Apple have jumped the shark. That was the last line from the article I wrote way back in November 2018 when I wrote we’d hit peak Apple

So imagine my lack of surprise when this Wednesday (January 2, 2019), Apple dropped its revenue expectations nearly 8 per cent to $84 billion from its prediction of Christmas sales of $93 billion back in November and, astonishingly, the stock dropped 10% until trading in Apple stock was halted.

The reason? China. Lacklustre sales in the Far East coupled with Trump’s trade war with China put the mockers on sales, Apple CEO Tim Cook said.

What difference does it make if one of the world’s most successful companies – valued at $1trillion last year – misses expectations on Q1 results by a few mil? So what if Apple’s stock drops ten percent in a day? These guys are minted.

Unfortunately, most industry analysts agree: this is very bad news indeed.

If Apple sneezes, Tech catches a cold.  And this week, winter has arrived for Big Tech.

Apple may be blaming China for their sales slump, and that is certainly a factor, but the truth is more banal. As The Wall Street Journal reported, the iPhone XR, the lowest-priced model among the three new phones Apple introduced last year, went on sale for $945. A competing model from Huawei Technologies Co. that also launched last year, the Mate 20, retailed at half that.

Even Apple nerds agree that there is really no reason to upgrade your smartphone when a new iPhone looks and works pretty much the same as the old.

Apple have ceased to innovate and sales are dropping as an inevitable result. As I said in the piece last year, Tim Cook is an heroic optimizer but an innovator? He’s no Steve Jobs.

The only way out for Apple – and by implication Big Tech- is full-blooded innovation. Incremental changes, tweaks, or, God help me, electric scooters, just aren’t going to float an economy.

Trouble is, there’s new problem, and it’s structural. Big firms including Apple are not just ceasing to innovate, they are a block to innovation by anybody else.

For the full version of this article go to the Campaign Live website

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