It’s been a rough 10 months for Apple since the stock touched $700 and the iPhone 5 was released last September. Slowing growth, a lack of new products outside of a smaller iPad, and a relentless technology press have more or less created the impression the company is yesterday’s news. After Microsoft’s disappointing earnings results last week highlighted the software giant’s troubles transitioning to a mobile world, surely Apple will join its old rival in the tech company dead pool when it reports later today. Oh, and it’s going to let everyone know next quarter won’t be much better. That’s the conventional wisdom anyway. The source of Apple’s woes, according to the multitude of experts, is some combination of CEO Tim Cook’s failure to effectively replace Steve Jobs, a lost ability to innovate, or something to do with the admittedly poor rollout of Apple’s Maps product with the new iPhone. In the short run, though, the company has faced more tangible execution and product-cycle issues rather than ethereal “innovation” problems. And many of those seem to be clearing. Consider: The iPhone is too expensive, but still very popular. Apple sells iPhones to carriers for an average price of $641. That’s true even though nearly half of them are older iPhone 4 and 4S models, according to data from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners. (Their survey is U.S. only; it’s likely that the total is even more skewed toward older models in at least some other countries.) In Russia, these high prices recently led the three largest carriers to drop the iPhone entirely. Clearly, Apple has some problems, which is why nearly everyone expects a lower-priced model with a plastic-shell from the company this September. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest