Apple posts biggest single loss in 10 years

[Canuk]

Apple, having downgraded their profit results today have posted nearly a 10% single day stock market loss, about $70 billion wiped off their share value on the back of disappointing sales in China.

Trump calls this sort of thing a 'glitch', so the beginning of the end for the Trump boom, or something more aggressive, incidious and global going on in the world economy?

[Mick F]

Apple has got sales from us via MacBooks, an iPad Mini, and an iMac. No regrets in that department.

Mrs Mick F had a brand new iPhone 5c some years ago and still has it, and I've had two secondhand ones.
I doubt we'd buy ever a new iPhone, as the market is flooded with secondhand ones. I suppose in the future, the secondhand market will dry up as people stop buying new ones.

[kwackers]

Apple have been dying for years.

They lost touch with most of their customers some years ago. They enjoyed sales in China and the far east based on their perceived 'Western' icon status but that can only last so long.
Eventually the trendy Chinese consumers realised that it no longer had the status value in the west and by then they had their own high status brands.

The trade war didn't help but all it really did was speed things up by a year or two.

I'm not sure it in itself is indicative of how the world is working at the moment although I do think Trump is doing a good job of pushing the world economy into the brink, good job here in old blighty we're in fine fettle to ride the waves of any encroaching recession...


See this happen with tech companies all the time. One minute they're everyone's 'darling' and can't do no wrong. Then they start to believe it and start to dictate to their customers who become increasingly disillusioned with what's on offer.
Eventually it becomes obvious to even the people at the top that they've muffed it. With enough cash (Apple still have tons of the stuff) they reinvent themselves and come back - assuming they get someone who genuinely understands.
They'll never be what they once were though...

[mercalia]

I bought my first smartphone a few weeks ago, 2nd hand Windows 8.1 Lumia 635, cost me just £20 incl postage from Ebay. Is good enough for me has realiable wifi & gps and has some useful apps on it incl Street level maps , London Buses timetables incl bus stop location, number and next info ( same as you see at the vaious stops) and also a national rail app that sucks the data incl platforms from the same place that you see on the big boards in stations. Apple was always a 3 or 4 horse company that nearly sank had the iplayer etc not become popular. They have run out of ideas - ideas they stole from other companies any way. The era of the smartphone is over since every one now has one ( even me, & I must be one of the last to get one )

[Canuk]

The first time I saw the .Xiaomi’s Mi Mix phone I knew Apple were in trouble. With the latest Mi Mix 3 they are really in it deep, with an all screen, no notch, pop up camera rival, sporting twice the battery life and the ability to wirelessly charge other phones?

They're in trouble deep.

[PH]

Who made the loss? If you bought shares yesterday and need to sell them tomorrow, then you're stuffed, otherwise it's a waiting game. Today shares fell to $142, eighteen months ago they were $95, if you got some at that price you might not have made as much money as you thought you had, but you haven't made a loss. As for Apple's long term future, I have no idea, but wouldn't base any prediction on a days stock market results.

[Redvee]

My current handset is over three years old now even though the contract finished in June. When month 21 came and went on the contract I looked around at handsets and deals and the prices for new handsets were too expensive for what I considered to be a handset without any great deal of improvements over my current one. Ok the battery life isn't as good as what it was but I have access to power points or power banks to charge on teh go away from home plus going SIM only means I'm paying 1/3 what I was on contract.

[francovendee]

Should we be surprised? Apple has been 'milking' it's customers for years. Nice products but well overpriced. People have looked around and found products at least as good and sometimes better at a lower price.
When the UK started to see the move of manufacturing jobs in the UK to China, it was said that we would still be the leaders in design and technical advance. No problem in letting these poor Chinese do the mucky stuff. Today we have China at the forefront of design and technology, perhaps someone forgot that other countries like to do the very profitable stuff, not just us.

[Audax67]

Who made the loss? If you bought shares yesterday and need to sell them tomorrow, then you're stuffed, otherwise it's a waiting game. Today shares fell to $142, eighteen months ago they were $95, if you got some at that price you might not have made as much money as you thought you had, but you haven't made a loss. As for Apple's long term future, I have no idea, but wouldn't base any prediction on a days stock market results.

Well, given a crystal ball you could have made a good profit from shorting them.

[Oldjohnw]

I find it hard to feel sorry for Apple the organisation or its directors. I do feel for those lower down the food chain whose jobs might suffer. But Apple has had a multi billion cash pile for years, largely, I assume, accumulated because of their excessive pricing and policy of obsoletion. They have preyed on those who through whatever motivation always feel that they need the latest offering, despite the marginal improvements.

Today we see the day when at day 4 of the year Britain's top CEOs earn as much as the median worker wil earn in a year. The next tier of CEOs will take until the end of January.

Of course, there is always collateral damage: our pensions and retirement nest eggs. Such is our distopian world.

[Bonefishblues]

It's not just Apple, it's a broader issue. The Chinese bought 40% fewer cars in November than vs Nov 2017. 40%... cf JLR's travails, given it was their biggest market by far (and the biggest market for cars in the World)

The emergent Chinese Middle Class that was going to power to new World Economy ain't spending any more.

[mercalia]

we keep on hearing that the economy is not growing as expected. some one exlain why that is important? unless the rich are worried that if the cake doesnt get bigger so that the proles cant seem to get some thing more then the proles will start to want to have a bit of their action?

[Bonefishblues]

we keep on hearing that the economy is not growing as expected. some one exlain why that is important? unless the rich are worried that if the cake doesnt get bigger so that the proles cant seem to get some thing more then the proles will start to want to have a bit of their action?

Presumably your pension, as is mine is predicated upon a degree of economic growth, as is the economy in general.

[mercalia]

more bad news for Apple

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jan/04/nearby-galaxy-large-magellanic-cloud-set-to-collide-with-milky-way?utm_term=RWRpdG9yaWFsX0d1YXJkaWFuVG9kYXlVS19XZWVrZGF5cy0xOTAxMDQ%3D&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&CMP=GTUK_email

seems like the end is insight for their expansion

[merseymouth]

Hello all, I popped into Apple to see if I could get a new lap-top suited to my needs.
Not a hope! Too much stuff that has no relevance to my life or needs. Full of unnecessary Aps & links.
I want a basic machine that enables internet access, a good word processor, a sizable storage capacity for my photo downloads, above all an interface that doesn't require an IT Degree to use it.
Not much to ask, one that a fair number of us addled oldies might go for.
That doesn't fit in with the Apple business model, they insist that I must need an iPhone link, instant connection with an iPad which I don't have and much more of the same pointless dross!
They obviously don't think that my needs suit their remit. My money stayed with me. MM