| I didn't really want to get into the reasons why. I was just pointing out that investing in an Apple-only tech might be a bad idea because it sure looks to me (and the stock market) that Apple has peaked and is now on the decline. However, since you said my statement was completely false without a source, I felt compelled to show my sources. 51 million iPhones sold compared to 61 million the same quarter last year a DROP of 10 million. iPad an Mac also down double digit percentages, but iPhone is the only thing that really drives Apple. Overall sales DROP from $58B to $50B Source: http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/26/technology/apple-earnings/in... iPhone market share also DROPPED from 18.3% to 15.3% in Q1. Source: https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS41216716 Sure Apple makes a ton of money and profit still, but you can't really argue that it's not dropping like a roick in the past 12 months. If you put $1,000 into Apple stock a year ago today, you'd have about $700 today. Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=AAPL+Interactive#{%22all... Let me know where I went wrong, but I'm showing double digit sales drops, a large market share drop, and 30% stock value drops in the last 12 months. I'm not sure how my post is "completely false". |
You mention the Mac, which as declined in absolute terms but has continued to grow relative to the declining market.
The same is true of the iPad, and there is evidence that it's decline is actually halting - I.e. it is reaching a plateau that is lower than its peak. Whether it will return to growth or not is an open question, but it is clearly not dropping like a rock.
So - the stock market story doesn't support your conclusion, nor does the iPad or Mac.
That leaves the iPhone. It is possible that the iPhone has reached a peak in terms of revenue.
Is it possible that it has reached an all time high in terms of active user base? That seems extremely unlikely.
For one thing, the total number of iPhones sold per year is still astronomical, and the devices have a long useful life. Even without a change of strategy, there will still be a huge number of new iPhone customers over the coming years.
Secondly there are many possible strategic solutions to a reduction in sales. Apple is selling far more SE devices than they anticipated, suggesting that there is pent-up demand for cheaper iPhones. They can address this segment easily, which will continue to increase the user base of IOS, even if revenue growth stagnates as a result of lower ASPs. This is just one possible strategy adjustment that would address the concern.
As I said, there has been a decline, but nothing supports your conclusion that Apple is 'dropping like a rock'. As such this is a bad conclusion on which to make a choice about whether to learn Swift or not.