If you’ve given up on Apple (AAPL, Financial) you’re probably not in the right state of mind. I know this might’ve been a reaction to certain misnomers that did rounds last year. If we look back in time, a year or so back, there were rumors regarding Apple’s bleak future. People were thinking that Apple was washed up and all those Apple-maniacs who found it difficult to let go of their Apple ‘toys’ needed a reality check. Out of the blue we had Microsoft’s Windows 8 tab set to become the next big thing. People touted Apple’s iPads as mere play things and not good enough for some serious time calculations. Apple loyalists were already mourning the tech-giant’s untimely and ‘about to come’ demise. On the other hand, we had Intel coming out with Haswell and Bay Trail processors that promised to outperform Apple. Come 2014, things again started looking bright for Apple Inc. Through this article I’d like to analyze Apple’s performance in the later half of 2013.
A much more stable second half:
Though not all but most of the threats that Apple was facing in early 2013 had almost vanished by the time the year ended. Even the threats from Windows and Intel had neutralized. Windows 8 hasn’t quite invigorated their PC sales in the past year. Much the same, Windows tablet and phones have also shown just marginal market share gains. At the end of the third quarter of 2013 we saw that Windows had a market share of a paltry 3.6% and compared to that iPhone had a market share of around 12.1%. This improvement was mostly at the expense of Blackberry. This was but only one side of the story. Apple’s tablet share declined from 40.2% in 2012 to 29.6% in 2013. Thus Apple has not completely come out of the doldrums.
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iPhone vs iPad:
Experts and analysts have now stopped speculating over whether or not Apple’s headed for a dead end. They’re now just waiting to find out what moves Apple takes and just how they bounce back.                                                                                                                  The 64 bit A7 system on chip of the iPhone 5s, which Apple's detractors either ignored or disparaged at first, turned out to be the game changer. Simply put, we had the power of 64 bit Intel Bay Trail processor into a suave smartphone which went down really well with the customers. Around the same time Apple came out with a much improved version of iOS, the iOS 7. All this resulted in iPhone 5s being backordered by the end of the fourth quarter. Even the 5c version of iPhone 5 was instrumental in catalyzing the revenue growth for the company last year. In fact, for that matter, the 5c was lower in cost and hence huge sales boosted the revenues.
If we look at iPad’s scene, we conclude that last year by no means has been good for the tab segment of the tech-giant. The sales were not that good. The iPhone 5s got off to a quick start when it was launched just after the third quarter last year. On the other hand, new iPads were released in late November. This meant they lost about a third of the current quarter and hence could not make a smooth start. This can be owed to the paucity of the A7 processors. For the record, both the iPad Air and iPad Mini use the A7 processor and sport the Retina Display. Â
 Mac Pro sales expected to further go down:
The analysts are expecting the sales of Mac Pro to grow and become stronger for the coming quarter. The analysts are predicting the sales to be somewhere around 3.9 million units. This would be steep fall from 4.06 million in 2013. Apple has finally decided upgrade all the Macs with Haswell just like iPad Mini. Mac Pro is expected to be out by February 2014.
The delay in coming out with Mac Pro was because the production site was relatively newer and glitches were bound to happen. This is the reason why Apple crossed the December deadline for the launch. Now that the company has announced that the release will be made in February it shows that Apple has gone ahead with the production in full flow.
To conclude:Â Â Â Â
It wouldn’t be any surprise if I said that the revenues for Apple would not be much appealing. In fact, the company’s revenues might be somewhat stagnated owing to the flat iPad and Mac sales. What Apple needs to do at the moment is just focus on revenues and earnings. The market share for the company can still be expected to grow by around 10-15% this year. Some hope for the investors there? Can’t really be said. Lets wait till the Mac launches in February to make any further judgment. Â Â
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