Apple's share price fell continuously

Apple shares fell by 11.26 US dollars on the Nasdaq stock market on Thursday, a decrease of 2.10%, to close at 525.62 US dollars. According to Thursday's closing price, Apple's market value has fallen below the 500 billion US dollars mark and dropped to 494.45 billion US dollars.

In September of this year, on the eve of the launch of the iPhone 5, Apple's share price hit a record high of US$705.07. However, since then, Apple's cumulative stock price decline has reached 25.5%. According to a survey by Thomson Reuters, market analysts currently estimate that Apple’s earnings per share for the current fiscal year are expected to reach US$50.05. In accordance with the current stock price, Apple's dynamic price-earnings ratio is only 10.5 times, less than Google's 16.3 times, but slightly better than Microsoft's 9.2 times.

Apple is facing an unprecedented fierce competition because competitors such as Microsoft, Samsung Electronics, Google and Amazon are challenging the company’s dominance in the smartphone and tablet market. According to data previously released by market research company IDC, in the third quarter of this year, Apple’s share of the tablet PC market has fallen to 50%, while Samsung’s share has more than doubled to 18.4%.

Another market research firm Gartner released a report on Tuesday that in the third quarter of this year, Samsung Electronics’ smartphone sales far exceeded Apple’s, due to consumers delaying the purchase of iPhones and waiting for the iPhone 5. Gartner pointed out in the report that global smartphone sales increased by 46.9% in the third quarter to 169.2 million units. Driven by strong demand for Galaxy smartphones, Samsung Electronics shipped 55 million smartphones in the third quarter, accounting for 32.5% of the global smartphone market. Apple's iPhone shipments totaled 23.6 million units in the quarter, with a market share of 14%.

In addition to the declining market share of products, Apple management also experienced turmoil in the near future. At the end of last month, Apple suddenly announced the release of iOS software director Scott Foster. Foster’s departure was due to the poor performance of the iOS map service and he was not responsible for it.

In addition to Foster's departure, Apple also announced that John Browett, head of retail store operations, will be leaving. Foster has long been one of Apple’s key executives and is responsible for Apple’s key successes, including software for the success of the iPhone and iPad. Some media had previously believed that Foster will become the successor to Apple’s CEO. However, according to sources, Forster has long been out of touch with other Apple executives including CEO Tim Cook. His personality determines that he is not good at working with others.