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Apple Just Shipped the 500 Millionth iPhone, But if They Don’t Ship an iWatch in the Next Couple Months They’re Doomed

In the past old-apple[1]7 years Apple has sold more smartphones and more tablets than anyone, but according to one analyst none of that matters if Apple neglects to ship a smartwatch. The company is doomed, Doomed, DOOMED if they don’t ship an iWatch in the next 55 days.

For your reading pleasure today, let me present 2 stories about Apple. In one story we have a factual report on Apple’s success in the smartphone market, while in the second story we have one analyst predicting Apple’s doom.

Forbes reported this morning that Apple has shipped over 500 million smartphones in the past 7 years:

Apple has been known to mark big numerical milestones, celebrating the 50 billionth download from its App Store last May and the 30th anniversary of the Mac earlier this year. But it appears to have quietly let a big one pass within the last few weeks as somewhere on earth, the 500 millionth iPhone was sold.

The consensus would have placed the milestone sale around March 8 given that entering the quarter Apple had sold 472 million iPhones. So even if it proves a bit high as it did last quarter, we’ve crossed the point where it’s safe to assume that Apple has sold 500 million smartphones in less than 7 years. And the most recent 100 million took somewhere between 2-6 weeks less than the previous 100 million did.

That’s great news for Apple, isn’t it?

Not according to one analyst. No matter how many smartphones and tablets Apple may be selling, and no matter how much Apple may have in the bank, Trip Chowdhry thinks Apple is doomed if they don’t release an iWatch tout suite:

Apple needs an iWatch sooner rather than later, or the company will risk losing its innovative edge to rivals, analysts say.

"They only have 60 days left to either come up with something or they will disappear," said Trip Chowdhry, managing director at Global Equities Research.

"It will take years for Apple’s $130 billion in cash to vanish, but it will become an irrelevant company … it will become a zombie, if they don’t come up with an iWatch."

In case you were wondering, that report came from CNBC, not The Onion. I double checked.

Chowdhry made this prediction on 20 March, leaving Apple only 55 more days to avoid irrelevancy.  Let’s hope that doesn’t happen, otherwise we’re all going to have to get rid of your Apple gadgets. We wouldn’t want to associate with an irrelevant company, now would we?

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Comments


Thomas March 26, 2014 um 3:47 pm

Is anyone actually buying smartwatches? I Looked at them and decided they weren’t for me. Anybody have sales figures?

Nate Hoffelder March 26, 2014 um 4:13 pm

There’s probably a few tens of thousands being sold here and there, but I doubt that it’s more than that.


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