It comes as Apple’s stock dropped briefly below US$400 (from a high of $700) on rumours that Apple dealers are greatly overstocked with iPhones and its forward orders to Foxconn have been reduced from 110 million units to 85 million.

Apple dealers include Apple stores, telco’s and retailers, all of which are protected from price drops (see iTWire Walmart story here) and can return excess stock. With the uncertainty of if, not when new models will be released and the attraction of the Samsung S4 and other options the public has a reduced appetite for the previously premium, juicy Apple.

Other than the new MacBook Air, Mac Pro and a revised iOS 7 operating system announced at the recent World Wide Developers conference there has been a dearth of excitement from Apple.

An Apple employee who holds stock commented that Google’s employee stock scheme had grown 23% in value in the last year and Apple had not. While not being critical of CEO Tim Cook he was very critical of the loss of the premium thought leadership position enjoyed under Steve Jobs. "People want to work for a winner and our low morale needs to be urgently addressed” he said.

Opinion

This article is sure to be flamed by fan boys and I appreciate that Apple probably needs a break now instead of a mash up.

News is news and I doubt that any fan boy would disagree that we all expect more from the former world’s biggest company and now under seige as the biggest technology company.

I love my iPad and iPhone ‘in the right places’. I love my Windows Phone and Windows 8 tablet equally 'in the right places'. I don’t mind BlackBerry and Samsung (Android) either.

Apple has lost its apparently unassailable lead, its gloss and its mojo, and it is being punished as only fickle consumers can. All it needs is to pull a new, shiny, white rabbit (or iPhone) out of the hat and all would be instantly forgiven. Apple cannot afford to delay.

I do not think Tim Cook can gently, gently lead Apple on the evolutionary path he mentioned at WWDC – nothing short of revolutionary is demanded in the top spot.