'Nightline' Looks at Apple's Woes as Stock Declines 20% from All-Time High

Apple's stock is now down 20% since its all-time high set in mid-September, with investors concerned about the company's prospects for the future amid a management shakeup and questions about where the company's next major revenue growth driver will come from. Samsung's rise to prominence in mobile device markets is also weighing on Apple as the iPhone's market share growth has slowed or even declined in recent quarters.


The difficulties being experienced by Apple are gradually gaining higher visibility outside of the financial markets, with ABC's Nightline running a segment (via Fortune) addressing the issues. The evening news show had previously been granted access to Foxconn factories producing Apple products in response to public criticism over worker treatment at the facilities.



Apple is expected to have a monster holiday quarter on the strength of the iPhone 5, iPad mini, fourth-generation iPad, and updated iPod and Mac models nearly across the board. But with Foxconn still struggling to meet demand for production of the iPhone 5, which is Apple's primary revenue driver, there are some concerns about whether the quarter's performance will be quite as big as many are hoping for.

Apple to Require 'Made for iPhone' Program Accessory Manufacturers to Meet Supplier Responsibility Code

As we noted several weeks ago, Apple scheduled a meeting with members of its Made for iPod/iPhone/iPad (MFi) program for November 7-8 in Shenzhen, China to brief them on the latest developments with the new Lightning connector standard. With Apple having moved rather slowly to bring accessory manufacturers up to speed, Lightning-equipped accessories have been slow to appear and it was not until this week that the first official Lightning products were even announced.


TUAW now reports on a few details that have leaked out of the meeting, including the fact that the Lightning connector is waterproof and that all MFi accessory manufacturers must agree to abide by Apple's supplier responsibility code.

[D]uring the meeting this week a few interesting tidbits have made their way to us through the Great Firewall. Most are trivial (did not know: the Lightning connector is waterproof!) but one big one is not. According to our source at the event, Apple intends to make compliance with its supplier code of conduct a condition of MFi licensing. [...]

Pushing it out to the larger accessory ecosystem would be a concrete example of Apple using its 800-pound-gorilla status in the consumer electronics space to influence more companies to behave ethically on worker rights, environmental issues and more.

The report notes that details on requirements for adherence to the code and potential penalties are not yet known, and speculates that U.S.-based accessory companies may have an advantage in compliance with stricter controls already in place.