iPhone XR production cuts, Apple stock drops over 3% – November 5, 2018
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Let’s pull the word “Beleaguered” out of the closet and dust it off. It’s going to be very nostalgic for a while.
On the other hand, maybe Cook and Company will realize that being a one trick pony can only work for so long.
Detractors have always accused Apple of being a one trick pony.
Initially all Apple had going for it was Macs. Then the iPod became the thing that everybody obsessed about and now it’s the iPhone. At each stage the pundits said that when the Mac/iPod/iPhone is no longer selling well, the company will be doomed.
There are now far more strings to Apple’s bow than ever before and many of them are very lucrative in their own right with tremendous potential for the future too.
For sure Apple misses Steve now more than ever. Today being led by a feckless moron who can’t inspire anyone at all shows how moribund Apple is. Pipeline has to hid the fact that iPhone sales are now showing almost no growth.
Pipeline has to raise prices to show growth.
Pipeline can’t be bothered to update the Mac Pro.
Pipeline has no interest in making software that “just works”.
Instead, Pipeline wants to build giant roofs that look pretty.
Pipeline thinks Apple customers will be satisfied by giant moving glass walls and perfect doorknobs.
Pipeline thinks that having his chief designer working on the perfect diamond ring is a worthwhile exercise.
Pipeline never thought about making ads for the Mac.
Pipeline never thought about making ads for Apple Pay.
Look up blank eyed, slack joweled CEO and you’ll find a picture of Pipeline there.
Investors arent stupid.
You can’t manipulate a stock to the tune of a $64 price drop.
Only a Trumptard would think that.
No, Investors see Pipeline for the total fraud that he is as a CEO.
Pipeline has skated off Steve Jobs’ coattails long enough.
Investors want more.
They arent getting more.
And THAT is why there has been wholesale, relentless, liquidation of Apple shares, week after week after week.
It is ALL because of Pipeline.
Those that love to slob Pipeline’s knob will one star this post. That makes me happy, very very happy. Bring it on knob slobbers. Your one stars do not make this any less true.
Pipeline IS the Steve Ballmer of Apple.
He always will be.
There is not a shred of innovation in Pipeline.
I was with you until politics perforated your rant.
Totally agree. An unnecessary off topic partisan cheap shot…
Mr Tinkle is more unhindged than DJT, a beligerent crude ass
DJT is the greatest ass of all.
Funny how nobody can identify anything specifically wrong in IVT’s strongly worded critiques.
Apple is facing a rough patch and other than sitting on a pile of cash that Jobs’ app store generated, Apple looks slow fat and unable to innovate in meaningful ways that serve the customer. Lack of production diversity means Apple is in the crosshairs of chinese tariffs. Despite what should be a scale economic advantage, Apple has no ability to compete on price anywhere. So it lost enterprise and education markets through their own ineptness. Apple executives are lining their pockets on app store proceeds while Apple loses market share or stupidly abandons market after market. Software and hardware for the most part is late and highly compromised. Apple needs to seriously clean up its product lines, reset pricing, and deliver real hardware choices instead of fashion colors and bands. Apple is also not the design geniuses they think they are. Many of Apples products are atrocious, starting with the ugly white overpriced dongles and adapters that are now mandatory with every Apple product. Cook doesn’t get it. He’s too busy producing carpool karaoke videos and emoji. He thinks the future is subscription everything when overpriced Apple services have always sucked. Who is he kidding?
If you don’t like the Apple stock price, then ask Apple to get off its fat ass and innovate again.
Apple is like BMW. BMW used to build an unbelievable benchmark 3 series. From the 1990’s to early 2000’s, the M3 was the swiss army knife standard of affordable practical performance, nobody else could touch the total value. Then BMW lost the plot and today’s uninspired 3 series sedans suck wind behind Lexus, Audi, Cadillac, Mercedes, and now Genesis. How do you squander such a lead? You get complacent, satisfied with the easy profits, and coast.
IVT may be a crude sumabitch, but he is calling it correctly.
You bet I call it correctly. I’ve been an Apple user since 1980. the one staring Pipeline knob slobbers simply cannot refute ANYTHING that either you or I wrote. They just launch personal attacks.
Pipeline is very lucky to have these blank eyed drooling fan boys.
Mr Tinkle lauches most vicious, crude, personal attacks in the history of histories.
Mr Ishkadribble von Wank has become a total bore here.
Same old vent every day.
Not sure what the point is though, apart from constant blowing off about “Pipeline”. Does he actually believe his rants will achieve anything at all?
Mr Tinkle closet rage is obvious
This is Apple and Tim Cook:
-Ride the coattails of Steve Jobs as long as possible.
-Generate very little new innovation and ideas.
-Exhaust the product and idea pipeline left behind by Steve Jobs.
-Show growth as much as possible and at all costs.
-When sales start to plateau, increase the cost per product unit and milk the product lines.
-The buck eventually stops, and reality sets in…
I have said this in the past: Apple/Tim’s strategy of significantly increasing the price per product unit on many of their products is not a proven strategy. Apple’s products were already expensive enough.
-Redesigned MacBook Pro in 2016, pretty much $500 more expensive for the base model.
-Apple iPhone: price increase for the past 2 years. The iPhone XS Max at $1500… is absurd.
Apple is a consumer company and their prices are becoming out of reach. This year, I never bought a new iPhone. Will continue to use my overpriced iPhone X with an ugly notch. I suspect many people are rebelling against these prices.
Mighty fine post. Yes, the rebellion has been brewing for awhile and now picking up steam.
Your core point that Apple products are more expensive is certainly correct and hurts them in developing nations where the dollar is stronger, as well as average working class consumers in the U.S.
I believe you hit on the Cook strategy to raise prices milking loyal customers in an effort to stem the tide and make the same, if not higher profits, while hiding the decline of phone sales.
I have posted for years it will take a decline in profits to light a fire under the BOD and shareholders to put Cook on the hot seat and question his over reliance on one product and annual neglect of most products. I don’t understand how you can hire tens of thousands of new employees Jobs did not need and at the time kill popular products (Airport, monitors) and software (Aperture) to name a few.
I do understand. It’s called lack of focus and mismanagement of the largest company in history working out of the finest office digs ever built with record cash and resources.
Hopefully, it is only a matter of time for Cook and his clueless cronies that forced out the talented genius and Jobs heir apparent, Scott Forstall, to get their comeuppance…
This is a textbook example of ignoring one part of your product line (Macs, etc.) because another was going gangbusters – until it suddenly wasn’t. But because you ignored one of your product lines you now sorely need now many people deserted you in frustration and you aren’t going to get those customers back. A pity and was totally preventable by a competent CEO.
Well said. The ignorance and tone-deaf neglect of millions of customers will haunt Apple for years..,
Pipeline’s neglect of the Mac, in particular the Mac Pro, is a disgrace.
Apple knows what it is doing. The rest is noise in the system.
Best ignored.
Apple apologists and blind fanboys.
“Best ignored.”…
#whinylittlebitch #babblevontinkle
Seriously — why don’t you just go and buy the many better products from the many better companies that are out there.
Staying here and regurgitating this whining drivel, month after month after month, is definitely some kind of mental disorder.
My post definitely includes you and John Smith. Whiny little fanboy snowflakes. Grow up sonny and open your eyes.,,
Overpricing everything, sealed box attempts (to induce purchase of new equipment rather than repairing), planned obsolescence (ditto), attempt to keep revenue by jacking up the price, stopped reporting the unit sales number, then tying up with Amazon, started discounting Xr in Japan and the list goes on, but the worst thing of all these is that Apple planted discomfort and revolt in the consumers’ mind.
I believe Apple did in fact jacked up the price to compensate the declining sales.
But wait a minute! Really? Isn’t it such a basic, juvenile and too obvious an arithmetic maneuver? Is this what a $1T company is doing? I really do not understand this.
The only reason I can come up with would be a personal greed after all. Most of the income Cook and Co., would receive comes from the stock option, isn’t it? Then, it might be the supreme aim of these people to support the stock value as high as and as long as possible and prevent stock market crash etc. If they smell the crunch, they might be the first one to bail themselves out.
Well, my imagination is expanding into a nasty territory and I should digress, but……
do not display ad at the center of the article.
It is too annoying.
I have to say I’ve been an Apple user since 1990 and 2017 (last year) was the first year that I didn’t buy a new MacBook when mine died. Instead I got a refurb 2012 MacBook model.
Apple no longer makes compelling products (for me). Removing a lot of ports and user upgradability may make a lot of (financial) sense for Apple. But not for me. Not everyone has access to the internet 24/7 and their version of the cloud is opaque (to me).
Pretty sad 🙁