Apple Behind on Innovation: City Index's Cincotta

You either put emphasis on the Apple specific data or you put emphasis on the market share data coming from the Chinese handset makers and how they had gains in sales. Where does your mind go to 1st Fiona? Yeah. Do you know what? I think it’s a, you know, a really good idea to actually look at these two bits of data together because if you’ve got Apple falling and yet global smartphone shipments elsewhere increasing, I think that makes it an even more dramatically difficult position and picture for Apple. I mean it really does highlight I think the extent of the problems that the, that Apple is facing particularly surrounding the iPhone. And I think, I mean obviously China here is a very big story. There is a lot of competition that Apple is facing in China. But I think there’s also another side to this as well. I just feel that Apple is really behind just as far as innovation is concerned, as far as AI is concerned. And all that’s also playing out in the share price, which has really had a tough start to 2020. Four $2.7 trillion market cap still, but as along with Tesla are two key stories today. These two names in the so-called Magnificent 7 have been anything but magnificent. It feels like in the last month or so, certainly beginning of this year, Fiona, can Apple win back yours and other investors hearts and minds if they are going to be able to show, look, we’ve got AI within the M4 process that we’re going to be able to have it. You know sometimes they’re known to be a little bit slower but getting it right. Yeah that’s right. I mean definitely a little bit slower. They feel like they’re very slow to the AI party right now and and and that’s been sort of you know punished by they’ve been punished by investors and that I think you know has been part of that sell off that we’ve seen. And I think there is a potential for this to turn around. I don’t think this is the end of the line at all for Apple. I think you know we could see a good turn around as long as they get that AI products really spot on. I think also sort of you know the the geographical diversification into India is an area that again could be very interesting for Apple as it moves away from China. But at the end of the day China is a massive in market and it’s also a very important market. So it’s going to be very interesting to see whether Apple can actually turn this around quickly without any support from really from China. Yeah, Fiona, last night Caroline and I regrouped with the team and we’re like, you know, what’s the story going to be Monday? It looked like Apple, we had the geopolitics of what’s happening in the Middle East and then Tesla. And I’m trying to find a commonality between all of them. I think that the commonality is, should we be talking more about the health of the global economy right now, particularly for consumer facing technology? Yes, exactly. So that’s a really, really important point here as well. I think the macro backdrop of these stocks is just not ideal right now. You know if we have a look at where we are in speaking as far as macro picture is concerned, it’s not smooth sailing at all for the consumer. You know we’ve got the prospect of the Federal Reserve keeping interest rates high for longer after we’ve seen those hotter than expected inflation figures last week. But then saying that we’ve also seen that the retail sales in the US are holding up. But I think you know when you’ve got financing costs so high in the US that does obviously impact those purchasing cars, their ability to be able to get financing or even desire to get financing. But also when you’ve got squeeze on households, you know big, big expensive items such as the latest iPhones are going to be perhaps items which aren’t necessarily top of the list. So you know, I do think the macro backdrop has a lot to play here as well. Fiona, if a client calls right now, do you say take risk off the table or do you say stay in equities even though they’re near records? Oh, it’s a good question. You know, I think there is the potential for things to go higher if we start to see that inflation starts to cool again. If we start to see geographic geopolitical tensions start to calm again, then I think there is a potential there. But you know we’ve got earning season, we’re just ramping up earning season now and I think that’s going to be a good distraction for the market to be able to sort of have a look what’s actually going on to see whether the lofty valuations are actually supported by the fundamentals.