How To Make Sure You Don't Drop Your Equivalent Of Apple $50bn Stock Fall

When was the last time you bought an Apple product?

I haven’t now for five years. That ipad still works. Although its life extended since I stopped using its native music, video and book players. Meaning never having to suffer itunes anymore.

Even the nano ipod I loved prior to that kept slipping off various resting places due to its (admittedly gorgeous) shiny rear. To the point that I spent way more on replacement screens than it first cost and lost the faith.

I was tempted by 2014’s Mac, but their usb debacle swayed me away.

So this last quarter their sales of iphones plummeted.

Users are upgrading less. True invention less frequent.

At one point, $50 billion got wiped off the company’s value.

Every single web presence with a technical opinion spouted manifold reasons for the decline.

Above, is the second of just such a list. Running to a painful twenty-five problems. Arrogance and hubris appear common themes. As the old saying goes, “if you really want to see someone fail, give them a few years of success”.

What strikes me about the Apple-baiting, is that they – compelled to issue a new variant every year – can patently not produce a jaw-dropping, step-change, epoch-making leap each time. So why so much ire directed at what remains a terrific product? Even if their component “partners” now offer their own take for less cash.

In part it is surely because the annual launch is trailblazed as revolution. When many judge them to be marginal.

Apple ape the most common pitch of a solution salesperson when forced to propose the latest release. As the above summary nails, “Buy it! It’s new!” Hollow. Unenticing. Desperate.

Vast numbers update their smartphone according to a standard two-year phone contract. The incremental improvements they find from battery life and camera and storage they do enjoy.

So what would make them break this cycle?

Clearly not for what Apple have offered these past two refreshes.

As for the corporate angle, a bet on Apple is clearly a bet on the iphone right now. World-shaping innovation has proved elusive in other categories for a while.

The smartphone universe need a more urging reason to buy Apple’s latest than a media monopolising launch event. Just as it is with your prospects.