# Just Stop It: Apple Does Not Need a New Category

Anshu Sharma

July 26, 2016

1

min read

_This post was originally written in October, 2013 but still applies._

Every time one more journalist wakes up from his sleep they talk about how Apple may be doing fine for now but it really really needs a new breakthrough product.

[Time Magazine says](http://ideas.time.com/2013/10/22/apple-still-hungry-but-no-longer-foolish/) “Apple has to create a new category, or it will sink into normality”.

Apple is doing very well leading one of the biggest transformations in last 20 years. You would have to be a complete idiot to expand out of an extremely large market where you have a strong lead (at least as measured by smartphones actually used by people to connect to the internet).

Apple is making ungodly sums of profit in a highly lucrative market that is still growing very fast. This is a market (smartphones) that grew 46% as a category, according to [Gartner](http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2573415).

Let me address some of the ideas raised:

- **Big Market:** I think you have to be living under a rock to believe that smartphones are not a huge category — and as we all know Apple is going after the non-PC segment tablet market too and leading.
- **Growing Market:** The phone and tablet markets are growing fast.
- **Unsaturated Market with High Replacement Rates:** Yes, everyone in the silicon valley seems to have the latest gadget but the numbers tell you clearly that the market is growing very rapidly as a category.

Now let’s look at the ideas everybody seems to want Apple to execute on:

I just don’t see why you would run around throwing darts when your core product and go-to market is very well aligned, working and delivering tremendous cashflow and profits in a growing market.

If anything, Apple needs to double down on the markets its already in. This how the greatest companies like FedEx, WalMart, Amazon, etc have all won. [Good to Great and the hedgehog concept](http://www.jimcollins.com/media_topics/hedgehog-concept.html#audio=79) requires this discipline.

(Originally published Oct, 2013)