It would be foolhardy to call this the peak for Apple, because you can never be sure what mystery products are lurking in its research and development buildings. However, it is clearly becoming more difficult for Apple, Samsung and others to expand the smartphone sector. The devices are now effectively a commodity, particularly in the western world. The market is for customers looking to upgrade every couple of years rather than those looking to buy their first handset.
But a slowdown in its biggest market makes the $250bn cash mountain that Apple is still sitting on even more intriguing… More at The Guardian.
It is a good point, but one that we all are aware of. It also falls down when you consider that the phone has to be replaced by something. Computers are commodities and so are watches and so many other products, but huge profits continue to be made by those making quality products.
I can’t see Apple creating another blockbuster like the iPhone, but then again we have no idea what comes next and we have to consider what comes in 10 year’s time to understand if Apple has a future. Something tells me it will no matter what.
Categories: Tech News
McGST 
If iPod and iPhone and iPad didn’t happen, I wonder if Apple would still be around to make Macs, and/or what the landscape both for apple and for people making phones would be like.
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To be fair to Apple, they did happen. Not just one, but all three of them.
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I’m not trying to take anything away from Apple, just fun to play what-if;
It seems like the Windows vs MacOS battles would have a different feel, more like it was in the mid-00s
Would Windows bother to be so tablet-y? Without the “ecosystem” aspect, would Mac sales be less strong? Without the giant amounts of cash iOS stuff brings in, is MacOS worse, or better because it gets the lion’s share of Apple’s focus? etc….
Also all three of them definitely did happen, but it brings to mind the rumors that R+D wise, the idea of the iPad kind of predated the iPhone, but then the PalmPilot/phone form factor seemed like a much stronger opportunity. The iPad as a concept goes the Newton and even the idea of Alan Kay’s hypothetical Dynabook… but as a product it has ridden the coattails of the phone, and now that people have the handheld video streamers / e-book readers (that seem to be longer lasting, hardware wise) that they need, it’s future as an inbetween product is in question…
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