Where is Apple headed in the next 5+ years?

[Syavash]

I don't know how many people keep up with tech companies here, but I've been following Apple in the news (somewhat) especially since Steve Job's departure. At that time I wondered (as did other people) whether Tim Cook really would be able to pick up the mantle and whether Apple could continue to innovate at the same pace it has in the past.

But Apple's stock has soared in the 4 years since then going from $52 to a $130 as of mid July. And on July 22nd it opened at roughly 6% below the previous day's close and it hasn somewhat rallied back since then.

Most analysts say, the decrease is because of slowing growth in China, the saturated market there plus Xiaomi which gas grown tremendously in the past few years, and Apple gets a huge chunk of its revenue from the iPhone with China being one of the fastest growing markets, and that seems to be changing now.

Source


Being geeks as we all are over here, I'm sure quite a few of you are up to date with what's going on beyond the financials. So my question is, where do you people see Apple going in the future?

1) Apple is already well north of 700B in market cap, do you see that going up in the future considering their over dependence on the iPhone?
2) What's the new big thing for Apple, is there even going to be one, or is the Apple Watch a trend that's here to say when it comes to innovation


And I realize this isn't relevant to PG specifically, but then again its the Chit-Chat section

 

[shehroze121]

I wasn't surprised when Apple continued to grow like before when Tim Cook took over since Steve Jobs had left a massive company with a shitload of cash and an enormous following. Things like that dont go away that easily. The idea of the iphone being the easy to use smartphone with an app for everything and everyone which also took on the role of a status symbol among youngsters is still the main driving force behind the strong sales and I do not expect it to change. Apple's policy has always been to release tech after its competitors for God knows what reason, maybe to see if it actually works or to starve their loyal fans so they want the new device more, that again still works.

You can expect the next iphone or the one after that to be waterproof or have a curved display but what else? we have reached a point in time where flagship phones have been somewhat very similar for the past 3-4 years so I would be surprised and impressed if Apple can actually innovate something.

Yes Apple has grown massively but I have seen for a wile that this growth has slowed down a bit, maybe it is temporary maybe not but I do not expect Apple to cross the 1 trillion mark that easily especially since its competitors in every branch of tech are beefing up to get a bigger piece of the pie. I hope that does happen and they actually take a piece of Apple's share and convince its fans to migrate rather than fight over the share thats already theirs but in different proportions. All hail capitalism, I actually want to see these tech giants go at each other.