After one of the most financially successful years of any American company, Apple's astounding success may be slumping. One week ago the company released their new iPhone to mixed reactions. While the phone was a drastic improvement over the outgoing model, it suffered from a lack of refinement in certain areas. For most companies this would be little more than just a mediocre product. However for a company like Apple which has always promoted their products as being a step above the rest, it seemed very out of character.
There were a few factors that people felt fell short of their standards but the two main concerns of consumers were the maps app and Apple's new charging port, which rendered many of the old accessories unusable. Apple's map received so much criticism after it's release that CEO Tim Cook made a public apology for the poor quality. Now in actuality these two factors haven't impeded many of Apple's users in any significant way, however, the fact that their CEO needed to apologize on a matter of quality at a company whose slogan is "It just works" has shaken confidence. Over the past week the company's stock has fallen twenty points in a less than uniform trend.
These events haven't so much shaken investors confidence in the company so much so as their confidence in Tim Cook. When Apple had begun to recover after years of poor performance, one of the leading factors in that was CEO at the time Steve Jobs and the direction he took the company. While Jobs took steps to prepare the company for his leave people were still skeptical. It was well known that Jobs was an integral of the design and development process and many people were unsure of whether Tim Cook would be able to fill those shoes and have the same vision that Jobs did. Enough time has passed now where the products that Apple is coming out with have been overseen by Cook with no guidance left from Jobs and for a start to his reign, Tim Cook has in some aspects fallen short of apple’s standard of excellence.
