Apple Says 'You're Only as Good as the Last Thing You Did' Amid Sales Slowdown

[Bubba Satori]

Yet conversely and bizarrely, Apple's share price is rising. How does that work?

It's not rocket surgery.
Watch bands, iGizmos, adapters, Pencil cozys and emojis are more profitable than computers.

 

[JimmyHook]

I'd rather Apple be very focused, and slowly release major product revisions than constantly throw stuff against the wall like competitors. I like that the Pro and Air is a slllooooww refresh. How can anyone say that's bad? It means when it drops, it will have engineering that has been thoroughly tested and will be completely smooth

 

[LowellFan09]

As Tim Cook continues to embrace and enlighten us over how the iPad is the go-to device and customers should worry less about having anything else in the desktop and laptop department, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised why the Mac lineup has fallen to such terrible times. It's a real shame, though.

 

[Apple Corps]

I dunno. Stop the single-minded focus on slimmer devices with fewer/different ports would be a good start. Neither of those excite me about a new product.

I've a house full of Apple products and no reason to upgrade any of them, that I can see. Starting to find reasons to replace them with non-Apple alternatives - especially on the desktop.

Bingo - already doing the same thing.

 

[RogerWilco]

Oh poor pitiful Apple...sniff, sniff. Come on Timmy, cowboy up and go fire some people. It's not like the choices are hard to find among the rabble of incompetent VPs. And if you can't or won't do it, then the board needs to oust your sorry rear end.

 

[TonyC28]

I must be Apple's target audience. I hardly ever use my Mac anymore. I'd say I do about 90% of my "computing" on my iPhone. I'm sure I'm the rarity, though.

 

[HJM.NL]

The maps fiasco is a darn good reason to start a beta testing program. Proof that Apple can learn from their mistakes, if they so choose to do so, lol.

For me in Europe maps is still a fiasco. No transits, no walk or cycling routes, bad pronunciation of the roads. All things google maps already offers here, luckily under iOS too. With the speed they're updating maps with transits it will take them to the 22 century to have it finished.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Good point. Yes it's hard to believe they even called that a different model.

But my point is Apple once cared about the professional/power user product line. Despite all the claims of "Apple is doomed" over those years they at least had that group on their side.

I do completely agree with you -- Macs are still the standard in the creative industry. Tim Cook would definitely get an earful if he visited recording studios, graphics designers; yes, the current Macs still work for what they do, but you can always benefit from more power. And larger storage sizes, seeing as the cMP could easily be upgraded with tonnes of space.

If it means a Logic project loads slightly quicker -- a project bounces faster, or a lossless track imports quicker -- people benefit hugely from this when it's their livelihood.

 

[djcerla]

I never understood this line of reasoning. Pfizer, Comcast, Verizon, Exonn Mobil are all hugely profitable corporations. Do we cheer when gas prices rise, prescription drugs cost more, cable prices increase at reduced speeds proving Comcast is doing super well and has an enormous war chest? A macbook pro that hasn't been updated in 440-odd days is bad for Apple customers, the brand and longevity no matter how amazing their corporate earnings are.

I suspect that in a few days, when Apple will unveil the brand new machines, people like you will feel suddenly empty, like if a precious gem of rants had been stolen and couldn't be caressed every morning after the coffee.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Apple is doomed (once again)

"Now that the Apple Macintosh is disappearing as a mass market product, this soap opera will mercifully fade from the headlines. But the lessons remain, and bare heading: inept, amateurish management can ruin the best product and brightest company." -- Bruce Brown, February 1997

But that quote was 100% true in the day and context it was written. Apple was doomed in 1987. Steve Jobs and Microsoft saved it just in the nick of time. Spindler and Amelio did ruin Apple. It was the iMac then iPod (w/ big help from iTunes and Jobs reaching out to record labels to try a new way of selling music) that allowed Apple to rise from the dead.

From what I've seen from TC to date Apple is back to inept, amateurish management. The Apple is doomed meme has a bit more color of truth to it in 2016 than 2006 because of it.

 

[Kaibelf]

But never during those 18 years has the Power Mac or Mac Pro gone 963 days without an update...

They also weren't driving the company's profits the way things like the iPhone were.

 

[Keane16]

what a generic comment, you are only as good as your last product.... seriously? thats all you can say?

I could say the same about your comment. Did you even read the interview?

http://www.fastcompany.com/3062090/tim-cooks-apple/playing-the-long-game-inside-tim-cooks-apple

 

[ryanwarsaw]

One positive of the recent slowdown and doom&gloom analysis that followed is that lofty, unrealistic expectations of unicorn world-changing-devices-every-second-year have been nuked down to reality.

What remains, is the envy of the business world, with an enormous war chest, huge profits, healty margins and the most valuable consumer brand on Earth. That's something.

That's what Ballmer thought back in the day.

 

[Apple Corps]

Apple says its wants to be involved in people's lives from wake to sleep yet it's current line up only puts people to sleep.

TC and co. and talk all they want about exciting product pipelines, and they have for years with little to show, but increasingly they are sounding like carnival barkers. Where Apple was once the undisputed leader, tech companies have caught up and even moved ahead. I mean where is the ATV with microphone built into the unit, not the remote so that a user can use it as a true Siri voice controlled HomeKit hub like Amazon's Echo line.

That is the key FACT we all need to grasp - more hires, more R&D, more buildings, and yet so so little to show for it.

 

[melendezest]

"Is Apple making more mistakes than we used to? I don't have a tracker on that." [...] "We have never said that we're perfect," he continues. "We've said that we seek that. But we sometimes fall short." [...]

Way, WAY short, since Steve's passing.

2011 was the (edit: last) year of both Steve and my yearly Apple product update cycle.

But even Steve made mistakes. His last one was the worst: to leave TC in charge.

 

[Nautilus007]

It is actually frustrating to watch updates that apple releases, everything is stale in their lineup, the most interesting thing in Apple stores are new third party accessories. The iPad has looked and played the same for years, the phone has been evolutionary for years and the watch is...boring. More than that, exciting simple products like backlit wireless keyboards, updated cinema displays and even wireless headphone updates have been rumored and never come...The Mac lineup has looked and played the same for years, its a joke, and not profits are falling. On top of that I think the software has gotten worse, iOS has more bugs in it than I remember and for example Apple Music, is well horrible UI wise. Its cool they're updating the apple store and apple store apps, but without new products launching it just seems stupid.

Meanwhile, the new apple campus is nice...and the executives are getting paid boatloads of money, what the hell are they doing...the board should clean house and bring in younger innovators to helm, because these old guys are not moving into the future.

 

[Apple Corps]

True, and good for Apple.

But their products are no longer the best. Hopefully, that war chest will last this awkward phase until they get their sh&^%t together.

And what makes you think they will get their sh^%t together with Levinson and Timmy Cook at the helm?

 

[Elbon]

"Some critics believe that Apple...wrongly placing its focus on areas like Apple Watch bands"

Or watches. Or cars.

 

[Schwyz]

The most vocal critics MacRumors commenters often point towards fly into a wild rage about the state of Apple's current Mac lineup, which is beginning to has been stagnating for the last couple years.

 

[djcerla]

AAPL is trading about where it was 4 years ago - so "rising" needs to be looked at in the context of the miserable performance for long term holders.

4 years ago the stock peaked at $80. Today, it's at about $108.

As for "long term holders", trust me, they're very very happy about AAPL performance. Long term is not 2 years.

 

[keysofanxiety]

But even Steve made mistakes. His last one was the worst: to leave TC in charge.

Oh c'mon, that's a little unfair. We're comparing a decade's worth of stuff that Steve did compared to half of that with TC.

We've got 15" Retina MacBook Pros that are still the most powerful portables you can get, for the weight/thinness/battery life; 2GB/s read/write speeds, gorgeous displays and CPUs which are still more powerful than Intel's current mobile offerings.

Once they're updated, we're all good. Honestly it's not the end of the world (yet)

 

[duffman9000]

Maps again... now we finally understand how Apple was so blind to Map's faults. The funniest portion of the interview is where they admit how few engineers they had working on the project. It was laughable that Scott thought he could bring Maps to life with so few resources. That screams of arrogance and outright cheapness. The Maps debacle is probably the best thing to ever happen to Apple.

 

[bladerunner2000]

If they didn't deliberately cripple their Mac lineup with so many limitations there would be more sales.

- Soldered RAM?
- Non-removable battery?
- Proprietary PCIe slot on the Mac Pro?
- Lousy outdated GPU options in the Mac Pro?
- False speeds on iMac due to throttling from poor airflow and overheating?
- OS X being iPadified like crazy (who the hell wants that green button to act as full screen? This is a big screen, not a cell phone)

Apple only has itself to blame.

 

[Apple Corps]

It is actually frustrating to watch updates that apple releases, everything is stale in their lineup, the most interesting thing in Apple stores are new third party accessories. The iPad has looked and played the same for years, the phone has been evolutionary for years and the watch is...boring. More than that, exciting simple products like backlit wireless keyboards, updated cinema displays and even wireless headphone updates have been rumored and never come...The Mac lineup has looked and played the same for years, its a joke, and not profits are falling. On top of that I think the software has gotten worse, iOS has more bugs in it than I remember and for example Apple Music, is well horrible UI wise. Its cool they're updating the apple store and apple store apps, but without new products launching it just seems stupid.

Meanwhile, the new apple campus is nice...and the executives are getting paid boatloads of money, what the hell are they doing...the board should clean house and bring in younger innovators to helm, because these old guys are not moving into the future.

Art Levinson (Board Chair) is where the house cleaning needs to start.

 

[jujufreeze]

I suspect that in a few days, when Apple will unveil the brand new machines, people like you will feel suddenly empty, like if a precious gem of rants had been stolen and couldn't be caressed every morning after the coffee.

I'd love to stop ranting- as soon as Apple starts caring about their computers again.