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By Steven Morrison II
Apple (APPL) is mighty, there is no doubt about it. The company’s reach is far and wide. But a recent batch of stories, product speculations and customer push-back has dulled some of that famous Apple polish.
How much pollish is gone? Today alone Apple lost 12% of its value.
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: the iPhone. Once the industry leader in terms of technology and excitement, Apple’s iPhone is now second fiddle to whatever the lastest thing Samsung has going. It is getting older. And dumber.
New phone doesn’t fit the old charger? Are you serious?
I’ve actually heard several iPhone users who’ve stopped at the iPhone 4 model and recently professed outloud that they are considering making the jump to Android-based Samsung products.
After years of being Apple cheerleaders, these die hards have had enough, at least when it comes to the iPhone.
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Long-term, this is going to be a problem for Apple. Not only is the iPhone a great revenue generator, it is also a sure-fire way for the company to get new customers trying their other products. They like the phone, they sign up for iTunes, they buy the iPad then the MacBook Pro, etc.
And suddenly they are heavily invested in hardware and tethered by digital rights to entertainment that they purchased all through Apple’s well-traveled universe. Founder and turtle-neck fan Steve Jobs ascended to heights so amazing and powerful that he became – as comedian Bill Burr put it so well – “Nerd Jesus.”
Well, we all know what happened to Jesus. Nerd Jesus didn’t do to well at the end there either.
The morbid point is that Jobs is gone, the company is in disarray and consequently the share price is going down down down.
One Sept. 18, bites of Apple were going for $701.05, and that was thought of as a good deal back in the day. People were talking about how the stock was poised to top $1000. Today, they were giving them away at $450.50.
Will Apple rise again? Experts always say yes, as the company’s history would point to the positive. But a lot of those smart, innovative people are gone from Apple now, a lot of that excitement abated. Everyone has come back down to Earth.
Two days ago, the question was when will Apple start to climb toward the top again. Now investors are more considered about the bottom.