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Hopefully it isn't just about cellphones, though that was a big one. There are tons of sectors waiting to be disrupted and markets yet to be created. No one kn

Hopefully it isn't just about cellphones, though that was a big one. There are tons of sectors waiting to be disrupted and markets yet to be created. No one knew they wanted an iMac, iPod, or an iPad. Apple created those markets. meanwhile after Jobs, the Apple Watch isn't doing that well. iPod sold more units in one year than the entire history of Apple Watch. The home pod is a wash. Beyond that, there are no Apple hardware success stories. I think that's because Jobs took huge risks, had huge vision and put huge pressure on staff and the tech and media industries. No one is doing that anymore. except Elon Musk

scarface74 8y ago
It took Apple two years to sell the first million iPods. It was nowhere near an overnight success. At its height it sold 50 million a year. When the iMac was introduced, Apple was celebrating selling one million Macs a quarter. In its best year, Apple sold around 20 million Macs in total a year - less than half the number of iPhones they sell in a quarter. At its height, Apple sold about 45-60 million iPads a year - again about the number of iPhones Apple sells in a quarter. I’ll consider Elon Musk a “success” when either SpaceX or Tesla is profitable long term. Going into the phone market wasn’t a huge untapped market. By the time the iPhone came out, the mobile phone was already the next big thing. As far as the Apple Watch not being a success, it’s a more profitable product than cell phones are for any company besides Apple and Samsung....
- itchyouch 8y ago
  I think if there is another segment for Apple to be as successful as the iPhone, it's not obvious yet, which product it is to be. Another challenge is that there are markets to be disrupted, but they may not necessarily be a 1 trillion dollar market like smartphones have been. Apple could disrupt an industry that people may absolutely love and flock to, but if its size is 50 Billion dollars, but that would be less than 10% of their current market cap. What would be a 50B dollar successful stand-alone business doesn't necessarily serve as the product that can get Apple to say a 2T market cap. And it isn't like Apple isn't trying to find a product (e.g. apple car, watch, homepods, etc).
  - scarface74 8y ago
    That’s the problem. If any other company had a new product that generated $10 billion in profit a year, everyone would be celebrating. If Apple does it, people yawn. Without realizing that most phone manufacturers can’t even break even consistently....
- headShrinker 8y ago
  > I’ll consider Elon Musk a “success” when either SpaceX or Tesla is profitable long term. Ehem... I'm sure you applied your stringent earnings requirements to other companies like Amazon as well... https://qz.com/1196256/it-took-amazon-amzn-14-years-to-make-as-much-net-profit-as-it-did-in-the-fourth-quarter-of-2017/ https://qz.com/1196256/it-took-amazon-amzn-14-years-to-make-...
  - scarface74 8y ago
    Actually I wouldn’t have. The industry had no idea whether Amazon’s business model would ever be profitable or what would happen if they raised prices enough to be profitable. In reality. Amazon still hasn’t proven that there original business can be sustainably profitable. All of their profit from 2017 came from AWS. https://www.zdnet.com/article/all-of-amazons-2017-operating-income-comes-from-aws/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/all-of-amazons-2017-operating-...
zimpenfish 8y ago
> No one knew they wanted an iMac, iPod, or an iPad. Except people had created iPod- and iPad-similar devices before Apple entered the markets. The demand was clearly there. > iPod sold more units in one year than the entire history of Apple Watch. Since Apple don't break out sales figures of the Watch, any comparison here is going to be guesswork but, depending on whether you trust UBS numbers[1] or not, that claim will be voided at some point in 2019 (best guesstimates I could find are 17M in 2017, 24M in 2018, predicted 33M in 2019 which would eclipse the best iPod year of 55M[2]) Also this a fairly silly comparison - the iPod is a standalone non-luxury item; the Watch is a (fairly) tethered luxury item. It's, uh, apples to oranges. [1] https://9to5mac.com/2018/10/31/apple-watch-sales-5/ https://9to5mac.com/2018/10/31/apple-watch-sales-5/ [2] https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ipod-rise-fall-chart-2017-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ipod-rise-fall-chart-2...
- headShrinker 8y ago
  > It took Apple two years to sell the first million iPods. It was nowhere near an overnight success. At its height it sold 50 million a year. The tablet incarnations were total flops, as were the MP3 players. Demand wasn't there for iPod or iPad, as stated by the other response, the market was created by Apple.

scarface74 8y ago

It took Apple two years to sell the first million iPods. It was nowhere near an overnight success. At its height it sold 50 million a year. When the iMac was introduced, Apple was celebrating selling one million Macs a quarter. In its best year, Apple sold around 20 million Macs in total a year - less than half the number of iPhones they sell in a quarter. At its height, Apple sold about 45-60 million iPads a year - again about the number of iPhones Apple sells in a quarter. I’ll consider Elon Musk a “success” when either SpaceX or Tesla is profitable long term. Going into the phone market wasn’t a huge untapped market. By the time the iPhone came out, the mobile phone was already the next big thing. As far as the Apple Watch not being a success, it’s a more profitable product than cell phones are for any company besides Apple and Samsung....

itchyouch 8y ago
I think if there is another segment for Apple to be as successful as the iPhone, it's not obvious yet, which product it is to be. Another challenge is that there are markets to be disrupted, but they may not necessarily be a 1 trillion dollar market like smartphones have been. Apple could disrupt an industry that people may absolutely love and flock to, but if its size is 50 Billion dollars, but that would be less than 10% of their current market cap. What would be a 50B dollar successful stand-alone business doesn't necessarily serve as the product that can get Apple to say a 2T market cap. And it isn't like Apple isn't trying to find a product (e.g. apple car, watch, homepods, etc).
- scarface74 8y ago
  That’s the problem. If any other company had a new product that generated $10 billion in profit a year, everyone would be celebrating. If Apple does it, people yawn. Without realizing that most phone manufacturers can’t even break even consistently....
headShrinker 8y ago
> I’ll consider Elon Musk a “success” when either SpaceX or Tesla is profitable long term. Ehem... I'm sure you applied your stringent earnings requirements to other companies like Amazon as well... https://qz.com/1196256/it-took-amazon-amzn-14-years-to-make-as-much-net-profit-as-it-did-in-the-fourth-quarter-of-2017/ https://qz.com/1196256/it-took-amazon-amzn-14-years-to-make-...
- scarface74 8y ago
  Actually I wouldn’t have. The industry had no idea whether Amazon’s business model would ever be profitable or what would happen if they raised prices enough to be profitable. In reality. Amazon still hasn’t proven that there original business can be sustainably profitable. All of their profit from 2017 came from AWS. https://www.zdnet.com/article/all-of-amazons-2017-operating-income-comes-from-aws/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/all-of-amazons-2017-operating-...

zimpenfish 8y ago

> No one knew they wanted an iMac, iPod, or an iPad. Except people had created iPod- and iPad-similar devices before Apple entered the markets. The demand was clearly there. > iPod sold more units in one year than the entire history of Apple Watch. Since Apple don't break out sales figures of the Watch, any comparison here is going to be guesswork but, depending on whether you trust UBS numbers[1] or not, that claim will be voided at some point in 2019 (best guesstimates I could find are 17M in 2017, 24M in 2018, predicted 33M in 2019 which would eclipse the best iPod year of 55M[2]) Also this a fairly silly comparison - the iPod is a standalone non-luxury item; the Watch is a (fairly) tethered luxury item. It's, uh, apples to oranges. [1] https://9to5mac.com/2018/10/31/apple-watch-sales-5/ https://9to5mac.com/2018/10/31/apple-watch-sales-5/ [2] https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ipod-rise-fall-chart-2017-7 https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ipod-rise-fall-chart-2...

headShrinker 8y ago
> It took Apple two years to sell the first million iPods. It was nowhere near an overnight success. At its height it sold 50 million a year. The tablet incarnations were total flops, as were the MP3 players. Demand wasn't there for iPod or iPad, as stated by the other response, the market was created by Apple.