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These questions are interesting but too simple. Will Tim Cook be worried? No not at all and the drop in revenue at Apple has been much heralded so there is no surprise here. But $50bn is still beyond any concept of massive and so Apple isn't quite the BHS of the technology world yet.
it's still true I believe that only Apple and Samsung make a profit in this sector. Apple's profit is much more than Samsung's and it is the iPhone that has propelled Apple to the dizzying heights it has reached as a corporation. The Mac range, while important, is miniscule in comparison.
The stock markets are extremely fickle and very short term. They expect unabated growth to sustain a high share price and earnings per share through dividends. Traditionally, Apple doesn't declare dividends meaning that returns have to come through the increasing share price.
What will concern Apple is China. The internet and a smart phone will be anathema to a totalitarian society that wants to control everything from how many children you have to where you can travel. We've just seen China shut down two of Apple's services in China. Apple's domestic market, and to a large extent the markets of the developed world such as the UK, are saturated with smart phones. The Far Eastern markets that are opening up are the new frontiers for the smart phone industry and Apple, with its premium pricing, has to take advantage of those markets to sustain growth.
After that will come the emerging markets of sub saharan Africa but premium pricing there will be a problem for Apple and the other high end manufacturers.
So it's possible that Apple has peaked. All companies do sooner or later but Apple isn't about to become the next Palm, Blackberry or HTC or the tech world.
Bears out what I said the other day about markets being fickle and taking a very short view of things. Their stupidity has forced the CEO of one of the world's largest companies to take the time to make statements such as this - quite pathetic really.
This is the essential paradox that public companies face - do they take decisions that will bring long term benefit to their corporations but might restrict short term profitability or short term decisions to enhance profits not at the expense of long term growth.
That's why we see boom and bust and recurring crises - the quest for short term profit and cash at the expense of everything else
