No one here wants a stagnant Apple of the sort Steve Jobs had to resurrect. And profits mean the ability to fund innovation at a higher level. I think those who simply point to 2T miss the historical lessons of being too safe and focused on simply tweaking revenues. The saga of the American auto industry in the late 70s- early 80s comes to mind. Behemoths who eventually got kicked in the knees by foreign upstarts who disrupted and fed the market what it wanted - and for probably for many in that market, what they never knew they wanted. “Wow, I can drive 100 miles without filling up, parking nice when your car is not a land yacht, and reliability kinda nice too!” There were other factors, but the Japanese automakers were like the Apple that made that iconic 1984 ad and disrupted the computer industry.
So it’s not being some hysterical chicken little to worry about future ( and current)Apple leadership becoming too conservative or myopically focused on revenue. The market often overly rewards short term profits as opposed to long term growth and innovation, and it’s a real trap companies can fall into. Of course, I also sold my Apple stock a few years ago to get what in retrospect was a short term profit. 😆 😢
Likewise, you gotta make money to exist. Under Tim, Apple is still making innovative products the market wants and developing new ones. That may come down to which segments of the product line or services you are looking at, but Apple is not some Dell clone even if it’s not the Apple of yore.
That Apple ain’t coming back imho, so pining for it - no matter how fun it was to experience - will only lead to heartache.
And again, profits fund research that can innovate. Tim et. Al. have certainly grown the Apple piggy bank. A piggy bank that can fund R&D towards developing amazing stuff. Not giving credit to Tim Cook for that, as well as where he has pushed Apple into new realms (Ie - Apple Watch, services that people clearly value) is simply unfair and absurd, no matter what criticism you may have for him.
I want to see Apple actively balancing risk taking with caution and “bean counting”. I want to see what mgmt TEAM emerges after a Tim Cook departure, not just who is CEO.