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Apple's earnings are amazing, but not enough

On the heels of an impressive earnings announcement, Apple officially reached $1 trillion in market value -- but is that enough to compete with Amazon?
Written by Forrester Research, Contributor

Video: Huawei shipped more smartphones than Apple in Q2 2018: IDC

Apple's Tim Cook announced stellar earnings this week, exceeding analyst estimates -- but not surprising us at Forrester.

Must read: Apple reached $1 trillion in value, but is it enough to beat Amazon? Download Forrester's complimentary report to find out.

We have predicted for a while that Apple was poised to become the world's first trillion-dollar company. Its products are outstanding, and its revenue outlook will be bright for years to come.

But it's not enough.

Enough to do what? To stop the world's second-most valuable company from eclipsing the shining sun of Apple, namely Amazon.

Also: Yowza! Apple becomes a trillion-dollar company CNET

Forrester predicted that the company would surpass the $1 trillion mark several times this year. This is the perfect time to recognize Apple's performance while setting it in the context of Amazon's rising power. I'll let the graphic make the point that matters:

Apple Amazon
US Apple and Amazon User Comparison Survey. (Image: Forrester)

This is the main point: Equal numbers of US consumers are customers of each company. But Amazon is able to earn more trust than Apple (53 percent vs. 38 percent), and when forced to choose between the two companies, a plurality chooses Amazon -- 42 percent -- which is higher than the number of people who could not make a choice.

Also: Let's face it: Windows PCs are now just better -- and cooler -- than Macs

Is it the end of Apple? No. But is it a clear signal that Amazon is on to something? Yes, because Amazon is busy building the kind of entangled customer relationship that will matter most in the future. As we said in the report:

The average US Amazon Prime member buys from Amazon every six days. Add the frequency with which people turn to Alexa for answers and assistance, and you have a recipe for Amazon becoming more top of mind than even the phrase "Google it" achieved. Once Amazon adds the recently promised intelligence to Alexa, making conversation more useful and natural, the frequency of use will double -- and the urge to put devices in cars, workplaces, and hotel rooms will become irresistible. This isn't love so much as persistent usefulness.

Apple will make plenty of money, even as it gradually becomes a platform on which Amazon tightens its customer relationship. Apple should not be content with this, and you shouldn't be either. Because for the first time in your history, I'm going to claim that you and Apple are in the same boat: You are both about to see Amazon take over the hearts and minds of your customers. We've written an entire report about that, too. (See the blog post here; read the report here.)

Apple can fight back and make a play for higher-frequency use and an even more useful brand position. Specifically, Forrester recommended that Apple double down on its services business, which includes Apple Pay. We were pleased to see in Apple's earnings that exactly that is already happening. That's the right start. But we believe there should be more.

Apple needs to make a play for a deeper relationship in the home, so much so that we recommend the company buy Segway and co-opt the Loomo personal robot that company has recently built. Add Siri to that thing, and you'll have the makings of the first personal robot assistant product that could earn billions. And Apple should take the plunge and become a marketing services platform like Amazon and Google already are. It means embracing advertising, which Apple doesn't want to do, and it means figuring out how to use data for marketing services in a way its customers will approve of, given the company's strong public stance on issues of privacy.

All this is doable; it's just a question of whether Apple wants it badly enough. Will the company that can sell a $1,000 phone to millions of people really believe that it is losing the long-term battle for hearts and minds? We hope so. Because when Amazon becomes the second trillion-dollar company before 2020, the resulting competition between these two titans will yield massive innovation and customer value for the rest of us.

This post originally appeared here.

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