When Steve Jobs died in 2011, iPhone sales were still doubling year on year. It is a safe bet that his successor, Tim Cook, is going to preside over the end of continuous growth. In quarterly earnings in two weeks, analysts still expect Apple to have sold 1m or more phones than the 74.5m it achieved in the same quarter last year, with Chinese demand crucial. If it turns out that Apple has sold fewer, it will be a blow to the credibility of Mr Cook, who primed the market to expect growth. But the timing hardly matters. If it is not coming this quarter, the decline is priced in for the next one.
2011年史蒂夫?喬布斯(Steve Jobs)去世的時候，iPhone銷量還在翻番地增長。幾乎可以肯定，他的繼任者蒂姆?庫克(Tim Cook)將在任期內眼看著這股持續增長勢頭終結。蘋果將于兩周內發布季度財報，分析師們仍預期iPhone銷量將比去年同期的7450萬部增加100萬部以上，其中中國的需求是關鍵。如果銷量下滑，將對庫克本人的信譽造成打擊，因為他事先放出的風聲讓市場認為增長可期。但時間點并不重要，如果這個季度銷量沒有下滑，投資者也預期下個季度就會下滑。