Apple shares drop as iPhone loses its allure

Technology behemoth Apple’s reign over the smartphone world may finally be coming to an end after the year-end sales reports for 2012 have come in, and the company’s share prices have fallen.

Reports state that Apple Inc’s share prices have taken a drastic 10% tumble that has wiped out almost a year’s worth of gains. This isn’t to say that Apple isn’t still enjoying the lion’s share of the market. Apple still holds a 51% control of all the smartphone handsets globally. It simply means that they may have finally saturated the marketplace and the boom of sales is finally starting to slow.

The company has now reduced its shipping, ordering and production schedules to meet the lower demands of sale. 

Andy Costanguay of Informs Telecoms Media has said of the stock result: “With modest but growing sales of Windows phone devices, as well as a revived product line expected from BlackBerry, Apple’s products have begun to lose their ‘innovative’ top luster, even while still representing the competitive standard in the industry. Apple’s next generation of devices and iOS will need to push into new, exciting design territory to firmly re-establish its claim as the industry’s innovation bellwether or risk continued declines in stock value and position in the vanguard of mobile device design.”

With the rival companies now catching up, both in terms of innovation and sales, Apple need to come out with new products that can allow them to stay on top. Apple CEO Tim Cook has stated: “We’re working on some incredible stuff. The pipeline is chock full.” He declined to give any further details, however. 

There have been recent rumours that the company is working on a new “revolutionary” TV set that could do for the television what the iPod and iPhone did for MP3 players and mobiles, respectively.

Ali Kirkby