Apple's share price continues to fall after posting a record quarter.
An apple falling from a tree branch is a good demonstration of gravity, but what does freefalling Apple stock prove? That's currently up for debate. After surging to over $700 a share prior to the iPhone 5 launch, Apple's share price has steadily declined right up until Apple announced its best quarter ever on Wednesday, at which point it went into a nosedive. What can Apple do to turn things around?
That's the question Apple CEO Tim Cook must figure out. At the time of this writing, Apple's stock is trading at around $439 per share, giving the company a market capitalization of $412.24 billion. That means Apple is no longer the most valuable company in the world, having now fallen behind Exxon, which has a market cap of $417.54 billion.
The tit-for-tat in market cap isn't the real concern for Apple, it's figuring out how to restore investor confidence. Apple posted quarterly revenue of $54.5 billion and made a record profit of $13.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012, numbers that would get any company in the world excited. Yet it's not enough.
Investors fear that Apple's products aren't as popular as they once were, especially with increased competition from Samsung. They're also worried about Apple's recent strategy of tweaking its product line rather than delivering another must-have (in the eyes of consumers) product.
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