In the 90s Apple was on the verge of bankruptcy, was dependent solely on the Mac, contracting rather than growing and had no operating system strategy.

Today, Apple earns 70b/year profit, is growing at 10% per year and is incredibly diversified. They could survive on any one of their businesses and in recent years grew two from nothing i.e. Services and Wearables into 1B+ businesses. And they still have their 1B/year content play starting in 2019 and they have AR glasses rumored for 2020.

And you think Apple is doing bad as a company ?

>( they aren't bad... we just thought it could be better )

And those points are precisely, numbers. In terms of Products, Three years after the introduction of MacBook Pro Touch Bar, I still think the previous gen MacBook Pro is much better. Four Years after introduction of Homekit, Nearly 7 years since they kicked out Scott forstall because of Apple Maps, and it is still pieces of crap outside US, UK and China. How Many years after App Stores? Think MacBook Air was long in the work? It was because of huge amount of criticism from MBP they decided to make a Retina MacBook Air just to shut us up. ( For the time being )

It is not that their numbers aren't doing good, but their product and services quality are declining. Most of their Product Line seems like a mess. And we are paying a premium for it, we are not iSheep, but that value proposition is declining everyday.

Oh, Did I mention All MacBook Pro TouchBar had a design flaw with Thunderbolt that increase the MacBook failure rate? Yes these things happen under Steve as well, but once these were known a new iteration of design would have been make a year later, instead we are sitting on the same shit for years.

But you still bought one and my guess will continue to buy them retelling stories of glory when the mac was best.

You are still part of there marketing machine.

What a completely thoughtless reply. No. MacBooks still offer an excellent value in part because MacOS is less of a tire fire than Windows 10 and the hardware is still near the top. They are premium product that continues to have outsized market share in the development and education segments. The iPhone ecosystem continues to offer distinct advantages over Android in terms of privacy, support and quality. And these facts are evidenced by the market. None of this will change overnight, but it can change and furthermore the thesis here is it will change if Apple doesn’t get its act together.

If you are invested to the point where you believe MacOS is less of a tire sale than any other operating systems the fact that you dislike the current product offerings compared to the past shouldn't matter to Apple. You will continue to buy because you have no other choice. Apple is better off taking profit from your customer segment and using the money for future investment.

For a company that size, "incredibly diversified" is a huge overstatement I think. They have devices (phones, tablets, computers, watches), 3rd party content store and... they all rely on each other (ecosystem effect), which makes them arguably even less diversified. Remove phones and (I believe) the whole company would just crash. How their plans for for new lines of business in 2019 and 2020 will be crucial.

Compare that to for example how Microsoft have split their dependence on Windows, and now have xbox, azure, office as truly diverse business lines. Or Amazon and their AWS division (their content still relies too much on Prime subscriptions coming from the store).

"Doing bad" is not a good description, but in terms of trajectory, they are far from a safe strategic bet right now.

It's the usual market disease of "growth above all" - apple's growth is slowing, ergo they're in trouble. Doesn't matter that the current revenues/profits are astronomical, only thing that matters is that it keeps getting more, more, more!

Lots of company don't have that expectations, management just have to be clear about it and happy with a PE of 7-10. You can't be a trillion dollar company and don't have growth.