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Apple Reports First Year-Over-Year Revenue Decline Since 2003: $10.5B Profit on $50.6B in Revenue

James5K said:
I agree. It's obvious that Tim Cook has turned Apple into simply a cash machine nowadays.

Result is always the same: huge profits for awhile, then it all comes apart.

Focusing on making the best products possible at the best value possible is what ensures long-term growth. Jobs understood that.
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Tim Cook is probably the best person to take on the CEO role, his job basically is to make profits. However, they need someone else to have a vision. I always got the impression he was largely responsible for the day to day running of the company. Even when Steve Jobs was the CEO, he left the nuts and bolts of the operation to Tim Cook (probably why Cook become the CEO).

Steve Jobs thing was he demanded a lot, and I mean a lot out of his devices which in turn put a lot of pressure on the engineers and designers to continue innovating. In some cases they got it wrong, like the decision not to put fans inside the original Macintosh, or the horribly under powered fans in the original Macbooks.

But when they got it right it was amazing achievement. Remember how shocked the world was that Apple could make a laptop thin enough to fit in an envelope. Or the original iPhone had enough battery life to last the whole day despite having a massive touch screen and the massive touch screen was actually usable.

The difference is pretty obvious like take the iPad Pro, I think had it been released with Steve Jobs at the helm it would have been quite different. I don't know if it would run Mac OS or iOS but most likely it would have run a UI similar to iOS when it was undocked, but when docked to something like the Surface's Dock it would have had a UI like Mac OS.


Tim Cook could remain CEO, but there needs to be someone who has a vision to take over product development. Satya Nadella has basically been that for Microsoft, I am probably more excited about the new Surface Book than any Macbook in ages, and if you look Surface sales are booming.
 
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Abazigal said:
For the record, I think Apple doesn't so much create new product categories as much as they replace older ones.

What makes you think Apple isn't already planning this?

For all we know, Apple could simply be milking the iPhone for every cent it is worth, before eventually cannibalising it with the next big thing when they feel the time is ripe.
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Yes, of course that's correct, but smartphones before iPhone were not really all that smart or popular.
Apple could be planning the next great platform but at this point, it's unclear what that next platform will be or whether Apple can do something revolutionary.

I guess the reason people are skeptical is because a) it's really hard to succeed on the scale that Apple did with iPhones and b) Apple Watch does not seem to be that new category defining success.
 
I am always impressed to see how much CEO and CFO are prepare to answer questions from these investment people. Luca uses some financial terms and Tim uses Apple language like "huge party" instead of say "higher ratio".
 
Starfyre said:
I recall there was mention that Steve Jobs had charted the way for future iPhones... did the roadmap just go up to iPhone 6?
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I thought that was just a fantasy on the part of a UK newspaper that started the whole "he must have charted out a five year plan" thing.

In actual trial testimony, Apple executives said that they would often make major product modifications or decisions at the last minute.

Another trial document was Jobs' late 2010 agenda for their yearly secret "top 100" meeting. It only talked about 2011's plan, and the only thing further out than that was the plans for the new spaceship campus. (A very interesting entry in that agenda was talk about doing a cheaper phone based on the iPod touch, to replace the 3GS.)

CFreymarc said:
I would not be surprised if both the Apple Watch and the Swift programming language development started after Steve passed away.
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Yep. Jon Ive has said that he came up with the Apple Watch project the month after Jobs died.
 
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RedOrchestra said:
Cook: SE is attracting customers who wanted a more compact package, and also those who couldn't quite stretch to the previous entry price.

So Apple is noticing a pricing choke point in it's target demographic.
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Personally, I think the SE was introduced to be used as a convenient scapegoat when discussing declining ASPs that were already happening.
 
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16gb phones, 2gb ram on Ipad Pro Models, 480P camera on the Macbook. Maybe Apple will finally wake up and stop the nonsense.
 
I am a huge Apple fan but I am happy their sales have declined. Maybe Apple will re-focus and start to paying attention to their Mac lines and make sure their upgrades are solid and big ones. Not small ones keeping a large price tag.
I am holding to my devices longer and longer. My Mac Pro is from 2011, I just updates my iPad after 4 years I think. My iPhone still the 5S.
Stop spreading all over on many industries and focus on what you have done best.
 
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FSMBP said:
For everyone who constantly discredits Steve Jobs contributions, the man did do something at Apple. He didn't write code/source parts from vendors etc, but he gave direction as he knew what to work on. Tim Cook isn't the same visionary; the numbers show this. Apple needs to **focus** on building fewer products and making them the best.
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Yeah, under Tim Cook, Apple's stock price is only 2-3x higher than when Steve Jobs left. And with a great deal of PE compression.
 
mrhick01 said:
I cannot understand why some adults expect or expected Tim Cook to be a clone of Steve Jobs. Jobs was a unique visionary, and he's dead.

Cook has not "failed" Apple. Tim Cook is doing what he does the best and that is keep Apple highly profitable.

Perhaps they should ask themselves "When is attention to form over function too much?" The professional lineup of tools do need a refresh. I hope that we do see Thunderbolt 3/10gigEthernet/next-level Wi-Fi implemented in the new devices... The priorities have shifted. They do not want to be a $20 billion to $30 billion computer company exclusively, they are more than that and I believe that people have to get used to it.

However, all of this talk about Cook needing to resign or even be fired is absurd. I find such rhetoric to be glorified FUD.
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Oh, I'm sorry, I feel so bad about that! /s

The Lakers shouldn't have fired Bryron Scott either - nor should they change anyone in the front office. After all, didn't you see Kobe's last game? That was a HUGE event, and the Lakers were killing it!
 
JustThinkin' said:
Oh, I'm sorry, I feel so bad about that! /s

The Lakers shouldn't have fired Bryron Scott either - nor should they change anyone in the front office. After all, didn't you see Kobe's last game? That was a HUGE event, and the Lakers were killing it!
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Byron Scott thinks he's smarter than all his haters out there.
You need to man up, brah.
 
Revenue can't keep rising, a drop was certain at some point. No need to worry - unless this trend continues.

We can hope that Apple have good products in the pipeline.
 
alexgowers said:
YoY changes are pointless to read into. Just look at the previous years growth, they have a very long way to fall before they could be considered failing.

10 Billion in pure profit is going to be like 80% of all actual smart phone profits, they're doing superb by all account still with just a few phones updated yearly it's astounding.

I'm not a lover of apple as a company i think they stink at a lot of things but calling this anything other than roaring success is idiotic.
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Exactly right, but since they didn't at least match the previous quarter, Wall Street and the tech folks here with no clue about business or reality say Apple is doomed. The problem is that Apple has been so successful for so long, when they don't at least match that success, people lose their minds, as evidenced by many of the posts here.
 
firewood said:
Dividend yield over 2% !

That's a lot better rate than my bank or even credit union currently offer.
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But... there is this notion of risk. Your bank deposit does not decrease with time whereas AAPL might (and that's exactly what it is doing right now). What good is the 2% dividend if your stock value drops by, say, 10%.
 
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maflynn said:
65% of apple's profits are from a single product line - that can be a scary statistic to the wall street folks. The iPhone isn't going anywhere but Apple's success is tied to the iPhone
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The problem I see with this is over time the iPhone's chunk of the revenue has continued to grow while everything else is slowly shrinking. If this trend continues to the point Apple is counting on the iPhone for 70+% of their revenue, one slip with one product could be extremely damaging to the corporation. They have to find a way to diversify especially in established markets that are beginning to saturate with smart phones.

Some have given me a hard time for calling Apple a one-trick pony, but that really is becoming reality as Apple relies more and more on the iPhone every quarter.
 
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Stop blaming Tim. He's only there to make the trains run on time.

Jony was supposed to be the new Steve. His buddy. His soulmate. Hired by Steve. Nurtured by Steve. Eating lunch with Steve.

Put the product blame where it belongs.

[And the dude with the hair].
 
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firewood said:
Not at all. If iPhone sales went to nearly zero, the Mac business alone would still be bigger than RIM was, and profitable to boot.
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You are right, which is why it's foolish for Apple to keep treating their Mac customers the way they have. They haven't released an update to the Mac Pro since 2013, the 15" MBP is still on Haswell, the Mac Mini is gimped, the MBA is dreadfully dated, and they have given the pros the brush off by letting their software languish and soldering everything in sight down.

If Apple keeps this up and the iPhone were to tank, they might find that they have few Mac customers to go back to. They are foolish.
 
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Just a quick question on the subject of "whole new categories".

Is it normal for every company to dream up "whole new categories" all the time?

Maybe it's just me, but that seems a tad unrealistic.

Sometimes it seems the problem isn't Apple, it's with people's complete mismanagement of their expectations.
 
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FSMBP said:
For everyone who constantly discredits Steve Jobs contributions, the man did do something at Apple. He didn't write code/source parts from vendors etc, but he gave direction as he knew what to work on. Tim Cook isn't the same visionary; the numbers show this. Apple needs to **focus** on building fewer products and making them the best.
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One thing that bothers me is Tim's Apple is now known to release "updates" with fewer features, and then ignores customer demand to restore those missing features.
 
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This is what happens when you are just one product.
A repeat of the mac vs apple II days to follow...!
 
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