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More from Tim Cook: Asked about selling a cheaper iPhone, Cook asserts Apple (AAPL -0.9%)...
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Tuesday, February 12, 11:10 AM ETMore from Tim Cook: Asked about selling a cheaper iPhone, Cook asserts Apple (AAPL -0.9%) wouldn't release anything it doesn't consider a "great product." Asked about a bigger iPhone, he argues many features matter besides display size. But he didn't seem to rule one out either, stating Apple won't comment on future products rather than dismissing the concept. Cook's criticism of OLED brightness and color saturation has led Universal Display (PANL -4.9%) to spike lower. (live blog)
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When Cook was asked about cheaper iPhones, he made 2 seemingly contradictory comparisons. He talked about AAPL's attempt to make a cheap Mac; he said they ultimately decided it was not possible without turning out a crappy product and degrading the Mac line. He also talked about how the iPod was originally $100s of dollars, and now you can get one for $49 - all while NOT compromising their standards.
Overall, I think he was illustrating that AAPL will do what it can to make cheaper products as long as they can do it without degrading the AAPL sense of product quality and standards. I think with the comp to the iPod line he most certainly did NOT rule out a cheap iPhone, just set it up as a slow evolution where the line of offerings changes over time and broadens.
Cook called Einhorn's LAWSUIT a silly sideshow. Basically commenting that whether they issue preferred shares or not is not at issue in the suit. He noted that they would go to shareholders if they ever wanted to issue such shares (and as such leaving exclusive control with the board is moot). He indicating the are carefully considering how to return cash to shareholders.
For some reason, I just read an article on another website indicating the Cook called Einhorn's whole plan a "silly sideshow" which was not implied by the phrasing of his comments. He actually commented that Einhorn's plan was "creative" or "clever" (I can't remember which).
--releasing product in more than 100 countries at the same time
--providing services--app store, iTunes everywhere
--upgrading users around the world
--having retail stores everywhere
These, plus managing their supply chain so they will have the amount of product they need will enable them to meet the growing demand. And the demand is growing because the market is growing, in part because the middle-class is growing around the world, from 1.8 billion today to 3.2 billion by 2020.
Larger screen, cheaper iPhone these are all side issues. Why should Apple start being a copy cat company instead of the copied leader it is now? Just because others have a slightly larger screen or a cheaper phone doesn't mean Apple has to compete there on price? If they start, the same analysts who ask for those products will then criticize them for margin dilution. Apple management should continue to focus on introducing insanely great products. The rest takes care of itself.
Also, since Apple is spending tens of billions on R+D, obviosly they are coming out with new products. The iWatch is an exciting new thing publicized yesterday (though not by Apple) and there are many other possibilities. Plus, what he said about a cheap iPhone simply means, will not sacrifice quality so it can't be that cheap. Just maybe cheaper.
On today's drop, all it is is another stellar buying opportunity created by sheer stupidity of investment world or traders. Absolutely nothing negative came out of today's speech, and there were positives. Cook again does not pre-announce, but he did say they were going to give back more money to investors, in so many words, and that will probably be a rather large dividend hike in the next two weeks. But who knows? Again, since Apple never shows its cards, any reading into this by bears is just stupid. also, anyone interested in making big profits quickly and safely should be buying all the shares they can afford today. At this rock bottom price, below book value by a huge margin, and only 3x cash, there is no risk in buying AAPL. The risk is shorting it or missing out on its inevitable moonshot type rise. All we need is a series of catalysts and we will be rewarded soon, or just as soon as Apple is ready.
No one thought there would be an iPod when Apple was selling computers.
No one thought there would be an iPhone when it was selling iPods.
No one thought there would be an iPad when it was selling iPhones.
Apple doesn't pre-announce products, so at any time in its history you could have said, "no new products" and you would have been wrong every time.
Jobs didn't announce a new product every year. The average time was 4 years, and it has only been 3. In between thre were many incremental changes, as now.
Apple doesn't need to spend as much on R&D to innovate. This is not a guess, it is fact: all of apple's products have been launched at lower R&D levels than today. Right? i mean, if your implicit premise and argument is correct -- that how much Apple spends on R&D is realted to innovation and they spend little, so no innovation -- than there should never have been a iPod, Iphone or iPad because their R&D was so low back then, much lower than now, and that other companies that spent more should have innovated. So your premise and argument is wrong.
As for Samsung, it is a conglomerate that not only sells finisjhed products like phones and refrigerators but components, and a lot of its R&D is spent on those components, which are bought by companies like Apple. Apple is an end-user consumer tech company. Samsung isn't only that, so a comparison of Samsung's R&D to Apple's will not yield information meanigful to the area where Apple and Samsung compete, which is on the end product side.
Tell us why Samsung would copy AAPL's current inferior phone products? I think your view of AAPL products clings to the AAPL of 3 years ago, back then I was Long AAPL too, it's not a personal attack on you, just another investors opinion, just like yours. Time to step back and re-evaluate.
I bought AAPL years ago and got rid of it at $680 and now only watch the stock as pure entertainiment. I will wait to see what true innovation AAPL comes up with before I go long again, and then it will likely be as a value play based on yield and entry price. If I miss it, well, I would say that would suck, except it's hard to complain when playing with the houses money.
Long APPL! Long Term!
The only real question is how soon and what ar the catalysts? Could be any day now and possible catalysts are many but impossible to predict beyond the liklihood of a generous dividend hike in the near term. That alone might spark the retracement, at ldesast back to 550. Future product announcements and performance will take care of the rest. and a China mobile deal could spike this stock 100 points. It is likley too, Cook has alfready told us he expects China to soon be their biggest market. That cannot be true with a major China Mobile deal. So expect it to happen. Bottomline, sometime soon AAPL will rocket. Nobody knows when and why though until it happens.
tim needs to go away, he is not gifted enough to be a visionary leader. he has been trapped in a hole, and he is working hard to dig it deeper.
apple does have problem by not competing head-on with its competitors (watch chinese phone vendors, I know Huawei too well, believe me, they can do more damage than the koreans)
Tim is wrong by ignoring the competition.
Tim said a while ago that he did not know why competition was that weak, ie why HP could not get its tablet off the ground. This shows he does not have a clue why apple is so successful.
If tim is to lead apple for a decade, he will have no clue how apple under his control fails miserably either.
this leads us to think why steve put tim in the job after him. Does steve wanted a leader or just an implementer? Jobs could have seeded the failure into apple's DNA...