On October 19, 2011, 14 days after the death of its celebrated
founder Steve Jobs, Apple held a memorial service at its Cupertino
campus. Posters bearing Jobs’ visage and his inspirational quotations
appeared on the walls throughout the company’s headquarters.
“If you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go
do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long,” declared
one poster hung prominently in Apple’s Town Hall. “Just figure out
what’s next.”
Nearly a year and a half later, Wall Street and the technology world
seem increasingly convinced that Jobs’ company has failed to heed that
advice, surrendering some of its aura as a supposedly limitless purveyor
of brilliant new inventions along with billions in stock market value.
In the Silicon Valley conversation, discussion of a reputedly invincible
Apple has given way to questioning whether the company has lost its way
while running out of fresh ideas.
On Wall Street, Apple has watched its stock price sink to its lowest level in more than a year, a dive that stands in contrast to its arch-rival Google, whose shares recently hit a new high.
In the marketplace, Apple, in its present position, has devolved into a
mere purveyor of consistently excellent products -- still an enormously
lucrative perch, and yet a comedown for a company that only recently
seemed to hold a monopoly on shiny new objects of consumer desire.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
In the three years since Apple released its last category-creating
blockbuster, the iPad, investors are anxious for signs that the company
has another breakthrough in its pipeline. Meanwhile, Apple’s competitors
have successfully mimicked the company’s approach -- offering sleek
gadgets and an ecosystem of content to go with them, paired with edgy
marketing -- making Apple’s magic now seem almost mundane.
“Apple is going from a great company with unprecedented products to a
good company with good performance,” said George Colony, chief
executive of Forrester, a research and advisory firm. “The products are
still very good, but not highly innovative. That’s different from a few
years ago.”
No one is writing the company’s obituary. Despite the worried talk and some missteps, Apple sold 47 million iPhones
over the last three months of 2012 alone. It remains the most valuable
company on earth (or second-most valuable, depending on Exxon's stock
performance on a given day). Over the course of last year, Apple's
profits exceeded $41 billion, more than Microsoft, Facebook, Google and
Amazon combined.
But by one key measure -- its price-to-earnings ratio, or the amount
its stock is worth as a multiple of its profits -- Apple has clearly
sunk in the estimation of investors. When stock markets have confidence
that a company is on the verge of a growth spurt, they bid its stock
price up, paying many times current earnings for its shares in the
belief that those earnings are about to expand. Over the last two years,
Apple has watched its stock value sink from a price-to-earnings ratio
of 23 to about nine -- the same territory as companies viewed as mature
and stable, such as electrical utilities.
Amazon, which actually lost money in 2012, boasts a P/E ratio of 150
times expected earnings. The value reflects that investors view the
company’s future business ventures -- whether a phone, an HBO-like offering
or a push to replace supermarkets -- as a source of explosive earnings
growth. To a large extent, Apple's more modest P/E ratio reflects doubt
that Apple can upend the Law of Large Numbers
and keep pace with the incredible growth rate they've maintained thus
far. Apple sold 80 percent more iPads in 2012 than in 2011. Can it sell
80 percent more -- or 105 million iPads -- in 2013? And again in 2014?
Even Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak worries that Apple may be surrendering its touch.
“We used to have these ads, I’m a Mac and I’m a PC, and the Mac was always the cool guy,” Wozniak told Bloomberg. “And ouch, it’s painful, because we kind of are losing that.”
Apple shares precious little about its current and future state of
affairs, but the outside world senses trouble -- a sense amplified by
turnover at the top. Scott Forstall, the company’s head of iOS software, was fired in November. John Browett,
who replaced Ron Johnson as senior vice president of retail operations,
lasted just seven months at Apple. Three months after his Browett's
exit, his direct report, Apple’s vice president of retail, resigned.
The company’s uncanny grasp of consumer taste has lately seemed on the
wane. In the past, Apple’s ads have become cultural phenomena of their
own -- and yet Apple’s latest round of commercials were noteworthy only
inasmuch as they proved entirely unremarkable (the notable exception: a
series of “cringeworthy,” “hated” ads for the Apple Genius Bar).
Apple’s major product releases, such as the iPhone 5, new iPad and
iPad Mini, offered only incremental improvements over their
predecessors, or, in the case of Apple Maps, a product that fell short of expectations (though even with these "incremental improvements," Apple sold 1.7 million iPads and 3.7 million iPhones per
week in the final three months of 2012). The company that prides itself
on making the world’s best, most beautiful products has recently
watched its mapping, mail and browser apps for the iPhone upstaged by
Google’s own, in the estimation of some users.
“The Apple user is an adrenaline junky,” noted Howard Anderson, a
lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “He wants the latest and
greatest, revolutionary not evolutionary.”
Apple’s business model, which relies on producing top-tier gadgets
that retail for top-tier prices, appears weaker than it has in years,
given changing conditions within Apple and in the market at large.
Though analysts note that Apple’s existing lineup of devices still
bears Jobs’ fingerprints, the chief executive’s obsessive focus on
product details can’t easily be matched. Despite Apple’s impressive
sales under Cook's watch, Wall Street still seems to be wondering
whether the company can maintain its momentum without its visionary
founder.
Apple, for its part, has changed its product review process: Where
designs for new features or products used to go through Jobs for his
sign-off, they’re now evaluated by members of Apple's executive team,
with a different mix of people assigned to different projects, a former
Apple employee told HuffPost. The person noted that this procedure has
been in place since Jobs’ health worsened.
And even as Apple has been adjusting to an innovation cycle that doesn’t
include its founder’s input, its rivals are demonstrating that they are
both able innovators and keen imitators of the Apple formula.
Competitors like Google, Samsung, Amazon and HTC are closing the gap
between Apple’s offerings and their own, with high-quality handsets they
sell for less than Cupertino’s, and a growing ecosystem of apps and
entertainment to go with then. Analysts warn this trend may erode Apple’s profit margins, which in turn may erode confidence in the company’s future earnings.
“The market as a whole has changed. The Samsungs and others can now
almost read the mind of Apple, more than they could have ten years ago,”
said Peter Fader, a professor of marketing at the University of
Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “It’s not clear to me that Apple can
continue to have the same success with this innovation, product-driven
strategy, as I think others will catch up. Customers are getting smart,
and they can’t have the virtual monopoly they’ve enjoyed.”
Apple's allure has stemmed in large part from the sense that its
devices are "gateway gadgets" to more spending: when people buy an
iDevice, they are supposed to be making just the first of many purchases
from the company, and will eventually fork over their credit cards to
buy books, apps, music and other gadgets that all sync seamlessly within
Apple's universe. People with MacBooks are enticed to buy iPhones with
the pitch that they will be able to use the new device to play the
iTunes music that they already own. This dynamic is supposed to be
self-perpetuating, making people accustomed to shopping at iTunes -- and
especially as the iPad beckons as a screen for video -- or to purchase
an iPad so they can sync apps already on their iPhone.
Now, other companies have developed their own media and app
libraries, which also act as portals to a range of content. And
standalone services, such as Pandora, Spotify, Netflix and Amazon's
Kindle ebook library, let people easily transfer their entertainment
from one company's platform to another's, providing an alternative
around Apple's iTunes.
In the longer-term, analysts like Colony warn that the exploding
popularity of Google’s Android operating system, which powers phones and
tablets from Samsung and HTC, among others, could lure developers away from the Apple system,
which may soon be in an undesirable position familiar to BlackBerry and
Microsoft: Apple could find itself playing catch-up with its app
offerings.
Forrester estimates that by the end of this year, Android smartphones will outnumber iPhones by nearly five to one, with 894 million Android phones and 247 million iPhones worldwide.
Apple has previously brushed off questions about its share of the
smartphone market, while citing data showing that even as Android
commands a greater number of users, Apple users more frequently employ
their devices to shop online, browse the web and download apps.
Analysts said they expect Apple’s future strategy to look a great deal
like its past approach: grow revenues by launching products in new
categories, and then push those devices into new markets. In short,
adapt to swiftly changing consumer demands.
In the 2007 fiscal year, desktop computers comprised some 17 percent
of Apple’s net sales, while iPhones made up only one percent. Five years
later, the iPhone accounted for more than half of net sales, while
desktop computers had shrunk to just 4 percent. In those past five
years, Apple has also conquered new territory, with China now Apple’s
second-largest market.
It is worth bearing in mind that Apple’s success has stemmed from
entering areas pioneered by others, yet far from tamed, to enable mass
enjoyment of consumer products. Apple did not invent the MP3 player; it
merely built the most popular version of all time. The iPad came a
decade after Microsoft’s efforts at launching a tablet, but Apple’s was
the first to find a mass market. The iPhone was far from the first
smartphone, trailing entrants from Microsoft, Nokia and BlackBerry, but
its public embrace made apps and the mobile Web part of everyday life.
Apple’s future success now seems likely to hinge on its ability to
pull off that trick once again, finding another lucrative area to
transform -- perhaps television, wearable technology, or even the car.
Some speculate that its next major play will be for the home, with
devices like an Apple TV to put iTunes, Siri, the App Store and other
Apple offerings on more screens and provide more opportunities to pay
for Apple content.
The living room and the wrist seem to be among Apple’s primary targets, as rumors abound of possibilities like an Apple TV -- a full television, as opposed to the streaming video box the company sells now -- or an iWatch.
Beijing
Washington - Departemen Pertahanan Amerika Serikat (AS)
dilaporkan akan memesan perangkat buatan Apple secara besar-besaran.
Dari iPad, iPad Mini, iPod Touch dan iPhone.
Jakarta - Jonathan Ive adalah sosok sangat penting di
raksasa teknologi, Apple. Dari tangan dinginnya, keluar desain memikat
iPod, iPhone sampai iPad.
Jakarta - Android telah mencuri seluruh perhatian yang
dimiliki oleh para penggila gadget di seluruh dunia. Sony, Samsung, dan
HTC telah atau akan secara resmi memasarkan produk-produk terbarunya.
Cupertino - Setelah sempat memaki-maki Apple di era
Steve Jobs, Kevin Lynch kini rela melepas jabatannya di Adobe sebagai
Chief Technology Officer demi posisi jabatan yang levelnya sedikit lebih
rendah di Apple. 
Jakarta
- Sebuah foto yang dirilis oleh Ubergizmo sempat menarik perhatian para
penggila produk Apple. Pasalnya, foto yang dirilis tersebut
disebut-sebut sebagai iPhone 5S emas yang tengah dikerjakan Foxconn.