Apple's Reputation For Innovation Is Now Its Greatest Liability - Wired

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Photo: Alex Washburn/WIRED



A year ago, Apple seemed unstoppable. Its share price topped $700. Its cash horde eclipsed the GDP of many countries. Pundits mused about a $1 trillion market cap with a straight face.


But nowadays, Wall Street sees Apple very differently — and this morning’s much-hyped iPhone announcements from the tech giant did little to stop its year-long descent into stagnation. Apple’s gold phones, 64-bit processors, and fingerprint sensors barely budged the needle on Wall Street, as shares fell more than 2 percent from the day’s opening price of $506.20.


The great slide began last September. By April of this year, Apple had shed nearly $300 billion in value, and shares bottomed out below $400. As WIRED wrote at the time, bearish sellers had plenty of reason to doubt that the post-Jobs Apple could still dazzle. Yet Apple CEO Tim Cook did little to reassure investors. As Samsung handsets gained market share and prices on Android phones fell, investors doubted Apple could keep charging the premium prices that kept its margins high.


Worst and most obvious of all, Apple failed to feed the insatiable consumer appetite for the new. As has been widely reported, its new iPhone announcements today mark the end of the longest gap in new hardware releases since at least the launch of the iPad.


As that clock ticked, shares fell or stayed flat. Even the preview of iOS 7, the most radical redesign of Apple’s mobile operating system since its initial release, failed to mollify Wall Street.


If the market’s immediate reaction is any indication — and in the era of high-speed trading, it usually is — the iPhone 5C and 5S unveiled today still don’t go far enough. As the new phones were unveiled and tech writers cooed, investors reacted with a collective “meh.” After the presentation came to a close to the strains of Elvis Costello — no iWatch or new Apple TV in sight — the company’s share price began to trickle lower.


Notably, Apple spent a lot of time at its event highlighting the high-end advances of the new 5S, dashing quickly through the less expensive 5C by comparison. Such a choice makes sense if the goal is to keep investors distracted from the margin-eating potential of less expensive phones. But the extended focus on geeked-out new features didn’t do the trick.


Though the faster, sleeker, more powerful phone is unarguably cool, the steps forward are still incremental. And incremental isn’t what the world expects from Apple. Steve Jobs’ death wasn’t an event of worldwide significance because he could craft better spec sheets. Apple’s brand is synonymous with vision, a corporate identity that was once its greatest asset. Now that asset has become a liability.








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