2012: Challenges for Apple

2011 was good for Apple financially. A figure attests to its success: its annual sales in 2011 (ended in late September), amounting to 108 billion dollars. The Cupertino company is now a relatively small club of companies that make over $ 100 billion of turnover.

Unquestionable financial success, but paradoxically one year fairly quiet in terms of news products. Not true major innovations as was the case in 2010, for example with the iPad. But we can not do the "revolution" .2011 was especially synonymous with renewal software with OS X Lion and iOS 5, and a new beginning in terms of services or with icloud Siri. A "renewal program" challenged, because if iOS 5 is a major release if only because it releases the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch from the tutelage of Mac and PC, OS X Lion is without Apple probably the animal that makes the unanimously least for some time.

2012: under the sign of hardware?

There are two elements that can explain this situation. First, the operating system had not changed for several years in terms of interface (Snow Leopard doing virtually at a standstill), and disrupted patterns of users. At the same time, the new work proposal is too imperfect. The idea of ​​bringing the innovations of IOS on OS X is interesting in itself, but its implementation is sloppy in some respects. There is a sense of having a proposal in the hands maturing, which will be "finalized" with his successor. Will we have the right to a snow lion this year?

The software components of today they will be the success of Apple products in the future? So far, this has been the hallmark of the Cupertino company is its ability to control both software and hardware. Having advanced (for better or worse sometimes) his pawns on the software front, it's on the front of the hardware that the California company is now awaited. If Apple has annual revenues exceeding $ 100 billion, its catalog products remains extremely limited. And if we focus on products that really matter, the catalog is more. To date, the products which are the growth of Apple iPad, iPhone and MacBook Air.

iPad: Remote maintain competition

It is probably with the tablet Apple has the largest playing. The iPad is a majority in its segment, but gently (and safely), competition is beginning to organize. Amazon Kindle The Fire seems to meet a great success in the United States. The e-commerce giant said it sold every week in December over a million Kindle. And if we are to believe the sales rank in Amazon, Kindle Fire is the model that sells best. According to the Millennial advertising, the tablet from Amazon is experiencing even more shattering debut on the web as the first iPad.

Officially, Apple is not worried about this new competitor. Instead, Tim Cook and Peter Oppenheimer believe that it should add confusion to the Android platform (read: Apple does not fear the Kindle Fire, on the contrary). One thing is certain, Apple is still allergic to the seven-inch format, which still does not seem topical with the successor of the iPad 2. And if Apple wants to face short-term competition, a slight decline in prices seems more likely that the emergence of a more compact format. With the iPad 3, the screen Retina seems appropriate. The rest of the specifications is much less clear, although it is believed that the successor to the A5 could pick a quad architecture. It would not be surprised that Apple also progressing quite large on its battery terminals iOS. If the first images of parts assumed for the iPad 3 have been circulating on the web a few weeks, nothing has filtered to the moment in terms of design.

iPhone: double or quits?

If all lights are green on the iPad, Apple's situation may be less comfortable on the front of the iPhone. If the California company is expected to post record sales of its phones during the holiday season, Apple is losing ground, especially against Samsung that has gleaned market share in Europe in recent months. The iPhone 4S has apparently he failed to reverse the trend.

The issue of the smartphone market Apple is going to be double this year. In a highly volatile market where fashions come and go, it will have to provide a true successor to the iPhone 4/4S. For Apple, rethink the design of a device does not only change its form, this means redefining its concept, uses resulting ... This could be achieved by integrating new technologies such as 4G or NFC. Another question: Apple Will it change the format for the phone and get down to 4 inches as many of its competitors?

The other problem for Apple is the entry and midrange. To fill these segments, so far Apple positions its old terminals. This tactic is paying off in the U.S., if we are to believe the statements of officials of AT & T. But this seems to be the exception that proves the rule. Apple does it not develop specific products for these segments much like it did at the time with the iPod mini?

The deal is more complex, it is not to reduce the size of the screen of his terminal, but to reach a phone to make cheaper and gives rise to envy. For Tim Cook has said repeatedly he does not want the iPhone is a device confined to the rich....