Just read that, before the Iphone was introduced in China in mid 2009, Apple sales there were less than one billion per year. Last year, Apple had sales of 13.3 billion in China. This year, they have already done over 12 billion in sales in China in the first six months of their fiscal year. They are looking at sales of 26 billion this fiscal year. So from less than a billion in sales to 25-26 billion in sales in roughly three years. I don't own a single Apple product but they are an amazing company.
No doubt an American success story. Not sure how long it can be sustained without Jobs. They have come up with numerous revolutionary products in the past decade.
At this point, it can't be "unsustained." It's like one of the banks... too big to fail. Something like 50 million Americans rely on either the iPhone or iPad each day. I don't think there will ever be enough de-innovation to render these products obsolete. Until the point where we can implant them in our brains. Braaaaaiiinnnns.
Not sure about that. Consumer electronics is a cut throat business. Things can change ridiculously fast - ask RIMM. Apple itself had to bring itself back from near oblivion. It just takes a couple technology shifts to make the top dog irrelevant.
What Revolutionary product did Apple invent? They didn't invent anything, all they did was enhance products already existing. This is not a strong indicator of a long term player. Apple had a brief moment in the 1980's of being the top Computer Manufacturer, their marketing ran out. The same will happen again, the marketing will run out, the product while a little unique and different, will falter within the next 5 years. IBM in the 1950's and 1960's..... Motorola in the 1970's and 1980's for chips Motorola in the 1980's and 1990's for networking products Motorola in the 1990's and 2000's for cell phones Apple in the 1980's for personal computers Compaq Dell Gateway all had their flashes The iPhone and iPad offers no corporate networking and or security. The two biggest most important things for anything to sustain currently and going into the future. Quit reading the marketing crap and the news headlines. If you feel so confident about Apple, go buy some stock, another key indicator, look at Yahoo 10 years ago.
I don't own any apple products, but my son does. I don't think there is much doubt that for individual consumers, Apple has superior products. The problem has always been using Apple in corporate environments.
my brother works for Apple so I was in the Cayman Islands with him last January (2011). At that point, Apple was making more off just the iPhone that all other phone manufacturers combined. Apple products are ridiculously good. My brother's best friend bought a few hundred shares when they were at about $15. He's sitting pretty happy right now don't you think?
Apple is a tremendous company. Jobs realized that the average consumer was so fed up with challenges in interopability that they'd sacrifice functionality and freedom for style and an extremely simplified ecosystem. It was a brilliant move. The only challenge is that by controlling the entire ecosystem Apple needs to drive ALL the innovation rather than have a variety of companies fighting in an open marketplace. There could be trouble on the horizon if you agree with Eugene Kaspersky. Can't find the article I read yesterday but one of the leading thought pioneers on OS security claimed Apple is "about 10-12 years behind Microsoft". He inferred that there is a wave of viruses that will quickly hit the Apple ecosystem which will require them to respond with updates MUCH more quickly than they've been willing to. In fact, Apple was roundly criticized for how slowly they reacted to the most recent Flashback virus threat. Could Apple be the next Microsoft? Ironically, Microsoft's ecosystem may be best poised to be the Apple alternative with Windows 8. I say this even in the face of carrying an Android phone and tablet that I LOVE.
A Win8 tablet can very well be an iPad killer. There is a huge opportunity for a tablet that has the functionality of a laptop but the ultra-portability of a tablet. It will happen. Just a matter of time.
I don't own any Apple products, because their slick marketing isn't good enough to hustle me into paying 3 - 5 times as much as I pay for their competitors' products. Their stuff is better, but it's not that much better. Furthermore, I just don't feel the need to be young, hip, and cool by owning a bunch of Apple products. However, they are an incredible company with an amazing story, especially if you consider that in the '90s they looked like they were dead.
Good post SH. I hope Apple is serious about the malware threats, and I think they will be as there is too much riding on it. I don’t know enough about the underlying security of OS X and iOS and potential code vulnerabilities, but they will have to be smart and very responsive to stay ahead of the troublemakers. A lot of folks (mostly in the tech community) have complained that Apple’s ecosystem is ‘closed’ — i.e., we aren’t free to install anything we want. But that is precisely the trade-off that Apple had to make: lock down the App Store and make sure the code meets certain standards, or open it up and every time some crappy app crashes the device customers will think the iPhone sucks. They won’t care if it is Apple’s fault or the app developer. This was absolutely the right move for Apple, in my opinion. Focus on the customer experience, even at the expense of some choice.
Apple makes obscene profits, requiring the public to pay far more than what it costs actually to make the products. That money should be recaptured for distribution! We need a National Apple Equitable Opportunity Equalization Act! I've voluntarily paid their profit margin on four products (not counting numerous ipods), and I am quite impressed with the quality of all four.
I don't own an Apple computer, but I have a Nano. But to say they haven't been innovative is nuts. A little personal story. I'm a writer. Back in 1990 I had a typed manuscript that I wanted to transcribe to computer so I could get the details perfect for a submission. A friend of mine had access to a Mac SC2 (I think) and said I could use it at night when nobody needed it. Great. I met him at ten o'clock at night and was prepared for an hour lesson on how to operate the computer and the word program. I expected it to be complex. Stunningly, he had me working in a word file within ten minutes with total confidence in what I was doing. Such elegance of design. Such brilliance in realizing that the monitor is, for all practical purposes, a TV. I went from computer ignorant to a computer user in just minutes. That could not have happened on a PC pre-Windows. My first computer was a Mac LC2 back in 1992. I switched to PC eight years later because it was cheaper and I liked the programs available for the PC, but there is no question that the computer you use today is a descendant of the Mac. I don't think that assures a great future for Apple, but I do know they were brilliant back then and have been brilliant in the last five years when it comes to phones and portable music. My hat is off to them. I would be so proud if I could point to a similar achievement of my own.
Alright I'm going to take the bait as this is too tempting. No not about Apple- I agree it is an amazing company and have to question the intelligence of anyone who disagrees. Personally I love my Samsung Android phone- but I digress. What interests me is not that it is successful, but why and how can we replicate their model as much as possible? The USA can not compete globally based on labor or natural resources- we've had our asses kicked in those categories for decades. The only thing we have of interest to the world is a bit of agriculture products and a lot of intelligence/innovation. So how did Apple come to be so wealthy in the innovation department? 1) Smart guys, smart background, allowed to prosper. This company is full of Stanford grads, Stanford dropouts, and a few Ivy Leaguers at the top. 2) They do their work in Silicon Valley- no, not Texas, but HQ is firmly near Stanford in Silicon Valley on purpose. There are smart graduates, there are employees from other firms to pluck, and those other firms also choose to be near Stanford/Cal- 2 top tier Universities. The argument about being business friendly works for some firms and why they move to lower tax states. But at Apple, the principal product is the brains of the employees- and to get the most, they need to be where the best brains are. Consequently, Austin has a leg up on other Texas cities in large part thanks to our school. I've thought about that a lot as my much larger city of SA, only 75 miles away, seems third world compared to Austin. Because this was posted on West Mall- my take aways from Apple are the following. SUPPORT OUR UNIVERSITIES AND STUDENTS. Keep costs low, subsidize education for worthy students. Foster and promote an environment of innovation, ideas and technology. Keep student loans cost low, subsidize interest rates, promote scholarships as much as possible, and use more public funding for state Universities, like The University of Texas, which has been drained in the past decade. In the 90's, about 80% of its budget came from the State, today it is 13%. That is why they raised tuition so much. Yes, good schools are good- that bias is based on truths. No, not every kid at Stanford or Harvard is amazing, but a good percentage surely are. Lowering taxes helps if your business is a low cost play. It's not as big of a deal if your business is based on other things, like innovation, ideas and engineering. While lower taxes attracts almost every type of business, it's not the be all, end all reason why one place is better or worse than others. Steve Jobs was everything that was right about America. Unfortunately, he grew up at a time when it was much easier for guys like Jobs, Gates, Wozniak to find success than it is today. Today, some students forgo projects in their garage because they need to work even harder to afford an education than older generations did. Education is not social welfare, it is R&D, and without it, we will wilt to become a country that simply buys products from other countries.
Wait Wait Apple had the largest dollar profit. much more than any oil or gas where is the outcry for ending subsidies to apple? where is the outcry for forcing Apple to pay more? apple's % of taxes paid in USA is 9.8% and apple uses to the max every loophole to not pay taxes here. when Exxon does it it is criminal. Why is it ok for Apple? full disclosure I 'inherited" my first Puter, LISA and I wouldn't be surprised if the SE30 could still out performs some of the crap on the market today. yes Apple is amazing.
Clearly we need a windfall profits tax on the Iphone, Ipad, and Ipod. If you own any of these products you are simply feeding "The One Percent". Congratulations.
