What goes up...

18-03-2009

by Ralph Averbuch

A few days in tech might as well be decades in just about any other industry. Only a few months ago the received wisdom was that Apple's position was becoming unassailable, as it released hugely impressive performance figures on the back of becoming a leading player in the mobile market... and all from a standing start. There's just no taking away from the company, the sheer audacity of that first move and how well it executed its plan to become the player all other mobile manufacturers now look to as a top threat. And Apple hasn't been forgetting its roots, progressively launching new and better hardware and software for its Mac PCs, with the added benefits of using the same guts as every other PC manufacturer, thus reducing fabrication costs. But, just as things seem to be going so well for Apple in the mobile sector it so comprehensively invaded, now it seems to be taking some of the same medicine. Recent figures suggest that Apple (along with other established PC box-shifters) is taking a beating on sales as we see a big shift towards netbooks. It may be that netbooks are not the extra purchase that PC makers hoped for but instead have become a substitution for a full-spec, often higher-margin unit. If this trend continues Apple really can't afford to not release a defensive product, which may well cannibalise established Apple products, but will stop other makers stealing any more of its lunch. But with Apple it's always difficult to read the reality of what's going on. Under Steve Jobs, Apple has been hugely successful in recent times. Question is, with Jobs very much taking a back seat and with very real threats coming from new quarters, will the Apple which wowed us with its ability to wrong-foot the competition, continue to demonstrate such competitive zeal in the future? Let's hope so. Competition is good, even if this blogger's never owned any Apple product ever. Still, an iPhone would be nice...

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