Even with the passing of Steve Jobs, his company is doing better than it ever has. With $97.6 billion in the bank closing the first quarter results, recent announcements have profits exceeding $100 billion. The sale of 37 million iPhones and impressive amounts of Macs and iPads dominated the Christmas season. But, Apple wants to do better than that.
Tim Cook, the successor hand-picked by Jobs, has spoken on the Thailand floods that restricted access to needed components and caused shortage-issues throughout the quarter. In addition to being unable to produce as many phones as Apple had planned to, the rampage in China on launch-day prevented sales of the 4S in the mainland. Even with these setbacks the digital giant prevailed, but how long can Apple stay on top?
Where Jobs was willing to take a chance on off the wall ideas, his successor seems to prefer erring on the side of caution. The willingness to try something completely unconventional (which resulted in the mega successes of the iMAC, iPad, and iPhone for Jobs) may not come naturally to the new captain of the ship. Android is fast-developing devices with higher speeds, battery life (21 hours worth, no less), and other innovations. Cook says Apple isn't competing but rather focusing on making a good product.
With the launch of the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 fast approaching, they'll need to do just that. If customers begin to look to other companies for the biggest and best innovations, the Apple empire may finally see a decline in their massive following.