Yesterday (2024-01-20), the well-known official financial media "Economic Observer" published an article titled: "Apple's 'big defeat'". The article is about the fact that in the wave of the technology world, the generative AI technology revolution is like a hurricane that has swept the entire capital market. On January 12, 2024, when the bell rang for the closing of the U.S. stock market, Microsoft Corporation of the United States surpassed Apple Inc. with a total market value of 2.89 trillion US dollars and regained the throne of the king of technology.
The article writes that back to 2012, 12 years ago, Apple at that time, under the leadership of Cook, adjusted its marketing strategy and product strategy, pushing Apple's market value to the peak of technology stocks in one fell swoop, surpassing Microsoft at that time. Since then, Apple has embarked on a glorious journey of dominating technology stocks. In the following decade, Apple held the top position of the world's technology companies, and broke the market capitalization record twice in 2018 and 2020, becoming the most comprehensive technology stock company with a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion and $2 trillion.
However, as it is said, the stories of successful people are always compelling. While the world is cheering Microsoft's comeback in the AI era, Apple, once proud of its disruptive innovation, seems to have become synonymous with backwardness. After Mr. Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, took over Mr. Jobs' legacy and underwent a decade-long patchwork, but it seems to have been exhausted.
In the past ten years, Apple has achieved great success with smartphones and other products, and once became an insurmountable myth. The direction in which it is moving has also become a road map for global geeks. However, when people are once again at the crossroads of technological forks, the choice arises again: should they bet on model training that requires a lot of computing power, or are they hot concepts such as virtual reality and the metaverse?
By 2024, the answer to this multiple-choice question will be clearly visible. The current Apple company, just like the Nokia mobile phone company that was defeated by it back then, is in a more awkward position. At present, the capital market's trust in Apple and Cook is gradually weakening, but this is not because of Cook's poor performance. On the contrary, from the perspective of the company's CEO, Mr. Cook's performance was almost impeccable. However, in the tech world, direction is more important than effort.
Apple's brilliance and cracks, due to the departure of Steve Jobs, Cook's lack of geekism, or the miscalculation of the technical route, all reveal a corner of the empire. But if Steve Jobs is reincarnated, will Apple be able to continue to lead the way in the AI era? From OpenAI, Microsoft's revival to Tesla's success, we can see that the source of innovation lies in open, open-source, and massive amounts of decentralized data. Both Microsoft and Tesla are well aware of this, and Tesla has made its design public. And it is no accident that Microsoft was able to invest in OpenAI, because it is open enough.
Apple's path to innovation, however, is very different. The creation of the iPhone is the pinnacle of centralization, which completely depends on the extraordinary imagination of Steve Jobs. After Steve Jobs left, Apple's innovation ability gradually declined. OpenAI, on the other hand, has seen the infighting at the end of 2023 reveal that Sam Altman is just one link in the innovation chain. Here, no one is responsible for Jobs. Of course, the value of disruptive innovation cannot be overlooked, and the existence of great entrepreneurs is based on this.
However, technology is changing, times are changing, and open source and emerging power are especially important in the AI era. Zhang Ruimin, the head of China's Haier Group, once said: "There is no successful enterprise, only the enterprise of the times." "Now, Apple's market value is surpassed by Microsoft, not because of the loss of Steve Jobs, nor because Cook is incompetent, but because Apple has not kept up with the times.
(ENDS)