Thursday, January 10, 2019

Apple's Core Problem

News of Apple's declining sales sent a shutter through Wall Street recently. It turns out that, at some point, people don't want to buy new cell phones. The cell phone market is saturated. The latest bells and whistles on the pocket devices are not enough to entice consumers to get new phones.

There actually is a limit to business growth. The plan to increase sales volume every year eventually won't work. There are only so many people on this planet. In 2017, 1.5 billion cell phones were purchased. The earth's population is only 7.7 billion, and that includes infants and children. The marketing of cell phones has to be one of history's biggest successes in business. But it can't keep growing.

But sales of any non-consumable product cannot increase forever. Maybe it just surprised everyone that the limit was actually reached. The realm of manufacturing, sales, and distribution has limits. New markets are not infinite.

The systems of this world have natural limits.

For the one whom God has sent [Jesus] speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. --John 3:34