this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2024
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[–] esc27@lemmy.world 87 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (4 children)

Apple managed to capture lightning in a bottle, twice. First by making a better Walkman, and then again by making that device a phone with internet access. They were able to leverage that success to revitalize their computer hardware business and act as a platform for selling accessories, and all of that made them very successful.

But the stock market doesn’t care about past success, it cares about growth, and without a major new, or buzz worthy product, investors might start to turn against Apple. Problem is, they have ridden the iPod horse about as far as it can go. They tried putting wheels on it, but that failed, and the jury is still out on whether tying one to your face will work out or not.

[–] Simon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 64 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (2 children)

It's almost like... endless growth is unsustainable.

Edit: Downvoted by a shareholder lol

[–] Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world 25 points 5 months ago (2 children)

"What if we just doubled the price?" - some genius executive that never created a damn thing in their life

That only works for housing and healthcare.

[–] stringere@leminal.space 13 points 5 months ago

You forgot groceries, mandatory insurance, and utilities...

[–] 14th_cylon@lemm.ee 5 points 5 months ago

big part of apple's success is that it successfully establishes itself as a status symbol - it is for a lot of people what car was for generation of their parents and grandparents.

so there will definitely be a clientele for that two times expensive whatever. some people will buy it just to show others they can afford it, same reason why people were buying overpriced cars.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago
[–] frezik@midwest.social 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

APPL is second only to MSFT by market cap. So far, the stock market doesn't care.

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 11 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but investors really don't care about the price of a stock, they care about how much the price moves once they own it.

It's the inherent problem with publicly owned companies. Even if you perfected a mode of profit, unless you improve upon perfection next quarter you're in hot shit.

You can only squeeze so much profit out of any one gimmick, after that the only way to mimic growth is by cutting labour costs, and eventually diverting investment funding into profit for shareholders.

[–] frezik@midwest.social 8 points 5 months ago

Not necessarily. Investors also care about dividends. Those tend to be the people who hold on long term. Blue chips, as a class of stock, are all about companies that don't make big moves in price and pay out in dividends. They're older companies that have built their product line, and while they still do R&D on new ones, they only do that to make sure they don't get left behind.

[–] Veraxus@lemmy.world 14 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yep. Doesn't matter how healthy or stable a company is... when infinite growth is no longer feasible, investors would rather pick the bones clean than let it be.

[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 4 points 5 months ago

Why does a company that has already achieved it's success need investment? When company potential is how we value society, this is an inevitable end result.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world -4 points 5 months ago (2 children)

by making that device a phone with internet access.

Fuck you WAP phones existed. Blackberries existed.

[–] nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 10 points 5 months ago

Apple made it better. There is innovation in execution (whether they "invented" things or not) and that is what Apple does. It's why Blackberries are things of the past.

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 5 months ago

And they sucked ass by only half-assing the usability