Can an extraordinarily successful company move in too many places with too many products and do it so fast that the market - and their customers - can't sufficiently comprehend or absorb them? 
Apple had a major product announcement earlier this week introducing three new computers, a cool fusion drive and two new iPads, including the much touted iPad Mini.
They also pointed out that sales of the iPad tablet computer have reached 100 million. (More Apple stats here.)
Just a few weeks earlier they introduced the iPhone5 and iOS6.
At the same time, the stock price for the world's most valuable company continues to drop, in part because they missed earning expectations by a few pennies. Other factors are higher than expected pricing for the iPad mini and trouble after the iPhone 5 announcement for melting bridges and bad directions in their new mapping program. But they still sold 5 million of the phones in the first post-announcement weekend.
While Q4 is expected to be a blow-out quarter, the earnings per share are still not expected to be as high as previous quarters because with all the new products they will have higher production costs early on.
So what's going on here and is Apple in danger of losing their place as the world's most admired company? Have they introduced too many products and branched in too many directions all at once?
I doubt it.
In fact, Apple is at the top of their game. Steve Jobs is certainly missed but his spirit is clearly still with them (even though reports are that he didn't like the iPad mini idea). There was a time in the mid 90s that Apple was being written off. They were "Apple Computer" then. But as a company they came back from the edge with edgy thinking and leading products. With Steve's leadership, they became just "Apple" and branched in directions that nobody outside the company ever imagined.
Always able to "think different", I've admired Apple since the 1984 Super Bowl ad blew us all away. 
I've had a Mac in my house ever since and everyone in my house today has at least one Apple product. I have four.
My son was five when he bought Apple stock for under $20 a share and everyone expected they would go under or continue weakly while expecting Microsoft to win. Now that stock is helping to pay his college tuition.
But most of all, my admiration for the company comes from their success (or Steve's) in disrupting and "transforming six major industries - personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing and digital publishing"- and probably very soon education can be added to the list.
Will they stumble? Certainly. What company doesn't?
Remember the "Lisa" and the "Newton"?
Mostly though, they will succeed and delight. And I doubt any of the 5 million+ iPhone 5 owners have any doubt that the maps will be fixed and the bridges will no longer melt.
What's important is that most of the time - in Apple's case, an inordinate percentage of the time - companies try and succeed. As consumers and investors and employees, that's what we want and expect. That's what breeds success.
EMC missed its quarterly earnings by a few pennies too. Get over it and think seriously about buying some stock.
Comments