back to article Apple growth flatlines ... Tim Cook thinks, hey, $80bn is still $80bn

Apple has once again set a high watermark for quarterly revenues and profits, though only by a smidgen – its meteoric rise has otherwise completely stalled. The Cupertino consumer electronics behemoth said that from October through December – Q1 of its fiscal 2016 – it pulled in US$75.9bn in revenues [PDF], leading to an US$18 …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Doesn't add up

    "The iPad continued to tumble for Apple. The tablet line saw revenues drop by 21 per cent at $7bn, compared to $8.9bn the year-ago quarter...."

    doesn't match up with

    ""Other Products," a category encompassing the Apple Watch, iPad, Apple TV and Beats hardware lines, reported revenues of $4.35bn, an increase of 62 per cent over Q1 2015."

    unless 4.35 billion is more than 7 billion, which I'm pretty sure it isn't.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Doesn't add up

      It's a typo: "Other Products" includes iPod, not iPad.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

    3. Alex Smithe

      FUDS never adds up

      Because the iPhone business is so large and works on a 2 year cycle, then Apple as a whole can only be viewed or measured that way.

      15 months ago, when Apple reported it’s first full quarter of iPhone 6 sales, it reported the highest quarterly profit of any company ever, beating Exxon’s record by 13%.

      In doing so it beat it’s own profit from the same quarter 2 years, i.e. one cycle, earlier by 37.4% or by 55.3% on a profit per share basis. Remember Apple’s primary way of returning cash to shareholders is not by dividends, but by share repurchase.

      Last quarter, the 12 months on and the first report for a full quarter of the iPhone 6s sales, Apple again reported the highest company profit of any company ever beating its own previous record by 1%.

      In doing so it beat it’s own profit from the same quarter 2 years, i.e. one cycle, earlier by 40.4% or by 48.3% growth in profit per share.

      Yes, it’s years over year growth was only 1%. But 2 years earlier in the same quarter it was 0%. That’s just part of the 2 year cycle.

      It looks like overall for the 2 year cycle iPhone 6 & 6s cycle, Apple’s earnings will be up about 40% or about 50% as profit per share, which annualises to about 18% or 22% profit per share. On top of that growth, Apple also pays a 2% dividend

      How, on the basis of that, do you report Apple’s growth story as being over.

      Of course Apple’s growth had been about to be over every year for at least the last decade, but has still managed 960% growth in that decade. If that sounds like it’s slowing then consider that 960% over 10 years annualises to 26.6% percent annual growth, and is about the same either as profit growth or as growth per share, as for the majority of the decade Apple’s share count was growing. Also, over most of that period, Apple was not paying out the 2% dividend that it currently pays.

      Apple’s stock remains a growth stock. The growth certainly hasn’t plunged. And now it pays a dividend too.

  2. Mark 85

    Even adjusting for inflation, Apple makes the "robber barons" (rail and oil) of old look like amateurs when it comes to profit.

    1. Turtle

      @Mark 85 re: Robber Barrons

      "Even adjusting for inflation, Apple makes the 'robber barons' (rail and oil) of old look like amateurs when it comes to profit."

      Wrong. (And the only way your statement could be true is if you DIDN'T "adjust for inflation". Do you even know what the term means?)

      Apparently you've heard the term "robber baron" but have never bothered to find out what it means or the facts about the historical phenomenon it represents. It's not merely making vast sums of money. A far as their wealth goes, the robber barons personally owned, as individuals, wealth that amounted to a very substantial fraction of the wealth of the entire country. This had political ramifications that no tech company has yet to approach.

      You can read this here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller . Apple does not come close in any respect whatsoever.

      The idea that "Apple makes the 'robber barons' (rail and oil) of old look like amateurs when it comes to profit" has nothing to do with reality.

      1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: @Mark 85 re: Robber Barrons

        A far as their wealth goes, the robber barons personally owned, as individuals, wealth that amounted to a very substantial fraction of the wealth of the entire country.

        Jay Gould apparently owned about half a percent of the GDP of the time. That may not sound like much, but today he'd be close to $100B (that's US "billion", so $1e11 or 1/10th of a trillion dollars). The CPI inflation calculator doesn't go back far enough, and I didn't bother looking for another one, but it put his wealth at over a trillion dollars if we start from twenty years after his death.

        Apple's FY2015 revenue was more than that - about 1.3% of US GDP - but their profits were less than a third of a percent of GDP.

        And Gould died in his fifties. His sometime-partner Fisk died (was murdered) in his thirties, but the two of them nearly managed to corner the gold market and caused the Black Friday crash of '69. Completely different sort of entity than Apple, however much US corporations may be people.

  3. Schultz

    "growth in services revenue"

    Is this an euphemism for fleecing existing customers?

    1. David 132 Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: "growth in services revenue"

      Is this an euphemism for fleecing existing customers?

      I fear so. You can expect to see ever-more-intrusive nagging to get you to use their services... App Store, Apple Music, iCloud and so on. Apple have moved towards adding features that suit them and their need for ongoing revenue - not stuff that suits the user.

      /rant on My own enthusiasm for all things Apple has cooled somewhat because of this. Forced to upgrade my (work-issued) iPhone from 7.x to 9.x last month, I found that it

      a) runs at half the speed (the UI is very laggy, and applications stutter and stall)

      b) incessantly tries to push me towards using Apple Music and iCloud.

      Seriously - just about every time I try to go to the Music app on the phone, it hits me with a full-screen splash offering an Apple Music trial. Even though I've turned AM off in Preferences. Siri won't even start playing music unless I have Mobile Data enabled for Music... so it's obviously trying to connect to AM regardless of my preferences. Grrr! /rant off

      Apple, here's a hint - when people have paid premium prices for your products, they probably won't appreciate subsequently being treated like cattle ripe for the milking.

      If your services are good enough, people will come flocking to them. If you have to pester your loyal users with pop-ups and coercion, you'll just breed suspicion and resentment.

      Oh, Microsoft and Google - that goes for you too.

      B@stards.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "growth in services revenue"

        Hmmm ... You most definitely have had a quite different experience than I've had with my iDevices: I haven't experienced any (that's "any," meaning "the slightest bit of, a scrap of, a shred of, a whit of, a particle of, an iota of, a jot of") the intrusions of which you speak.

        Odd, eh?

        1. bazza Silver badge

          Re: "growth in services revenue"

          Hmmm ... You most definitely have had a quite different experience than I've had with my iDevices: I haven't experienced any (that's "any," meaning "the slightest bit of, a scrap of, a shred of, a whit of, a particle of, an iota of, a jot of") the intrusions of which you speak.

          Odd, eh?

          I'm wondering if once you're inside Apple's walled garden does the nagging go quiet?

      2. bazza Silver badge

        Re: "growth in services revenue"

        Any good CEO's favourite motto: once you've got them by the short and curlies, squeeze, squeeze hard. Walled gardens should have a warning sign, "Abandon all hope ye who enter here".

        BlackBerry

        Try a BlackBerry (running BB10). You get none of that kind of shit with their music player, etc. And they have a neat cloudless way of syncing music and stuff between PCs and phones. The lack of intrusiveness will feel like a breath of fresh air. Plus you get their legendary messaging client, which is still the best out there.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "growth in services revenue"

          Lack of intrusiveness with a BlackBerry? Only if you ignore the intrusiveness of them allowing spying on you.

          1. Vince

            Re: "growth in services revenue"

            Huh? Blackberry do not spy on you. If you are talking about the reported dutch "entry" into a Blackberry I understand it was actually a physical attack on the not-confirmed device and not a Blackberry "spying" incident. I think sir might be confusing things to make himself sound clever.

            In other news... certainly on 9.2.1 with an iPod, which frankly would be the most obvious device to push Apple Music on, it asked once, I said sod off, it's not bothered me again. It does seem to be really keen on asking for your Apple ID password for every minor event now, but certainly hasn't asked about Apple Music.

        2. Jess

          Re: BlackBerry

          I love my Q5 and want a Passport (Though having been burnt by the Playbook, I am now basing all purchases on the sad assumption BB10 is now a legacy system).

          It is a fantastic music player, and a nice OS, but I wouldn't go as far as advocating BBM any more

        3. Mexflyboy
          WTF?

          Re: "growth in services revenue"

          Try a Blackberry? Oh bless.... you still think Blackberry has a chance in hell? You might as well recommend deck chairs on the Titanic.

          1. Chris Parsons

            Re: "growth in services revenue"

            @Mexflyboy:

            Downvoted purely for patronising smugness.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: "growth in services revenue"

              And I downvoted you for your utter lack of humour.

            2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

              Re: "growth in services revenue"

              Downvoted purely for patronising smugness.

              Not at all for recycling that tired "deck chairs" cliché? Can't it be at least a little for that?

          2. bazza Silver badge

            Re: "growth in services revenue"

            @mexflyboy,

            you still think Blackberry has a chance in hell?

            You stay in your data slurping walled garden with your shiny iOS/Android hand held penis extension, there's a good sheeple.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "growth in services revenue"

        Seriously - just about every time I try to go to the Music app on the phone, it hits me with a full-screen splash offering an Apple Music trial.

        This morning was actually the first time I got hit with that as well - after downloading a tune (read: paying 30% more for music than using Amazon, but I was in a hurry) I was "rewarded" with a screenful of "try this shit which you already shut down on your Mac", with the "fuck off" link cleverly hidden as a normal bit of text under the massive "Yes, oh Lord, bung me some crap I really don't want" button.

        I love Apple technology, because it tends to work provided you keep reasonably up to date but it appears I'm simultaneously heading towards hating their services with a vengeance. Granted, it won't be enough to make me rejoin those suffering Microsoft, but sometimes I come close.

        Why on earth are suppliers not able to leave a well running product line well alone? The hardware works, the software does OK, why on earth f*ck around with it? Is it something in the water there, or is that LA gas leak finally getting to people?

        Answers on a postcard, please, mainly because Apple Mail still can't deal with attachments.

        Grr.

        1. Dandyson

          Re: "growth in services revenue"

          One word.

          Shareholders.

        2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: "growth in services revenue"

          >Answers on a postcard, please,

          Because all Apple hardware was intended as a way of getting the credit card numbers of people with more money than sense who like expensive shiny new toys - in order to sell them content.

          The fact they still continue to sell more and more overpriced HW every year is as much a surprise to them as to the rest of us.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Yet another AC

            "getting the credit card numbers.....in order to sell them content"

            Funny that, I like shiny overpriced tech as much as the next iPhone owner, perhaps even more, but not once have I brought any 'content' from them, nor do I intend on doing so. Maybe I'm the exception that proves the rule, but I doubt it.

          2. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

            Re: "growth in services revenue"

            Yeeesss, that newfangled thing called a "credit card". Dreadful things really. No class at all.

            I have heard, from my people, that apparently Google's Play store also uses these cards.

            What is the world coming to?

            Well, old chap, gotta dash!

            Cheerio!

      4. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

        Re: "growth in services revenue"

        I'm a bit of an Apple whor.. lover, but I honestly don't know how to play my own music any more (after I suspended my Apple Music subscription). How hard can it be to make it easy to access things you OWN even when the subscription is off?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    too lazy

    Did Apple make more profit last quarter than Microsoft made in the last 12 months? That is pressing the crouch button repeatedly if that is true. And to think in the late 90s Microsoft had to give them pity money to keep them afloat to keep the anti trust folks off their case.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: too lazy

      Years figures aren't out yet but Microsoft typically makes about $5-6Bn/quarter on $20-25Bn/quarter revenue.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: too lazy

      That is pressing the crouch button repeatedly if that is true

      Upvote for the excellent gaming reference :)

      1. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

        Re: too lazy

        "That is pressing the crouch button repeatedly if that is true

        Upvote for the excellent gaming reference :)"

        And I thought it was some odd sexual reference... Shows my FPS gaming pedigree.

  5. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Mushroom

    mandatory

    Apple is doooooooommmmmmeeeeedddddd

    The brokers on Wall St will be shorting the stock down to $90 or even $80 when the market opens today.

    Sell sell sell Everything

    1. MyffyW Silver badge

      Re: mandatory

      @Steve_Davies_3 good point, hun.

      I wish I was doomed to plateau at $200 billion. I could live with that I think.

  6. Mikel

    A sad day

    You know, expecting the rate of growth to always increase is not realistic. They will come out with another hot idea soon. In the meantime they have $200B in cash. They could build a Mars colony with that kind of money. Or buy Intel.

    1. Quinch

      Re: A sad day

      "They will come out with another hot idea soon."

      I mean, they're bound to sooner or later, right?

      1. aeonturnip
        Trollface

        Re: A sad day

        Well, no - someone will come out with a hot idea soon, and then Apple will take it, make it pretty and market it as if it were their own. Like they did with absolutely everything they've ever sold.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: A sad day

          "Apple will take it, make it pretty" — and that's bad ... how?

          1. VinceH

            Re: A sad day

            "Apple will take it, make it pretty" — and that's bad ... how?

            I think the part that should be frowned upon is covered by the rest of that sentence.

        2. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

          Re: A sad day

          Sure, Apple sometimes makes things pretty. But Apple is primarily about making things easy to use. Consistent, logical, discoverable, and so on.

          MS, on the other hand, still have legacy stuff from several OS generations ago showing up in Windows 10 -even though they totally break with the current (supposed) look and feel. MS just can't throw out old garbage, it seems.

      2. Richard 12 Silver badge

        Re: A sad day

        Given history, the most probable outcome is that they will make a series of expensive and disastrous acquisitions. Some of those will have had real potential but got squashed by accident or infighting, and that will be a shame.

        This will continue until they've lost most of their cash pile.

        1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

          Re: A sad day

          "Given history, the most probable outcome is that they will make a series of expensive and disastrous acquisitions. Some of those will have had real potential but got squashed by accident or infighting, and that will be a shame."

          Overpriced headphone maker, anyone?

          Well, as the man said, predictions are tricky, especially about the future.

          Might have peaked, might come out with the NBT* next year, might pour money into Microsoft in a couple of years to keep regulators of their backs... cue soundtrack.

          *Next Big Thing (TM)

          1. Dave 126 Silver badge

            Re: A sad day

            A couple of things that are fairly self-evident:

            - Anyone here who thinks they know what the NBT* will be has a strong incentive keep it to themselves.

            - Apple are very, very far away from panic mode yet (remember, it's only Apple's own iPhone sales forecasts that are lower, based on last week's financial news about China where 1/4 of iPhones are sold. The markets knew this already). As such, Apple's attempts to enter the NBT won't be done hastily - they will have been actively conducting due process for years, and it's a game they have played well before. That's a not a guarantee they will succeed, of course, but they have a fairly strong hand.

            That said, I already have every material thing I want... a phone to contact friends, and a vehicle to visit them in. My stereo system is loud enough, most of which dates from the 1980s. My coffee device, a moulded plastic plunger thing, makes good coffee anywhere. You get the idea. Come the Zombie apocalypse, I might revisit my chainsaw and shotgun choices of course, but for the time being I'm all good. So... maybe there isn't a NBT?

            *Next Big Thing (TM)... (see comment above) yep, I'll steal that! Cheers!

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              @Dave 126 - next big thing

              You have every material thing you THINK you want. Today. Back in 2000, did you want a pocket computer with full web, email, calendar and IM access available almost everywhere that doubled as a phone, camera/camcorder, GPS, world atlas with maps of every city and every road, alarm clock, music player with most/all your entire music collection, plus other functionality and oh yeah a million third party apps at your disposal?

              If you say yes, I'm going to call you a liar - yeah sure you'd want what you have now if offered it, but back in 2000 if you imagined the form factor such a Swiss Army knife device would have you would imagine it bulkier, include a keyboard etc. That product you imagined would have remained a niche product only geeks and PHBs wanted like the pre-2007 smartphones (that could do all of these things, just not all in the same product and definitely not in a desirable form factor)

              When self driving cars become ubiquitous you won't want to go back to the car you have now any more than you want to go back to the cell phone you had in 2000. Some other products you have now might evolve beyond recognition like phones have, or disappear into some other product. When you look back in 2030, you will have and consider to be necessities things that you don't have today and if you were given their specs now might not want because you wouldn't know how they'd work or how they'd improve your life.

              I'm not saying Apple will be the one to provide these things, but someone will. To say you have ever material thing you want today when you don't have to go back too far to find something you consider vital today that didn't exist then is ludicrous. As bad as that patent commissioner who supposedly claimed (but probably didn't) that "everything worth being invented has been invented" over a century ago.

              1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

                Re: @Dave 126 - next big thing

                Back in 2000, did you want a pocket computer with full web, email, calendar and IM access available almost everywhere that doubled as a phone, camera/camcorder, GPS, world atlas with maps of every city and every road, alarm clock, music player with most/all your entire music collection, plus other functionality and oh yeah a million third party apps at your disposal?

                Shrug. I don't particularly want that now. I only have one because my family insists on communicating by SMS, which I find bearable only with a full physical QWERTY keyboard, and I've only found those on smartphones.

                Since I have the smartphone, I do have a couple of doodads on it - the Google book reader (the Amazon Kindle app seems to be amazingly unstable), for example - but to be honest I almost never use them. I've used the navigation functionality a handful of times but find it inferior to physical maps.

                If smartphones vanished tomorrow I wouldn't miss them a bit. And the same goes for pretty much every other gadget to come out since laptop computers became sufficiently capable to use for software development. (And even before then, we made do with "luggables".) My Kindle (the original sort with a physical keyboard, naturally) is handy for trips but I got along just fine before it came along. And so on.

                But did I want a pocket computer before smartphones? Sure, when I was a kid in the 1970s reading Tom Swift Jr books.

            2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

              Re: A sad day

              Anyone here who thinks they know what the NBT* will be has a strong incentive keep it to themselves.

              Not true; I, for one, wouldn't have any such incentive. I'm far too lazy and comfortable to try to make a fortune at this point in my life, and I'm sufficiently self-aware to know that.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Even if Apple comes up with another hot idea

      Finding one that can really move the needle when they are starting with such massive revenue and profit would be almost impossible.

      A car could move the needle, but they'd need to sell a lot of them. Anyone think Apple could sell 100,000 $80K or 200,000 $40K cars a quarter? That's what it would take to bump their revenue by a mere 10% - and those figures would indicate way more success than Tesla has ever had.

      I think there's a chance they will have one more record busting quarter with the iPhone 7, since it will be the new non-S version, but beyond that Wall Street is going to have to get used to the idea that while Apple produces profits that can only be dreamed of, they will have stopped growing. Poor, poor Apple, having to squeak by on a mere $50 billion a year in profit. Wall Street ought to sell sell sell, who the hell wants that?

      It is already trading at a P/E of under 11, so the "lack of growth" is already priced in - the market as a whole trades at a much higher multiple. Google trades at 33, which is kind of ridiculous since they haven't exhibited growth nearly deserving of that multiple. Even worse staid old Microsoft trades at a multiple of 35(!) despite the fact everyone knows the PC market is in decline (except Wall Street I guess, who must believe Gartner and IDC's endless promises that the decline is over)

  7. Da Weezil

    I once worked for a UK wholesale Company. In one staff meeting they were berating the staff about the need to grow market share faster which was already in the high 80% in a field where apart from us there were only a couple of small players. They had this long term projection for year on year percentage increases that a quick mental calculation would take us to 100% market share in very short order, but when I asked how growth could be sustained over the term they laid out - once they attained 100% - I was met with blank stares, we were not set up to export - nor was it likely to be feasible in the business as it stood then.

    Ive never understood these business wonks that expect continual growth. Out of a total market there is finite number of the population that will want a product (obvious exclusions apply for water/power etc) for whatever reason - Lack of a "personal need/use for a product, personal preference for another brand or a similar unit with different capabilities, ability to afford, or even plain old prejudice against a brand.

    Once you reach that level then the best you can hope for - without increasing the range - is to maintain market share. Why is it that modern business cant see this simple logic?

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      @Da Weezil:

      Dunno... could there be some sort of Math Bypassing Approach behind it?

    2. Dave 126 Silver badge

      >Once you reach that level then the best you can hope for - without increasing the range - is to maintain market share

      Absolutely, hence the talk about the Next Big Thing. Remember that Apple made their money by increasing their range, i.e by entering Sony and Aiwa's personal music player market, and entering the music distribution business. Later on, it was Nokia's lunch they ate. (yeah, I'm over generalising)

    3. sandman

      It's not about "real" business - it's all about the expectations of the various stock markets. You can do as well as you like, but if there is no expectation of continuous growth your share value will decline. There's a good book on the subject - The City: Inside the Great Expectation Machine, by Tony Golding. It's well worth reading if you have any interest about how the financial markets actually work.

    4. John Robson Silver badge

      Da Weezil - Ive never understood these business wonks that expect continual growth. Out of a total market there is finite number of the population that will want a product (obvious exclusions apply for water/power etc) for whatever reason

      No exclusion needed - water/power/air are still only needed by a finite number of the population - it's just a proportion that approaches 100%.

      And surprisingly when they have siad things, they won't pay for new pipes until the old ones fail in some way...

      1. Justicesays
        Devil

        Simples

        While your company constantly grows, your stock price remains ridiculously overvalued, and stockholders stay hands off as because the stock price keeps going up you don't need to give them any of the actual money you are making.

        This allows the money to be used for important things, like executive bonuses, stock buybacks to make your stock options more valuable, or buying up companies your mates own and giving them golden handshakes.

        Once your growth stalls, then your stock price drops to some level based on reality , your stockholders (the ones left holding the bag once the stock price inflation pyramid scheme collapses) are totally pissed and intervene to extract all your company cash/value to make up their losses on the stock price, and in short order you are out on your ear as CEO while the company is put in the charge of an asset stripper or company sales specialist.

        Having $billions in profit every quarter is of no interest to anyone in this scheme of things.

  8. CraPo

    Peak iPhone! No, wait, Peak iPad – no no no, pal, it's Peak Mac!

    No, it's peak 'peak'

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-35390984

  9. Nifty Silver badge

    Wish list

    The original iPod & iPhone were expensive but disruptive, really did create a new market.

    Some deserved success, then.

    Lately, nothing seriously new as we all know.

    To stay ahead how about:

    - iWatch that's half as thick and heavy, uses LCD and reflected light or backlight at night, 4 days battery life?

    - earpods that use aptx quality level Bluetooth and barely weight more than current ones?

    - A wide open Apple TV that people actually want to buy, one that offers ALL major streaming catch-up services (after all, IOS does...)?

    - A competitor to Spotify at about £6 per month in the UK?

    Apples business model needs to change to "you'll be so pleased you'll come back & spend more" instead of "Spend more, we're sure you'll be pleased".

    1. I sound like Peter Griffin!!

      Re: Wish list

      ### iWatch that's half as thick and heavy, uses LCD and reflected light or backlight at night, 4 days battery life?

      --> Progress, but not DISRUPTIVE..

      ### earpods that use aptx quality level Bluetooth and barely weight more than current ones?

      --> Progress, but not DISRUPTIVE..

      ### A wide open Apple TV that people actually want to buy, one that offers ALL major streaming catch-up services (after all, IOS does...)?

      --> Supporting such products 'The Apple Way' would prove expensive, and factoring the Apple premium on the TV itself, means it's likely unattractive to Apple. They don't have mobile geniuses, and they'd need to fundamentally re-work their logistics.. CANNOT FLY - Get Apple TV

      ### A competitor to Spotify at about £6 per month in the UK?

      --> Apple Music offers you a deal where up to 6 people can use the same Apple Music Account for £15/month WITH full, segregated access if you want it.. So if you can get 3 people on one account you've already got it down to £5/month per person.. ARGUABLY AVAILABLE - not disruptive as Apple was late to the party...

      For me, disruptive is something that fundamentally shifts the entire argument of how things are done, and though Apple does a lot of things well, it can only be expected to hit the world with a true gamechanger once every half-decade or so..

  10. Dieter Haussmann

    Apple's new products are getting like they were before Jobs came back.

    - Just like your current one but a bit faster or bigger.

    They need to get rid of creepy Cook.

  11. Chris Evans

    Vital info missing!

    How much cash are they sitting on and the big topical one: How much TAX did they pay?

  12. Turtle

    Not Really Wrong.

    "Tim Cook thinks, hey, $80bn is still $80bn"

    He's not really wrong.

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