Has Apple Peaked?
nytimes.com
nytimes.com
The annoying thing about articles like this is that it's basically the professional journalist's version of trolling... making an outrageous statement in order to garner attention/clicks. He can come in and shit all over Apple, and suffer no consequences if he's wrong.
I would be infinitely more interested in his opinion if he actually shorted the stock and put his money where his mouth is, journalistic rules against trading aside.
In general however I agree with your sentiment.
In what way? It's three words "Has Apple peaked?".
They have made the EXACT same arguments since after the iPod.
The Zune was to kill it, cheap alternatives were going to kill it. Didn't happen.
Then they put out the iPhone.
It was doomed, they said at first, then Android was going to kill it, then the Antennagate, then the 4S was not impressive enough, etc.
Then the iPad came out, and at first it was "just a large iPhone" and it will fail, then it was gonna be killed by Windows tablets, then by Android tablets, then the Kindle Fire.
They never stop in the same bloody vein. How about instead of BS predictions they do some REPORTING?
I.e tell how Apple does based on numbers, and report it when they --inevitable at some point-- start losing out? Why do they feel they have to play prophets?
Meanwhile we have tablet/laptop hybrids, which Microsoft has been taking the lead on (facing a similar reaction to the early iPod, which history may or may not prove to be similarly ill-directed) and then virtually-deviceless-devices, which Google has been pushing into with their Glass project.
You can't count Apple out because of its infamous development secrecy (who knows what they might do next?), but visibly a lot of the cool potential Next Big Things in the gadget/device space seem to be forming at non-Apple companies.
Having control of the OS gives Microsoft a lot of power Asus doesn't have with their Android hybrids. Also, as cool as the Transformer is, it still doesn't feel quite like a true hybrid device because ultimately you're still running mostly software that was designed with touch-only in mind, at least assuming you're using it to run Android and haven't installed Ubuntu/ARM or something.
Just because something hasn't happened in the past doesn't mean it won't happen in the future.
In other words, it's not an argument that this can't happen, merely an argument that the original argument is baseless.
It'like responding to some guy saying that it will hit "in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011", to "shut up, stop playing the Oracle, since you suck at it, and just inform us WHEN it hits".
Not Quarterly results and SEC fillings.
>Note the recurring statistic in which Apple's (continuously dropping) market share is compared to that of 15 handset manufacturers who run Android as though that is a reasonable comparison.
"Continuously dropping"? They sell more units with each new device up to now (and the 5's preorders see that trend continuing). So, if their "market share" also drops, then that just means the market is expanding at a faster rate.
>Note the recurring statistic in which Apple's (continuously dropping) market share is compared to that of 15 handset manufacturers who run Android as though that is a reasonable comparison.
In what way is it not?
No one know why Apple rolled their own Maps and no one could possible know how different it would be if Steve was still alive.
The only think I really know is that Apple is smarter than you or the NY Times.
I keep seeing people say this, but I never hear anyone say exactly what he would have done to make it happen. People basically treat Jobs as magical fairy pixie dust that could be sprinkled on a project to make it awesome. As if Jobs never oversaw the production of anything bad.
If you serve shit on a plate to millions of people, you're inevitably going to meet a scat fetishist that doesn't mind.
Apple Maps works great for me because in terms of quality of data it matches Google. Remember that there are lots of cities in this world and not all of them will be missing lots of data.
It may also be borderline criminal.
Can I ask you why? The galaxy 3 is the same price and very comparable. Plus you can just drag files back and forth with your computer without syncing.
"Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no'"
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridges_Law_of_Headlines
"Perhaps Betteridge's Law of Headlines is always true?"
Apple has made missteps in the past, while Steve Jobs was alive. That Jobs was not around for this particular misstep isn't particularly interesting or relevant. The disappearance of Google Maps is a consequence of the breakdown of relations between Google and Apple, and that is not about Steve Jobs.
Making it about him is just stupid. Google has power over Apple in this case, and Apple is bearing the heat for it, Steve Jobs or no.
If so, I'm going to wait before upgrading to iOS 6. Widespread blunder like this does so much to hurt the Apple brand especially in light of an ambitious competitor like Samsung. Apple should realize that even its biggest fan boys will begin rethinking if you cripple basic parts of their product repeatedly. There will come an unforced blunder that couldn't be fixed by an update or use of a cover.
I've been an iPhone user for years but am seriously considering a move to S3 after coming across a few use cases that make me hate Apple.
Basically the trend I am beginning to see is that if you are making enterprise specific apps, sooner or later you come across a basic and intentional iOS limitation that makes you hit your head against the wall.
What this means is that for the next month or two coverage is going to be poor but getting towards mid next year they'll probably have better transit capability than Google. For example what I'd like to see is support for routing in my area using the real-time arrival data (our buses are frequently late), correct fare calculations, and balance info for my transit card. Google is unlikely to do any of this stuff but now someone who cares can go solve it. I think Apple pretty much botched the launch but in the not very long term it'll work out fine.
Myself? I'm holding off upgrading until a point release :)
Embark's website: http://letsembark.com/
App Store link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app//id450991137?mt=8
Changing a basic habit for no good reason is hard--if anyone, Apple should know.
Apple does not have any technical depth.
I am a former Apple employee. Apple can't do technically hard problems that require a multi-person effort. Yes, Apple can and has done good Hardware. But hardware is not technically hard - its an art. Apple is good at Art. Google is good at science.
Motion's a joke - to say it leads its respective market is ridiculous - After Effects leads the motion graphics segment, and Nuke leads the compositing segment.
The only highly technical app Apple has had that lead the market was Shake, and they completely fucked that one up (due to their secrecy and not telling their customers plans for future releases) and ended up killing the product after the majority of the Nothing Real team left and all their high-end customers had moved to Nuke.
The problem with maps is its irregularity and irreducible complexity. You can't reduce maps to their essence and create a great MVP—if you want Google-caliber maps you need tens of thousands of people on the ground and the bureaucracy to support them. Apple can get there (Apple Stores), but it's not an overnight thing.
Making UNIX accessible to the masses wasn't a technically hard problem that required a multi-person effort?
How about Webkit?
I don't love or hate Apple (or Microsoft for that matter) but I think if Apple is indeed on the down-slope it has nothing to do with the maps application. My beef with both Apple and Microsoft (locking the hardware so I can't use it for other purposes is pretty shady) is that devices I used to be able to peer into layer-by-layer (if I so choose) are now completely opaque. You've essentially reduced an advanced user to the same state of novice-hood as the general population. No thanks!
EDIT - But it just works! I hear that from so many people and it just isn't true. The suite of tools I generally use have the same issues on all three platforms so the only distinguishing characteristic is whether I can actually fix it.
Yeah, it sucks that iOS6 maps aren't as good as iOS5 maps.
Does taking a step backward on (important) iOS app mean Apple has peaked? Probably not.
Will the general consumer be happy enough with the iPhone5/iOS6 as a whole that they will tolerate (and then forget about) Maps's reduction in quality? Probably.
Will Apple improve Maps so that in 6-12 months where the iOS6 maps quality is on par with iOS5 maps? Probably.
Time will tell - but my money is this is a classic case of the media/blogs trolling for page views, the general consumer not noticing (ala antenna-gate), and all this will be forgotten in a month.
...and Job's reign had missteps as well - from imac disc mouse to iphone cellular performance on at&t to mobileme to iphone4 antenna. Apple's great power is they make the entire package so enchanting that consumers tolerate issues until they can be resolved.
https://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:AAPL
There were plenty of disasters while Jobs was present... anyone remember the iPhone4 antenna disaster? Apple will reiterate and fix and all will be well again. I doubt they will ultimately lose many customers over this.
IOS is in refinement, the focus internally is elsewhere.
The iPhone came from nowhere (just ask Nokia) and so will the next big thing.
Of course it might flop, but basing any long-term Apple analysis on IOS5 and iPhone 5 is very short-sighted.
Apple has mis-steps just like any company. FCPX was very recent and was a total disaster at launch and Steve Jobs was very much there. Have we already forgotten "antenna-gate" with the iPhone 4? There's an expectation for Apple to be so perfect that if any problem happens the ship is going down. No company can break new ground year after year and not have some rough starts.
No, it's not interesting. It shows a simplistic view of Apple and how companies function. There were missteps while Jobs was alive, and obviously Apple's recent announcements were plans that Jobs was somewhat involved in (he worked almost up until his death).
In a month or two this Maps debacle will be stale news, and the bloggers will onto the next shiny toy or minor misstep.
It looks like they rushed a few things. They are clearly under pressure from other competitors and they are sweating bullets trying to maintain an edge.
I think the worse positioned companies are the OEMs. Samsung, HTC, and Nokia do not control the software stack. Microsoft and Google are moving towards making their own hardware.
I think Samsung, HTC, and Nokia have peaked. Plain and simple.
Has any company in history been so large and yet so reliant on a single product? Because of this I am fat to nervous to invest in apple, despite loving their products.
Google? (AdWords)
As far as I'm concerned that would get you 95% of the value a full iPhone provides; and it would've made for a great one more thing during the last iPhone reveal...
The title/article comes off as mostly click-bait journalism.
Apple TV? Apple watch? Apple console?
Who knows, but whatever comes next, Apple will deliver.
The last decade at Apple has been a once-in-a-century run; we might all die before seeing another company pull something like that off again.