Apple cornered?

On June 22, 2020, the traditional Apple meeting was held via streaming: WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference). This meeting is important for technology developers, consumers, and manufacturers because since 1983 the new Apple Hardware and Software products have been launched there. 

 To give us an idea, it was in this same scenario where the launch of the App Store, the iPhone OS 3.0 mobile operating system, the 13-inch MacBook Pro laptop, and the iPhone 3GS was carried out by Steve Jobs, among other things. 

However, there is a particularity in the 2020 edition that differentiates it from its predecessors and that is that the innovation component was absent, the main launches of the night being: improvements focused on the user experience in the current deposits and the announcement of the divorce with Intel.

Now! what is the CEO of this company going on? : Tim Cook took over the reins on August 24, 2011, He received from Jobs a company with revenues of 100 billion and undisputed leadership in several production lines.

The truth is that the first front was the struggle to maintain the leadership in the sale of cell phones, but since 2013 Apple has been losing ground in comparative terms with Samsung. 

In fact, in 2014 in Smartphones, Samsung doubled in sales to Apple and in 2015 they closed the third quarter with 83,586 units sold versus 46,062 units sold on behalf of Apple.

 The Smartphone market in the third quarter of 2015

Perhaps this battle was lost from the beginning since Apple's commercial strategy with its products is well known where you pay a premium within the price of the product, also known as the Apple tax, this is the cost of owning a product with a reputation for quality and design. 

However, this same strategy that gives certain exclusivity to its products in the long run, limits its expansion in other consumer segments and markets such as India and China, contrary to Samsung and Huawei, which generate more segmented products and their prices per segment tend to be friendlier. 

Now if we remember in 2015 Huawei was located in third place, when 2018 arrives Apple loses second place in market share and goes to third place with 13.2% market share, followed by Xiaomi, with this panorama Apple closes the year with profit losing market. 

Now if we remember in 2015 Huawei was located in third place, upon arrival in 2018 Apple loses second place in market share and moves to third place with 13.2% market share, followed by Xiaomi, with this panorama Apple closes the year with financial gain and market loss. 

2019 begins and we see the company's decision to break its dependence on the cell phone business as the best-selling product, focusing on improving what already exists by getting more out of its customer base as a strategy to preserve market share.

2019 ends, Samsung with 22% of the market, Huawei with 16% and Apple with 10% (Mostly concentrated in the US) followed closely by Xiaomi 9% and Oppo with another 9% share.

It is important to note that 2019 showed a reduction in global smartphone sales compared to 2018, where the number of units sold in 2019 decreased to 6.4 million, closing at 367.9 million units sold.

This strategy of strengthening existing products by improving their software as well as their user experience in a contracting market will most likely allow you to keep your balance sheet positive to calm shareholders, but that does not remedy the reality that they are not innovating. 

Now in 2020, in that search to become more efficient and exploit related businesses, they have decided to break their business relationship with Intel and there are plenty of reasons since Intel is not having a good time either, they have delayed with their new processor and their shares have fallen by a little bit. 

Even so, the long term for Jobs' legacy does not seem very promising, the direction of the company is not very clear, it seems that now the new niche will be processors, but that is far from the tradition of being surprised by Apple with innovations that they take your breath away, it's like they don't have many options. 

In short, we have to wait, perhaps it is only a matter of time before they appear at WWDC 2021 with some innovation that will amaze us and take the world to another new stage, while that arrives I keep wondering what Steve Jobs would have done.