No more iconoclasts.

Apple reports its earnings for the Christmas quarter today.

If ever there was a company which has peaked, looking to a low or no growth future, it is Apple. The easy money in the stock has long ago been made. Oh! sure, it may be another blow-out quarter predicated on sandbagged earnings estimates, but wither here? It’s the next quarter which matters, not the last.

There is no reason – other than the occupant of the corner office – that Apple should not continue growing. One oft quoted line from Steve Jobs on his deathbed is “Don’t ask what Steve would do”. Dead wrong. Apple needs to ask this all the time, the core belief being that you give people what they need, not what they want. Apple’s pipeline of Jobs’s ideas is quickly running dry and its tedious and boring iPhone refreshes – 70% of revenues – are complacency redefined, while Samsung eats their lunch with better/bigger/faster devices. You can talk all day long about Apple’s wonderful ecosystem, but if I cannot make the screen out you know where you can stick it.

Oh! well, Apple put my son thorough Harvard, class of 2025. His descendants will have to look elsewhere. The latest rumors have Apple providing a low margin, overpriced TV set (will not move the needle on earnings) or ‘wearable computing’ – please. Forget about what is really called for. An Apple Camera.

Meanwhile, here, in a couple of words, is my advice to Mr. Cook’s deaf ears:

Disclosure: No AAPL positions.