Despite the financial growth, sales of Apple gadgets are reduced. For the first time in nine years the company is forced to reduce the revenue forecast for the next quarter. CEO Tim cook believes that the cause of all economic crisis. Lenta observers argue that the problems in the company, which “it is time to reconsider its policy.” In their view, the main drawback of the current Apple is the lack of innovative products, able to convince investors in the company’s long-term market prospects.
***
The main cause of negative forecasts in the Apple called the slow growth of sales of the iPhone. The Corporation was able to implement 74,78 million units, only 280 thousand more than last year. For comparison: in 2015, Apple exceeded last year’s 23.5 million gadgets.
Tim cook has already blamed the global economic crisis, focusing on the currency fluctuations in Russia, Brazil, Canada and Mexico. In his opinion, this has reduced the revenue of Apple by 15 percent.
Actually the problems in the global economy is only an indirect cause of falling demand for iPhone. At the end of 2015, Gartner in its report noted that in developed countries, smartphone sales grew by only 8.2 percent, while in developing countries — 18.4%. The majority of buyers are guided by the available gadgets, as evidenced by record sales growth of Huawei. Premium smartphones Apple obviously lose the fight over cheap gadgets.
Alarming news for the company was the first in the history of the decline of smartphone sales in China. For Apple in recent years, China has become the main source of income from iPhone sales. In the second quarter of 2015, sales of smartphones fell by 4 percent. Analysts Gartner say that in this country too a large selection of gadgets, the population gradually replaces the old model new, and the demand for smartphones will inevitably be restored.
Most likely, the economic problems will lead to the fact that love to waste money on gadgets the Chinese will start to save — and this will inevitably lead to lower demand for premium smartphones. From January to March 2015 the company earned in China 16.8 billion dollars, exceeding the indicators in 2014 to 72 percent.
For comparison: in the last three months of 2015 iPhone sales in China grew by only 14 percent, while Tim cook was forced to recognize the declining interest of Chinese to smartphones. In 2016 the situation will only get worse: Apple, according to the forecasts of Morgan Stanley, will face a worldwide decline in iPhone sales. The company sells 224 million units, which is 2.9 percent less than last year.
Manufacturers of accessories for Apple already preparing to tighten their belts. Producing cameras for smartphones Lagran Precision expects “a fairly weak first quarter”, while Catcher Technology, a manufacturer of cases for iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus — predicts the lack of revenue growth. 11 per cent will decrease and the income of processor company Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.
Apple will try to reverse the situation and in April will release iPhone 5se, focused on the low-end market and those who are nostalgic for small devices with four-inch screen. However, its price is still unknown, but the abundance of low-cost competitors could cause the new Apple the fate of his predecessor’s budget iPhone 5c, not gained popularity among users.
iPad Pro and Apple Watch
The final results of Apple had a negative impact and quite modest launch of two new products presented at Tim Kuqa, iPad Pro and Apple Watch. The company still does not disclose sales figures of the smartwatch, preferring to hide them in the “other products”. Everything looks very good: revenue for the last three months grew by 62 per cent to 4.3 billion dollars, and Tim cook repeatedly boasted of “record” sales hours.
However, with Apple Watch, the company counts revenue from Apple TV and other products, but analysts are not confident in the success of smart devices company. According to IDC, in the first quarter of 2015, the company sold 3.6 million hours, unable to outrun a competitor to Fitbit. Users also berated the gadget for not too user-friendly interface and the need for frequent recharging. The idea of smart devices managed to catch almost all of the competitors and conventional producers of watches and accessories from Fossil and Swatch to Casio.
Has not worked at Apple and sales of the iPad Pro. Announced in September 2015 12.9-inch tablet-a boy was conceived by the company as a replacement laptop for designers and artists with exclusive software from Adobe. Tim cook from the scene claimed that the power device can compete with latest versions of MacBook, and people of creative professions will be ecstatic. Of course, if you buy the special graphics tablet, pen and Pencil Apple keyboard cover.
As a result, potential buyers were scared away by the high price of the device — in Russia it started at 65 000, with plenty of proprietary Adobe application, does not facilitate work in the graphic editors. Given the fact that the total iPad sales last quarter dropped 21 percent to 16.1 million tablets, the company should seriously think about the issue of whether the devices of this type.
Innovation?
However, the main problem Apple is still the lack of truly innovative products, able to convince investors in the company’s long-term market prospects.
While the competitors of Google are already testing the technology of distribution to the Internet using balloons and a Loon have paid increasing attention to the development of virtual reality, Apple cannot offer a similar level of development in any of these segments.
Moreover, at Google there is a whole division of innovative development of Google X led by co-founder Sergey Brin. There are quite successful running-in of unmanned vehicles and tested a neural network that are capable of writing paintings and dialogue with a live person.
This is widely advertised in mass media the automobile division of Apple, during the whole of last year, actively peremanivanie employees from Tesla, Ford, and GMC, according to rumors, recently lost leader, and then was dissolved.
The head of the project “Titan” (so Apple, according to media reports, called electric cars) allegedly resigned from his post because of the constant requirements of the manual as soon as possible to present to the public a working prototype.
A few days ago for the lack of progress in the development of electric cars and paid all of its employees. After visiting Apple’s design chief Jonathan Quince almost a thousand people went on unpaid leave. Given the loss of the head of the project, the prospect of serial production of “Titan” in the next five to seven years, as Apple wants, now looks at least vague.
