This will be a difficult year for Apple, and the iPhone could be more — Rob Enderle

"[Apple] carries a valuation of an image that is over-inflated due largely to the powerful efforts of Steve Jobs who made the company appear magical. As we end the year, the valuation of the company appears to have massive downward pressure and this is largely because the architect of that massively powerful image has passed — and along with that passing Apples apparent leadership."

"Apple is becoming more and more like a typical tech firm — that is, long on technology and short on magic. ... Apple is drifting closer and closer to where it was back in the 1990s. It offers advancements that largely follow those made by others years earlier, product proliferation, a preference for more over simple elegance, and waning excitement."

"Apples last true hit product was the iPad, which goes back to when Steve Jobs was still alive and connected to the company. The companys rumored move to automobiles probably wont go as well as even its execution on the Apple Watch and Home Pod. I mean, if you cant be successful in a market you know, why would you think youll be successful in a market you dont know? Apple will likely be looking for a new CEO before year end."

"[T]he next generation of the Xbox game machine ... may even take out Apple, forcing the company to exit the PC business."

"[The iPhone]s clearly going to start a wave towards a new technology — as I say, Im not convinced that Apples going to be able to ride this wave."

"[Hedge fund investment] is likely behind the very different behavior you are seeing in companies like HP and Apple this decade. A severe lack of new products or compelling offerings, but a lot of increases in dividends, stock buybacks, layoffs, plant closings, executive departures and divestitures. These firms arent investing in the future they are constantly trying to assure their stock is propped up and the value increases."