From Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, commenting on sales of the iPhone 5:
This is a tired product, it’s been out three quarters.
He’s not wrong, but it’s still a pretty astonishing statement, isn’t it? In any case, Munster was actually using this as a defense of Apple’s second straight quarter of mediocre results. iPad sales were down 14 percent and Mac sales were down 7 percent, but iPhone sales were up 20 percent. That’s nothing to write home about, but it’s better than last quarter. And while the softness of iPad sales isn’t too surprising considering the huge channel inventory glut at the end of last quarter, it’s still bad news.
Overall, revenue was flat and earnings were down 22 percent from last year. Despite all this, Apple beat expectations, which just goes to show that expectations aren’t what they used to be. I’m certainly not writing off Apple or anything, but at the moment it sure looks like it’s not just the iPhone 5 that’s tired. I think Apple looks tired. Perhaps they’ve succumbed to the imperial headquarters disease.
