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

The hype has started fizzling out.
As somebody who owns a lot of Apple products, I don't think it's unfair.
I've had every single iPhone since the 3GS except the 4S. Like even taking into consideration the most recent 6S/6S Plus. What did we get? The 3D Touch? At the expense of the battery capacity and weight! It's a gimmick. It's not the future of the touch technology.
There are some other examples of some other Apple products with a similar approach. The general public stopped seeing Apple as something cool and hype. Especially, when there are tons of other vendors making something similar or even better.
Apple needs to drop their S cycle! There is no more need to deliberately hold back on new features.
Well, nothing lasts forever! There are no new breathtaking products from them. Maybe they can revitalize it again with the car? Maybe, but by the time it happens, they're not gonna be the only ones with that on the market.
Apple is not doomed, but I think this is the beginning of the end of their reign.
 
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Five quick fixes for Apple:

1. Introduce easier to hold iPhone with more premium (glass) feel with more powerful battery. iPhone 6/6s require a case
2. Fix Macbook line (add Retina to Macbook Air, Slim down current Macbook Pro, whatever)
3. Introduce enhancements to iOS for iPad to make it a true laptop replacement (file system, ability to log in remotely using Java, etc)
4. Introduce a true skinny bundle TV offering (there are tons of Apple TVs out there, Apple is not monetizing them)
5. Improve Siri
 
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Stop focusing on product lines that have matured and focus on new and innovative ways to pull them together with something new!

Tim Cook should move over to CFO and someone with vision be reinstated.
 
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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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I'm sure he did a lot.

I'm not sure he could have done much about the natural maturation of the smartphone market though.

When you have the sort of mind boggling record breaking figures Apple have had over the last couple of years, there's no way they could keep growing indefinitely, Jobs or no Jobs.
 
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If half of Mac buyers are first-time customers, it means that a LOT of people are NOT updating :)

Example: 10M new Mac Buyers, 10M do upgrade.
The REST is simply sitting idle.
Bogus Number.
 
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zubikov said:
Reality setting in. Too large of market cap for growth, saturated phone/tablet market, new products failed to match success of previous launches, no promising news in sight.

I don't see it as a failure, but rather a company that did the impossible over and over, finally coming back down to earth. It's sad but we all knew it would happen one day.
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The fact that a user named Icarus liked your post should be worth 100 likes...
 
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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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Yup. And I think it's fair to be slightly spooked. It's not like Nokia, Blackberry, Palm, or Motorola are shining examples of long term dominance in the phone market.

Phone trends are notoriously fickle, and changes seem to blindside market leaders. I agree that Apple isn't going anywhere and neither is the iPhone, but it could be a signal that trends may be shifting. We will see.
 
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Strange... what about the new plastic straps Apple released for the Watch recently? No traction there? Maybe zombies have taken over Cupertino... no, wait, Mr Jobs passed away.
 
KPOM said:
From the WSJ:
Mr. Cook explained the lower-than-expected revenue forecast for the current quarter as a reflection of Apple’s plan to take $2 billion of inventory out of its sales channel because of the difficult economy, the lower average selling price of the iPhone SE and analysts being too optimistic about a sales surge for Mac computers during the back-to-school shopping season.
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Mr Cook is a "bean counter", not a leader or an innovator like Jobs. Period, end of story.
 
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It's time for Tim Cook to think about moving on.
I don't like where he's moving the company.
He's all about the secret car and seems to have no interest in the core business.
Clearly he was a good yes man to Jobs but without Jobs he's seems to have little direction.
 
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question fear said:
Yup. And I think it's fair to be slightly spooked. It's not like Nokia, Blackberry, Palm, or Motorola are shining examples of long term dominance in the phone market.

Phone trends are notoriously fickle, and changes seem to blindside market leaders. I agree that Apple isn't going anywhere and neither is the iPhone, but it could be a signal that trends may be shifting. We will see.
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They are going to burn their cash in stock buyouts and ridiculous amounts of debt (old article).

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/apple-isnt-really-sitting-on-216-billion-in-cash-2016-01-26
 
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iPhone SE not included in these results, as it launched after the end of the quarter, but demand has been very strong. Demand exceeds supply, but we're working hard to meet demand. iPhone SE puts us in strategic plan to attract new customers.
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That's what I was hoping to hear. The SE was a smart addition to the iPhone family.
 
furam90 said:
No innovation; too much greed. If the standard model iPhone 7 comes with 16 GB storage standard, I will laugh, shake my head and then Abandon ship for Android.
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I wonder how much the decline of iPhone sales is related to carriers stopping subsidizing phones. A lot of college students I know are holding off upgrading their phones because they don't have $800 to spare right now.
 
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JustThinkin' said:
Looking at the historical chart, there are two problems:

1) iPad sales are down
2) There's NO new category!

iPod sales predictably went away, but Other shrank rather than becoming a new category. And now they may be loosing a second category if the iPad continues its slide. It's only the steadily rising Services that has kept Apple from more decline.

As I keep saying, Apple needs something new. 'Car' in 2020 doesn't cut it. In fact, 'Car' will be the biggest departure Apple's ever made from producing computing devices, software, and service. What do they think they're doing? By 2020, who knows if people will even care about them very much anymore???!
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Car won't bring masses of money anyway, how many people do they expect to buy a new Apple car? Assuming it'll cost the usual thousands a new car today costs. Not as many people can afford that sort of thing as they can the iPhone, and no one would be 'upgrading' their car every year! Unless it's leased.
 
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…. but… but…. but we're building … a car!!!!!!!!!!! Because we don't do market research, we magically *know* people want an Apple Go-Car(t) with its built-in obsolescence of two years (that's when the battery dies and you can''t upgrade to the latest iCar OS).
 
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BUY NOW! BUY NOW! new mpb imminent. iPhone 7... This is how stocks work. They are playing the market properly
 
KPOM said:
Major miss, particularly on the upcoming quarter. 2016 is shaping up as an awful year for Apple. Kuo may have been right. Hopefully they can right the ship in 2017. :(
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Yeah "awful" year shaping up for Apple. Only $40 billion in profits instead of $53 billion like last year. The sky is falling! Meanwhile, Microsoft profits are cratering...
 
seatton said:
Didn't Cook tell his employees the iPad sales were finally picking up? I recalled reading this somewhere before the iPad Pro 9.7 was announced. I own one and love it. I also know lots of friends who want one, but get turned off by high price for 2GB of RAM and expensive accessories like Smart Keyboard. I feel like Apple has lost a lot of opportunities on this one. They should have learned from high Apple Watch price. Oh well.. I love Apple and that's just my two cents.
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1. it's not really a pro in first place, it's Air 3 with generation to generation improvements and new features
2. Price should have remained the same, $100 increase is a big turn off
3. Entry level for a "Pro" device should have been 64GB or even 128GB, 32GB is a joke
4. Protruding camera is a design flaw that Apple should have learned from iPhone 6 days, yet continues to release new products with this flaw
5. 4GB of ram should have been a standard for a Pro device, matching its big sibling
5a. in fact devices should spec similarly and the only difference is the size - this would reduce a lot of confusions
 
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