

Tim Cook Admits Apple Has Stopped Growing In North America - amitkumar01
http://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-apple-has-stopped-growing-in-north-america-2014-2

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eyesee
Cook astutely points out the category of "smartphones that function as or are
used as feature phones", but the author's interpretation of this is quite
naive. Yes, Android phones primarily make up this group, but they are also
represented strongly in the "real smartphones" category by particular models
and vendors: Samsung Galaxy S4, etc. To think that Apple is ignoring this
threat is laughable. They simply recognize that people buying free-on-contract
smartphones who are basically indifferent to their advanced functionality are
not their customer. Competing with those devices is not a priority. If you're
not a flagship phone from Samsung or LG (or a random few others), you aren't
competing with iPhone. This is just reality. Furthermore, as phone sales
remain predominantly subsidized in the U.S. the price difference is immaterial
to market share and allows Apple to enjoy its huge margins compared to most
everyone else.

Apple has locked up profits in North America quite effectively and will no
doubt focus on maintaining its share of the market, but further growth will
have to happen in other markets. The question is, what does Apple have planned
to address other markets? And what will the impact of new market segments be
on this growth?

I can understand the merit of these questions as a stockholder. To me though
the disappointing aspect is that having built one of the most efficient cash
generating machines imaginable, Apple hasn't seen fit to pursue a "Big Idea"
that could only be realized with such an impressive cash hoard. Dividends seem
so depressingly ordinary for what was so creative a company.

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dhoulb
My question after reading the article is: is this bad? Is it a terrible thing
that they're not growing in the USA? Apple is huge. What's really achieved by
them being even bigger?

Is growth for growth's sake important?

If they continued to generate $billions each quarter, make great stuff,
delight consumers all over the world, and did it for the next 20 years, I'd
call that a roaring success personally.

Granted, that wouldn't make me want to buy their stock. But Apple don't seem
to care about that. If their stock crashed, they'd probably take advantage of
it and buy loads back, with their piles of cash. As long as they're making
great stuff, in my book, that's enough.

Apple, to me, seems like a company that really should be held in a trust, or
owned by its employees. Its goals seem kinda incompatible with the market and
Wall Street.

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piyush_soni
Because "stopped growing" might easily convert to "started declining" soon (a
part of which is evident by the sales charts shown in the article). And that'd
be worrying for them.

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scottoreilly
It's the law of large numbers - you can't keep growing forever, and that's
clearly what's happening in the US. They're still a wildly profitable company,
though, and there's plenty of room for growth in emerging markets like China.

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sebastianavina
of course yo can keep growing forever... just keep inovating.

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ksec
Thank You for stating the obvious.

