LOL! The first refuge of the man without facts: devolve to ad hominem attack. Call your opponents names and fling insults. You don't know me. I provided linked information; you spout your unsupported opinion and make claims unsupported by anything. . . opinion flies in the face of history and proper analytic technique so that you can say negative things about the largest market cap company on earth. That's really brilliant, Adorno.
The technology industry is not like the hamburger joints industry, nor like the supermarket industry.
No it isn't, but you don't have a clue what you are talking about when you talk about comparing consecutive quarters, which is a financial and economic fallacy. But Apple does not compete in the low end, commodity phone market either. . . and the consumer electronic market is responsive to the seasonal purchases of the calendar and is NOT a steady market like fast-food or grocery stores with large swings of sales during certain specific cyclic seasons that are known and predictable. Try studying finance. . . the micro-changes in seasonal adjustments based on market forces, which you show you seem to have no clue about, that make comparing quarter to quarter changes in industries affected by such sales meaning less. An extreme example would be comparing fourth quarter sales against 1st quarter sales in the Christmas Tree companies. Meaningless.
The technology industry is a very fast changing industry, and the quarter-by-quarter sales are huge indicators for how a particular tech company is doing, and could provide a pattern for how that company is beginning to fail.
No, this is an industry dominated in one of its major markets by 2 year lock-in contracts, and in others by high initial cost. It's also a market in which people don't change devices like people change socks. They buy and keep their devices for an extended period, especially devices that are not locked to a specific carrier such as tablets that work on WIFI only. . . so the technology is not driven by "I have to upgrade to the latest and greatest as soon as it comes out!" but "Maybe I'll upgrade when my contract expires." or "When I get around to it, I'll buy the next model for myself/ my wife/my husband/my kids/my friend as a gift." There is no imperative to buy like food, gasoline, car parts, clothing, or other commodities.
I showed you that the three major players in smartphones other than Apple were in trouble Year-over-year, Samsung has had issues in the profit area in the last two quarters, showing growth drops, yet YOU focus on the profit leader claiming doom and gloom based on NOTHING but your wishful thinking and hatred for the company. You have posted NOTHING for proof. . . except Quarter over previous quarter which is the sign of an AMATEUR investor. . . who knows nothing about what he is doing.
YOU are claiming that Apple is in trouble because they did not overtop their previous quarter iPad sales. . . but the fact is that quarter was a record breaking quarter for iPad sales. It was not expected to make another record breaking sales in the next quarter which is always the slowest sales quarter of the year!
"iPad sales in the December quarter (2013) were the highest ever recorded by Apple at 26 million, up 14% year over year and 85% sequentially.— Forbes Magazine analyst Chuck Jones, April 14, 2014 "Apple's March quarter nothing to get excited about" in his completely WRONG analysis of the soon to be released 2nd Quarter Apple results.Then there is this gem!
"I have not been wrong before about Apple. . ."—the perfect Adorno.
That is absolutely HILLARIOUS, Adorno! You were completely wrong in your post when you claimed that Apple was below it's own and Wall Streets expectations! Chuck Jones's article Forbes' article was one of them and he missed the iPhone results by over six million, and his financials were even greater howlers! YOU WERE WRONG!
The emerging markets are not where Apple's future lies. Apple cannot compete against the low price leaders, that being Android phones and Windows phones, and a lot of the cheap Chinese stuff that's coming out in the next few months and years. Apple is stuck with their cult followers, who are willing to pay any price to keep their religion alive. —Adorno being wrong as usual
ROTFLMAO!!!! Adorno speaking ex cathedra makes the unilateral claim that emerging markets won'r want to have anything to do with Apple iPhones. . . except that isn't the case. . .
Apple Beats Samsung as Favorite Brand in Emerging Markets,
Even Though They Can't Afford It
By Mark Milian Mar 13, 2014 1:46 PMPeople want what they can't have. For many of those living in emerging markets, that's an iPhone.
Apple is the most desirable mobile-phone brand among inhabitants of emerging markets, according to a report from marketing firm Upstream and researcher Ovum. In the study conducted this year, Apple edged out Samsung Electronics, which was the leader in a separate survey by Upstream last year.
Samsung saw a slight decline in its share of developing-market consumers who favor its phones from 32 percent to 29 percent, according to Upstream. Apple's share jumped dramatically from 21 percent to where Samsung was last year.
The iPhone 5c, geared toward price-sensitive consumers including those in emerging markets, came out in September. As part of that effort, Apple has stepped up its marketing efforts in those countries, putting the company's name front and center.
While that may help elevate the brand, it hasn't necessarily translated into a spate of sales for the 5c. Most countries don't sell phones at a discount with carrier contracts like in the U.S., and at $549, the iPhone 5c is still too expensive for most of the developing world. Those who can afford it often just pay a little bit more for the premium 5s — available in gold, which Chinese status-seekers love.
Without creating a much cheaper iPhone, Apple will have trouble reaching consumers in emerging countries, according to Francis Sideco, an analyst at IHS. Call it the iPhone paradox.
The brand halo for Apple is a good thing, but it won't help the company overtake Samsung in sales, at least not immediately. The South Korean electronics giant is the world's largest maker of smartphones partly because it makes low-margin, cheap handsets in addition to Galaxy products. The bright side for Apple is that the new emerging middle classes may switch to iPhones when they can afford them, but industrialization takes time.
In the Upstream study this year, the question posed to the 4,504 consumers in Brazil, China, India, Nigeria and Vietnam was slightly different from last year, as was the emerging markets targeted. In last year's study, people in countries including Brazil, India and Saudi Arabia were asked specifically to disregard price. However, Upstream said the two surveys were analogous.
The chart above shows how perceptions about the top five aspirational brands in the developing world have changed since last year. The bottom three — all of which have products on display this week at the CeBIT technology conference in Hanover, Germany — are working on low-end phones aimed at emerging markets. Taiwan's HTC is slowly building up its brand. For Nokia and BlackBerry, the picture isn't as rosy.
Show us the prescient shorts you made on Apple which made you rich. I bet you can't because you don't put your money where your big mouth is.
Apple will be punished for their lack of diversity, when their only products have been the iPHone and the bigger iPhone known as the iPad.
Another howler. Do you know how many years people have been predicting such punishment. . . including the years in which Apple had the most growth of any stock in history? Punishment for the same reasons and others. You still don't know a thing about what makes Apple tick.
Apple's devices are not any better than what most of the competition has, and in fact, the competition has left Apple very far behind.
Please list the competitions' phone or tablet that has 64 bit processors, 64 bit operating systems, 64 bit apps, and the competitions' products with faster processor results on benchmarks and graphics. How about the competitions' devices that have working fingerprint sensors for activation? Name ANY competitors' mobile products that are used more on the internet. Don't forget to provide links to your proofs, Adorno. Mere larger size screens, or additional resolution beyond the capability of the human eye to discern the pixels, are NOT proof of being advanced. So prove your assertion these devices are far ahead of Apple's products. The reviewers disagree with you.
When your done with that, try to find a Windows PC that can compete with the latest MacPro in the same price range. . . Try to even build one to similar parts and specs and meet the price point. . . so far, no one has succeeded.