Take a Breath, Apple

In the wake of the most recent earrings calls and wondering what Apple could do with all that cash, I’m going to chime in with my own suggestion.

I say they do nothing.

Look, I’ve said it before- money can’t solve a lot of Apple’s problems.  But money can buy them one thing I think they should take advantage of; and that’s time.

With so much cash on hand and such incredible popularity, I think Apple could easily afford to slow down the pace of development.  Not necessarily skip a whole year, mind you, but perhaps just “stretch a few runways” as they say.

Did Apple really need to release  Music at WWDC?  Hardly.  The don’t need the money and it needs refinement.  And given all the recent hate being spewed at iTunes recently, perhaps waiting until a total re-design was ready would have been better?

Look at Photos.  It’s a ground-up redesign and it’s been quite well received.  But it didn’t launch with Yosemite as would have been expected; in fact is was pushed to the next year in a point update.  Clearly a smart move, so why did Music get the “hurry up” treatment?

I also think Apple could benefit from a re-thinking of some of the lesser loved products.  AirPort routers, the lower end of the iPod line; maybe it’s time to let go of these distractions and realize that theses days, there are enough people interested in Apple that they don’t need to spend time on the peripherals that 3rd party manufactures can handle.

Look, I get that most companies wouldn’t want to take the Wall Street hit that comes from taking your foot off the gas.  But A) Apple isn’t most companies and has never played kissy-face with investors and B) apparently there isn’t any level of growth or profit that will make investors happy anyway.

So why not use all that cash to take a breath?  Slow down, re-focus, and put a bit more polish on some of these things before they go out?

But that’s just my opinion...