Can a brand be so popular and make so much money that they can be arrogant? The answer is yes and for an example, look no further than Apple.
I have been a fan of Apple products for over 15 years. I have an iMac, iPad, iPhone and iPod, but since they have lost their iconic leader the brand is in trouble. Consider the following..
- Apple has engaged in increasingly aggressive tax avoidance for at least a decade, including stashing some $100 billion in Ireland without paying taxes on much of it anywhere in the world, according to a Senate investigation in 2013. In a display of arrogance, the company seemed to believe that its arrangements in a known tax haven like Ireland would never be deemed illegal — even as European regulators cracked down in similar cases against such multinational corporations as Starbucks, Amazon, Fiat and the German chemical giant BASF.
- The iMac has not been updated in 4 years and now Dell and HP are taking market share in the desktop PC market.
- The Samsung Galaxy 7 is now the hottest smart phone in the market outselling the iPhone. The new iPhone 7, expected to be introduced shortly, is evolutionary and has no innovative features.
- The best designed laptops are being introduced by HP and Dell at a fraction of the prices of Mac laptop
- The iPad is getting its clock cleaned by Microsoft’s Surface tablet and the iWatch is a dismal failure by Apple standards.
I have been using a Dell laptop with Windows 10 and Microsoft is rapidly closing the gap with Apple’s OSX which is old, tired and stale.
So what’s wrong? For one Tim Cook is not a visionary, he is a logistics person and it clearly shows. Second the Apple executives still take the stage like they are rock stars and believe their own hype. Now, keep in mind that Apple still makes a LOT of money but eventually the pendulum swings the other way for brands that can’t continue to innovate. Strategically Apple could be in trouble because consumers can quickly become tired of shelling out big bucks for products that aren’t as “cool”.
Two quick things for you
1 – Ireland isn’t a tax haven, our government is fully transparent in relation to corporate taxation
2- The EU have are barking up the wrong tree, as in Apple’s case, the revenue was already recognised in other countries and then consolidated in Ireland, it’s down to those countries to collect their own tax – we’ve enough to do.
3 – We bailed out the German banks in 2008 as we didn’t burn our bond holders – what comes around goes around guys!