Apple heading towards doom without Steve Jobs

The Apple shares hit their all time low on 1st March, 2013, at $430.00 they are at their lowest point since October, 2012.  Do the market operators no something we don't?  The previously ever rising stock of Apple is getting hammered day in day out, what could be the reasons for that.  It is back at the levels it was in February 2012.

Could Apple be heading towards doom.  The unexpected fall in the shares of Apple is not without reason.  At the time when the US share markets are almost at their peaks, the reasons for Apple's slide is given as loss of interest of 'momentum' investors.  

There may be several reasons for the slide.  One of them is sure to be the lack of the ever so charismatic Steve Jobs at the helm.  Since his demise, the people are asking whether Apple can maintain the momentum of the company.  

He was without any shred of doubt, the Prince Charming of Apple.  The moment he came to the dias, wearing his turtle necks, the mobile lovers, the share investors and ordinary people knew that Apple would launch something that day.  Lets look at the launches by Apple in 2013.   The iPhone 5 has come and gone.  It did not reach the scale of success that the Apple was hoping for.  The 128GB iPad went on sale in the month of February, 2012 and all the fanfare that went up with it died down to a whimper within weeks.

The iPhone sames may be up for the last quarter but the internal orders to Foxconn for new shipments are considerably down.  So much so that reports suggest the main iPhone supplier, Foxconn has curtailed any new hiring at its China iPhone workshop.  If the reports are true then the iPhone sales in this quarter are going to be anywhere between 20 million handsets which are a big way down from the last quarter.

The products in pipe line for Apple are the new Smart Watch called iWatch and the Apple TV.  The iWatch, when launched will be a luxury item at $99  rather than a necessity and will fail in the long run and TV markets are already seeing many churns internally.  

Apple has become a target of its own pricing formula.  Its products are far more costlier than the Android based phones which are available from  anywhere at around $ 150 onwards.  Further the Android Phone market sees a new release every month compared to the last release of Apple 128GB iPad and the next sensational releases of iWatch and iPad Mini.  It has not concentrated on markets it should have like Brazil and India.  China has too many iPhone clones to make any significant dent there.  Same is the case with Macbooks.  They are simply too costly to make an impression.

iPhone 6 may be many many quarters away and if Apple launches it any sooner, it may just be another upgrade of the iPhone 5.   The  USP of Apple is its look and sensational launches.    After Jobbs there is nobody in the company to generate such kind of hype.  

I am missing Steve Jobs and no can fill his shoes, till then Google bang bang continuing without any hitch across the digital realm may be too much for Apple.

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Vijay Prabhu