A lot has been made on these pages about Apple being down 40 percent recently and touting it as a sign Apple has lost its way, doesn’t know what its doing, has disappointing products and is generally in trouble. But it’s all touted out of context.
The entire tech market is down. Samsung, often seen as Apple’s biggest rival, is down 95 percent in profits.
…but largely nothing but crickets heard around here.
Working in retail we can see people more hesitant to spend money on tech. Yes, we see Apple selling less than before, but everything else tech is selling less than before. People in general are presently wary of the economy and their financial security.
People are pointing to M2 being a disappointment compared to M1. There might be a bit of that given M1 was such a game changer and M2 a moderate upgrade, but Apple has often introduced devices with moderate upgrades that still sold well. Hell, the entire tech industry does that. Drastic upgrades and change are rare, not the norm.
The “Apple has gone bad” argument is so much nonsense.
Samsung doesn't just produce phones and computers but the big drop for them is not on the s23 series for example but their semiconductor business.
They produce and chips, ram, ssds, and processors and that is a big part of their business. These product segments have dropped with the economy.
This is a completely different situation than Apple. You can claim that Apple is perfect but the reality is Apple has dropped the ball with software stability and hardware features while costing a premium price.
When you pay a lot people demand more.
I can easily give some examples. iOS 16 was a buggy mess when it dropped and there are several issues yet to be resolved.
iPhones are copying Android features that have existed on Android phones for years instead of designing unique industry leading features they did in the past. The pill hole punch cut out is a terrible design and copies in a bad way the hole punch cutout that has existed on numerous Android phones for years as just one example.
Take a look at the iPhone 14 series. It is a mess. It used to be no matter what iPhone you bought you got the latest and greatest features and the only big difference was the screen size.
Not so anymore. The iPhone 14 is almost exactly the same as the iPhone 13 with the same chip! The iPhone 14 max is $100 less than the Pro but it doesn't have the same camera system, it has a year old chip, it doesn't have Pro Motion or the ugly pill hole cut out that is supposedly cool. So you pay almost the same and all you get is a bigger screen. Who would buy that? Then if you actually want a decent phone you have to shell out $1k or more and you still don't even get a decent telephoto lens or real fast charging.
The Mac's are all pretty good but the market for buying computers as a whole has dramatically shifted since COVID and lock downs, the economy has dramatically shifted and a lot of people just don't have extra money like they used to do buying a new Mac or iphone or iPad is a lot harder specially at the price points Apple is selling.
Taken as a whole. Lack of true hardware and software innovation, a lack of stability on iOS, a lack of pro features on Pro iPads, and cost is all a recipe for disaster.
Also in terms of privacy and advertising Apple almost introduced a back door into all of their OS with CSAM scanning which is a huge violation of trust, trying to put more ads and services is also a problem.
Maybe Apple hasn't lost their way but they have certainly gone in some wrong directions and dropped the ball. They are not innovating but following. They have segmented to death every product line they have with all the Pro BS instead of just delivering the best in each product category it seems they try to squeeze out as much profit as possible and hold back as many features on purpose for no other reason than to get people to buy up.
All of this starts to piss people off. Jobs is turning in his grave.
I personally would love to see the end of "Pro" phones and tablets. It is ridiculous. Return to offering a simple product line with the best of everything and just charge for the larger size. Get rid of the "air" on MacBook and just have a MacBook and a MacBook Pro. Stop holding back features like Promotion just to push people into a higher cost bracket.
I could go on and on.
There are many reasons for Apples poor sales performance but I think a lot more of it is self inflicted rather than just the economic market factors. More people are going to get fed up if they don't change some of the things I mentioned.
There will always be the die hard Apple fanatics who will empty their pockets gleefully but the rest of us will only take so much.
