If Apple sold as many iPebbles in its first year as iPads in their first year

[Black]

it would increase Apple's revenues by a staggering... 2.9% in that year.
Decent article:
http://www.fool.com/ecap/the_motley_fool...?paid=8457&psource=erbyho7410860002&waid=8442&wsource=esayhowdg0860011

[deckeda]

from the article wrote:
Even a new product category would have to be wildly successful to have a meaningful impact on Apple's business.

This is why I don't understand investing. At all.

I've often read that a company that doesn't grow, dies. Really?

What if desktops (and therefore, Macs) completely disappeared and yet the company still thrived by keeping revenues/profits/whatever steady. No growth per se. Just a swap of products offered. Not success?

[Black]

deckeda wrote:
[quote=from the article]
Even a new product category would have to be wildly successful to have a meaningful impact on Apple's business.

This is why I don't understand investing. At all.

I've often read that a company that doesn't grow, dies. Really?

What if desktops (and therefore, Macs) completely disappeared and yet the company still thrived by keeping revenues/profits/whatever steady. No growth per se. Just a swap of products offered. Not success?
I don't get the non-growth=failure thing either.

[silvarios]

Don't know. People around here think Microsoft is dying because of the non growth in most markets. Are you comfortable with Apple being Microsoft?

[sekker]

The world is becoming more tech-savvy every year.

Non-growth in tech is thus, by definition, a dying company.

[Black]

silvarios wrote:
Don't know. People around here think Microsoft is dying because of the non growth in most markets. Are you comfortable with Apple being Microsoft?

Me? Why would I care?

[silvarios]

Black wrote:
[quote=silvarios]
Don't know. People around here think Microsoft is dying because of the non growth in most markets. Are you comfortable with Apple being Microsoft?

Me? Why would I care?
From a stagnation standpoint. Would people here, in general, want Apple not to grow market? It's not even like a single Windows/Android vendor where if a single company fails to deliver, there are dozens ready to take their place. If Apple doesn't grow iPhone/iPad market share, iOS stops getting more than a few big third party developers and suddenly it's 2001 again.

In comparison, Microsoft isn't doing too poorly. Even if their Windows Phone initiative crash and burns, they still have a huge chunk of the desktop computing space, a decent chunk of servers, a lot of software services that are multi platform, and even the Xbox. With Apple, iPad sales have been down, and if iPhone sales start to tank, it's over. Everything is geared to ecosystem and the biggest ecosystem grower is the iPhone. I don't think that would happen, but you have to be careful. Even the brand loyalist have been known to get restless, witness the late 90s flight away from the Mac.

[Black]

silvarios wrote:
[quote=Black]
[quote=silvarios]
Don't know. People around here think Microsoft is dying because of the non growth in most markets. Are you comfortable with Apple being Microsoft?

Me? Why would I care?
From a stagnation standpoint. Would people here, in general, want Apple not to grow market? It's not even like a single Windows/Android vendor where if a single company fails to deliver, there are dozens ready to take their place. If Apple doesn't grow iPhone/iPad market share, iOS stops getting more than a few big third party developers and suddenly it's 2001 again.

In comparison, Microsoft isn't doing too poorly. Even if their Windows Phone initiative crash and burns, they still have a huge chunk of the desktop computing space, a decent chunk of servers, a lot of software services that are multi platform, and even the Xbox. With Apple, iPad sales have been down, and if iPhone sales start to tank, it's over. Everything is geared to ecosystem and the biggest ecosystem grower is the iPhone. I don't think that would happen, but you have to be careful. Even the brand loyalist have been known to get restless, witness the late 90s flight away from the Mac.
Sure, Nathan, sounds good.

[sekker]

silvarios wrote:
[quote=Black]
[quote=silvarios]
Don't know. People around here think Microsoft is dying because of the non growth in most markets. Are you comfortable with Apple being Microsoft?

Me? Why would I care?
From a stagnation standpoint. Would people here, in general, want Apple not to grow market? It's not even like a single Windows/Android vendor where if a single company fails to deliver, there are dozens ready to take their place. If Apple doesn't grow iPhone/iPad market share, iOS stops getting more than a few big third party developers and suddenly it's 2001 again.

In comparison, Microsoft isn't doing too poorly. Even if their Windows Phone initiative crash and burns, they still have a huge chunk of the desktop computing space, a decent chunk of servers, a lot of software services that are multi platform, and even the Xbox. With Apple, iPad sales have been down, and if iPhone sales start to tank, it's over. Everything is geared to ecosystem and the biggest ecosystem grower is the iPhone. I don't think that would happen, but you have to be careful. Even the brand loyalist have been known to get restless, witness the late 90s flight away from the Mac.
Microsoft is still making profit, and it will grow a bit this year.

But it fails the critical test - if it were to be deleted from the current tech landscape, what would happen to the tech industry in general, and to you personally? Literally the ONLY thing that would happen to me is that I'd have to find a substitute for a secure successor to office running on windows 7 for my work machines running with the Exchange server.

If Apple or Google were to go, there would be pretty painful consequences.

Microsoft is growing because the industry is growing in general. In contrast, Apple's and Google's growth is driving the growth of the industry in general.

[silvarios]

If Apple were gone, 80% of the smartphone market, 65% of the tablet market, 85% of the PC market, 99% of the server market, 100% of the console gaming market, and 95% of the set top box would be the same. If you fall in the other percentage, of course Apple's absence would be a big blow, otherwise not as much as one would think. In the case of any company's failure, I do think other players would swoop into pick up the pieces. Remember how dominant Nokia was in phones a few years back. That huge swathe of the pie rapidly diminished.