Above Avalon:

Apple is a Silicon Valley and Wall Street leader. The company has the most profitable and best-selling smartphone, tablet, smartwatch, and wireless pair of headphones in the market. Apple has grown its user base by 10x over the past 10 years and is bringing in nearly more revenue than Amazon, Alphabet, and Facebook combined. This level of success places a bull’s-eye on Apple’s back and rightly so. Leaders should be held to a higher standard.

However, a trend has developed where a number of tech companies are said to be outperforming Apple. Despite being cast as leaders, these companies aren’t judged by the same high standards as Apple. Microsoft, Samsung, and Google are said to be one-upping Apple in core competencies like hardware and design. Yet, these companies don’t face anywhere near the amount of criticism thrown at Apple.

For us oldtimers, this double standard is nothing new. I’ve often wondered if, in their heart of hearts, this pisses off Apple executives. I’ve asked them but, publicly, they would admit no such thing.