Should we be worried about Apple? And is Apple worried about Apple?

This week, the company proudly brought to us by Steve Jobs, experienced a 13% drop in its quarterly sales. This is the first time revenue or profits have declined in this manner in 13 years.

(Note: companies measure their performance every four months, hence the term: “quarterly”).

This is a big deal.

Apple is not only the most valuable publicly traded company – a company whose ownership is spread among the general public in many shares of stock which are freely traded on a stock exchange – but it is a world leader in technology.

It is without a doubt most famous for the iPhone.

The iPhone accounts for nearly two-thirds of Apple’s revenue and the company sold 16% fewer iPhones than it had during the same period in 2015, and made 18% less money from them.

This is a lot of money lost.

The results, however, did not come as a surprise as Apple had warned of this drop in sales for various reasons – one of the main reasons being a slowing Chinese economy. This matters because China is the second-largest market in the world for Apple products behind the US. And when these two nations cut back on their spending, it sends Apple shares tumbling.

Enough of the technical details… the question is: what now?

I cannot personally envision this slump to last for long. People are loyal to this brand and they would probably cut back on spending on other things before giving up on the latest iPhone. Can we rely on this reasoning? After all, they said the Titanic was indestructible, and that didn’t work out very well.

Some argue that it will be most difficult for Apple to produce a “leap” or “jump” similar to the one that they did when they introduced the iPhone 6 and the 6 Plus.

Apple essentially “transitioned” from the 5 series successfully, which saw a reasonable boom.

Apple’s latest phone launch is the iPhone SE, which is (to simplify), iPhone 6 technology within an iPhone 5 shell.

This means it’s perhaps a bit cheaper and accessible to people who cannot get the 6 or who prefer the size of the 5.

The SE hasn’t taken off in the way one would have imagined.

The iPad Pro is another invention that hasn’t taken off too spectacularly. It is a combination of the iPad and the standard MacBook. While – in my opinion – it could not entirely replace the MacBook, there is a strong case to be made for adding a few extra features that would enable one to discard of their ‘Book. But do people really want to do away with their Macs?

Then there is the question of pricing. It’s no secret: Apple products aren’t cheap.

They are often referred to as an investment – which they are. But if they are to recover, they need to make their products more accessible.

However, this would render the “exclusiveness” of the brand slightly less weighty than it currently is.

I guess the Apple developers and the rest of the team have much to mull over.

I cannot imagine a life where my selfies are taken on a Samsung, so I pray this is resolved sooner than later.