彼得·蒂尔：苹果的好日子到头了

亿万富翁、Facbook的董事、康纳德·特朗普的支持者不久前在接受《纽约时报》采访时表示，苹果的高增长之路正在终结。他认为，这家公司的市值增长潜力已经到头了。

采该蒂尔的《纽约时报》记者玛琳·唐恩（Maureen Down）跟他做了一个“确认还是否认”的游戏，其中一个观点是：“苹果的时代结束了”。

“确认！”蒂尔回答。

他接着说：“我们都知道，智能手机的是什么样子，能做些什么。这不是蒂姆·库克的错，只是这个领域不会再有更多的创新了。”

蒂尔以“不走寻常路”著称于世，但他对苹果的观点并没有特别不寻常。他认为，这家科技巨头将难以继续创新，超越世人已知的iPhone手机。随着销售收入下滑，分析师已经开始担心，市值超过6,000亿美元的苹果没有看得见的“下一款伟大产品”，以遏制营业收入的下滑。

苹果在上周的报告称，未能实现年度销售收入和利润目标，这将影响到高管薪酬。这种情况是自2009年来首次出现，更助长了怀疑者的声势。苹果在今年秋天还宣布，缩减其“智能”汽车计划。该计划曾被普遍认为有可能培育出公司的下一款重量级产品。

彼得·蒂尔以前就因批评科技公司著称。在2014年接受CNBC采访时，他说Twitter是个“管理极其糟糕的公司”，里面“很多人在抽大麻”。（财富中文网）

作者：Robert Hackett

译者：Ty

Peter Thiel has dim prospects for the world's most valuable company.

The billionaire investor, Facebook (FB, +0.42%) director, and unlikely friend of the inbound Trump administration shared his belief that Apple's gravy train is coming to an end in a recent interview with the New York Times. In Thiel's view, the Cupertino colossus has reached its market potential.

As part of a game of "confirm or deny," Thiel's interlocutor, the Times' Maureen Down, presented the statement "The age of Apple is over."

Thiel agreed; "Confirm," he said.

"We know what a smartphone looks like and does," Thiel continued. "It’s not the fault of Tim Cook, but it’s not an area where there will be any more innovation."

Despite Thiel's reputation as an avowed contrarian, his argument that the tech giant will struggle to innovate beyond the iPhone-as-we-know-it is not exactly unconventional. Amid slipping sales, analysts have voiced concerns that Apple, whose market cap exceeds $600 billion, has no "next big thing" in sight to combat declines in revenue growth.

Feeding the flames of skeptics, Apple last week reported that it missed its annual sales and profit goals for the first time since 2009, affecting executive compensation. Apple also reportedly shrunk its "smart" car ambitions, widely regarded as a contender for the company's next blockbuster, in the fall.

Thiel has been known to make provocative pronouncements about tech companies before. In a 2014 interview with CNBC, he said that Twitter was a "horribly mismanaged" firm, and that there was "probably a lot of pot smoking going on there."