I was a longtime PC die hard until I had my first child and found that my grandpa and grandma were easily able to communicate with me (pics/movies/video calling) on iStuff as opposed to other phones/tablets. Thankfully I gave the brand a closer look after that and let my guard down on the "closed system".
The decline in stock price has given a number of folks the opportunity to cast out "2+2= pickle" type of logic because they mistakenly think the stock price = the company. Wall Streets integrity has never been it's strong suit. Any and all types of criticisms have been made (mini too expensive and won't sell, iPhone not cool, teens don't want Apple anymore, ect...) To these folks the stock price going down means that their criticisms are proved correct despite clear information that they are mistaken. Confirmation Bias in effect and people want a reason for the stock price drop. Incorrect "stories" out their to explain the drop in price, but the stories stay clear of discussing sales numbers and customer loyality, they stick to rumor and speculation.
By the numbers it's clear Apple has never been stronger. iPhone sales (not profits just numbers of iPhones) grew by 39% yoy and iPads grew at 60%. They sold a lot of iStuff before, and the user retention is strong. In china Apple had triple digit growth yoy.
Margins are down from 2012 levels,... but that's not exactly describing customer satisfaction or approval, and 2012 was highest margin level ever, comparisons of declining margins are cherry picking the time period to give false impression of the history of that metric.
A lower stock price is clearly affecting some folks perception, though I think this is due to folks needing to have a story. Some folks who have a vendetta against apple have been given some fuel as the stock price crashed. Media been scrambling to explain the stock price drop, and some of the BS is easy to swallow. High frequency trading and some analyst games have been contributing to the decline and the story, despite the numbers, appears to be scaring a lot of people away from the investment. May correct may not, but it gives a false impression of the company.
Thankfully Tim Cook, like Steve Jobs appears to understand wall street is not the one to answer too. Tim Cook is completely focused on customer experience when determining his high level bid for what he wants Apple to achieve.
Apple iStuff is not for everyone, but this holiday quarter Apple sold a record amount of phones and tablets. Nobody cutting the company down wants to address that when talking about the "death of Apple".