Apple and Fast Food Have the Same Problem
Sales may be rising, but demand isn’t.
Not so different after all.
Photographer: Elijah Nouvelage/AFP (iPhone), Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America (McDonald’s fries)
Selling $1,000 iPhones and $2 boxes of Chicken McNuggets may not appear to have much in common. But in fact, Apple Inc. and restaurant chains such as McDonald’s are stuck in a similar dynamic right now: Their healthy sales figures are masking a potentially troubling demand problem.
Apple this month said it would stop disclosing how many iPhones it sells every quarter — a move that seemed designed to obscure future declines. In its fiscal year ended in September, Apple barely sold more iPhones than it did the prior year, and the global smartphone market is stalled or declining slightly.