| There are two things coming that will cause Apple to be making changes now: First is the economy is cooling off globally. The second is that Apple has major new product opportunities and it makes changes well in advance so that these new product launches go well. On the economy: The economy is really slowing down globally right now. This is much like the summer of 2007... the hints are there but it took a year before all hell broke loose (saw it in the dotcom bust as well. Same hints.) No way to know how bad it will be or if it will be anything very startling, or just a couple years of lower growth. But when this happens companies feel it early, and the good ones react, and this happens months if not a year before things start to show up in the popular press like they did in 2008. On future products:
One thing intrinsic to apple's DNA is evolution. This is a company that is not complacent. It is also a company that doesn't broadcast its intentions or its moves or its plans. This means that when it sees opportunity, it starts to make changes well in advance of when it will be able to capitalize on that opportunity. The Apple Store itself is a good example of this: One of the reasons the retail operation was created was to be able to eventually sell the iPhone and iPad directly to the public in a way that couldn't happen before. Macs can be sold online, but the iPad and iPhone need to be seen to be understood. Apple stores have always done very well on the metrics apple cares about, one of which is profit. I don't see any reason to believe they are going to sacrifice those metrics to try and boost profit. |