bricin:

parislemon:

Apple CEO Tim Cook, talking to Daisuke Wakabayashi:

Last year, we grew (revenue) by $14 billion to $15 billion. Yes, those percentages are smaller compared to a year earlier and two years earlier and so forth. But that doesn’t mean that you’re not a growth company. We were in hyper-growth, or whatever is above growth. We went from $65 billion to over $100 billion to $150 billion to $170 billion. These are historic, unprecedented numbers. I don’t know any companies adding growth at that level. So when you say $14 billion to $15 billion compared to those numbers, it’s clearly smaller and a smaller percentage, but, to put it in some context, that’s like adding three Fortune 500 companies in a year. I think that’s hard to say that’s not a growth company.

This is another way to articulate the Law of Large Numbers issue that Apple faces. And it’s certainly hard to argue with.

Steve Ballmer said the same thing for years, no one believed him. Will they believe Tim Cook? And does it matter as long as the solutions continue to flow.

“That’s like adding three Fortune 500 companies in a year.”