Apple Drops Over Twenty Spots in Latest Company Reputation Survey

[MacRumors]

In a new survey that looks at the reputation of corporate brands, called the Harris Poll Reputation Quotient survey, Apple dropped from its previous position at #5 on the list and now sits at the #29 spot. As reported by Reuters, Apple has been sliding down the rankings over the last two years, falling from #2 in 2016.

To determine the results, the poll surveyed 25,800 adults in the United States from December 11, 2017 to January 12, 2018 on the reputations of the "most visible" corporate brands. Similarly to Apple, Google fell this year as well, from #8 in 2017 to #28 in 2018.

Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema theorized that the reason behind Apple's and Google's dips on the list was because of a lack of major, "attention-grabbing" device launches in the last few years.

John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll, told Reuters in an interview that the likely reason Apple and Google fell was that they have not introduced as many attention-grabbing products as they did in past years, such as when Google rolled out free offerings like its Google Docs word processor or Google Maps and Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

"Google and Apple, at this moment, are sort of in valleys," Gerzema said. "We're not quite to self-driving cars yet. We're not yet seeing all the things in artificial intelligence they're going to do."

In the #1 spot was Amazon, which the company has held every year for the past five years except in 2015 when it was at #2. Tesla climbed the rankings from #9 to earn the #3 spot and Facebook was #51, which was an improvement for the social media company. In total the top 10 companies on the reputation list were:

1. Amazon.com
   Wegmans Food Markets Inc
   Tesla Motors
   Chick-fil-A
   The Walt Disney Co
   HEB Grocery Company LP
   United Parcel Service Inc
   Publix Super Markets
   Patagonia Inc
   Aldi Inc

In another recent ranking, Apple earned the top spot as the "most intimate brand" for millennials in the United States. Fast Company also named Apple as the world's most innovative company for "delivering the future today," and specifically for its approach to hardware and software engineering that creates the overall user experience surrounding its products.

Article Link: Apple Drops Over Twenty Spots in Latest Company Reputation Survey

 

[7thheavengtr]

Tim Cook Needs to GO!
I have been saying this for years!

My solutions (which Apple did not let me post on their suggestion forum)

Dear Apple,

1 – MacPro
Update the MacPro every year with any updates that exist – more ram, faster graphics, MORE I/O ( not less ), more storage, expandability and upgradability. THIS is what a PRO user wants and needs. No reason not to update this yearly. In the Q1 timeframe, a time when companies allocate funds towards equipment and the consumer market slows down. It’s not a fluke why the consumer electronics show, NAMM, auto show, etc.. all pimp new products in Jan/Feb.. now sell to them. 5 YEARS since last update.. unacceptable.

2 – Displays
No reason to blow this market off. You proudly advertise how great your retina display is, yet you ignore making a desktop one? Confusing. Make displays to compliment your MacPro and MacMini. Not to mention having a Apple logo in front of millions of users doesn’t help sustain the brand in people’s minds. 5 YEARS since last update.. unacceptable.

3 – Mac Mini
I still think this product is used and should still be made, just update it.

4 – iMac
WHY is this not a priority to Apple? Make NEW iMacs every year. Announce AND release it in Q3 for the Holiday season; and make sure you manufacturer enough to meet the demand.

5 – iPhone
Increase battery life. More innovation. Don’t neglect the 4″ size, just because Samsung made you think the world wants huge phones… not everyone does. Loose the “s”, it makes no sense on the marketing side to the consumer. And if you are going to do a whole keynote and release a new model, make sure it has more than “look how thin it is”

6 – iWatch
Utilize the board of directors you built on this device to help recognize heart attack and stroke symptoms before they happen. Having the watch excel in the medical and health field will reap dividends for years to come… making it a must-have product.

7 – AppleTV
The i/o again is lacking for systems that run like Control4 that needs better options for i/o.
Get the deals done with the networks to help consumers rid the stranglehold on cable companies that over-charge for a million channels.

8 – MacBook Pro
Bring back i/o!!!!
If you want to be respected as a PRO machine, allow there PROS to USE it without 1,000 cables coming out of it. Pro users do not want to deal with dongles.

9 – MacBook / MacBook Air
just give them a refresh more often than 3 years
I really don’t understand the difficulty to update these yearly, without the need for a re-design…

10 – Stock
Keep buying back diluted shares so it’s harder to be manipulated. AAPL is one of the most manipulated stocks on the market.

11- Aquisitions
Make sure what you are looking to acquire is not something Apple can achieve on it’s own with the talent within. (See Beats). And whoever is negotiating these deals needs to grow a pair and learn how to get better deals and not waste so much money on some of these companies. When I see what Apple pays for these acquisitions, I shake my head. Paying $3B for beats was a terrible decision.
Tim didn’t get the memo that Apple CREATES ecosystems and doesn’t just buy them.
If you’re gonna acquire a company, acquire Adobe; for the assets.

12 – Diversify Manufacturing
Apple needs to diversify manufacturing to more than one resource to meet the demand. Be the leader in bringing back manufacturing on a large scale back to America. Utilize China, Mexico and India to meet demand for products so the consumer can purchase the products you are advertising.

13 – Advertising
More money needs to be spent on Advertising and aggressive advertising. Apple has gotten a little weak on ads. Marketing is everything.

14 – iTunes
Fix iTunes. It’s such a pain and over-bloated. iTunes 2010 runs better than iTunes 2017… that is messed up.

15 – Software
Fix Mail. Fix spotlight. Bring back Aperture.
Allocate staff to interact with users of your software and aggressively update them based on the users input. It’s not that difficult.. the users will give you the answers to the quiz. Listen to them and your software will shine.

16 – iCloud
This is kind of embarrassing. Other companies offer better services for less money. it almost makes more sense to roll $5 - $10 more into each product and offer iCloud for free with a generous space to sustain the
user base, offering tons of services with all that content. 1TB free is what I would offer.
Get the servers out of China and on U.S. soil for security reasons.

17 – Retail
Allocate more employees to help people at the help desk. Every store I go in has 10-20 sales people, mostly talking to one another, meanwhile 2-3 tech people are backlogged with pissed off customers. This is mis-managed and can be better handled.

18 – Keynotes
Tim, step aside and let someone with passion, excitement and a great stage excitement do the keynotes. Make them count. Don’t assemble the press and your fan base to come to one of these events to tell them the new iPhone is thinner. Don’t waste everyone’s time and understand when you have the stage.. perform… sell… and if you lack things to talk about, then it should be telling to your allocation of the talent around you and how you utilized them.

19 – Apple Pay
WHY is this not being advertised like crazy? No excuse for the lazy approach to this. Advertise this everywhere. Co-Brand with world brands. Do a co-brand commercial with subway showing people buying a sandwich and paying with their phone in seconds. Show how easy and secure it is. Almost every person I tell about Apple Pay has no clue about how much more secure it is than the other choices. Even the retail staff doesn’t know. Who’s job is that to tell them? Apple! Run ads showcasing that strength.

20 – HomeKit
See how users use products like Control4 and start building the ecosystem for that. I feel this, along with CarPlay, can be a game-changer if done right. You create great things like HomeKit, yet trying to educate the consumer about it is lacking. There should a fun section on the website all about these technologies you have. Consumers should not have to dig for that info. The website and marketing should be promoting them more aggressively. This is a under utilized sector for Apple.

21 – iPad
iPad should be updated every year and announced and released Q3 for holiday quarter sales.

22 – R&D
Make sure the products are tested enough so you don’t have issues after the release (see maps, EarPods, macbook pro 2016 battery, etc.. )

23 - Fix your Christmas failures
2017 - missed releasing HomePod release for Christmas
2016 - missed AirPod inventory to sell
2015 - missed inventory on iPhone to meet demand
2014 - missed iMac inventory to sell thru Christmas
This is a ongoing problem. The date for Christmas has not changed in 2017 years.
Take around 1% of your revenue $200 - $250B and hire 50,000 workers averaging $50,000 each
and diversify them into manufacturing plants: 20,000 in the U.S., 10,000 in China, 10,000 in Mexico and
10,000 in India to meet your product demand so the cycles of the products are announced, released and
exercised in ONE financial quarter so your analytic data points are more accurate sand consumers are better served.

24 - Better communication
Way too many PR nightmare from one CEO for such a small sku product line. Throttling the iOS without
letting people know was one of the worst executions this company has ever done.. again under Tim Cook.

Those are some of my ideas.
Richard Hofherr

 

[Nozuka]

That's a weird Top 10.....
But i don't live in the US, so maybe it makes more sense for locals.

 

[ColdShadow]

I'm not surprised.
I was a big Apple fan and loved their products.
But past few years they have disappointed me over and over.only a blind fanboy will fully defend them now.
iPhone X was the biggest disappointmeng for me.
I've now sold it and switched to Samsung Note 8 a truely superior product.
I also got rid of my Watch 3,simply underwhelming product line.
I only hold on to my Macbook and Airpods now.
I have to say I'm not happy with 12" Macbook either,
I owned iMac and Macbook Pros before and they were solid machines but the 12 Inch MB is far from being on par.

 

[kevinbeared]

I'm not surprised.
I was a big Apple fan and loved their products.
But past few years they have disappointed me over and over.only a blind fanboy will fully defend them now.
iPhone X was the biggest disappointmeng fir me.
I've now sold it and switched to Samsung Note 8 a tryely superior product.
I also got rid of my Watch 3,simply underwhelming product line.
I only hold on to my Macbook and Airpods now.
I have to say I'm not happy with 12" Macbook either,
I owned iMac and Macbook Pros before and they were solid but the 12 Inch MB is far from being on par.

I agree, i was really an enthusiastic Apple fan, but now with the downgrade of performance with old iPhone, that was really the end. I can't stop thinking about the meeting they had where the guy present the fact that they can "reduce performance" and so the sales will continue to increase, and we will be able to input that on battery if somebody finds out because one of the effect is that the iPhone won't shutdown "sometime"... this is disgusting really...

Only blind fanboy can defend them..

and also with the iPhone X they don't provide wireless charging is so cheap for a phone that expensive, it's a joke.

The problem is that if i were a shareholders, i would be the happiest on earth, Tim Cook is doing a great job at making the most money out of everything on a short term period, they exceed expectations. and the people who decide are the shareholders now.. so don't expect a change

 

[Solomani]

Tesla? Really? The Model 3 was like vaporware for a long time for many pre-payers.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Not working keyboards on very high priced MacBook Pros and very high cost for the iPhone X I can understand why customers are less happier than before.

 

[simonmet]

This poll’s author seems adamant it’s only a temporary dip for Apple, but I don’t see it that way.

All this talk of Apple’s tax dealings, the insanely expensive and problematic recent MacBook Pros and now the $1,000 iPhone X are tipping the balance of opinion against Apple in favour of them being overly miserly, greedy and self-serving. I don’t know anyone that doesn’t grumble about or flat out hate Apple now, and these are mostly long-time Apple users, including myself!

That the CEO looks and sounds like a banker doesn’t help.

 

[CarpalMac]

Unless we know what questions were asked, this is a very broad and thus meaningless survey.

Whilst most people I know use Amazon and enjoy their customer service, as a company to work for and tax payer, they are not thought of with high regard by myself and many others.

When I think of companies with great reputation, Walt Disney definitely doesn't jump to mind either.

That quote from the CEO even suggests the poll is more about the popularity of their products than overall reputation.

 

[gnipgnop]

So Chick-fil-A has released "attention grabbing products" in the market?

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Tim Cook Needs to GO!
I have been saying this for years!

My solutions (which Apple did not let me post on their suggestion forum)

Dear Apple,

1 – MacPro
Update the MacPro every year with any updates that exist – more ram, faster graphics, MORE I/O ( not less ), more storage, expandability and upgradability. THIS is what a PRO user wants and needs. No reason not to update this yearly. In the Q1 timeframe, a time when companies allocate funds towards equipment and the consumer market slows down. It’s not a fluke why the consumer electronics show, NAMM, auto show, etc.. all pimp new products in Jan/Feb.. now sell to them. 5 YEARS since last update.. unacceptable.

2 – Displays
No reason to blow this market off. You proudly advertise how great your retina display is, yet you ignore making a desktop one? Confusing. Make displays to compliment your MacPro and MacMini. Not to mention having a Apple logo in front of millions of users doesn’t help sustain the brand in people’s minds. 5 YEARS since last update.. unacceptable.

3 – Mac Mini
I still think this product is used and should still be made, just update it.

4 – iMac
WHY is this not a priority to Apple? Make NEW iMacs every year. Announce AND release it in Q3 for the Holiday season; and make sure you manufacturer enough to meet the demand.

5 – iPhone
Increase battery life. More innovation. Don’t neglect the 4″ size, just because Samsung made you think the world wants huge phones… not everyone does. Loose the “s”, it makes no sense on the marketing side to the consumer. And if you are going to do a whole keynote and release a new model, make sure it has more than “look how thin it is”

6 – iWatch
Utilize the board of directors you built on this device to help recognize heart attack and stroke symptoms before they happen. Having the watch excel in the medical and health field will reap dividends for years to come… making it a must-have product.

7 – AppleTV
The i/o again is lacking for systems that run like Control4 that needs better options for i/o.
Get the deals done with the networks to help consumers rid the stranglehold on cable companies that over-charge for a million channels.

8 – MacBook Pro
Bring back i/o!!!!
If you want to be respected as a PRO machine, allow there PROS to USE it without 1,000 cables coming out of it. Pro users do not want to deal with dongles.

9 – MacBook / MacBook Air
just give them a refresh more often than 3 years
I really don’t understand the difficulty to update these yearly, without the need for a re-design…

10 – Stock
Keep buying back diluted shares so it’s harder to be manipulated. AAPL is one of the most manipulated stocks on the market.

11- Aquisitions
Make sure what you are looking to acquire is not something Apple can achieve on it’s own with the talent within. (See Beats). And whoever is negotiating these deals needs to grow a pair and learn how to get better deals and not waste so much money on some of these companies. When I see what Apple pays for these acquisitions, I shake my head. Paying $3B for beats was a terrible decision.
Tim didn’t get the memo that Apple CREATES ecosystems and doesn’t just buy them.
If you’re gonna acquire a company, acquire Adobe; for the assets.

12 – Diversify Manufacturing
Apple needs to diversify manufacturing to more than one resource to meet the demand. Be the leader in bringing back manufacturing on a large scale back to America. Utilize China, Mexico and India to meet demand for products so the consumer can purchase the products you are advertising.

13 – Advertising
More money needs to be spent on Advertising and aggressive advertising. Apple has gotten a little weak on ads. Marketing is everything.

14 – iTunes
Fix iTunes. It’s such a pain and over-bloated. iTunes 2010 runs better than iTunes 2017… that is messed up.

15 – Software
Fix Mail. Fix spotlight. Bring back Aperture.
Allocate staff to interact with users of your software and aggressively update them based on the users input. It’s not that difficult.. the users will give you the answers to the quiz. Listen to them and your software will shine.

16 – iCloud
This is kind of embarrassing. Other companies offer better services for less money. it almost makes more sense to roll $5 - $10 more into each product and offer iCloud for free with a generous space to sustain the
user base, offering tons of services with all that content. 1TB free is what I would offer.
Get the servers out of China and on U.S. soil for security reasons.

17 – Retail
Allocate more employees to help people at the help desk. Every store I go in has 10-20 sales people, mostly talking to one another, meanwhile 2-3 tech people are backlogged with pissed off customers. This is mis-managed and can be better handled.

18 – Keynotes
Tim, step aside and let someone with passion, excitement and a great stage excitement do the keynotes. Make them count. Don’t assemble the press and your fan base to come to one of these events to tell them the new iPhone is thinner. Don’t waste everyone’s time and understand when you have the stage.. perform… sell… and if you lack things to talk about, then it should be telling to your allocation of the talent around you and how you utilized them.

19 – Apple Pay
WHY is this not being advertised like crazy? No excuse for the lazy approach to this. Advertise this everywhere. Co-Brand with world brands. Do a co-brand commercial with subway showing people buying a sandwich and paying with their phone in seconds. Show how easy and secure it is. Almost every person I tell about Apple Pay has no clue about how much more secure it is than the other choices. Even the retail staff doesn’t know. Who’s job is that to tell them? Apple! Run ads showcasing that strength.

20 – HomeKit
See how users use products like Control4 and start building the ecosystem for that. I feel this, along with CarPlay, can be a game-changer if done right. You create great things like HomeKit, yet trying to educate the consumer about it is lacking. There should a fun section on the website all about these technologies you have. Consumers should not have to dig for that info. The website and marketing should be promoting them more aggressively. This is a under utilized sector for Apple.

21 – iPad
iPad should be updated every year and announced and released Q3 for holiday quarter sales.

22 – R&D
Make sure the products are tested enough so you don’t have issues after the release (see maps, EarPods, macbook pro 2016 battery, etc.. )

23 - Fix your Christmas failures
2017 - missed releasing HomePod release for Christmas
2016 - missed AirPod inventory to sell
2015 - missed inventory on iPhone to meet demand
2014 - missed iMac inventory to sell thru Christmas
This is a ongoing problem. The date for Christmas has not changed in 2017 years.
Take around 1% of your revenue $200 - $250B and hire 50,000 workers averaging $50,000 each
and diversify them into manufacturing plants: 20,000 in the U.S., 10,000 in China, 10,000 in Mexico and
10,000 in India to meet your product demand so the cycles of the products are announced, released and
exercised in ONE financial quarter so your analytic data points are more accurate sand consumers are better served.

24 - Better communication
Way too many PR nightmare from one CEO for such a small sku product line. Throttling the iOS without
letting people know was one of the worst executions this company has ever done.. again under Tim Cook.

Those are some of my ideas.
Richard Hofherr

Thanks Richard. I’m sure we all appreciate your opinion but I’m sure there is a reason you’re not the CEO of a 900 billion dollar company. One can always dream though.

 

[merkinmuffley]

When UPS outranks you something is really wrong. So begins the long walk down the mountain.

 

[Avieshek]

Remember, $1000s for an iPhone is only in the US.

And it already is driving people nuts.

 

[Foxglove9]

That's a weird Top 10.....
But i don't live in the US, so maybe it makes more sense for locals.

I live in the US and agree that it is a very weird list. A lot of those companies I have never even heard of or used before.

 

[Rogifan]

So Chick-fil-A has released "attention grabbing products" in the market?

And Aldi? This list is whack.

 

[Sheza]

Tim Cook Needs to GO!
I have been saying this for years!

My solutions (which Apple did not let me post on their suggestion forum)

Dear Apple,

1 – MacPro
Update the MacPro every year with any updates that exist – more ram, faster graphics, MORE I/O ( not less ), more storage, expandability and upgradability. THIS is what a PRO user wants and needs. No reason not to update this yearly. In the Q1 timeframe, a time when companies allocate funds towards equipment and the consumer market slows down. It’s not a fluke why the consumer electronics show, NAMM, auto show, etc.. all pimp new products in Jan/Feb.. now sell to them. 5 YEARS since last update.. unacceptable.

2 – Displays
No reason to blow this market off. You proudly advertise how great your retina display is, yet you ignore making a desktop one? Confusing. Make displays to compliment your MacPro and MacMini. Not to mention having a Apple logo in front of millions of users doesn’t help sustain the brand in people’s minds. 5 YEARS since last update.. unacceptable.

3 – Mac Mini
I still think this product is used and should still be made, just update it.

4 – iMac
WHY is this not a priority to Apple? Make NEW iMacs every year. Announce AND release it in Q3 for the Holiday season; and make sure you manufacturer enough to meet the demand.

5 – iPhone
Increase battery life. More innovation. Don’t neglect the 4″ size, just because Samsung made you think the world wants huge phones… not everyone does. Loose the “s”, it makes no sense on the marketing side to the consumer. And if you are going to do a whole keynote and release a new model, make sure it has more than “look how thin it is”

6 – iWatch
Utilize the board of directors you built on this device to help recognize heart attack and stroke symptoms before they happen. Having the watch excel in the medical and health field will reap dividends for years to come… making it a must-have product.

7 – AppleTV
The i/o again is lacking for systems that run like Control4 that needs better options for i/o.
Get the deals done with the networks to help consumers rid the stranglehold on cable companies that over-charge for a million channels.

8 – MacBook Pro
Bring back i/o!!!!
If you want to be respected as a PRO machine, allow there PROS to USE it without 1,000 cables coming out of it. Pro users do not want to deal with dongles.

9 – MacBook / MacBook Air
just give them a refresh more often than 3 years
I really don’t understand the difficulty to update these yearly, without the need for a re-design…

10 – Stock
Keep buying back diluted shares so it’s harder to be manipulated. AAPL is one of the most manipulated stocks on the market.

11- Aquisitions
Make sure what you are looking to acquire is not something Apple can achieve on it’s own with the talent within. (See Beats). And whoever is negotiating these deals needs to grow a pair and learn how to get better deals and not waste so much money on some of these companies. When I see what Apple pays for these acquisitions, I shake my head. Paying $3B for beats was a terrible decision.
Tim didn’t get the memo that Apple CREATES ecosystems and doesn’t just buy them.
If you’re gonna acquire a company, acquire Adobe; for the assets.

12 – Diversify Manufacturing
Apple needs to diversify manufacturing to more than one resource to meet the demand. Be the leader in bringing back manufacturing on a large scale back to America. Utilize China, Mexico and India to meet demand for products so the consumer can purchase the products you are advertising.

13 – Advertising
More money needs to be spent on Advertising and aggressive advertising. Apple has gotten a little weak on ads. Marketing is everything.

14 – iTunes
Fix iTunes. It’s such a pain and over-bloated. iTunes 2010 runs better than iTunes 2017… that is messed up.

15 – Software
Fix Mail. Fix spotlight. Bring back Aperture.
Allocate staff to interact with users of your software and aggressively update them based on the users input. It’s not that difficult.. the users will give you the answers to the quiz. Listen to them and your software will shine.

16 – iCloud
This is kind of embarrassing. Other companies offer better services for less money. it almost makes more sense to roll $5 - $10 more into each product and offer iCloud for free with a generous space to sustain the
user base, offering tons of services with all that content. 1TB free is what I would offer.
Get the servers out of China and on U.S. soil for security reasons.

17 – Retail
Allocate more employees to help people at the help desk. Every store I go in has 10-20 sales people, mostly talking to one another, meanwhile 2-3 tech people are backlogged with pissed off customers. This is mis-managed and can be better handled.

18 – Keynotes
Tim, step aside and let someone with passion, excitement and a great stage excitement do the keynotes. Make them count. Don’t assemble the press and your fan base to come to one of these events to tell them the new iPhone is thinner. Don’t waste everyone’s time and understand when you have the stage.. perform… sell… and if you lack things to talk about, then it should be telling to your allocation of the talent around you and how you utilized them.

19 – Apple Pay
WHY is this not being advertised like crazy? No excuse for the lazy approach to this. Advertise this everywhere. Co-Brand with world brands. Do a co-brand commercial with subway showing people buying a sandwich and paying with their phone in seconds. Show how easy and secure it is. Almost every person I tell about Apple Pay has no clue about how much more secure it is than the other choices. Even the retail staff doesn’t know. Who’s job is that to tell them? Apple! Run ads showcasing that strength.

20 – HomeKit
See how users use products like Control4 and start building the ecosystem for that. I feel this, along with CarPlay, can be a game-changer if done right. You create great things like HomeKit, yet trying to educate the consumer about it is lacking. There should a fun section on the website all about these technologies you have. Consumers should not have to dig for that info. The website and marketing should be promoting them more aggressively. This is a under utilized sector for Apple.

21 – iPad
iPad should be updated every year and announced and released Q3 for holiday quarter sales.

22 – R&D
Make sure the products are tested enough so you don’t have issues after the release (see maps, EarPods, macbook pro 2016 battery, etc.. )

23 - Fix your Christmas failures
2017 - missed releasing HomePod release for Christmas
2016 - missed AirPod inventory to sell
2015 - missed inventory on iPhone to meet demand
2014 - missed iMac inventory to sell thru Christmas
This is a ongoing problem. The date for Christmas has not changed in 2017 years.
Take around 1% of your revenue $200 - $250B and hire 50,000 workers averaging $50,000 each
and diversify them into manufacturing plants: 20,000 in the U.S., 10,000 in China, 10,000 in Mexico and
10,000 in India to meet your product demand so the cycles of the products are announced, released and
exercised in ONE financial quarter so your analytic data points are more accurate sand consumers are better served.

24 - Better communication
Way too many PR nightmare from one CEO for such a small sku product line. Throttling the iOS without
letting people know was one of the worst executions this company has ever done.. again under Tim Cook.

Those are some of my ideas.
Richard Hofherr

I lost interest when you called it the 'iWatch'.

These ideas, yeah they're cool, but they're a fantasy. It's not possible for half of them to happen.

 

[now i see it]

Cuz "exciting products in the pipeline" wasn't

 

[djcerla]

That top 10 completely devalues this “research”.

And the haters on MR are just funny. People love Apple more than ever, and competitors scramble to copy everything they do, most recent examples being screen notches and Animojis.

This tremendous mindshare is the foundation of things like the biggest quarterly income ever for a company or a market cap quickly closing in on one trillion dollars.

 

[barkomatic]

I still really enjoy my iPhone and iPad but what's not mentioned was the buggy, awful release of iOS 11 and all of the issues it caused. Also the scandal surrounding throttling older iPhones I'm sure damaged Apple's reputation.

Lastly, I've mentioned this on at least 4 threads but I have not yet fully worked though my frustration--Siri is an embarrassment at this point.

 

[Glmnet1]

Tim Cook Needs to GO!
I have been saying this for years!

My solutions (which Apple did not let me post on their suggestion forum)

Dear Apple,

1 – MacPro
Update the MacPro every year with any updates that exist – more ram, faster graphics, MORE I/O ( not less ), more storage, expandability and upgradability. THIS is what a PRO user wants and needs. No reason not to update this yearly. In the Q1 timeframe, a time when companies allocate funds towards equipment and the consumer market slows down. It’s not a fluke why the consumer electronics show, NAMM, auto show, etc.. all pimp new products in Jan/Feb.. now sell to them. 5 YEARS since last update.. unacceptable.

2 – Displays
No reason to blow this market off. You proudly advertise how great your retina display is, yet you ignore making a desktop one? Confusing. Make displays to compliment your MacPro and MacMini. Not to mention having a Apple logo in front of millions of users doesn’t help sustain the brand in people’s minds. 5 YEARS since last update.. unacceptable.

3 – Mac Mini
I still think this product is used and should still be made, just update it.

4 – iMac
WHY is this not a priority to Apple? Make NEW iMacs every year. Announce AND release it in Q3 for the Holiday season; and make sure you manufacturer enough to meet the demand.

5 – iPhone
Increase battery life. More innovation. Don’t neglect the 4″ size, just because Samsung made you think the world wants huge phones… not everyone does. Loose the “s”, it makes no sense on the marketing side to the consumer. And if you are going to do a whole keynote and release a new model, make sure it has more than “look how thin it is”

6 – iWatch
Utilize the board of directors you built on this device to help recognize heart attack and stroke symptoms before they happen. Having the watch excel in the medical and health field will reap dividends for years to come… making it a must-have product.

7 – AppleTV
The i/o again is lacking for systems that run like Control4 that needs better options for i/o.
Get the deals done with the networks to help consumers rid the stranglehold on cable companies that over-charge for a million channels.

8 – MacBook Pro
Bring back i/o!!!!
If you want to be respected as a PRO machine, allow there PROS to USE it without 1,000 cables coming out of it. Pro users do not want to deal with dongles.

9 – MacBook / MacBook Air
just give them a refresh more often than 3 years
I really don’t understand the difficulty to update these yearly, without the need for a re-design…

10 – Stock
Keep buying back diluted shares so it’s harder to be manipulated. AAPL is one of the most manipulated stocks on the market.

11- Aquisitions
Make sure what you are looking to acquire is not something Apple can achieve on it’s own with the talent within. (See Beats). And whoever is negotiating these deals needs to grow a pair and learn how to get better deals and not waste so much money on some of these companies. When I see what Apple pays for these acquisitions, I shake my head. Paying $3B for beats was a terrible decision.
Tim didn’t get the memo that Apple CREATES ecosystems and doesn’t just buy them.
If you’re gonna acquire a company, acquire Adobe; for the assets.

12 – Diversify Manufacturing
Apple needs to diversify manufacturing to more than one resource to meet the demand. Be the leader in bringing back manufacturing on a large scale back to America. Utilize China, Mexico and India to meet demand for products so the consumer can purchase the products you are advertising.

13 – Advertising
More money needs to be spent on Advertising and aggressive advertising. Apple has gotten a little weak on ads. Marketing is everything.

14 – iTunes
Fix iTunes. It’s such a pain and over-bloated. iTunes 2010 runs better than iTunes 2017… that is messed up.

15 – Software
Fix Mail. Fix spotlight. Bring back Aperture.
Allocate staff to interact with users of your software and aggressively update them based on the users input. It’s not that difficult.. the users will give you the answers to the quiz. Listen to them and your software will shine.

16 – iCloud
This is kind of embarrassing. Other companies offer better services for less money. it almost makes more sense to roll $5 - $10 more into each product and offer iCloud for free with a generous space to sustain the
user base, offering tons of services with all that content. 1TB free is what I would offer.
Get the servers out of China and on U.S. soil for security reasons.

17 – Retail
Allocate more employees to help people at the help desk. Every store I go in has 10-20 sales people, mostly talking to one another, meanwhile 2-3 tech people are backlogged with pissed off customers. This is mis-managed and can be better handled.

18 – Keynotes
Tim, step aside and let someone with passion, excitement and a great stage excitement do the keynotes. Make them count. Don’t assemble the press and your fan base to come to one of these events to tell them the new iPhone is thinner. Don’t waste everyone’s time and understand when you have the stage.. perform… sell… and if you lack things to talk about, then it should be telling to your allocation of the talent around you and how you utilized them.

19 – Apple Pay
WHY is this not being advertised like crazy? No excuse for the lazy approach to this. Advertise this everywhere. Co-Brand with world brands. Do a co-brand commercial with subway showing people buying a sandwich and paying with their phone in seconds. Show how easy and secure it is. Almost every person I tell about Apple Pay has no clue about how much more secure it is than the other choices. Even the retail staff doesn’t know. Who’s job is that to tell them? Apple! Run ads showcasing that strength.

20 – HomeKit
See how users use products like Control4 and start building the ecosystem for that. I feel this, along with CarPlay, can be a game-changer if done right. You create great things like HomeKit, yet trying to educate the consumer about it is lacking. There should a fun section on the website all about these technologies you have. Consumers should not have to dig for that info. The website and marketing should be promoting them more aggressively. This is a under utilized sector for Apple.

21 – iPad
iPad should be updated every year and announced and released Q3 for holiday quarter sales.

22 – R&D
Make sure the products are tested enough so you don’t have issues after the release (see maps, EarPods, macbook pro 2016 battery, etc.. )

23 - Fix your Christmas failures
2017 - missed releasing HomePod release for Christmas
2016 - missed AirPod inventory to sell
2015 - missed inventory on iPhone to meet demand
2014 - missed iMac inventory to sell thru Christmas
This is a ongoing problem. The date for Christmas has not changed in 2017 years.
Take around 1% of your revenue $200 - $250B and hire 50,000 workers averaging $50,000 each
and diversify them into manufacturing plants: 20,000 in the U.S., 10,000 in China, 10,000 in Mexico and
10,000 in India to meet your product demand so the cycles of the products are announced, released and
exercised in ONE financial quarter so your analytic data points are more accurate sand consumers are better served.

24 - Better communication
Way too many PR nightmare from one CEO for such a small sku product line. Throttling the iOS without
letting people know was one of the worst executions this company has ever done.. again under Tim Cook.

Those are some of my ideas.
Richard Hofherr

Thank you for your expert advice on business, technology, PR, software development and marketing. I hope someone at Apple will read this so they can finally become a successful company!

 

[WWPD]

HEB is a local Texas grocery store...this list is so random.

 

[Scottsoapbox]

This tracks with my college seniors' opinions. They used to LOVE Apple, now they are just meh about it in class (from behind their Macbook they bought at HS graduation).

 

[Markoth]

Thanks Richard. I’m sure we all appreciate your opinion but I’m sure there is a reason you’re not the CEO of a 900 billion dollar company. One can always dream though.

...as if being a CEO is some sort of guarantee that he's doing a good job? There is a lot to criticize about Tim Cook, and no, I don't believe he's doing a good job. Do I think I could do a better job? Not at all. I know that other CEOs have though, and that's why we can place the blame squarely on his shoulders.

 

[dmylrea]

That top 10 completely devalues this “research”.

And the haters on MR are just funny. People love Apple more than ever, and competitors scramble to copy everything they do, most recent examples being screen notches and Animojis.

This tremendous mindshare is the foundation of things like the biggest quarterly income ever for a company or a market cap quickly closing in on one trillion dollars.

Not as funny as the blind Apple fanboys. Do people love Apple more than ever? How long have you been following that trend?

When a company overprices their products with HUGE profit margins, is it any surprise that they have record income?

Yet so much of their product line is old, outdated and over-priced. Funny how you don't see that.

 

[Spock]

I don’t think Tim needs to go, I just think Apple needs to work on cleaning up and updating the product line, Apple is starting to look like it did in the 90’s except the Performa, Qudra and PowerMacs are now the MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with the iPad and iPad Pro shoved in between.