Apple Inc. (AAPL)

All Comments on AAPL

  • commenter
    mrlegowatch1
    Aug 29 09:09 PM
    Record Companies Starting to Shun iTunes [view article]
    Almost all of my digital collection has been ripped from thousands of CDs that I've collected during the past 20 years. But I haven't been buying new CDs. Lately, most of what comes off of CD has been from the purchase of used CDs. I haven't ripped everything from them, because (oh, focus on the topic) a majority of albums as a whole suck. Digitally, speaking, about 12% of my 7,500 track collection comes from iTunes Store, and about half of that is protected AAC--the store just that convenient. But none of that has stopped me from collecting purchased Discipline Global Mobile downloads, an independent web site, or Nine Inch Nails, or Burning Shed, where my Roger Eno fix comes from, and so on. For those of us legally purchasing digital music, the arguments recently presented in these articles and blogs regarding the album are all sound and fury, signifying nothing. I'm obtaining my music digitally, I'll buy or rip an album when I want to. And without regard to "new" (read: label) physical CDs. If you do the math, I buy a lot of music. Most of it from independent artists. It is *MY* purchasing model is threatened by this move to force album sales. So I don't think the independent artist is at risk. The Bentley artist, the caviar manager, the deceiver label? Yes, absolutely. Reply
  • commenter
    Partners in
    Grime
    Aug 29 09:06 PM
    My Website
    Record Companies Starting to Shun iTunes [view article]
    If it's not on iTunes I don't buy it.


     Reply
  • commenter
    Itsonlymoney
    Aug 29 06:31 PM
    Apple: Great Company with Lofty Valuation - Due for Pullback [view article]
    To all the responders who accuse the author of writing an article to improve his short position: as if an article in Seeking Alpha could move a stock. At least he has his money on the line when he makes a call.

    Reply
  • commenter
    bluemarlin14
    02
    Aug 29 05:56 PM
    Why Apple Stock Is Poised To Go Flat - At Best [view article]
    @frdm45 "otherwise keep the elementary school insults to the schoolyard or other sites where such low class verbiage is acceptable"

    If I had said publicly that Apple sells an iphone for $199, the same as other phones, so there must not be a price premium associated with it. I would expect to be called an idiot. This is completely false and shows not even the most basic understanding of the sales model of the iphone.

    If my boss didn't call me an idiot I'd quit the company due to my new found lack of respect for him.     Reply
  • commenter
    nikster
    Aug 29 05:48 PM
    Why Apple Stock Is Poised To Go Flat - At Best [view article]
    Others have already pointed out the weakness in some of these arguments. I think life expectancy for a 52 year old billionaire is pretty outstanding - I'm not worried.

    What I want to add is Apple's near-unlimited potential.

    In phones, it can take apart Nokia and others with ease because it has better software and better hardware design, with the latter being the single most important sales factor for mobile phones. U.S. analysts generally have no clue about this though because of the retarded - or, let's say, very different - nature of the U.S. mobile phone market.

    In international PC sales, Apple is several percentage points behind its US market share - in many countries, they're not even trying. Huge potential.

    Halo continues to have amazing effects, again growing from 5% means the potential is 95%. Its a fact that in a net-centric world Windows compatibility is unimportant for many people. In this sense Apple could out-Microsoft Microsoft by selling both hardware and software. 20% is realistic.

    The only worry I have is how Apple can manage to scale like this, and I think that's the big challenge ahead of them.     Reply
  • commenter
    tuskagee
    Aug 29 05:37 PM
    False Data Clobbers the Markets [view article]
    I think we need to castrate some of these lying short-sellers. Reply
  • commenter
    KenC
    Aug 29 05:36 PM
    Why Apple Stock Is Poised To Go Flat - At Best [view article]
    1) It's better to have room to grow, with 5% share, than to have no room to grow.

    2) What if the sky is falling? Honestly, mobile IS the next big thing. Also, recent projections DO NOT tie a significant amount of revenues to the App Store. Even if it were generating $1B in sales, Apple only gets 30%. No one is baking a large amount of sales in to the share price, due to the App Store. As for game developers, the fact that there are probably 10 million iPhones now, and probably 50 million iPhones by the end of next year, in the marketplace, with easy access to the App Store makes any other mobile game device dead in the water. Game developers, the TOP game developers are flocking to the iPhone, because of its installed base, and secure sales. No pirating of software. Your contention of another device is fantasy.

    3) Are you an investor or a trader? If you are an investor then Steve's health is not an issue, it's the product that matters and Apple's roadmap. Also, Steve is nearly at the 5-year benchmark for being "cured" of cancer.

    4) The price premium is a myth. iPods are not premium priced. Apple's margins have fluctuated from 27% to 35% over the last 5 years. They are not dropping margins on hardware to gain App Store sales. The App Store is breakeven, and brings down margins. Also, Apple's rivals have been targeting the iTunes store for ages, and have had zero success. That's Amazon, Walmart, Microsoft and others. What makes you think they will do any better in the future?

    5) The macroeconomic environment has been bad for a while now, and there has been no bump in Apple's sales or earnings. They've been hitting record after record.

    Every one of your 5 points has no factual basis, they are all conjecture. If you are going to do some analysis of Apple, you need to study the subject a little harder. You cursory glance is very superficial.     Reply
  • 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

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