億萬富翁、Facbook的董事、康納德·特朗普的支持者不久前在接受《紐約時報》采訪時表示，蘋果的高增長之路正在終結。他認為，這家公司的市值增長潛力已經到頭了。

采該蒂爾的《紐約時報》記者瑪琳·唐恩（Maureen Down）跟他做了一個“確認還是否認”的游戲，其中一個觀點是：“蘋果的時代結束了”。

“確認！”蒂爾回答。

他接著說：“我們都知道，智能手機的是什么樣子，能做些什么。這不是蒂姆·庫克的錯，只是這個領域不會再有更多的創新了?！?

蒂爾以“不走尋常路”著稱于世，但他對蘋果的觀點并沒有特別不尋常。他認為，這家科技巨頭將難以繼續創新，超越世人已知的iPhone手機。隨著銷售收入下滑，分析師已經開始擔心，市值超過6,000億美元的蘋果沒有看得見的“下一款偉大產品”，以遏制營業收入的下滑。

蘋果在上周的報告稱，未能實現年度銷售收入和利潤目標，這將影響到高管薪酬。這種情況是自2009年來首次出現，更助長了懷疑者的聲勢。蘋果在今年秋天還宣布，縮減其“智能”汽車計劃。該計劃曾被普遍認為有可能培育出公司的下一款重量級產品。

彼得·蒂爾以前就因批評科技公司著稱。在2014年接受CNBC采訪時，他說Twitter是個“管理極其糟糕的公司”，里面“很多人在抽大麻”。（財富中文網）

作者：Robert Hackett

譯者：Ty

Peter Thiel has dim prospects for the world's most valuable company.

The billionaire investor, Facebook (FB, +0.42%) director, and unlikely friend of the inbound Trump administration shared his belief that Apple's gravy train is coming to an end in a recent interview with the New York Times. In Thiel's view, the Cupertino colossus has reached its market potential.

As part of a game of "confirm or deny," Thiel's interlocutor, the Times' Maureen Down, presented the statement "The age of Apple is over."

Thiel agreed; "Confirm," he said.

"We know what a smartphone looks like and does," Thiel continued. "It’s not the fault of Tim Cook, but it’s not an area where there will be any more innovation."

Despite Thiel's reputation as an avowed contrarian, his argument that the tech giant will struggle to innovate beyond the iPhone-as-we-know-it is not exactly unconventional. Amid slipping sales, analysts have voiced concerns that Apple, whose market cap exceeds $600 billion, has no "next big thing" in sight to combat declines in revenue growth.

Feeding the flames of skeptics, Apple last week reported that it missed its annual sales and profit goals for the first time since 2009, affecting executive compensation. Apple also reportedly shrunk its "smart" car ambitions, widely regarded as a contender for the company's next blockbuster, in the fall.

Thiel has been known to make provocative pronouncements about tech companies before. In a 2014 interview with CNBC, he said that Twitter was a "horribly mismanaged" firm, and that there was "probably a lot of pot smoking going on there."