LongAAPL

Apple Has a Genuine Green Shoot

In a nutshell, Apple has the world creating software for them, millions of App developers with the highest motivation.

On the other hand, Microsoft is laying off employees.

Guess who will create the best product.

Apple Remains Overvalued, Despite Its Gadget Glory

Jason owns MOT so Jason doesn't like AAPL. You wasted a lot of time and effort to show your bias by trying to influence the uninformed.

Microsoft: Can the Zune HD Take Down the King?

It's ironic that the best thing Microsoft has produced in a long time is a dinosaur before it hits the market. If the video is accurate it looks like they have done a much better job of emulating the ipod with the new Zune than they have done emulating OSX with Vista. However, you hit on the essential point... the app store. The addition of e-mail, iCal, Addressbook, and all the thousands of apps on the iPod Touch put it on a different level from the mobile multimedia devices like the Zune. The Zune and the non-touch iPods days are numbered. Things of the past with shrinking margins.

How Much Are Apple's 45 Million Users Worth?

I guess Prudent Man doesn't think that creating new markets, expanding new markets, lots of cash on hand, highest margins in the industry, and increasing revenue, all during a recession counts for anything.

Go figure.

Don't Expect Big Things from Apple Today

Up $5.60 at 11:00am edt

Garmin's Future Is Just Too Cloudy

Garmin makes great products and has tried very hard to provide the best databases to go with it. However, their map updates are the weak point in a market where consumers expect current accurate information. How many times will a consumer follow Garmin instructions to a closed business, different business or empty lot before they no longer rely on them. The answer is once or maybe twice but not three times. As a long time Garmin user, I no longer rely on it to find where I want to go, but still use it for navigation. I don't know of any way to tell Garmin when I find an error in their database.

Garmin would be better off working with Apple and Google to:

1. Bring Garmin to the iPhone.
2. Bring Google to the Garmin products.
3. Form a new paradigm in GPS positioning products that provides accurate and current information via live search and updates with ratings from other users.

Consumers have gotten over the amazing idea of navigating by GPS and now expect more from mobil devices. Can Garmin deliver?

New iPhone Set to Continue Apple’s Quest for Dominance

Its all about choice.

If you need a locked down, corporate controlled, limited, boring device, that supports the job security of your IT department, then buy the blackberry.

If you want a new, exciting, stimulating, and limitless platform that encourages creativity and productivity, then buy an iPhone.

The overwhelming success of Apple's App store proves most people will choose the latter.

A Crippled iPhone: Very Bad Idea

So, you think LifeInPocket will be useful if you are constantly worrying about running out of data and paying insane rates for out of plan minutes?

Sounds like empty pockets to me.


On May 18 02:03 PM Java User wrote:

> Limited data plan makes sense since you have wifi. You only need
> AT&T network on road road trip.
> Recently participated in LifeInPocket's private beta for iPhone.
> This app needs limited bandwidth while offers every thing you need
> on the road, includes voice activated navigation, business search,
> location msg, etc.
> They are offering it for other phones for free while iPhone private
> beta is by invitation only.

A Crippled iPhone: Very Bad Idea

Right on, felix. I don't think Apple will go for restricted bandwidth since it would essentially put the brakes on it's own App Store. Anybody with a brain has learned that the App Store and the platform development are what makes the iPhone unique and far ahead of the competition. I just don't see Apple ever putting a customer in the situation of having to choose between e-mail or updating an app or buying an application or buying an iTunes music/Video.

Olga Kharif doesn't understand Apple.

More Thumbs Up for RIM and Smart Phones

Rimm = One Great Product!

But definitely a one trick pony in a very competitive market. Can they keep there device competitive with a legacy operating system? When is the last time that a new software update to the phone made headlines? How about leaving the ARM processor behind and designing a new chip? No, I don't see Rimm as the mobile platform of the future.

Apple May Hear Verizon Now

Any deal Verizon makes with Apple for an iPhone will require a huge change at Verizon.

Verizon cripples most of the features on it's phones and then charges extra to activate them, this is the exact opposite of the iPhone/App store philosophy.

Verizon decides for you what services and capabilities that your phone has, Apple will even let you create your own.

Verizon charges extra for all the basic functions that make the iphone so great - Syncing addressbooks and calendars, photos, videos, notes, documents, e-mail, ringtones etc.

Finally, Verizon's advantage now is it's extensive CDMA network in the US. Apple has stated that they are not going to make a phone with CDMA, especially since it will not work in most places outside the US.

For all the above reasons Verizon will have to go a long way and spend a lot of cash to get there. Will Verizon change the way it does things so dramatically?

Microsoft vs. Apple: Monopolist vs. Innovator

Your assertion that a comparable Apple computer will cost twice as much as a windows computer is incorrect.

This is a well documented fact proven by many over the past few years.

Other than that, I agree with what you say about the Apple creative environment, but you left out the most influential element - leadership.

Bill Gates is a great person and I admire his success and philanthropic endeavors, however he never was and never will be a charismatic creative leader. He is a genius that had good advice on business strategy, but he was never able to foster an atmosphere of unity or creativity at Microsoft. No one believes that Steve Ballmer is any better.

Steve Jobs on the other hand has always had personal vision and creativity. Sometimes, no one else agrees with him and his often narrow focus may have led to lost business opportunities for him and his companies over the years. I think that with age, this has been tempered with a common business sense. He sets the bar high at Apple and gives the employees a common goal to work toward. That type of creative atmosphere will last well beyond the day when he is no longer involved daily at Apple. The top management people at Apple share his vision and creativity even if they are not as charismatic or visible. They wouldn't be there otherwise.

Amazon: King of the Retailers - Barron's

Right on! Right On!!
Excellent and timely analysis. Leftfield is worth reading.


On Mar 28 05:56 PM Leftfield wrote:

> Amazon has done an amazing job since a near-death experience at the
> dot-com boom. There they had made the mistake of financing via bonds
> rather than issuing stock and they were really on the hook.
>
> Great execution and decisions since. I have the misfortune of doing
> lots of my business on Ebay and they wish they could somehow copy
> Amazon. So, they have eradicated countless small sellers and thereby
> lost buyers as many do both, favoring large purveyors of Chinese
> dreck.
>
> Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon. He deserves the rewards he
> gets. Ed Donohoe (Ebay) is a typical MBA manager milking a company
> for hoped-for short-term gains for himself. Arrogantly pursuing
> stupid policies with his unwise use of power. Calling small sellers,
> "noise."
>
> Ebay is going the opposite direction of Amazon because Donohoe didn't
> recognize Ebay's unique model and strengths. He is doing damage
> to the company and many others livlihoods until a compliant board
> wakes up. Small sellers could be raising needed cash selling to
> strapped buyers needing to save.
>
> This illustrates what's gone wrong with American business. You can't
> justify paying obscene compensation to management that is just hired
> hands. They, unlike a founder who has his all invested, are just
> playing with other people's money.
>
> The results in the entire economy are now evident: Obscenely paid
> management takes risks and plays games with OPM to satisfy its greed
> and eventually gain enough power to bring everything down.

Microsoft's Mobile Misfortune

I think of MSFT and I think of Steve Ballmer....
.
.
OK, anyone out there think "innovation" or "excitement" right after you read his name?

I Didn't think so.

If Apple Does Correct, It Will Do So Soon

Exactly right! I too think Tim Cook has been an unseen hero.

I distinctly remember Steve Jobs being dead set against an iphone or mobile device with gestures and movies and games, he has said we would never see a smaller lighter "netbook" from Apple but the Macbook Air is real close. Somebody at Apple has been pushing these ideas and had to convince him at some point.


On Jan 28 01:53 PM zoooomer wrote:

> I still can't understand why Jobs health is an issue? does anyone
> beleive he has been actually running Apple for the last few years?
> If you recall Apple always had supply and demand problems, great
> product that they just couldnt get to consumers, then, Tim Cook was
> hired and BOOM he straightened that out and the everything turned
> around, including the $28 billion in reserves. That would be the
> same Tim Cook that is running Apple today.
>
> Being an inventor myself with 10 US Patents I can tell you that inventors
> do just that, they keep pumping out ideas, non stop, and then (if
> they have the money, as apple does) they instruct employees to make
> it happen. I can promise you that Steve Jobs has more ideas on the
> books then Apple can even get to in the next 15 years, ideas that
> can't even begin to be wondered about because the technology needed
> to think about the technology needed for some of them is years away.

>
>
> Apple's connection to Jobs and the market is merely emotional and
> has been for the last 5 years, if you notice Steve stepped away and
> then the quarterly report and look at the stock today. Does anyone
> really think that announcement wasn't timed? Does anyone think Steve
> is coming back in 6 months? By the time June rolls around Apple
> will be in the $110-$120 arena and will have brought out a nano iphone,
> a completely new piece of hardware, sued the "pre" into non existence,
> and you will see Jobs at an event smiling and saying, "look at how
> well Apple has been doing with out me involved".
>
> Just my two cents