Hayweed

10 Reasons Not to Buy Apple

When Apple adds a video camera to the iPod Touch this year with a better camera, the iPod Touch will be the hottest mobile gaming, mobile internet device and flip video camera on the market. The poor lemmings on Verizon and Sprint buy iPod touches to use for everything but phone calls. They want apps which they can't get with the crappy phones. Once they get the Touch it is only a matter of time before they get the iPhone and one gadget in the pocket instead of phone, ipod, camera, PSP, etc. all sharing the same pocket.

Best Buy Bounces on Circuit City Closure

The demise of Circuit City Also hurts:

Verizon (which has Verizon mobile stores inside Circuit City)
Rimm - which sells the phones and is the premier Verizon phone at Circuit
Dell, HP, Acer and any other pc maker - one less outlet

Who it helps

Apple - who is now head to head with all the box makers with its own special area at Best Buy. Apple also gets the premier phone spot at Best Buy and at Walmart. Itunes grows since one less retailer of cd's and dvd's

Walmart - they will get the lionshare of the business from Circuit

Apple's New Line: Can It Make Headway in a Recession?

You almost got it. Apple markets to the top 20% and not everyone. Dell, HP, Acer, Asus all market to the masses. The difference is that when the economy tanks and the bottom 80% cut back on purchases, the mass sellers feel it the most. High end retailers suffer some sales loss but keep their prices which results in margins staying similar. Dell went for sales at the expense of margins which was a bad decision that has now cost them big time. Apple is selling their products at the same prices while taking share. Is BMW, Porsche, Tiffany's hurting that much. Doubt it.

The meeting yesterday showed that Apple held prices steady. If they were concerned that sales were drying up they might have dropped prices. They didn't which signals that sales are humming along. If sales are off 10% and the stock is down 50%, Apple is a buy.

Best Buy: Weak Earnings Create Buying Opportunity

BBY and CC and any other consumer retailer is just a displayer of goods. The internet has eroded BBY and CC's pricing power. See a tv on sale in the Best Buy circular on Sunday you can then go into the store and see if it is what you want. Once you see it and ask questions about it, you would be foolish to not shop the internet for the same product. BBY and CC do not price match against AMZN or other internet retailers. Internt usually does not have sales tax. Thus they pay tons of money for staff, land and product which the internet retailers do not pay.

Until BBY and CC get paid to display products for Sony, Apple and others they are just being used. Take Apple, Todd's favorite company, they put product in BBY and CC while they sell it at their stores and online competing against the big box retailer. Since AAPL offers free shipping, why sell the prduct for them. Even worse, BBY and CC sell cd's and dvd's which itunes is eliminating the need for.

I say stay away. No position in BBY or CC. Long AAPL.

Circuit City Revises Downward: Where Does That Leave Best Buy?

Problem with CC and BBY is that they are fancy showrooms to show products on behalf of the product makers. Unfortunately they make money only when they sell the product. I wanted a 40" sony tv 1080p and CC and BBY were matching prices at $2499 and AMZN with free shipping to my living room was $1949. I would have liked to buy it at CC since they are a local company. When I asked the salesman about the price he said he could not match AMZN, but the manager might. No attempt to ever get the manager was done by the associate so I went home and bought the tv from amazon after viewing the product at CC. I see BBY and CC as doomed unless they get competitive on prices or figure out how to get paid for advertising the product for Sony.