Post: Is Apple going downhill?
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12-11-2012, 12:02 AM
#1
Millz
Worth the Weight
Since I'm a little bored I thought I would ask the lot of you who enjoy the use of Apple products whether you think Apple is going downhill or not?
My initial response to this is, yes. I feel that Apple has lost a lot of ground in the market share of everything really. They are loosing laptop market share, iPhone market share and tablet market share. iPods are probably the lease affected if you ask me, since there aren't any good portable music devices similar to them, so I will give Apple that.
My next complaint with Apple is that they have been living in the past for quite some time unfortunately. They have not pushed any sort of new iOS features that even compare to the competition. (Not naming any names, please) I feel that Apple needs a huge iOS overhaul or else Apple will cease to exist sooner than later. I get that Apple has had the approach "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" but I feel like this only goes so far. I'm not using a 1984 Macintosh just because "it works".
I feel that Apple needs to change it's ways, and start to make iOS in general, better.
Feel free to agree/disagree down below, just make sure you don't start a fanboy war
Please try to keep this a friendly discussion.
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01-06-2013, 03:49 AM
#29
Millz
Worth the Weight
Originally posted by SchaffinOSX
To suggest Apple is going downhill in the sense that they're spiraling out of control and will never recover, no, they're not going downhill. Apple has been having some trouble recently, but I think we're blowing matters out of proportion. Apple is still one of the world's most valuable companies and is still churning out highly popular products several times a year. The biggest and most publicized issue since Cook's rise to CEO was, of course, the Apple Maps fiasco. Jobs never would have let the app ship to begin with, but we must give kudos to Cook's swift handling of the situation.
The biggest concern I have with Apple at the moment is that they seem to be speeding up their release cycles. It's reminding me of when Gil Amelio was CEO of Apple, when the company was attempting to offer every market and churn out every product they thought could make them a buck. This failed, and before long Amelio was out and Jobs was interim CEO. But this time, the situation isn't quite as bad. I agree that Apple needs to take a step back and determine what their plan for the future is. Apple will never be the same because Jobs, despite his many flaws, had an insatiable desire for perfection and a vision for where the market is headed. But that's not to say Cook isn't doing a hell of a job, and that Apple is on its way out.
To reiterate: Apple is in an interesting transition period now. Apple lost their visionary, and so it's going to take them awhile to hone in on a new course. Jobs wasn't able to turn the bad situation at Apple around left behind by Amelio instantaneously, and I'm confident Cook, in time, will set the company on an awesome course.
I also want to note that the losses in the market share are only inevitable. Apple revolutionized the smartphone, and has been tweaking and perfecting their iOS software ever since. Eventually, other companies were going to catch on and start making similar changes. The result: a loss in the market share. Nevertheless, Apple is still the stable forerunner, and so will keep a good portion of the market until another company makes a groundbreaking leap forward.
Edit: Lastly, if you're someone who really likes a lot of customization, Apple products simply aren't for you. That's never been the mantra at Apple, and never will be. Apple is defined by creating high-quality, aesthetically pleasing, stable products. Their goal isn't to create products that can be customized from end-to-end.
The biggest concern I have with Apple at the moment is that they seem to be speeding up their release cycles. It's reminding me of when Gil Amelio was CEO of Apple, when the company was attempting to offer every market and churn out every product they thought could make them a buck. This failed, and before long Amelio was out and Jobs was interim CEO. But this time, the situation isn't quite as bad. I agree that Apple needs to take a step back and determine what their plan for the future is. Apple will never be the same because Jobs, despite his many flaws, had an insatiable desire for perfection and a vision for where the market is headed. But that's not to say Cook isn't doing a hell of a job, and that Apple is on its way out.
To reiterate: Apple is in an interesting transition period now. Apple lost their visionary, and so it's going to take them awhile to hone in on a new course. Jobs wasn't able to turn the bad situation at Apple around left behind by Amelio instantaneously, and I'm confident Cook, in time, will set the company on an awesome course.
I also want to note that the losses in the market share are only inevitable. Apple revolutionized the smartphone, and has been tweaking and perfecting their iOS software ever since. Eventually, other companies were going to catch on and start making similar changes. The result: a loss in the market share. Nevertheless, Apple is still the stable forerunner, and so will keep a good portion of the market until another company makes a groundbreaking leap forward.
Edit: Lastly, if you're someone who really likes a lot of customization, Apple products simply aren't for you. That's never been the mantra at Apple, and never will be. Apple is defined by creating high-quality, aesthetically pleasing, stable products. Their goal isn't to create products that can be customized from end-to-end.
Okay. Let us be real here for just a second. This isn't about Apple and the fact that Steve Jobs is now gone, it's the fact that Apple is not forming to the needs of the consumer anymore. Apple has lost almost $200 in it's stock value and has plummeted to being a under fortune 500 company. It has been sustaining nothing but losses since the release date of the iPhone 5 and is down 25% at least from it's peak. People don't seem to realize this but people thought the same thing about RIM and MSFT, they won't fall, I'm a loyal customer. There are still hundreds of thousands loyal RIM customers now, and look where RIM itself is. Customer loyalty is not going to save an entire company if you cannot convince average people to buy your products.
And yes, they are starting to speed up their release cycles. I see this as a sign of desperation on behalf of Apple, since they no longer have the competitive edge anymore. They have lost significant market share on ALL fronts, primarily on iOS which so happens to be the only reason their company even survived. Making developers use OS X devices was a clever move by Apple, since it did make them some money and bought them some market share. If Apple did not have iOS on it's side it would have never been able to get off the ground and Microsoft would be in the position Apple found itself when it was worth well over 600 billion. Actually, Microsoft did, and if you account for inflation it was still worth the most. With inflation MSFT was worth over 800 billion dollars.
Apart from the significant loses, Apple needs to start to form around the consumer. People should not have to form to the product they are buying, it should fit to their needs. Apple has done exactly what pushed RIM into bankruptcy, NOTHING. The thing I have so much trouble convincing people is that simplicity is not going to always work. People said the same thing about RIM and how their phones just worked and how they liked the keyboards and blah blah blah. The loyal customers stayed with RIM just like how loyal Apple fans will stay loyal to Apple, but once the chunk of the consumer base migrates; you can kiss Apple goodbye.
And the losses are inevitable, but it's the fact that they are not doing anything about the losses that frightens me. I would love to have Apple to compete with vendors like Samsung etc. but they are not. They have been literally building a brick wall and while they are making a 3.0L V8 engine, the other companies are working diligently outside on a 8.0L W16. Then when Apple unveils it's new products it just looks like they are playing catch up with the competition.
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01-06-2013, 03:35 PM
#30
schaffinosx
To and fro the island.
Originally posted by Millz59
Okay. Let us be real here for just a second. This isn't about Apple and the fact that Steve Jobs is now gone, it's the fact that Apple is not forming to the needs of the consumer anymore. Apple has lost almost $200 in it's stock value and has plummeted to being a under fortune 500 company. It has been sustaining nothing but losses since the release date of the iPhone 5 and is down 25% at least from it's peak. People don't seem to realize this but people thought the same thing about RIM and MSFT, they won't fall, I'm a loyal customer. There are still hundreds of thousands loyal RIM customers now, and look where RIM itself is. Customer loyalty is not going to save an entire company if you cannot convince average people to buy your products.
And yes, they are starting to speed up their release cycles. I see this as a sign of desperation on behalf of Apple, since they no longer have the competitive edge anymore. They have lost significant market share on ALL fronts, primarily on iOS which so happens to be the only reason their company even survived. Making developers use OS X devices was a clever move by Apple, since it did make them some money and bought them some market share. If Apple did not have iOS on it's side it would have never been able to get off the ground and Microsoft would be in the position Apple found itself when it was worth well over 600 billion. Actually, Microsoft did, and if you account for inflation it was still worth the most. With inflation MSFT was worth over 800 billion dollars.
Apart from the significant loses, Apple needs to start to form around the consumer. People should not have to form to the product they are buying, it should fit to their needs. Apple has done exactly what pushed RIM into bankruptcy, NOTHING. The thing I have so much trouble convincing people is that simplicity is not going to always work. People said the same thing about RIM and how their phones just worked and how they liked the keyboards and blah blah blah. The loyal customers stayed with RIM just like how loyal Apple fans will stay loyal to Apple, but once the chunk of the consumer base migrates; you can kiss Apple goodbye.
And the losses are inevitable, but it's the fact that they are not doing anything about the losses that frightens me. I would love to have Apple to compete with vendors like Samsung etc. but they are not. They have been literally building a brick wall and while they are making a 3.0L V8 engine, the other companies are working diligently outside on a 8.0L W16. Then when Apple unveils it's new products it just looks like they are playing catch up with the competition.
And yes, they are starting to speed up their release cycles. I see this as a sign of desperation on behalf of Apple, since they no longer have the competitive edge anymore. They have lost significant market share on ALL fronts, primarily on iOS which so happens to be the only reason their company even survived. Making developers use OS X devices was a clever move by Apple, since it did make them some money and bought them some market share. If Apple did not have iOS on it's side it would have never been able to get off the ground and Microsoft would be in the position Apple found itself when it was worth well over 600 billion. Actually, Microsoft did, and if you account for inflation it was still worth the most. With inflation MSFT was worth over 800 billion dollars.
Apart from the significant loses, Apple needs to start to form around the consumer. People should not have to form to the product they are buying, it should fit to their needs. Apple has done exactly what pushed RIM into bankruptcy, NOTHING. The thing I have so much trouble convincing people is that simplicity is not going to always work. People said the same thing about RIM and how their phones just worked and how they liked the keyboards and blah blah blah. The loyal customers stayed with RIM just like how loyal Apple fans will stay loyal to Apple, but once the chunk of the consumer base migrates; you can kiss Apple goodbye.
And the losses are inevitable, but it's the fact that they are not doing anything about the losses that frightens me. I would love to have Apple to compete with vendors like Samsung etc. but they are not. They have been literally building a brick wall and while they are making a 3.0L V8 engine, the other companies are working diligently outside on a 8.0L W16. Then when Apple unveils it's new products it just looks like they are playing catch up with the competition.
You make a good argument. I'm simply not one to write a company off so quickly. Apple is still making quality products, and they still have a chance to respond to their decreasing market share. They haven't reached some crucial point of no return, and are not destine to fail in the near future. Is it possible? Of course it is. Apple is, like you've emphasized, undergoing plenty of issues and declines, similar to those faced by other tech giants that declined for similar reasons. But that doesn't mean that the same thing will happen here.
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