Apparently Apple has such a large impact on the world of
business, that just the rumour of it releasing a new product is enough to stop
competitors and consumers in their tracks. The iPhone 6 is supposedly the most
anticipated iPhone ever – maybe because everyone figures that after a couple
years of upgrades they must have come up with something new by now. Consumers
are said to be holding off on buying new smartphones because they want to wait
and see what Apple will release. Apparently the phones that have launched
recently are selling below forecast and experts say that the upcoming iPhone
could be hurting competitor’s sales by 10-20%. For me, this just demonstrates
what brand power can do for a company – they don’t even have to release the
product, just talk about it.
Competitors are also holding off on releasing new models
because they don’t want to compete directly with Apple. If they didn’t want to
compete with Apple, they shouldn’t have entered the high end smartphone market.
I’m curious to see how long it takes other companies to realize that it’s all
about brand name – at this point the phones are all virtually the same. By
buying an iPhone or a Nexus (Google) or a Galaxy phone (Samsung) or anything
else that’s out there, you’re telling the world something about yourself. Each
brand needs to represent something specific, to help customers tell their story
to the world.
The last aspect of the market that Apple’s potential new
phone is affecting, is the supply side. With most top component makers busy trying
to fill Apple’s orders, other companies are worried they’re won’t be enough
product for them. Many smartphone companies go to the same sources for their
components, including screens, chips, batteries, etc. These companies are
backlogged trying to make enough iPhone 6’s for Apple’s supposed launch in
September. According to rumours, we’re going to be seeing a 4.7” iPhone 6 and a
5.5” iPhone Phablet.
Continuing with the theme of Apple affecting everyone around
them, they are currently in a dispute with Sharp – who makes the displays for iPhones. All of the output from particular factory in Japan goes to
Apple, who also owns a large chunk of the production, and Sharp wants to buy it
back so that they can make screens for other companies as well. This is due to
the fact that Apple’s demand varies drastically from quarter to quarter (think
about how much higher the demand for screens is during the couple months before
a launch, during a launch, and directly after a launch), and Sharp wants to
make sure it’s facilities are always get maximum use. They’re apparently
offering $293 million – but Apple has one condition. They are insisting that
Sharp doesn’t sell displays to Samsung, which eliminates a huge potential
customer for Sharp. 
My last Apple affecting the industry story has Apple on the defensive.
Nuance Communications, maker of the Dragon Speaker software, is one of the most
advanced speech recognition companies in the world. It is also the company that
is behind Siri, Apple’s voice recognition software (and a company that my mom
worked for!). Recently Nuance has run into financial troubles and is
potentially up for sale. One of the first companies to show interest, is
Samsung. This creates an interesting situation – would Samsung then own Siri in
some capacity? Nuance is currently valued at $6.1 billion (twice what Apple
paid for Beats), but if it is purchased by another company if would presumably
put Apple in a similar situation to what they did to HP when they purchased
Beats (HP has exclusive rights to Beats which end after 2014 so they are
putting Beats on almost every laptop they are making for back to school – they
are allowed to continue selling these devices until the end of 2015). Maybe
Apple will use its immense influence (and some of that $150 billion cash pile)
to retain Siri and avoid this problem altogether.
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