Apple's latest results suggest it has become boring
APPLE’s stockmarket shine has faded. On April 24th the technology behemoth reported the first fall in quarterly profits for a decade, as net income fell to $9.5 billion, down 18% from a year earlier. Apple sold almost 60m smartphones and tablets in the three months to March, and revenue increased by 11% to $43.6 billion, which helped ease the pain somewhat. The pressing problem for the company is that shareholders want it to keep growing at the same rate it was a few years ago. Apple's price-earnings (p/e) ratio, which reflects how the markets see future profits compared with current income, has slipped to below ten for the first time. In the past its p/e ratio reached astronomical levels as investors piled into the firm's shares. Now its financials resemble those of a mature, low-growth company. This reflects a general belief that the firm will be unable to recapture the ability to innovate and disrupt markets that made it such a favourite for investors before the death of Steve Jobs, its former boss, in October 2011. Tim Cook, the new chief executive, has said that new devices are coming “this fall and throughout 2014”. He plans to give lots of cash back to those ungrateful shareholders through a giant share-buyback scheme. More on Apple's results here.