Why You Shouldn’t Care About Apple’s Current Stock Price

Apple’s stock nosedive is no longer breaking news.  As an Integrated Marketing Graduate student, I have been closely following Apple's successes and failures and am always curious what those Cupertino lads are up to.  And when I first heard this, my reaction was one of selfish consumerism: does that mean the "new iPhone" will start being....less awesome?  Are they going to start making inferior products that I can no longer stand in line for?  Selfish. But likely a common reaction among Apple junkies or even baby boomers who just learned how to turn off their iPad with the little rectangular lever at the top.  What does this information mean to the Apple using public?  

Not much.  

http://mattlevan.blogspot.com/

Stock prices are a finicky thing, especially in the technology sector.  Balaji Viswanathan, writer for Forbes and founder of Zingfin, reminds us that in “2005, Microsoft appeared that invincible Goliath, but has now slipped below the media radar.”  Also, it’s important to remember that stock prices often reflect the public’s perception of the value of a company and not necessarily the actual long term value.  When looking at Apple’s actual revenue, The New York Times reports that “analysts expect the company to report another solid quarter next week.  It has been making so much money, it is having a hard time figuring out what to do with all that cash.”  (Think Walter White's wife in the last episode of Breaking Bad.  So...Apple could rent a storage space?) Problems that most companies would like to have.  Most importantly, look at why Apple is where it is today: product innovation. Steve Jobs believed that you could create an appeal for a product that didn’t exist.  

Artist rendering of the rumored iTV.
Guitherme Martin Schasiepen

After ingesting this bit of news, I realized there are three things, you, as consumers and perhaps Apple Fans, can do to make sure nobody doubts the future of Apple, Inc:

1. Do not return your iPad.  No matter how much you want to give it back for fear that those less fortunate never had the chance to experience swipes that cut fruit with an imaginary sword...don't....do it.

2. Do look forward to future Apple launches.  Don't get sad about Apple's latest financial hiccups.  Be happy about their future profit platter that includes every continent and Texas. 

3. Do NOT...Definitely do NOT go back to the PC.  For the love of everything that is intuitive and drag and drop...please, stay with your MacBook, MacBook Air, Mac Mini...whatever it is, just don't turn the dark side.  

As Jobs famously said “the best way to predict the future is to invent it." Apple is said to be launching an iTV and an iWatch sometime in 2013. Two products that will undoubtedly help shape Apple’s own future.  A future nobody should lose any sleep over.   

So if you hear about the struggling behemoth that you should pity, don't.  

Grant Jones is a Integrated Marketing Master's Student at Northwestern University. He has 8 years of experience in marketing and creative video production in New York City. Follow him at @grantwjones.

Dignifying the Next Tech Messiah

The author is a graduate student of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) at Northwestern University’s Medill School, focusing on innovative techniques in the field of marketing analytics, and direct and interactive marketing.

The clock started: three months and fours days. Time’s still ticking, only six and a half weeks to go. The day is almost here: 12 days and counting. The anticipation’s building with only 3 days left. Finally, in what would be only two hours and 36 seconds our lives would be forever changed! For months, speculation would be building as to Apple’s newest and greatest invention, with only rumors of stolen prototypes to substantiate the buzz. Still no one would be sure what to expect, except for one thing: Steve Jobs would be dressed in his signature black turtleneck and jeans. He would confidently walk the stage accompanied by the biggest game changer to date. No matter what it was, consumers would be ready; they would be ready to be apart of it, camped by their computers with their finger anxiously on the track-pad. They would buy it the second it hit Apple’s homepage.  In only two hours and now 12 seconds, Steve Jobs would present to the world a gift from the gods.”

Adapted from http://morguefile.com/ 

With the passing of Steve Jobs, it is as if the Dark Ages has come upon us. The excitement over the possibility of the newest and greatest has lessoned. People are struggling to find his successor, struggling to find someone to follow. Already Business Insider (link) has speculated, and possibly even named, the next Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos of Amazon. According to Matt Rosoff, Jeff Bezos is a lot like Steve Jobs. He too is an innovative thinker who dreams of changing the world (link). Like Jobs, he detests dissenters and feels compelled to control (link). Every creation, as well as every thought is sealed under the highest level of secrecy (link). Even the way they both came into the world, contained similarities. Both thinkers were born to young mothers, and both were adopted either by one or both parents (link). Maybe these similarities are enough for Rosoff to dub Jeff Bezos the next Steve Jobs. Maybe Jeff Bezos will be the next Steve Jobs, but do we need another Steve Jobs? Do we, as tech followers, need a Messiah to believe in? Do we need someone to bestow upon us that same magic? Does the excitement of the next great thing die without a Tech Messiah?

We need innovators; we will always need innovators, but more importantly, we need the magic that comes with the innovator.  Steve Jobs was able to give us both. Does that mean we need another Steve Jobs? No. Innovation is not about being cookie-cutter or copying a predecessor; it is about defining and creating one’s own magic. This isn’t to say that people don’t need a Tech Messiah, because they do. Excitement will die without one. People must find the next Messiah. People need a Messiah to rally behind, to create that buzz and exhilaration. It’s the drug that drives people to be the first adopters of technology; it is what pitches tents on sidewalks 11 hours before the store opens. The next Messiah will only resemble his/her predecessor in lineage alone, as a descendant of both the innovator and marketing gods. Innovation is lackluster without the excitement it brings. Whoever the next Tech Messiah is, he/she must have more than innovation; he/she must have that magic to electrify[1] us!

Rachel Greenberg
Graduate student at Northwestern IMC

·    Twitter Tag: @Ragreenbe

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[1] When I say “electrify”, I don’t mean shock effects from faulty tech wiring.