Is Apple Losing their edge? What does Tim Cook, Scott Forstall and Apple’s Share all have to do with it all.
Could it be the former Apple Employee (David Sobotta) who says..
"Tim Cook is not passionate about tech"
Could it be that..
"letting go of Scott Forstall was a mistake"
(according to Michael Loop - Apple Senior Engineer)
Could it be that..
Apple's shares have hit an all time low for the first time in 5months after peaking in late september at $702.
Maybe it's just the fact that people will call into Genius bar claiming something to be wrong with their newly purchased device before even resetting it.
WHATEVER the reason.
Here's what I think..
So maybe a former Apple sales exec named David Sobatta (who's been with apple for two decades) is publishing a book about WHY he thinks Apple is on a downhill slide, and maybe he even had this to say about working at Apple:
“You don’t make mistakes at Apple and get a second chance. That often hinders decision-making and creates a lot of passive-aggressiveness between teams that should be cooperating,”
In an interview Sobatta went on to speak of Tim Cook,
“I would expect that Tim is having a hard time herding the chickens. From what I saw of him, he was something of a loner. He is not a warm guy nor is he the type to go wandering the halls or Caffe Mac to find out what is happening. His preference is to tinker with spreadsheets and numbers. He is not a natural leader. He’s a manager,”
Now - there are certainly other things that were mentioned, but personally. I think they're not important.
WHY?
Because..Sobatta actually hasn't been working at Apple since 2004. And if you're even the slightest Apple Fan you would know that Steve Jobs (RIP) was the CEO up until Oct of just last year (2011).
So it makes you wonder..
Is this guy really just a bitter ex employee trying to piggyback on the challenges apple is facing right now and drive down Apple's share even more?
At the same time, as noted in my last article Dan Crow had a thing or two to say about the subject.
So what about the departure of Mr. Forstall any way?
Apparently some Apple folks claim,
"he was the best approximation of Steve Jobs that Apple had left"
Ouch.
That does not sound good for Apple.
Michael Lopp who was noted to have mentioned the above added that several people chatting in Apple’s Caffe Macs cafeteria viewed Forstall as the only real successor to Jobs. Even though it appeared Forstall did not work well with several of his co-workers, being called an “asshole,” he was successful in what he did. Lopp said this is why he could have been the next Jobs.
Another Apple ex-exec (Andy Miller) went on to say in an interview earlier this month,
"“Forstall was such a talented guy, to me he was Mr. Apple. He knew the company inside and out.”
Speaking to Forstall’s work ethic, he added,
“He was under a massive amount of pressure to get software releases out, and he got it done.”"
On a personal note..
I look at every challenge or adversity (and especially in Apple's case) as an opportunity to prove yet again WHY consumers should continue buying their products. At the same time, Apple of all companies has had so many innovation's over the years and by setting the bar higher and higher, they truly make it harder and harder for even themselves.
As you may have guessed..
As a result of what has been reflected above - in October, Apple literally went from what Mashable was saying could be the, "First Trillion dollar market cap" down to now a $518 Billion market cap.
A great bit via 9to5 about what Analyst Horace Dediu at Asymco had to say about Apple's tanking shares:
One could even say the worse the bear, the better the growth. Sounds completely counter-intuitive, but there is some perverse logic in this as well. The market reflects crises (as well as over-abundance) of confidence. Unforeseen growth is what creates wealth and the crisis in confidence is a reflection of the improbability of continuing out-performance. When Apple’s performance is foreseeable the stock moves slowly upward. When its performance is unforeseeable the stock moves dramatically downward.
A pithy way of putting it is: No news is good news. Good news is bad news.
When a product is understood the stock is mildly desirable. When a new product appears the future is hazy and the stock is undesirable. But that haziness hides potential but up and down. New products is what innovators produce. Bizarre new products is what disruptors produce.
In other words, the paradoxical observation in the chart above of “the more drama in the market, the more success in the marketplace” makes sense when inverted.
For disruptive companies, it should be “the more success in the marketplace, the more drama in the market.”
In that sense the current downdraft may be quite auspicious.
At the end of the day, everything that's been mentioned above is just a summation of the events that Apple has been facing. I think they'll pull through, but if not - then I suppose it's time that the new breed of tech entrepreneurs show what they can bring the world and most certainly it will have to be better than what Apple is doing.
Best,
Kevin
P.S.
On the plus side of all this..
If you're an Apple Shopper you may just get your new iPad by this Friday, November 16th.
and if you're SUPER in love with your Iphone 5. Then there me be a 5S just around the corner for you :p