Apple Forecasted to Report First Quarterly Revenue Decline Since 2003

[X38]

Thank you Intel, or no thanks as case applies

And thank you Apple who can't bother to do things like get Thunderbolt in all their products, keep decent GPU's across the line, get GPU over Thunderbolt working for OS/X like it does for Windows, upgrade their one monitor to 4k and Thunderbolt 2 (now 3), get Apple Pencil to work on all iPads, get 3D Touch to work on all iPhones, make a low cost desktop Mac with PCI slots, make a low cost external PCI expansion chassis for laptops, add touch screens to Macs and OS/X, add external pointing (other than Apple Pencil) to iOS, to name just a few of the trivially easy things they've long been rumored to do and should have done long ago and that they don't have to wait for Intel for.

Apple has become far too focused on what they won't do.

 

[Stella]

Apple have become lackluster - their product updates are small increments.. Apple were so desperate at their last press conference they actually announced a new watch strap!

Skylake processors have been out for months, and they've only just got around to releasing a machine with a Skylake CPU...

I hope these earnings give them the kick up the ass they require to innovate again and come out with better product updates.

 

[pedrom]

This is fantastic news, and any single  user should be happy.

While Apple makes the best products (best Phone, Best tablet, Best PCs, Best AIOs, Best ecosystem) they also make the worst (every single 1GBram and/or 16GB iOS device, every single harddrive equipped Mac, every Macbook Air sold after 2012 with that pathetic and disgusting TN panel that doesn't belong in a 100$ Chromebook, etc.).

What about the thought process that lead them to abandon Pro-software? Of course, that had a minimum direct impact, but it changed the perception of the company. How do you value that?

Not only that, hopefully some users abandon  and the ecosystem. It would be great of if all of those sad people defending the 1GB of Ram, 16 GB of storage, lackluster camera, that keep buying Apple products based on hype and misinformation, abandon the ecosystem. They fail to see those decision for what they are: Penny counters. Pathetic penny counters. Pennies that hold technology back.

Remember when you could say "choose what you want" to those asking for advice when buying Apple products? Just look at the Mac line-up, with all of those cheap tricks and disgustingly overpriced and outdated machines: Macs without SSDs, TN Panels, Macs with Ivy Bridge processors... Or iOS devices with 16GB of storage (barely enough for default apps and room for updates, no matter actually using the device), 1GB of RAM (useless for browsing the web, or actually using the device)...

It was known that those pathetic decisions would come to bite the company. I think that the main issue is that guys like Ive (designer) + Cook (the best bean counter on the planet) + Phil (Marketing) have way too much power against the Technical ones (Craig, previously Scott, etc.). Those guys shared the power. Since Jobs died, Phil became more powerful and more of a spokesperson, Cook became CEO, Scott was fired. This clearly ****ed up the balance.

Apple has the most talented people. Apple is the most successful and lucrative public traded company of all time. Apple has no rivals, no immediate dangers... But they dropped the line countless times and this contributes for the "doomed" atmosphere and affects their image. The issue is at the top. Phil has to go. Marketing can't be seen. Products should sell based on their merits (the 6s has a lot of them!). Everything that comes from Phil's mouth is BS. Or Ive's. Also, a CEO should be more balanced than 100% bean counter.

Affecting their image affects costumers that are only driven by it: The same people that would buy those pathetic devices with 16GB of storage but are now buying phones with pathetic support, inferior ecosystems and curved screens.

 

[Lemon Mac]

The End Is Nigh!

...

Now, who’s coming down the pub?

 

[ValO]

They should bring back Scott Forstall. He seemed to be the closest to having the sort of long range vision that Jobs did. At least to us outsiders.

Being arrogant, cocky and stubborn and have some technical knowledge, doesn' t mean you are the next Steve jobs .

 

[koulmj]

...when you made that much money over 10 years, who gives a crap about a decline in revenues? You've made so much already...frankly, I'm over here trying to figure out how to pay my internet cable bill right this month.

 

[RogerWilco]

It's time for new blood.

More likely, just blood. I predict Angela Ahrendts will be the first head to roll in a management shakeup. Cue will drop in the pocket, and Ive will retire to jolly ol' England.

 

[Jax44]

Morning Tim.

Morning Jong-Kyun Shin.

 

[hkoster1]

I feel that Tim Cook's time as caretaker CEO is done.

He's guided Apple to outstanding profits, but has not shown that he can take Apple to new heights in the long-term. The Apple Watch is not a worthy successor to the Mac, the iPhone and the iPad, in my opinion.

In the five years that he has been CEO, he has never shown the passion for Apple products that Steve Jobs did. As a result, the public has become less enthusiastic also.

Finally, the area that Apple most needs attention is services. Eddy Cue is not the right man to lead this area, to put it mildly. Apple needs a major culture change to instil the right ethos for making high quality services. It goes against their traditional culture in a fundamental way, and requires strong leadership to overcome resistance in Apple. Tim Cook is not able to give this leadership, nor does he have the headhunting chops to find the right person; he is too nice, and doesn't have the sharpness in this field.

It's time for new blood.

I've felt that way too after the horribly screwed-up delivery of my iMac last fall, with Apple's customer reps refusing to take responsibility for that. It was like talking to Lily Tomlin's phone company... Apple would investigate, they said in November -- but they never followed up. Apple has been growing fat and lazy, and it's happened under Tim Cook's watch.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

All those people still not upgrading their 4/4s/5/5s. Hmmm... Maybe we should have released a 4 inch version of iPhone 6/6s. Lesson learnt customers, back on track soon-ish.
-Apple

Amazingly it seems TC even botched this up by underestimating demand & not dedicating enough production lines to the SE. What astounds me is that production was TC's expertise before becoming CEO & he has flubbed production estimates on the first retina 27" iMac, the AW release, and now the SE.

 

[newyorksole]

To the people that say Apple is "lackluster"...

They don't hit it out of the park EVERY year with EVERY release. I think people have just gotten so comfortable and so entitled. Innovating isn't as easy as one would think. No matter what Apple comes out with there are always going to be companies that do something similar.

Apple isn't always first to the party, but they usually do a damn good job. A lot of your expectations are way too high.

 

[BenTrovato]

No big deal at all! While you would want Apple to focus more on customers following a bad quarter, often times the opposite is true. One revenue declining quarter is nothing. Two or three consecutive, that might mean something.

 

[Cloudane]

Because they haven't really done anything NEW AND MASSIVE for a while. iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad were all huge earth-shattering releases that shaped the personal gadget industry. The watch is just really an addon for the phone and kinda late compared to Pebble. There's nothing left to revolutionise! So the massive explosive growth will of course snap back a bit. Fairly normal I think, doesn't mean it's game over or anything.

They should get properly into online TV content (maybe on top of that paperweight they sell), I don't mean the TV section of iTunes where you can buy a few episodes of Lost, but a properly done, mainstream subscription service. Netflix half-ass it and have shows dropping like flies constantly as agreements come and go, have a really consumer-hostile attitude towards region locks (and bypasses) etc, they're a waste of space yet the best we actually have. Apple could wipe the floor with them, and they should. I think they could use their massive influence to twist a few arms for more long term / permanent licensing of shows, get rid of pointless regionalisation that stops people in e.g. the UK and Canada from being able to pay for content from the US (forcing them to pirate) etc. That's the big thing we need right now.

 

[thatisme]

I see it as a lack of innovation and imagination, which was SJ's hallmark. The only new (non update) products since SJ's death have been the watch, the pencil and the extended battery backup for the iPhones. I guess you could add the Mac Pro in there, however, it has yet to be updated since its introduction.

In my opinion, stagnation is the catalyst for the reduced revenue, and probably reduced profits, YOY. What they've not had are those revolutionary products like the original iMac, iPod, iPad and iPhone, all of which a NEW market was created for these.

Apple Car is a rabbit hole, and probably will be an money pit with little to no payoff. Apple is a computer and services company, and I think they are getting distracted by Auto and fashion.

 

[Jax44]

They should bring back Scott Forstall. He seemed to be the closest to having the sort of long range vision that Jobs did. At least to us outsiders.

Forstall just cared about his hair.

 

[unobtainium]

[doublepost=1461675021][/doublepost]
This decline would have happened even if Steve Jobs were still alive and running Apple. No product can grow forever.

Somehow I doubt it. Steve Jobs wouldn't have launched the Apple Watch in its current form. Ditto the new Apple TV. Who knows how Apple would be performing if Steve were alive, but I have a feeling the product lineup would be different, and that could have a significant impact on revenues.

Imagine if the watch had been a best seller. Or if it hadn't launched last year, but was just gearing up for a launch (in a more useable form) in 2016.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Being arrogant, cocky and stubborn and have some technical knowledge, doesn' t mean you are the next Steve jobs .

Apparently not from what I've seen out of TC to date. So far nothing world changing, just higher prices in a market segment where prices tend to decrease over time. AW has potential but so far it's an unofficial public beta.

 

[freepomme]

No great products rumored to be in the pipeline, mostly making products bigger/smaller instead of better. Old product lines are being 'updated' with watered down specs.

Y'all know y'all gonna run right out and get the iPhone 7 with 0.2 faster ram and 16gb space. And a Retina display with 0.2 improvement in battery life.

Come on now, we know y'all.

 

[2457282]

I wish that they would split out their units sold count by category so we could see the trend. Where is the watch counts? Are we going to see ipad pro vs ipad sales counts? what are the ATV unit counts? I think this is important because as Apple has been saying for years, we are supposed to be in the post-pc world. As smartphones are now at the saturation point, we are in the post smartphone growth world as well, IMO. Therefore, I would like to see how apple is doing the post-pc/smartphone products. If watches, ipads, and ATVs are picking up, then the news is not so dire, but if the post-x products are also showing flat or in decline then we have real danger.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

No product can grow forever.

Maybe not, but it should be able to at least move sideways instead of down. The fact that Apple's sales are going down means that there are people who could have replaced their old phones, but chose not to.

I'm still holding onto my iPhone 6+ right now. Unless Apple comes up with some new killer features, I'm probably going to stick with it until at least 2018 - maybe longer.

 

[HowEver]

So Apple ONLY SOLD 50-60 million of something. Must be the end.

Oddly, this will jack up the price of Apple stock, since the world makes no sense. So, keep up with the doomsday predictions!

 

[jonnyb098]

I feel that Tim Cook's time as caretaker CEO is done.

He's guided Apple to outstanding profits, but has not shown that he can take Apple to new heights in the long-term. The Apple Watch is not a worthy successor to the Mac, the iPhone and the iPad, in my opinion.

In the five years that he has been CEO, he has never shown the passion for Apple products that Steve Jobs did. As a result, the public has become less enthusiastic also.

Finally, the area that Apple most needs attention is services. Eddy Cue is not the right man to lead this area, to put it mildly. Apple needs a major culture change to instil the right ethos for making high quality services. It goes against their traditional culture in a fundamental way, and requires strong leadership to overcome resistance in Apple. Tim Cook is not able to give this leadership, nor does he have the headhunting chops to find the right person; he is too nice, and doesn't have the sharpness in this field.

It's time for new blood.

The fact you think the watch should be a "successor" to any other product proves the ignorance of many who want the watch to do everything except make you pancakes. It's not that kind of device.

Though I will agree the watch came out WAAAAYYYYY before its time. Timing was damn near perfect with the iPhone and iPad. The fact Apple cant tell us why we NEED it in our lives is the problem. It's not being marketed properly and is still overpriced for all the models above the base. I'm a watch person so I like decent watches. But I'm not about to drop $700-$1000 on something that will be obsolete in 2 years. Not to mention the watch is SLOWWWWWWWWW

 

[Jax44]

I wish that they would split out their units sold count by category so we could see the trend. Where is the watch counts? Are we going to see ipad pro vs ipad sales counts? what are the ATV unit counts? I think this is important because as Apple has been saying for years, we are supposed to be in the post-pc world. As smartphones are now at the saturation point, we are in the post smartphone growth world as well, IMO. Therefore, I would like to see how apple is doing the post-pc/smartphone products. If watches, ipads, and ATVs are picking up, then the news is not so dire, but if the post-x products are also showing flat or in decline then we have real danger.

More like less detail like Amazon and Alphabet, just hardware and services.

That way the Wall Street crooks can't concoct doom so easily.

 

[mountain]

Good to see that their earnings will get declined because they need to update their laptops and innovate. Perhaps, lower the darn prices too

 

[Chupa Chupa]

No matter what Apple comes out with there are always going to be companies that do something similar.

Certainly since SJ passed that has been the case. But the iMac, iPod, iPad, & iPhone all redefined, not imitated, products in their respective categories. The titanium case on the first "TiBook" was something special. The white iBook was iconic as well. The aluminum Mac Pro w/ it's Xeon proc, two optical bays, easy upgradable almost everything at a $2K something price made PC tower owners jealous.

Over 30 years I've spend about $100K on Apple products b/c they are exciting, uncomplicated to operate, and keep me productive rather than in maintenance mode. I've been bored and frustrated with them twice: the mid 90s and now.

It not enough for Apple to produce similar product. Yes, I have high expectations because it's Apple dammit, not Dell.