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Nah, you're way off on that example. Nokia, as far as retail was exclusively a cell phone company. Apple sells very successful computers, has a very successful iTunes store which helped to get the iPod (which was also very successful) off the ground. They offer many things that make up the company's worth. Sorry, try again.

There was nothing stopping Nokia from innovating. The iPhone makes about 2/3 of Apple's business, and that percentage increases each year.

History is littered with stories of companies dominating their industry, only to disappear or limp along simply because someone else innovated faster, or marketed a product better, or offered opportunities to people that didn't previously exist. They either go bankrupt or get swallowed by bigger companies

Blockbuster Video, Borders, Polaroid, Kodak, Sony Ericsson, Texaco, Compaq... At one point or another all of these companies dominated their field and now none of them exist in their own right. Markets change. Consumer preferences change, and new products and companies emerge and disrupt the status-quo. Apple did it to Nokia, Nokia did it to Ericsson, and Ericsson did it to Motorola. Eventually someone will do it to Apple, it's just how the business world works.

Given that Apple previously almost went bankrupt and was saved by Microsoft, to suggest that they are a special case that is immune to corporate decline is just demonstrably false.

They're a company. I have no strong emotional connection to them, despite owning a mac and an iphone. Whatever comes next, I'm sure I'll enjoy using it just as much.
 
It's profoundly strange that many here and analysts talk about Apple as if it's just standing still and hasn't made any moves on any new fronts. Bull.

Clearly SERVICES is a very profitable sector that Apple is certain to expand and improve upon. Maps is one glaring example. We know for a FACT that street view is coming soon. We now know that GOOGLE is paying Apple to keep its BILLION DOLLAR search business in iOS and OSX.

Streaming - since they barely got into music streaming do ANY of you believe it will be a long time til a VIDEO streaming service is launched? Really. Weird why this doesn't come up yet there's a fixation on a content package coming forward. Video streaming will most definitely come to Apple.

App Sales - this segment has shown astounding growth and will keep on its assent since ATV launched and its capabilities grow. Clickable content IS the future. ATV will evolve.

Apple Music - the WORLD is its oyster. It's not even a year old. New stations, refinement of its services, more content will make this a winner. Who cares if it's weak today. Worry about tomorrow.

Home Kit - in its prehistoric era. This will show growth this year and huge -- next.

The Watch -- by all metrics it's hugely successful for a NICHE market -- so far. I'm certain that once a battery solution is created either thru a battery band AND Bluetooth totally wireless EarPods untethered from your iPhone WILL BE A GAMECHANGER. Why would Apple untether the watch now? It's too soon.

The iPhone -- there's TONS of growth yet to come. Superior cameras, better automation.. Leasing will be a cash cow.. Trends in consumer purchasing is moving towards a leasing model in many areas.

Cloud Services - Apple isn't building data centers to just sit on the sidelines in this arena. C'mon.

Apple Pay -- many many many here and elsewhere underestimate its potential as a growth sector for solid revenue growth. Um -- Apple easily can become a Paypal overnight. A family member that works at Verifone claims that rumors are building Apple may make a play at them. What does that mean? 60 countries. A bank -- overnight. And a presence in a sick amount of global retailers.

Personally I'm not at all worried, disappointed, or concerned about Apples future. CEO Tim Cook has steered this once small time computer specialty company into a international powerhouse. Yeah it takes incredible SKILL to set up supply chains to produce, distribute, sell, and service a QUARTER BILLION IPHONES over a operating year. Clearly he's not idiot. I will say that there's no guarantee that Steve Jobs could've managed such insane growth as he was too slow to adapt to the new tech frontier.

I'm waiting for the day it's lights out for GOOGLE once it's kicked off the Apple ecosystem for good. You wanna see a stock crash? Just wait.
 
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Better products and more sales aren't related.
Otherwise according to well known posters here, Galaxy S6 edge would have sold more than the iPhone 6S, and that's far from the truth.
Wall Street don't even know what an iPhone is, technically. They don't care.

So the uninformed posts are yours. Another ranting about Apple.
Ha ha. Your logic (or lack there of) is laughable.

Apples and oranges. You can't even tell the difference.
 
well only selling 2 million iPad Pros in the LAUNCH quarter after all the hype Apple gave it last September has to be pretty disappointing. How about they tell us actual iWatch sales.
Whether it was gratifying or disappointing depends on your expectations. You seem really disappointed, so I guess your expectations were too high.

And the actual iWatch sales by Apple is easy. It's zero.
 
This thread has some of the most astute commentary on this topic that I have read. For over two years I have been very critical of Cook and some of the executive team. The Cook lovers love to launch their rebuttals and deride my posts.

It is becoming so apparent that Cook is the Steve Ballmer of Apple (my signature for years). I fear we are in the middle of the lost decade for Apple.

The easy problem would be if Cook were simply dismal (as he is) in the PR area and interacting with Wall Street. The evidence is mounting that the real problem is far more serious - he is not a product guy / he is not a marketer / he is not an innovator. He is a supply chain person - not what is needed for Apple.

I'm wondering how long before (if) we see $105/snare.

The trouble is even if you're (and others are) right and Tim Cook is the problem here, who would they replace him with? People like him or Steve Jobs don't grow on trees and certainly no CEO from any of the other tech companies is doing a better job. Firing Tim Cook without a clear idea of who would replace him would be disastrous. As hard as it is, this may be the best that Apple can currently be.

Wall street analysts are a big part of the problem here, if you believe their diatribe Apple is always just one quarter away from going out of business, which is clearly ridiculous. For some reason they don't really like Apple and it's probably mostly down to the secretive way in which they operate; It's hard to know where Apples growth will come from if Apple won't tell you anything about what they're working on. Whereas Google will talk till they're blue in the face about anything and everything that they're working on, despite the fact that nearly all of the ventures, other than their search/advertising business, ultimately fail. Which begs the question, where will Googles (Alphabets) growth ultimately come from?

Ultimately Tim Cook is no Steve Jobs but we knew that already. Steve was Steve, he was unique, as are we all. Tim may not be able to replicate the success that Steve had with Apple but even if he can't, it doesn't mean that anyone else would be able to do any better.
 
I do wonder if Apple is the new Sony.
Sony WAS what you wanted for the home user, even the semi pro stuff.

Sony knew this and got arrogant, pricing too high, thinking they were untouchable and look what happened eventually.

It do feel, in recent years Apple had gotten too cocky, thinking it always knows best, removing ports and slots in devices people want. Needing dongles as they won't fit a tiny slit for a card. All stuff like that.

I hope this will make Apple stop and think and listen more and not dictate to much.
 
*iPhone should have 32GB base (if not 64GB)
*Fusion/SSD should be standard across all Macs (and don't gimp the SSD component)
*MP should be updated when new components allow
*Apple Watch shouldn't be tethered to the iPhone to be actually useful (and completely waterproof too please)
*Product line up needs to be simplified; less convoluted
YOu do realise that shareholder interests are not aligned to customer interests. If Apple does not withhold a feature how will they sell more? Until they truly innvoate again they have to reserve features for the next model. Google at this stage does not hold back as all they care about is maximum people being on their platform.
 
Nothing is going to move the needle until Apple has another iPhone-like breakout success.
Which is why their fumble on the Watch was such a let down.

They needed to make a splash, but couldn't find the recipe in time.

I feel like their focus has been drawn to numbers and spreadsheets under Tim's reign. Watch was released too early because they felt the pressure from investors to 'innovate' and 'grow'.

This whole 'growth' preoccupation doesn't fit well with Apple's traditional ethos. Sure some growth is important, but not at the cost of your values and character.

iPhone has created a monster.
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YOu do realise that shareholder interests are not aligned to customer interests. If Apple does not withhold a feature how will they sell more? Until they truly innvoate again they have to reserve features for the next model. Google at this stage does not hold back as all they care about is maximum people being on their platform.
No. They have to create new markets - whilst not losing their existing customer base!
How hard is that for people to understand?!! :confused:
 
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They both make a heck of a lot of money. It's good for apple to have some competition at the top!
 
It do feel, in recent years Apple had gotten too cocky, thinking it always knows best, removing ports and slots in devices people want. Needing dongles as they won't fit a tiny slit for a card. All stuff like that.
Recent decades, you mean.

If you went by the comments that accompanied earlier changes that Apple made to their products, you'd have thought Apple was doomed when they dropped the floppy disk and again when they removed the optical drive. With hindsight you might think those were ultimately good ideas, and the people complaining just couldn't see the future well enough to understand. But then you need to wait a few years and look back at recent changes with the same hindsight. No matter how much you think "this time is different", future commenters are likely to judge you harshly.
 
The market loves a monopoly. Google is a near monopoly in the digital ad business. You can't seriously market anything online without going through a Google owned company right now. The markets LOVE this.

The difference between apple and Google is that Apple actually has to compete with competitors and Google doesn't. Therefore Apple presents a risk in the market place and Google a certainty.

I think it's interesting how so many people love what Google is going but don't realise they are supporting a monopolistic company achieve world domination through the back door.

Only Facebook can realistically try to compete so maybe you're going to see more of Apple and Facebook get together to try and limit googles influence. But it looks like game over from here.

Also, Apple want their cake and eat it. They act like a growth stock but really it's a value stock and the divideneds should rise to show that. They have to decide who they are. Either they are serious about buying back the company or they start increasing their dividened and make the stock worth owning.
 
The pressure is off AAPL now. They are no longer the #1, top of the heap. Now the Wall Street pressure and attention will be so much less. Hopefully it will go back to the Steve Jobs mode where AAPL paid little attention to the stock value and just focused on products.
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or DHARMA...
or the offspring of Dharma and Greg!
 
I listened in amazement and thinking to myself as they spoke about Alphabet's huge losses of $3 Million where Analyst expected only about $1.2 Million yet this was no big deal. Google is disgustingly overvalued.

Imagine Apple spoke about huge losses of $3 Million. AAPL would drop to $10 per share.

Frankly, I do not care who is number one. At the end of the day I care about what Apple does as a company to create value for the consumers not what the stock trades for. It's even better for Apple not to be the spotlight. What amazes me is how market can be as corrupted as government.

It's good that you see it that way, Apple sees it as maximising profit for its shareholders , they are not doing it to provide value offerings hence they only get involved in profitable initiatives.

Are you saying if someone suppresses Apple to number one , the market is corrupt , or the market is always corrupt ? Google and Apple play by the same rules. When apple gets the top spot back, corruption gone?
 
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From a consumer point of view I dont give a single **** about this...

I use Google Search and Google Maps...great software and I respect Google for keeping them great and useful.

The rest of their hundreds of products and services (thermostas, gmail, android os, etc.) are irrelevant for me. I dont like them and I dont use them. Google has its own philosophy about technology, that you have to explore everything and get into as many businesses as you can to diversify your revenue...I like more Apple approach to technology, few products, but great....
 
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The market loves a monopoly. Google is a near monopoly in the digital ad business. You can't seriously market anything online without going through a Google owned company right now. The markets LOVE this.

The difference between apple and Google is that Apple actually has to compete with competitors and Google doesn't. Therefore Apple presents a risk in the market place and Google a certainty.

I think it's interesting how so many people love what Google is going but don't realise they are supporting a monopolistic company achieve world domination through the back door.

Only Facebook can realistically try to compete so maybe you're going to see more of Apple and Facebook get together to try and limit googles influence. But it looks like game over from here.

Also, Apple want their cake and eat it. They act like a growth stock but really it's a value stock and the divideneds should rise to show that. They have to decide who they are. Either they are serious about buying back the company or they start increasing their dividened and make the stock worth owning.

Apple is a very safe company in the marketplace and dominate most categories in the premium product segment , was to the point that they could not produce enough to. Meet demand, that's not having to compete :)

The markets are sceptical though, as the innovation has dried up, and iPhone remains the only huge cash cow , valid concern , if Apple releases an iPhone that is below expectations that is a huge hit. Google is solid based on thier ads monopoly . I guess the expectation is that Apple leads and innovates, with the old guard at Apple looking at retirement plans, who is leading the innovation push?
 
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Ha ha. Your logic (or lack there of) is laughable.

Apples and oranges. You can't even tell the difference.
Sure , and when you are short of arguments, personal insults comes handly....

Again, users complaints (a vocal minority of users I'd say) have nothing to do with financial analysis made by Wall Street.
 
From a consumer point of view I dont give a single **** about this...

I use Google Search and Google Maps...great software and I respect Google for keeping them great and useful.

The rest of their hundreds of products and services (thermostas, gmail, android os, etc.) are irrelevant for me. I dont like them and I dont use them. Google has its own philosophy about technology, that you have to explore everything and get into as many businesses as you can to diversify your revenue...I like more Apple approach to technology, few products, but great....
You should use search and maps a little less if you care about your privacy, but it's ok: your choice and you are entitled to have one.
Google's approach is :
throw it all against a wall and see what sticks

in the meanwhile collect user's data and monetize that.
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They use the same loopholes ;)
That's definitely true
 
You should use search and maps a little less if you care about your privacy, but it's ok: your choice and you are entitled to have one.
Google's approach is :
throw it all against a wall and see what sticks

in the meanwhile collect user's data and monetize that.
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That's definitely true
The way Google collects and uses people's data is what make their services more superior. There is no search engine or maps service that are on par with theirs. There's no such thing as "privacy" on the internet, so I suggest you get off it.
 
The way Google collects and uses people's data is what make their services more superior. There is no search engine or maps service that are on par with theirs. There's no such thing as "privacy" on the internet, so I suggest you get off it.

As long as Google does business in Europe, there's privacy. What do you think the threat of a fine of 10% of world wide revenue can do to enhance privacy? It stopped Samsung from patent trolling, for example, what makes you think it wouldn't stop Google?
 
iPad Pro should have ran a tweaked version of OS X geared for touch.

BUT.... All Apples operating systems are a tweaked versions of OS X for touch or for TV etc. Underneath the operating systems are the same BSD Unix with a Mach Kernel. The rest is just tweaked for each system.
 
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