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Comment by sdsfds | Hacker News Reader

Is this the start of a decline? Apple too busy playing financial games instead of focusing on the product?

Is this the start of a decline? Apple too busy playing on the high-end market instead of focusing on the fast growing low-end?

Is this the start of a decline? Apple loosing profit margins instead of focusing on high-margin products?

Is this the start of a decline? Apple too busy with domestic consumers instead of focusing on the pro market?

Is this the start of a decline? Apple too busy with iPad instead of focusing on the iPhone, his best seller?

Is this the start of a decline? Apple too busy on hardware instead of focusing on services?

etc, etc, etc...

I don't get the doom and gloom surrounding Apple lately. As much as I find John Gruber irritating lately I find myself agreeing with this observation: No matter what Apple does, it seems wrong and it's setting the course of its own demise.

And after that rant... Why is this a hint of the company being more interested in the finance games than in products? Seems to me that its just a decision made by the CFO, that, as usual, is being given too much attention because the company behind it.

The thing is, now that it's been more than a year since Steve died people are looking for the first cracks. I myself believe that right now they are simply moving on momentum, I don't really think they have any thrust left. I hope I'm wrong though. Just a gut feeling.

iMac was introduced in 1998, iPod in 2001, iPhone in 2007, MacBook Air in 2008, and iPad in 2010. All those product lines are still highly profitable. Even if Apple were not to come up with new product categories in the next two years, they would continue to grow.

However, Tim Cook hinted at the introduction of a new product category in the coming year. http://allthingsd.com/20130424/apple-has-amazing-stuff-comin...

Those cracks where there with Steve Jobs as well. For some reason people tend to forget the bad business decisions he made. But he made plenty. Was the period between the iPod an the iPhone just also coasting on momentum? Because if that was the case, I think they are going to be ok.

Oppenheimer has to do something with his time other than counting the mountains of cash.

In all serious, no it is not. It's a tax efficient method of getting value to the shareholders whilst still maintaining a massive cash hoard, that's all.

Their corporate finance team and product development teams are very separate, I'd expect.

Google Braeburn Capital and you'll realize this is nothing new for Apple. They've been good at optimizing their finances for a long long time.