Apple Inc. (AAPL): Bearish Report Keeps the ‘Good Times’ Rollin’

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) released mildly better-than expected results in its quarterly earnings report Tuesday, the first real batch of good news for the company since last fall’s unveiling of the iPad Mini. And that, my friends, is a bad thing, and it reflects in the dismal performance of the company’s stock since September. And with no concrete news about any new products coming down the pike until at least the fall, that means Apple would go almost a year without a new product release.

That is rather unheard of for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), and it seems to provide a window of opportunity for competitors to begin placing their new devices in the marketplace without resistance or thunder-stealing from The Big Fruit. And in the wake of a report released by TrendForce, Apple could find itself in some hotter water than it might already seem. The latest information regarding the world’s smartphone shipments in the first quarter of 2013 showed that Apple lost market share space to Samsung.

Overall, smartphones shipments increased more than 9 percent from the previous quarter to more than 214 million, but Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) saw its overall slice of the market dwindle. Samsung is reporting 65 million units shipped during the first quarter, which is about 30 percent of the market; Apple is second with 37.5 million smartphones, but that is 17.3 percent of the market, a drop of 1.2 percentage points from the December 2012 quarter.

In other words, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) took a dip in market share in the March quarter from December when the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini were introduced, and there seems to be no plans for any new devices until at least the September quarter.

In the meantime, Samsung is unveiling its Galaxy S4, and HTC, Sony and others have plans for new device launches during this current quarter – and this is not counting the release of the Asha 210 announced earlier Wednesday by Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) – and the consumers’ insatiable demand for newer, fresher products to get their attention, and it seems that there are several dominoes ready to fall and knock Apple off the top of the mobile hill. Perhaps once and for all.

What do you think? Give us your thoughts about Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and its relative silence about new products during this quarter and juxtapose it against the backdrop of these recent shipment numbers.

DISCLOSURE: I own no positions in any stock mentioned.