Apple Inc. (AAPL)

All Comments on AAPL

  • commenter
    wyosteven
    Aug 29 04:31 PM
    False Data Clobbers the Markets [view article]
    Are you retarded? What about debt and inflation? Anyone can tie an anchor on to one side or the other. People are in a spending recession and have been, not to mention trillions of $'s which evaporated through a bailout. Reports and statistics are fallible.

    Ray Charles could see oil and food and health care and politics, and your favorite opportunity for arbitrage are being manipulated, like your selective premises.

    One thing is for certain, we are not in a good situation as a nation going forward so quit trying to prolong the inevitable for those ready for it!! See ya when the DOW hits 8000.     Reply
  • commenter
    Tom Jackson
    Aug 29 04:30 PM
    Why Apple Stock Is Poised To Go Flat - At Best [view article]
    Well, you probably got back what you expected from the Apple fans. Of course the comments are open to anyone, and we didn't see much substance coming back from other investors who don't believe in Apple.; I wonder what that means? Could it be that Apple has an emotional edge? Not a manufactured one but a real one that affects purchasing decisions and word of mouth. Could it be relevant that Apple was 10 points higher in customer satisfaction than the nearest competitors? Perhaps. Nothing lasts forever, and no one is making that argument, but a long run is what? Ask IBM, GE, Ford.

    On market cap: An old measure that is not an inhibitor but a simple score. If Apple was broken down to four markets- each as a separate company: Computers, Music delivery, Communication devices and Visual, and each had its own cap would that make it easier to visualize or imagine? Perhaps. If you don't think that smart executives in Apple are planning for the long term - after Steve you aren't clear about the level of management. What bothers you and many is that Apple won't tell you in advance.

    The key to Apple's success is the principle of lifetime customers- people who root for the company, its products and its success in a way that is unheard of. Can you think of many other firms who have such loyalty and trust? Is that a payoff for good publicity or hype? No, sorry, it is because of only one thing- they feel well served by the business and its products pure and simple.     Reply
  • commenter
    ozzy43
    Aug 29 04:07 PM
    False Data Clobbers the Markets [view article]
    True enough yank - the manipulations in both gold and silver is, IMO, pretty well established (and has provided for a terrific buying opportunity, IMO, for the long term investor). Hell, so is the recent Central Bank manipulation in the dollar, for that matter, which has had its own impact on commodities.

    But let's not stop there - let's look at the macro picture - the author of this piece suggests:

    "Why doesn't the government just hold off a few weeks before releasing its reports? No data is better than false data. The latest GDP growth revision is absolutely inexcusable. I can handle a small revision from 3.1% to 3.2% but 1.9% to 3.3%? Wouldn't it be better to just wait another 3 or 4 weeks and get the numbers correct?"

    Why in the world would anyone presume that GDP numbers - that issue from the same government that emits the laughably fraudulent CPI - are 'correct' at any point along the revision trajectory?

    IMO - it's all false. It's all massaged. It's all a mirage - an illusion. I wonder if the author of the piece above ever bothered to look into how the GDP is actually calculated. As one widely available short essay on the subject notes:

    "Much of the data used in GDP is collected by sending out surveys to different companies. They will send out surveys to a select bunch of retailers and manufacturers to ask for details of their output or sales on a monthly basis. Then comes the estimate of the whole. The governments can obviously use this to their advantage by selecting the companies that they know are steady companies and not choose the smaller companies who are more likely to be erratic. Therefore most smaller companies will never get asked to perform a survey for the government as this may upset the figures."

    So the number is not only inherently inaccurate (and we have not even gone into the forms of economic activity that the GDP explicitly excludes), it is an invitation to governmental manipulation. After all, how would one prove that "the economy" (as though this were so easily defined in the first place!) grew at this rate or that rate? The only reason to believe the govt stats are accurate is if you believe the govt does not lie as easily as you and I breathe, which is demonstrably false.

    So it's not just metals, not just the market, but the entire economic picture as portrayed by government statistics that is one big manipulation.

    As far as I can tell, the one thing that one *can* rely upon is that a government which uses a fiat currency and is out of other options, especially one which is on the hook for $60T+ in unfunded obligations over the next ~75 years and has no other way to 'meet' these, must inflate like mad. Period. And at some point, manipulation or not, that's good news for gold, in the long term. And probably for oil, too, for as long as it's priced in USD anyway.

    Students of history will know that in every single instance of the deployment of a fiat currency, starting 1000 years ago in Szechuan Province, China, the outcome is always the same - dozens of examples across history all tell the same story: run away inflation, sky rocketing of gold prices, collapse of the currency.

    Those who are not students of history - well, Santayana had them pegged.     Reply
  • commenter
    frammus
    Aug 29 04:05 PM
    Why Apple Stock Is Poised To Go Flat - At Best [view article]
    Clearly this Mr. Verke guy is holding a short position on Apple.


    On Aug 29 09:49 AM fauxscot wrote:

    > Mr. Verke,
    >
    > I won't resort to calling names, but boy, I must admit to agreeing
    > with the prior posters... you seem to have drawn tenuous conclusions
    > from your dubious premises.
    >
    > Market cap? Sure, I'll buy the disconnect between Apple and some
    > other folks. This outfit is generating some serious cash, though.
    > Billions and billions of it. The company projects this to continue,
    > and regardless of its current overall market share, and/or the state
    > of the PC market at home, there is abundant room for growth in sales
    > from just capturing additional market share. The products are highly
    > desirable. They are day and night better than PC/Microsoft combos,
    > and the company has figured out how to service its customers so well
    > it occupies the TOP SLOT in customer satisfaction.
    >
    > Have you used one of these things? Good god, man! Eveything they
    > touch gets better. Hell, the even reinvented the concept of backup,
    > with their simple, obvious, and bulletproof Time Capsule/Time Machine
    > combo. They finally fixed one of the biggest headaches in all ConsumerCOmputerLand.....
    > the need for reliable and simple and transparent and fast and useable
    > (and wireless!) backup of data and program. Cheap. With decent
    > margins. Equivalent windows hardware has to be cobbled together
    > with the disparate products of companies that don't talk to each
    > other.
    >
    > The examples of greatness in this outfit are legion. I think you'd
    > be well served to consider how much of a game changer they are, then
    > revisit your arguments.
    >
    >     Reply
  • commenter
    reagan
    Aug 29 04:03 PM
    Why Apple Stock Is Poised To Go Flat - At Best [view article]
    What a moronic blog. Reply
  • commenter
    offtheobt
    Aug 29 04:00 PM
    My Website
    Why Apple Stock Is Poised To Go Flat - At Best [view article]
    This clown is an investment advisor. He mentions the fantastic runup AAPL stock has had, but did not participate!
    All us Apple fanboys that are stockholders must really be a lot smarter than that! Based on his record, would you trust him with any of your money?     Reply
  • commenter
    man on the
    street
    Aug 29 03:26 PM
    Why Apple Stock Is Poised To Go Flat - At Best [view article]
    im a small guy in the scheme of things, my broker had me in a mutual fund for 6 years in my ira. It went from 1000$ (my only investment ever) to 800$ I kept asking If I should buy an individual stock but he discouraged me. I read a few books, took the man on the street approach, fired my broker and moved my ira into a online discount brokerage account. I loved my apple computer at the time, I had already had a mac went to pc and back to another mac because it was simple. I got 49 shares with my 800 bucks about 5 years ago, I havent added a penny to this account, With the last split I now have 98 shares worth, (well you know) . I wonder how that old mutual fund has performed? Go to an apple store and see for yourself, see who is buying there products. You might even find something you like:) Reply
  • commenter
    frammus
    Aug 29 03:23 PM
    Why Apple Stock Is Poised To Go Flat - At Best [view article]
    you are out of your mind. apple is transforming the entire computing ecosystem. mac's still only comprise a tiny percentage of the overall PC market. less than 10% by most accounts. look how quickly the came to dominate the smartphone industry and they are just starting. how about selling 60 million applications the FIRST month the Itunes app store came online and Apple gets 30% of the subscription/purchase price going straight to the bottom line. This is only the beginnings of what I believe is at least a 10 year growth cycle for them. The halo effects of IPhone/IPod are still paying dividends. One can only imagine what Apple has up its sleeve after acquiring a chip company (PAsemi). I do agree that Jobs is a possible single point of failure however but I think what he has started has a lot of legs and will play out over a long period of time with or without Jobs. Reply
  • commenter
    frammus
    Aug 29 03:23 PM
    Why Apple Stock Is Poised To Go Flat - At Best [view article]
    you are out of your mind. apple is transforming the entire computing ecosystem. mac's still only comprise a tiny percentage of the overall PC market. less than 10% by most accounts. look how quickly the came to dominate the smartphone industry and they are just starting. how about selling 60 million applications the FIRST month the Itunes app store came online and Apple gets 30% of the subscription/purchase price going straight to the bottom line. This is only the beginnings of what I believe is at least a 10 year growth cycle for them. The halo effects of IPhone/IPod are still paying dividends. One can only imagine what Apple has up its sleeve after acquiring a chip company (PAsemi). I do agree that Jobs is a possible single point of failure however but I think what he has started has a lot of legs and will play out over a long period of time with or without Jobs. Reply
  • commenter
    lwaia1
    Aug 29 03:00 PM
    Why Apple Stock Is Poised To Go Flat - At Best [view article]
    Check out this guy's credentials:

    John Verke (an alias) is a senior analyst working at 3 Seas Capital Partners in Istanbul, Turkey. He has been managing a portfolio of $100.000 of his own money for the last 5 years in the U.S. markets.

    John has started a website at johnverke.com, which will feature a $1.000.000 fictional portfolio with all his transactions and daily portfolio value online. He plans to include his short market commentaries on this site.

    NEED I SAY MORE?
    Reply
  • commenter
    Markham
    Aug 29 02:58 PM
    My Website
    Record Companies Starting to Shun iTunes [view article]
    Quick thoughts:

    1) If the record companies die then we won't have any music to buy.

    2) I've personally supervised the production of CDs in runs of less than 1,000 for small artists, where the cost was under $1/CD often in the $0.80 range.

    If you're running off millions of CDs, have your own facilities, etc, the cost is undoubtedly lower.

    3) The analysis is a hypothetical to be sure, but it does illustrate why many artists and the record companies prefer to sell albums.

    It would be different if iTunes sold more albums than single songs or a given artists, as the $7/sale the record company received would be close to a CD sale and would be "good enough" to keep everyone happy.

    4) I don't disagree with the fact that many people prefer to buy singles and it does favor the consumer, just noting that eventually it could kill the producer of the content you're paying for.

    5) The Camry example is meant to indicate order of magnitude i.e. selling 200k CDs generates more $ than 2.2 million digital downloads of single track.

    Anyway, we all agree a new model is needed, we all agree that selling albums is more profitable, we agree that consumers prefer track downloads.

    BUT

    What kind of model allows the record companies to survive and make consumers happy at the same time? Right now both goals are at odds with each other.

    And if the record companies die?

    There won't be much of anything new to download

    I suppose I should probably point that I've never bought a digital download in my life, I use rhapsody to listen to music at work or occasionally drop a song on my Mp3 player, but to buy a digital track?

    Never.

    I always buy CDs prefer I like the sound quality better, but I suppose that's a topic for another discussion.


    As always thanks for reading.


    -Markham     Reply
  • commenter
    JHancock
    Aug 29 02:50 PM
    Record Companies Starting to Shun iTunes [view article]
    CDs are dead. The vinyl album will outlive them. When the record companies die a new model will take over just as the auto replaced the buggy. I wonder if they raised the price on buggy whips just before there were no more buggies? Reply
  • commenter
    tabjpc
    Aug 29 02:44 PM
    Why Apple Stock Is Poised To Go Flat - At Best [view article]
    Apple is the best. I should end there but I won't. Even in the worst economies people want the best and will save for it and spend on it rather than buying an inferior problematic substitute that lacks cache. Get real fella. Reply
  • commenter
    icposse
    Aug 29 02:33 PM
    Record Companies Starting to Shun iTunes [view article]
    <The real issue is that compared to the CD model selling music on iTunes is mathematically analogous to Toyota having to sell Camrys for $2.5k instead of $25k. >

    Markham, I think what you're missing is that a full album from itunes runs around $10, which is equivalent to a the full album if you bought it in a CD format.

    iTunes broke new ground when it allowed users to buy only one SONG from the album, so instead of paying $10 for a CD, now users pay $1 for each of the songs they like. The car analogy makes no sense, since Toyota can't sell you 1/10th of a Camry, while Sony music can certainly sell you 1/10th of an album (i.e. 1 song).

    The real question here is: Do the record companies make more money by forcing some people to buy 9 songs they don't want along with the 1 song they do, even if it means that a large percentage of their customers will now go download that song illegally. They obviously think that they will, or they wouldn't be pushing this model.

    However, iTunes has paved the way for single-song downloads, and any ONLINE music shop that makes you buy an entire album will be at a disadvantage as a result. Sure, Target and Walmart may still only sell full albums, but have you looked at what has happened to their market share of retail music sales since iTunes came out? People WANT digital downloads, and now they WANT the flexibility to get them per song and not buy 9 crappy songs just to get the one they want.

    I think the record companies are being very short-sighted here. All they are doing is legitimizing (in many peoples' minds, mine included) the illegal downloading of music. Instead, they should be trying to support legitimate online music as much as they possibly can, not undermining it. Either that, or make Katy Perry record 10 goods songs rather than 1 song people like and a whole bunch of garbage.     Reply
  • commenter
    yank
    Aug 29 02:18 PM
    My Website
    False Data Clobbers the Markets [view article]
    ozzy:
    excellent analysis of the article. As you say "cherrypicking&qu... countries with declining population rates and conveniently omitting countries with INCREASING population like China and India is not analysis. It's misinformation. As much as the crtics want to trumpet lower growth rates for both China and India; 9.5% and 8% annual growth still look pretty good compared with US economic growth. More importantly both countries are rapidly industrializing and adopting a "Western" lifestyle. You know what that means? More cars, appliances, infrastructure, etc. I do however agree with the author that there is an incredible amount of manipulation going on right now in the stock markets. With actual physical shortages of gold and silver now how can anyone explain the rationale for a 30% decline in precious metals? The answer: Central Bank short selling.

    Yank     Reply

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