The disturbing direction that Apple is headed...

[Cineplex]

This might not seem to make sense, but companies can be in just as much trouble when making insane amounts of profit as they can be when profits are low. It depends on HOW they have increased profits. If they have increased them by producing an even better product and with great marketing, then profits will continue to be high. But, if they have increased them by taking advantage of their user base and reputation, lowered the standards to reduce costs, and are producing a lower quality product than they previously did, then they are in serious trouble. This is exactly how a company creates a boom/bust situation. Sooner or later their reputation becomes forever damaged, and the enter long term decline.

Apple has done exactly this, if they aren't careful and don't do something quickly to change the direction they are headed in, they will damage their reputation as a company forever. When that happens, sales will decline on a much larger scale than is currently being seen. Apple is an incredibly vulnerable company. Their strategy of low sales with high profits on each individual item means that even a slight lowering of sales has a significant effect, and their use of vertical integration means that people tend to own either a bunch of Apple products, or none at all. Apple products are not nearly as useful on their own, they are designed to work as an ecosystem which is both a huge strength, and a huge weakness. A good example of the effects of this is with the Apple Watch. If you sell your iPhone, the watch becomes useless. People don't tend to just abandon one product with Apple, but the whole ecosystem.

Exactly. I suspect if things go south the billions they have in the bank will dry up quickly just tying to keep their giant operation afloat. No more retail stores filled with 10+ people doing nothing on a weekday.

The retail stores are essentially just a support hub with an iPhone/iPad sales center. When the stores first opened there was a lot of products for sale and a fair amount on non-Apple ecosystem customers buying accessories like printers and such. If the iPhone tanks....they retail stores are going to have a big problem as that is really all they carry now. The older stores are probably more resilient, but all the giant flagship stores will be useless. Mac sales alone won't keep this going. While the Mac sales were responsible for the stores success initially, there just isn't any products in the store for them.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Damage their reputation? With who?

As of now their reputation with Pros is seriously damaged. Not unrecoverable yet, but the direction is not good at all.

 

[calaverasgrande]

I think we actually find ourselves in a position not unfamiliar in politics.
We aren't 100% happy with what we have settled for. But the alternative is terrible.
I have used every version of Windows going back to 3.1.1.
I've also tried to like Android OS a number of times.
In both cases I just cant stand how things are so ugly from stem to stern. How so many normal things are a pain in the behind, and how unsecure and malware vulnerable they are.
But IOS and OSX still have plenty of room to improve.
I still have annoying problems with OSX not refreshing network shares.
Creating folders in the wrong place?
Not shifting cursor focus to a dialogue box which is blocking my view, so I have to MOUSE to hit cancel/submit/okay.
All problems Windows doesnt have. And these are not technical issues. They are UI inconsistencies.
Likewise IOS could use a lot of improvement in pretty mundane areas, and not so many GOLLY GEE WHIZ! new features.

 

[pat500000]

If only Michael Jackson was alive and the next CEO of Apple company..he would be bring that magic..."whoo hoo hoo." -whip lash- "I'm bad!" If nobody likes his direction, Michael Jackson would tell customers to "beat it."

If there are any color issues with Apple devices..he would ask them "if he is black or white" with that music theme.

 

[yaxomoxay]

We aren't 100% happy with what we have settled for. But the alternative is terrible.
[...]
All problems Windows doesnt have. And these are not technical issues. They are UI inconsistencies.
Likewise IOS could use a lot of improvement in pretty mundane areas, and not so many GOLLY GEE WHIZ! new features.

I am not sure... I think that Apple is finding itself in a pickle; I will try to explain.
The other day I went to the National Videogame Museum in Frisco, TX (I will post pictures and stuff in the Community forum). It was an amazing experience, almost everything was an hands-on experience. I played with an Apple II (after so many years!!!), a Commodore 64 (I quickly programmed a moving "ball"; it didn't really work, lol, but everyone was looking at me like I was Bill Gates), an HP-99 etc, arcade games etc.
At a certain point, I sat down on a sofa in a 1980's replica room, and I began reading a Commodore 64 and an Atari 400 user manual. After a while I looked at the clock and an hour had gone by, just reading the manuals.
Well, there is one thing that I found interesting and upsetting at the same time. Those manuals were written for first time owners, and for people that never had a computer at home. However, they implied a learning curve. In other words, the expected you - the user - to desire learning the necessary skills to use the computers at the best. There was absolutely zero dumbing down, no "easy for all". I quickly glanced at one of the Apple II manuals on hand (I don't remember which one) and I noticed that the style was not different.
Nowadays, everything is so "smart" that the user is expected to be the dumbest being that ever lived. The user is expected to use a $1000 computer in a phone without even knowing the difference between HDMI and USB. Apple is one of the companies that always promoted that, and 90% of Apple's customers now expect the "it's just works" from Apple.
The problem is, you can dumb up to a point. If you extend the customer base to people that have no clue at all of the fact that an iPad even needs electricity, and if you don't do anything to push them in learning what an iPad is but actually make things "worse" by creating "smarter" devices, sooner or later two things are gotta give, and those are: innovation and quality.
Innovation will decrease because the "pushing the envelope" customer base will be just a small fraction of the "average" customers (in other words: the pro's world will be watered down in terms of revenue).
Quality will decrease because "smarter" devices will be required to do more and more tasks, pushing development schedule and causing lack of focus.
Now, the problem is more serious for Apple than for Microsoft (for example) because Apple has always championed itself as the only company that could innovate while keeping high quality standards, while at the same time the user could just sit down and relax waiting for more embedded features. Unfortunately I think that Apple has reached a breaking point which will cause more and more fragmentation (for example, we have more iPhone models).
Of course Apple's competition has the same problem, but I think that Apple's history exponentially makes this a bigger problem than for the competitors.

 

[Phoenixx]

Exactly. I suspect if things go south the billions they have in the bank will dry up quickly just tying to keep their giant operation afloat. No more retail stores filled with 10+ people doing nothing on a weekday.

The retail stores are essentially just a support hub with an iPhone/iPad sales center. When the stores first opened there was a lot of products for sale and a fair amount on non-Apple ecosystem customers buying accessories like printers and such. If the iPhone tanks....they retail stores are going to have a big problem as that is really all they carry now. The older stores are probably more resilient, but all the giant flagship stores will be useless. Mac sales alone won't keep this going. While the Mac sales were responsible for the stores success initially, there just isn't any products in the store for them.

There are three very important factors here to consider:

1. How much of Apple's billions of cash is actually theirs? They have done a very good job of avoiding paying taxes with deliberate strategies that are pushing the limits of what is legal. Should they suddenly be found to be guilty of tax evasion, they could potentially see a large portion of their cash reserves disappear virtually overnight.
2. Vertical integration is not only one of the biggest strengths of Apple products, but it is also one of their biggest weaknesses. People don't tend to abandon just one of their products, but the ENTIRE ecosystem. This means they not only miss out on the sale of one item, but a large number of them.
3. Apple are a one product company; nearly 70% of all their profits come from the iPhone. If that wasn't bad enough, they focus on making insane amounts of money from each sale, which means that if they have even a small decline in sales, their profits diminish rapidly.

All of this adds up to a company that has the potential to decline VERY quickly should the bubble burst.

 

[I7guy]

As of now their reputation with Pros is seriously damaged. Not unrecoverable yet, but the direction is not good at all.

What about all of the "non-pros" like myself?

 

[yaxomoxay]

What about all of the "non-pros" like myself?

Once pros will leave the boat everyone else will follow as Apple will be seen as simply overpriced.

 

[I7guy]

Once pros will leave the boat everyone else will follow as Apple will be seen as simply overpriced.

I'm not sure about that train of thought, considering you can't possibly know what apples millions and millions of customers could do.

 

[yaxomoxay]

I'm not sure about that train of thought, considering you can't possibly know what apples millions and millions of customers could do.

Well, I am obviously exaggerating, not that Apple will go bankrupt in the near future. However, they are becoming a one product company (as someone else said), and they're losing their evangelists which is BAD.
I hope to be proven wrong.

 

[I7guy]

Well, I am obviously exaggerating, not that Apple will go bankrupt in the near future. However, they are becoming a one product company (as someone else said), and they're losing their evangelists which is BAD.
I hope to be proven wrong.

Who listens to these so called "evangelists". Nobody I know cares about what others think of a product. I buy products based on my use case; not another's use case or opinion.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Who listens to these so called "evangelists". Nobody I know cares about what others think of a product.

I think more people than most actually realize. Not only for "review" reasons, but for support reasons. If you don't know anything about a product and your local nerd has a PC and suggests that you buy a PC, you will tend to buy the PC knowing that the local nerd will give you at least some basic support.

 

[oldmacs]

Well, I am obviously exaggerating, not that Apple will go bankrupt in the near future. However, they are becoming a one product company (as someone else said), and they're losing their evangelists which is BAD.
I hope to be proven wrong.

It was the pros that kept Apple going in the 90s - Pros have the most brand loyalty - your average iPhone consumer is probably a Windows user and someone without brand loyalty so if Apple did something wrong they'd be out the door and this time the Pros won't be there to save Apple, since Apple has practically abandoned them!

Of course the likelihood of that happening is minimal. I agree though loosing the evangelists is ba.
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I think more people than most actually realize. Not only for "review" reasons, but for support reasons. If you don't know anything about a product and your local nerd has a PC and suggests that you buy a PC, you will tend to buy the PC knowing that the local nerd will give you at least some basic support.

This so much. Plenty of people have that IT person in their family, or amongst friends etc that they listen to for tech purchases. I'm that person in my family and have convinced and helped so many family members and friends to switch to Macs or other Apple Devices.

 

[I7guy]

I think more people than most actually realize. Not only for "review" reasons, but for support reasons. If you don't know anything about a product and your local nerd has a PC and suggests that you buy a PC, you will tend to buy the PC knowing that the local nerd will give you at least some basic support.

The people who review products are not the same people you are talking about. I read review articles, but don't care about the opinion pieces. Most people don't either or else with the first negative blog sales would tank.

 

[yaxomoxay]

The people who review products are not the same people you are talking about. I read review articles, but don't care about the opinion pieces. Most people don't either or else with the first negative blog sales would tank.

You don't need to be a blogger or a journalist to "review" a product.
I also think that you're wrong, given how much attention Apple's marketing dept pays to its reviewers a la Pogue...

 

[I7guy]

You don't need to be a blogger or a journalist to "review" a product.
I also think that you're wrong, given how much attention Apple's marketing dept pays to its reviewers a la Pogue...

But how much attention do apples customer base pay attention to them? I'm guessing only a small minority and I use my wife and me as an example. I could care less what the bloggers write. I go into Apple handle the iPhone 7 and if I like it I buy it. Simple, easy-peasy. Don't consult with a blogger, youtuber, or reviewer first.

 

[frankgrimes]

For me it's very simple I buy whatever works best for me and my budget. The problem is, MS has been too aggressive with their cloud and mobile first style and by outsourcing their service centers I'm not interested in paying too dollars for a in my mind great but no yet ready product, named the surface book.

As far as PC is concerned well I love building my own one and expand up on it, I'm the techy in the family and the reason I can't recommend an IMac is the lack of upgrade options.

I think Apple, MS are facing a self inflicted problem, they just don't know how to keep mobile away from the desktop and vise versa. Also keep in mind Jobs , Gates weren't just your average high IQ people they were visionaries in a time, when IBM and Xerox basically ruled the IT world

 

[yaxomoxay]

But how much attention do apples customer base pay attention to them? I'm guessing only a small minority and I use my wife and me as an example. I could care less what the bloggers write. I go into Apple handle the iPhone 7 and if I like it I buy it. Simple, easy-peasy. Don't consult with a blogger, youtuber, or reviewer first.

I would say that Apple's customer base is composed by a variety of people. The problem is when you have bloggers that aren't as happy as before, pros that aren't has happy as before, casual users less interested than before. All while revenue is going down (still good, of course), one year without any decent upgrade, a computer line that is embarrassing to say the least (and overpriced), and a hiccup after another. Outlook is grim; it's recoverable, but grim nonetheless.

 

[I7guy]

I would say that Apple's customer base is composed by a variety of people. The problem is when you have bloggers that aren't as happy as before, pros that aren't has happy as before, casual users less interested than before. All while revenue is going down (still good, of course), one year without any decent upgrade, a computer line that is embarrassing to say the least (and overpriced), and a hiccup after another. Outlook is grim; it's recoverable, but grim nonetheless.

So I disagree to the extent the bloggers influence on the majority of Apple customers. Look at theater reviews as an example.

We are going to go back and forth on this hypothetical scenario. I don't know what a pro is, but in my house 4 iPhones, 2 iPads, 2 MacBooks and an Apple TV. Does that qualify me as a pro? I think it does and my opinion is I like the products i have and would continue to buy Apple products.

 

[Tech198]

I'd be wondering more about "the disturbing direction the media is reporting" personally.