If there’s one thing Tim Cook needs it’s advice. Apparently.
Writing for the Forbes contributor network and illegal clown car racing circuit, Ewan Spence says the “New iPhone XS Reveals Tim Cook’s Failure To Innovate.” (Tip o’ the antlers to Touchpad Afficionado and Chris.)
When you step back and look at the details in last week’s iPhone launch event, it tells you everything you need to know about Apple. It cannot grow iPhone sales…
That’s pretty true, but how is smartphone market growth as a whole doing?
“How Global Smartphone Sales Growth Ground to a Halt.”
After years of breakneck growth, most Chinese have a smartphone now, which means there isn’t a vast pool of untapped demand. Same in western countries, where smartphones have reached saturation levels.
So, what to do?
Tim Cook is building a pressure cooker that delivers more revenue every year, but pressure cookers don’t last forever.
Uh, the Macalope hasn’t checked out The Wirecutter’s recommendation but, yes, that is probably correct: pressure cookers don’t last forever. This is good information for people looking into investing in pressure cookers.
What’s his exit plan for Apple to change onto a more secure long-term path?
The presumption that Apple’s future is insecure and something to be constantly fretted about is the longest ‘90s hangover ever. The trillion dollar company that’s still under-valued will forever be perceived as on the precipice of going out of business.
As Andrew Orlowski points out at The Register, the launch of the iterative iPhone XS, XS Max and XR…
Let the Macalope stop you right there. The iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR have entirely new screen sizes but Spence still tars them as being “iterative” because they look like the iPhone X. Even if you discount that, the iPhone X was a monster update and Spence didn’t think much of that, either. “These updates suck. And there are never enough of them” is Forbes’s new take on “The food here is terrible. And such small portions.”
Apple commands the lion’s share of profit in the high-end flagship, but iOS is losing ground to Android in the market place every single day.
Whaaaa! [klunk]
Sorry, the Macalope just rolled his eyes so hard he fell out of his chair. Gonna have to put some mats down. It’s an occupational hazard.
With reports that iPhone XS pre-orders are sluggish and below expectations…
Spence doesn’t provide a link there, possibly because the iPhone XS orders can only be described as sluggish compared to the iPhone XS Max orders which are fantastic. ( Mark Hibbin speculates the iPhone XS Max might be selling better because some of the people who don’t want a huge phone are waiting for the iPhone XR.)
Apple has figured out how to extract more revenue and profit from a static market and Spence thinks this is a problem.
The problem with this strategy…
The guy who credulously believed rumors that Apple was cutting iPhone X part orders by 50 percent even after they were disproven will now lecture Apple on its strategy.
How much more blood can Tim Cook get out of a stone?
Turns out kind of a lot. Like he’s getting these stones from Planet Blood or something. So much blood.
Tim Cook’s strategy has a built-in cliff-drop just after the peak of success. As the new iPhones gather plaudits and dollars, they continue the inevitable march towards that cliff.
Gathering money is never good. What’s good is not gathering money. That’s advice you can take to the bank. You can’t deposit it, but you can, uh, chat up a security guard or something. The Macalope’s not clear on that part.