The business wires' new verbal tic: Apple is 'losing steam'

First Bloomberg, now Reuters, have boiled Apple down to a two-word editorial formula.

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FORTUNE -- How do you describe a company that grew like gangbusters but has entered a patch of slower growth?

Some desk editors at the business news services have hit on what they seem to think is the perfect phrase: Apple (AAPL) is "losing steam."

Last week it was Bloomberg News with this headline:

Harvard Liquidates Apple Stake After IPhone Sales Lose Steam

Which as we took pains to point out didn't do a particularly good job of describing either Harvard's investment strategy or the iPhone's sales growth. See: Bloomberg's lazy Apply bias.

Then, on Tuesday, Reuters weighed in with this headline:

Sharp to seek Samsung edge for survival as Apple sales lose steam

Several problems with that one:

• What's reportedly losing steam, when you read the story, are Sharp's orders from Apple, not Apple's overall sales.
• The writer claims -- without citation -- that "analysts project annual profit growth at Apple to average less than 5 percent over the next decade, compared with an average of 60 percent over the past five years." That may come as a surprise to the analysts polled by Thomson Financial. They're anticipating Apple's profits to grow 20.88% per annum over the next five years.
• Even those growth estimates are based on the assumption that Apple has nothing new up its sleeve. No new product categories. No new disruptions.
• And nobody but Asymco's Horace Dediu seems to be paying close attention to the iTunes Store, which as he notes is growing steadily -- without losing any steam at all -- at a compound rate of nearly 30% a year. For Dediu's latest on the subject, see The allure of iTunes or tune into last Sunday's Critical Path podcast: Blessed are the apps.

Posted in: Apple, Asymco, Bloomberg, Horace Dediu, iTunes, Reuters, Sharp

• How, exactly, do Apple's iPhone sales 'disappoint'?

  A Reuters headline has some Apple watchers scratching their heads.

  FORTUNE -- A Taipei-datelined Reuters story getting widely picked up Wednesday uses "disappointing" twice in six paragraphs to describe sales of Apple's (AAPL) iPhone.

  "Disappointing demand" for the iPhone between January and March is blamed for the 19% drop in the first-quarter revenue of Hon Hai, which assembles iPhones in its Foxconn factories.
  "Disappointing holiday sales" in the previous quarter are said to have "reinforced MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Apr 10, 2013 1:35 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Foxconn, Hon Hai, iPhone, Reuters

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  JP Mangalindan, Writer - Sep 28, 2012 2:05 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, BlackBerry, CNET, Facebook, Groupon, Reuters, Tim Cook

• Why are iPad prices falling in China's gray market?

  Sluggish demand, says one report. An over-abundance of supply, says another.

  Dueling stories Monday in Reuters and the Financial Times about the Chinese gray market for Apple (AAPL) products agree on one thing: The prices the new iPad can fetch have fallen roughly 30% in the past two weeks.

  When the latest iPad -- the one with the much-hyped Retina display --  showed up in Beijing the day after its U.S. launch, Chinese MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Mar 26, 2012 6:45 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, China, Financial Times, Gray market, Hong Kong, iPad, iPad 3, Reuters, Tablets

• Report: Court rejects ban on iPad sales in Shanghai

  Reuters confirms a Chinese paper's report that Proview has lost its case against Apple

  A hail-Mary legal play to ban the sale of iPads in Shanghai -- a city of 23 million with three Apple stores -- has failed, according to a Reuters report that crossed the wires early Thursday morning.

  On Wednesday, Apple (AAPL) and Shenzhen Proview traded blows in a Shanghai courtroom, Apple arguing that it bought the iPad trademark MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 23, 2012 6:43 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Associated Press, China, iPad, Proview, Reuters, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tablets

• Apple iPad plant is 'way, way above average' says inspector

  It's not a pressure-cooker environment that is the problem, but boredom and alienation

  "The facilities are first-class; the physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm."

  That's Auret van Heerden, president of the Fair Labor Association, speaking to Reuters after an initial visit to the Foxconn factory where Apple's (AAPL) iPads are built.

  Apple has been hit with a barrage of criticism over the working conditions in the Chinese factories where its MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Feb 15, 2012 2:58 PM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Factory, Fair Labor Association, Foxconn, iPad, Mike Daisey, New York Times, Reuters, Tim Cook, Working conditions

• Report: iPhone share hit 36% in U.S., fell to 20% in France

  Mixed results from a 12-week Kantar Group snapshot of the walk-up to Christmas

  The launch of the iPhone 4S lifted Apple's (AAPL) share of the smartphone market rather dramatically the U.S., the U.K. and Australia between early September and the end of November.

  But Apple lost ground just as dramatically against less-expensive Google (GOOG) Android phones on the economically troubled continent, according to results released Thursday by the Kantar Group, a research MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Dec 22, 2011 6:20 AM ET
  Posted in: Android, Apple, Europe, France, Germany, Google, iPhone, iPhone 4S, Kantar Group, Mobile, Reuters, Samsung Galaxy S II, smartphone

• Report: Second, cheaper iPhone set to launch in weeks

  Reuters adds detail -- and its authority -- to rumors of an 8GB "iCloud iPhone"

  Stories have been floating around for months that Apple (AAPL) was building not one but two new iPhones -- the widely expected iPhone 5 and a lower-cost phone that's basically the current iPhone 4 with less on-board memory. According to an item posted two weeks ago by Apple'N'Apps' Trevor Sheridan, company insiders are calling the second device the MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 23, 2011 8:07 AM ET
  Posted in: All Things D, Apple, Apple'N'Apps, Flash memory, Foxconn, iCloud iPhone, iPhone, iPhone 5, Mobile, Reuters, Samsung, Toshiba

• One city, 22 fake Apple stores

  An official search of Kunming, China, yields a surfeit of unauthorized Apple retail shops

  Three weeks after an American blogger visiting the capital of China's Yunnan province posted the first photographs of a copycat Apple Store so convincing that even some of the sales staff thought they were working for Steve Jobs, Chinese authorities have identified 22 more unauthorized Apple stores in Kunming city.

  According to a Reuters report filed Thursday, the MORE

  Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 12, 2011 5:10 AM ET
  Posted in: Apple, Apple Store, China, Kunming, Retail, Reuters, Steve Jobs, Yunnan

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  * With just a 27% share of the U.S. search market, Reuters argues Microsoft should find a buyer for online search engine Bing. (Reuters via The New York Times)

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