What's eating Apple?

[Marc Anthony]

vision63 wrote:
No one ever mentions the attractiveness and quality of it's competitors products and how Apple isn't doing much to counter it. Carriage fees have been a large segment of their profits if I'm not mistaken, so nobody has paid enough attention to the rapid reduction of their marketshare and their failure to counter the avalanche of competitor product in the marketplace.

I agree with this point; the competition has gotten a lot better lately, and I think it may prove an error to not have gotten litigious at the outset with Android. They took Samsung to court over copycat devices, but the copycat OS is now more prevalent in the category Apple basically invented. At 60% less than the of the cost, those devices are looking more and more appealing.

[Article Accelerator]

"75 percent of smartphones out there are Android phones, and only 15 percent are iPhones."

- 70% of mobile Internet traffic is iOS-sourced
- Apple makes 77% of all mobile phone industry profits worldwide

"For the first time ever, iPhone customer loyalty is declining"

No, it's not.

"Scott Forstall was suddenly booted from the company. He was the creator of iOS, Apple's most prolific inventor, and a former 'CEO-in-waiting'"

He was a lot of other things too. I guess mentioning them would weaken the point a bit.

"Apple whiffed on iPad sales during its fiscal fourth quarter"

No, it didn't. It sold 14 million of them even despite anticipation of a new model.

"Recent 'refresh' of all big products has left them looking at 6 to 9 months of dead time"

I didn't realize Apple let this guy know its product pipeline schedule. I'm humbled.

"After hiring John Browett as Apple's new retail boss ~6 months ago, Tim Cook fired him"

And I have new confidence in Cook: He quickly realized--and corrected--his error.

"IDC reported Apple's share of the tablet market dropped from 59.7% to 50.4% during the third quarter."

Absolute nonsense. Recent Web traffic surveys show that iPads are responsible for 90% of tablet Web traffic. NINETY PERCENT.

"Looking forward, there are big concerns about margin pressure because the iPhone 5 is brand new and the iPad Mini is much less profitable than the bigger version"

Yes, Apple's margins may decline from 42% to 39% -- still twice as high as its nearest rivals. Sheesh.

"Apple alienated everyone by dropping Google and putting its inferior mapping technology on the iPhone 5"

Everyone? I don't think so. And, by the way, I consider Apple's mapping technology to be superior.

"...forcing its loyal customers to switch to the Lightning adapter"

Just when I thought the "points" couldn't get any stupider, they did.

"Meanwhile, myriad stories have been written about how the fear of higher capital gains taxes is prompting investors to dump the stock"

Holy cow! A point that might just have an actual basis in reality!

[Article Accelerator]

cbelt3 wrote:
Ever notice how Apple is always one or two steps ahead of their competors ?

Yeah. Like that.

Unfortunately the iPad Mini is.. a step behind.

How so, cbelt?

[Black]

Article Accelerator wrote:
"75 percent of smartphones out there are Android phones, and only 15 percent are iPhones."

- 70% of mobile Internet traffic is iOS-sourced
- Apple makes 77% of all mobile phone industry profits worldwide

"For the first time ever, iPhone customer loyalty is declining"

No, it's not.

"Scott Forstall was suddenly booted from the company. He was the creator of iOS, Apple's most prolific inventor, and a former 'CEO-in-waiting'"

He was a lot of other things too. I guess mentioning them would weaken the point a bit.

"Apple whiffed on iPad sales during its fiscal fourth quarter"

No, it didn't. It sold 14 million of them even despite anticipation of a new model.

"Recent 'refresh' of all big products has left them looking at 6 to 9 months of dead time"

I didn't realize Apple let this guy know its product pipeline schedule. I'm humbled.

"After hiring John Browett as Apple's new retail boss ~6 months ago, Tim Cook fired him"

And I have new confidence in Cook: He quickly realized--and corrected--his error.

"IDC reported Apple's share of the tablet market dropped from 59.7% to 50.4% during the third quarter."

Absolute nonsense. Recent Web traffic surveys show that iPads are responsible for 90% of tablet Web traffic. NINETY PERCENT.

"Looking forward, there are big concerns about margin pressure because the iPhone 5 is brand new and the iPad Mini is much less profitable than the bigger version"

Yes, Apple's margins may decline from 42% to 39% -- still twice as high as its nearest rivals. Sheesh.

"Apple alienated everyone by dropping Google and putting its inferior mapping technology on the iPhone 5"

Everyone? I don't think so. And, by the way, I consider Apple's mapping technology to be superior.

"...forcing its loyal customers to switch to the Lightning adapter"

Just when I thought the "points" couldn't get any stupider, they did.

"Meanwhile, myriad stories have been written about how the fear of higher capital gains taxes is prompting investors to dump the stock"

Holy cow! A point that might just have an actual basis in reality!

I don't understand the point of a post like this. None of your in-line responses effectively counter anything they're supposed to be in response to. There's nothing here...

[Black]

Article Accelerator wrote:
[quote=cbelt3]
Ever notice how Apple is always one or two steps ahead of their competors ?

Yeah. Like that.

Unfortunately the iPad Mini is.. a step behind.

How so, cbelt?
Why would this need explaining? The 7" Tablet is a "me too" product and we're used to Apple leading the way. Not sure how else that could be explained without a dry-erase board.

[sekker]

I just might have to get some more Apple stock, if this is the kind of advice that's going around.

I consider the iPad mini to be just like the iPod nano compared to the iPod classic - a potentially better form factor than the original for many people.

Nevertheless, I DO think the current Apple price largely factors in the predictable next 2-3 years of profits from current momentum.

But I have good optimism that with the change in leadership with Ives now in charge of interface design that we will be seeing some nice 'next great thing' in the next 3-5 years from Apple.

[vision63]

Marc Anthony wrote:
[quote=vision63]
No one ever mentions the attractiveness and quality of it's competitors products and how Apple isn't doing much to counter it. Carriage fees have been a large segment of their profits if I'm not mistaken, so nobody has paid enough attention to the rapid reduction of their marketshare and their failure to counter the avalanche of competitor product in the marketplace.

I agree with this point; the competition has gotten a lot better lately, and I think it may prove an error to not have gotten litigious at the outset with Android. They took Samsung to court over copycat devices, but the copycat OS is now more prevalent in the category Apple basically invented. At 60% less than the of the cost, those devices are looking more and more appealing.
I've said it before, it was the AT&T exclusive that hurt them. The majority of early Android users wanted iPhones but their carrier didn't offer it. By the time Verizon and Sprint got in the iPhone game, Android was full on. I don't feel like Android copied anything. They make phones with apps, Apple makes phones with Apps. Palm made phones with Apps. That's who got copied from.

[Black]

sekker wrote:
But I have good optimism that with the change in leadership with Ives now in charge of interface design that we will be seeing some nice 'next great thing' in the next 3-5 years from Apple.

3-5 years? Too late.

[lazydays]

Steve cleaned up the product line, simplified things, I have to wonder if we will go back to the days of too many choices. Remember the performa line of computers? Aggghhhh. :-)