Sadly (for Apple) this just is not true. We have watched as companies that never would have spoken out in public are trying to use their association with Apple to calm investors or just to brag. Foxconn CEO Terry Gou went so far as to hint at exclusive deals that Apple has with other manufacturers and not just Foxconn. This is something that is almost unheard of in the industry even for companies that are not Apple and certainly would never have happened with Steve Jobs around. We have also seen leaks of actual components (alleged components) for future products, pictures of accessories for future products and more coming from the people that supply Apple with parts or that work with them to develop third party accessories. If you think that this is business as usual, then you might want to check the Kool-Aid you are drinking. We actually interviewed a manufacturer of accessories for Apple and they stated quite clearly that they were forbidden from releasing anything to anyone until after Apple approval and that doing that would result in getting cut off (something that no one wanted).

Now we have Sharp talking up their relationship with Apple and announcing publicly that they are shipping displays for the next generation iPhone this month. When we first saw this we were slightly shocked as Apple does not like anyone to make this type of open statement as it can confirm specification, and release timing to competitors. Yet here Sharp is making this comment without any apparent fear of Apple retaliation. Does this indicate trouble for Sharp or Apple? If this was an isolated event we would say that Sharp was desperate and was using the Apple tie to bolster investor confidence, but it is not an isolated case. We have multiple manufacturers making comments about making this or that for Apple and also talking about shipping timelines.
We would say that their use of this information would seem to be an attempt to bolster both Apple and their own businesses. When you sign into an exclusive agreement to make something for someone you can get badly hurt if that product does not do well. With the iPhone 1-4S things were very clear cut; if you made parts for Apple you were golden. Now, with falling sales of iPhones in Q4 some of these partners have to be nervous. If Apple is not buying as many pieces and parts these partners suffer. They need to feed the ecosystem and as such are willing to risk ire with Apple to try and build hype and investor confidence in these exclusive decisions and deals.

Apple’s next generation products are not the same “done deal” as they have been in the past. Some analysts are already concerned with the leaked information. They feel that the lack of any real innovation will hurt Apple and sales of the iPhone 5. Again the faithful will tell you that Apple does not need to change the way it looks, but will sell them anyway. They point to the fact that the original iMac, MacBook etc. all have the same look they have had for years and they still sell. What they neglect to tell you is that sales of these devices are dropping and only jump up when Apple makes a significant change in them (like putting in the retina display) and even then the sales numbers are not massive. Apple’s bread and butter is the iPhone and iPad; any impact to that eco system will have a significant impact on Apple as a company. You can see that by what happened to their stock prices after the Q2 results call.

Apple still has plenty of life and we are not predicting the death of Apple or that they are going to “fail” we do see their market share dropping over time as their products saturate the market and become stale. We also see their overaggressive antics in the court room hurting them in a much bigger way especially with the massive publicity surrounding the Samsung V Apple trial that is happening right now. We fully expect to hear more Apple partners speak up about what they are supplying and when they are shipping as this trial continues. These partners are worried about the outcome here even if Apple is claiming they are not.

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