Is Apple in Decline? The Great Debate Continues

After weeks of eager anticipation on Wall Street, Apple released its latest earnings report after the market closed on Tuesday. Between January and March, the company sold 37.4 million iPhones, beating analysts’ estimates of 36.5 million, and it sold 19.5 million iPads, against an expected figure of 18.3 million. It generated a hefty $9.5 billion in pre-tax profits and said it would spend up to a hundred billion dollars on stock buybacks before the end of 2015.

Coming from any normal company, these would be extraordinary numbers. Apple’s problem is that investors had come to expect the extraordinary and then some. In the same month last year, the company earned $11.6 billion, as consumers around the globe snapped up iPhones and iPads. During the past few months, Apple’s stock has been tumbling on fears that Samsung and other competitors are successfully undercutting these premium-priced products. After reaching a peak above seven hundred dollars last October, it has fallen to as low as three hundred and ninety dollars.

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