StreetSweeper

Enough Noise About Apple!

We won't know until the next quarterly, but I'm kinda bettin' that sales weren't hurt much if at all by the ARM, bloodsucking, subprime mortgages. Wrong crowd and way too small a sampling. Besides, for many responsible, bill-payin', right as rain people, yup, fundamentals first, then the fads. But for a whole lot of folks, it's fads first, then fundamentals. Nope, ol' Stevie had this one pegged before the release of the iPhone as a possible scenario, maybe though, a plan B if there were any signs of less consumer spending.

Early iPhone Adopters, Never Believe The Hype

George, "Never believe the hype?" I hope you aren't talking about the hype suggesting that the iPhone has set new cellphone standards. Or perhaps that the iPhone isn't the fastest selling handheld on the market. Or that customer satisfaction is beyond any other cellphone. Early adopters expect prices to go down, check Motorola's Razr's price drops in 2005. No, the halo remains intact and the stock will set all time highs. And all is right with the Apple world...

iPhone Price Cut Causing Trouble For Apple

Response to your three things:
1. Yes, Apple is making a statement, not to just the cellphone market but the computer market as well. The reduced price and fast growing sales rate firmly will place Apple as a leading contender in a few years. And the iPhone is now seen as a reasonably priced "on sale" item for the Christmas sales. To the computer market, Apple is stating that the future of data interaction is slowly moving away from desktops to handheld.

2. The pricing will actually promote a greater profit as estimated by a number of analysts rather than a earnings drop.

3. The price cut and give-back were not a fiasco at all. Jobs came off looking like a compassionate business leader with his next day announcement of the give-back. If he had announced the give-back on Wednesday, recent purchasers would have asked for more. Most customers did not show displeasure at the cut, realizing that the "I-got-one-first" buyers pay a premium but the news-sensationalizing media jumped on the few very vocal dissatisfied customers.

It should be obvious that Apple (Steve Jobs) has never paid much attention to the price of the stock, knowing it will eventually climb with sales of a good product regardless to the lack of splits, dividends, or investor messages. He seldom announces anything without it being a major Apple event, timing it perfectly to get the maximum spin and hype. I do not doubt that everything he did since the iPhone release was scripted from day one of the iPhone announcement. Including the price cut and the give-back. For gosh sakes, it's a 115 billion dollar company, he can afford to have pre-planned strategies for every scenario. And remember, most importantly--he is a perfectionist.

Apple's iPhone Price Cut: An Unfair Blow to Shareholders

Apple, worth over 100 billion dollars can afford, and has, a genius marketing strategist at its helm--thinking way ahead. I have no doubt that before the iPhone release everything was laid out as a possible strategem based upon the sales growth. "If we sell this amount, we do this...", etc. Jobs announcing a $100 give-back to buyers was brilliant. If he had announced it on Wednesday, the previous buyers would have cried for $200 cash! By delaying it a day he comes on as a real "hero" to faithful Apple fans and gets the returning $100 sales to Apple. Lowering the cost $200 makes the iPhone seem on "sale" for the holidays, establishes it as a strong competitor to existing vendors, and will probably put Motorola out of business within a year if they cannot come up with something spectacular under their new management. (Too late, IMHO!) Apple is now the technological leader of the handhelds and will likely be the leader in market share within two years. (They are now the fastest selling.)

Just wait until the next two quarterly reports come out. Apple stock will amaze...no, stupify, the entire market. They have maintained huge growths in all of their sectors from iTune sales, Mac sales, iPod sales, (not to mention the soon-to-be released OS) and they more than likely are working on 2 million units in sales of the iPhone. And the icing on the cake is that all of the iPhone sales are figured in over a two year prorated period. So if sales were to drop due to economic factors, such as the current credit crunch or pending recession, their mix of prorated and realized profits should bridge the gap until things get back to normal. Clever!

Ah, if only Jobs could somehow run our government's budgetary goals!

Amazon's Unbox Grabs NBC Programming From iTunes

Oops, there was a bad idea. NBC's "tough guy" stance against Apple will turn around to bite them in the rear. They are up against Jobs, whose marketing savvy outweights them and NBC will regret their decision. By embracing Unbox and TiVo they are limiting their distribution to a shrinking share. If they had gone with Apple, perhaps they would have less profit now, but a vastly larger and growing market in the future. Tsk, tsk...heads should roll.

The Week Ahead: Earnings Galore

Out of many voices comes one helluva story and no voice is insignificant. Remember that little butterfly in the Amazon helping cause the storms in Kansas? We're all part of the grand scheme of things to one extent or another.

Unfortunately the earnings were up but the stock went down...go figure.

The Week Ahead: Earnings Galore

Yet, you did discuss the earning report afterall, didn't you? I guess it was just to juicy of a story, huh?

The Week Ahead: Earnings Galore

Although I am sick to death of hearing about AAPLs iPhone, it has had a huge impact on the NASDAQ in recent weeks, helping it keep its head above the subprime waters. Suppliers to iPhone production have also benefited from its successful launch. I am curious as to why you would not monitor Apple's earnings report Wednesday after hours? A bad report (although very unlikely) would have a profound effect on the stock and possibly others in the NASDAQ. XRX, WDC. and some of the others you mentioned are mere sideshows in comparison.

The Subprime Disaster: How Long Can the Experts Live in Denial?

For over six years the current administration has permitted the gap to widen between the rich and poor, created an atmosphere of entitlements for the wealthy while cutting funding for the needy, and allowed credit card rates to maintain usury levels. Now when the pressure has finally started to break the system, analysts point fingers at Bernanke and Greenspan. Get your heads out of that really dark place and attack the real problem...unsustainabl... greed encouraged by both of our political parties.