Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is heading in the same direction as Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB), in the view of one financial journalist, although she doesn’t think Apple’s path will end as abruptly as it could for RIM. SiliconANGLE Senior Managing Editor Kristen Nicole believes that Apple’s performance over the last few quarters indicate that it’s following the same path as Research In Motion.
Echoes Of Research In Motion Ltd (BBRY) In Apple
One of the points of data she looks at is the value per user, and she said Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) reported a value of $40 per customer in its recent quarterly report. Back in 2010, however, the company’s users were worth $866 each, so this decline has happened quite sharply in a short amount of time.
She said this same thing is happening with Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL). The company’s value per user is lower than it was. Also she said the company is comparable to BlackBerry because BlackBerry’s success peaked in the U.S. two years before it peaked globally. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is also following a similar pattern.
The Apple Ecosystem
Kristen Nicole said there’s a chance we will start to see a reduction in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) users as the value per user falls, just as we did with Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB). However, she said the two companies are also quite different because of how valuable the Apple ecosystem is.
Currently there’s speculation about whether BlackBerry as a company has any value without the BlackBerry device. Many corporations are shutting down BlackBerry Enterprise Server rather than paying to update it from BlackBerry 7. The lack of flexibility in the BlackBerry system makes it easier to just shun the brand completely, which greatly limits what BlackBerry devices can do if there is no BES to go along with them.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), on the other hand, does have value outside of the iPhone. The company makes other products, and the Apple ecosystem as a whole has value. She says Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has enough other areas outside the iPhone that if it went down the same path as BlackBerry, it would have a greater chance at recovery than Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) has right now.
