Apple CEO Tim Cook was quoted this way from an investor meeting following the disappointing results for the latest quarter. Seems Apple is learning an important lesson which most high tech companies have had to learn over time: Loyal and enthusiastic users, channels and analyst hyping your products, including guessing about the content of the next product announcements, is a blessing in disguise. It may seem to help your demand generation here and now, but definitely makes product transitions very difficult.
When you are a small player trying to break into a market it is very tempting to encourage this since it is “low cost demand generation” and seems not to hurt your financials significantly since the impact on your brand building and product awareness is mostly positive…..
But when you are a category leader and holding large share positions of important high volume product categories it is a very different matter. Which may be why most large companies with multiple global distribution channels, are very careful how they handle this.
And the messy launch of the iPad in China cannot have helped Apple's quarter either - as well as the fact that tablets increasingly are displacing Laptops in purchase decisions - even for Apple who now have a big dependency on Macbook revenues and profits.
So in summary: iPhone weak due to transition issues, iPad hit by China launch and Laptops hit by friendly fire!
Maybe we are simply watching Apple growing up?
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