Just where is Apple right now; on the road to further growth or the road to ruin? Your opinion may well depend on who you listen to, but the truth probably lies somewhere between those two extremes. Wall Street and the wider investor brigade are certainly worried by Apple's lack of new products over the last few years and some even think the Cupertino bubble has burst.
However, as the company took to the WWDC stage this week, it was in a defiant mood, with CEO Tim Cook particularly bullish about the company's prospectas. Well, he would be is what you are probably thinking, but Cook came armed with more than opinion when he wheeled out some admittedly impressive stats.
Over 130 million customers who bought an iOS device in the past 12 months were buying their first Apple device… Many of these customers were switchers from Android. They had bought an Android phone -- by mistake. They had sought a better experience...and a better life. So they decided to check out iPhone and iOS.Nearly half of our customers in China in the past six months switched from Android to iPhone. This is incredible.
Yes, Tim, those are fairly impressive figures and it is a trend that is likely to increase when Apple finally jumps on the large screen bandwagon and delivers an iPhone with a sizable panel. However, I did say at the top of this piece that the truth about Apple's current position is a little less cut and dry than Cook would have you believe.
The adoption rates for the iPhone are impressive, especially in a market like China where Cupertino has previously had a troubled relationship with authorities and carriers. However, other stats don't lie and they show that Android is comfortably the most used platform worldwide, and it too is growing. While Apple seems to be doing just fine on the consumer side, investors are worried and maybe rightly so. Much of Apple's future rests on its ability to create a phone that captures new buyers rather than makes people switch. Not everyone has a smartphone yet, and the number of people buying one this year will grow significantly. With that in mind, no matter how Cook dresses it the iPhone 6 is a hugely important device for the company.
