However, it wasn’t all bad news at the earnings
call, with CEO Tim Cook telling investors that,
“importantly, around half of the customers
purchasing Macs and iPads around the world
during the quarter were new to that product,
and the active installed base for both Mac and
iPad reached a new all-time high,” showing new
growth in the Mac market.
Where Apple has struggled in recent years,
however, is in innovation. If Apple wants to
boost sales, it needs to improve the design of its
Mac devices, like the iMac, which has retained
its familiar chassis for more than a decade. The
internals count, too; though Apple has finally
made some stead towards the high-end market
with its Mac Pro and iMac Pro, entry-level Macs
cannot compete with rival Windows PCs on price
or performance, leading many to shun Apple
and move to Microsoft for home and business.
Apple’s upgrades need to be more significant, or
consumers will abandon ship, and getting them
to return will be tough.
There’s also the ongoing challenges of supply
chain management. Apple has already said it
wants to move from Intel-based Macs to its
own ARM chips in the next couple of years, but
it appears to be losing key players at a difficult
time. Indeed, according to a Bloomberg
report, Nick Forlenza, a vice president of
manufacturing design, has retired from Apple,
and Duco Pasmooij, another vice president, is
planning to make his move in the next couple
of months. Though the company outsources
the production on all of its products to partners
such as Foxconn, it meticulously sets out how
products are built in-house. This news comes at
a time when Apple is battling with the impact