Apple R&D Reveals a Pivot Is Coming
The idea that Apple is going to &quot;pivot&quot; is fatuous.<p>Are they working on some non-phone products that they hope will be big?  I&#x27;m sure they are.<p>Could they conceivably find that one of those products achieves massive traction and overshadows the iPhone (especially as the market for smartphones cools)?  Sure, though I&#x27;d bet against it actually playing out like that.<p>Is Apple making a big planned play to radically deemphasize smartphone sales in a desperate gamble to become a car company?  <i>Of course they aren&#x27;t</i>.<p>Even if the smartphone market&#x27;s high-water mark was 2015, Apple has a hugely successful, almost grotesquely profitable product that will -- assuming they don&#x27;t do something absurd like pivot away from it -- be the source of incredible value for at least a decade and probably much more.  On the back of the iPhone, Apple has grown to a market cap that -- even after recent losses, and despite a weirdly low P&#x2F;E -- is massively higher than the <i>combined</i> market caps of the top five auto companies.