Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but other companies did this in the past. This strategy only works for a limited amount of time, and then, the strategy result in a massive loss of the market share and the stock price that loses 75% of its value.

They haven't lost market share. While there is a price point they cannot cross--and it's an extremely difficult line to toe--they haven't found it yet.

I hope this doesn't happen to AAPL, as this would not be good for me personally.

Ah, so you're busy planning your exit from AAPL?
 
What are you basing it on? It's certainly not the actual numbers. Don't let emotion get into your decision. The strategy is working, as we see in the data.

I understand people are frustrated with price increases, but it just shows Apple has pricing power. Every company raises prices...

The stock reaction is more a result of Apple holding up so well the last month or so while AMZN, GOOGL, FB, NVDA, NFLX have been crushed.

I suspect after a few weeks of digestion, the investors will get over not reporting unit sales and they'll see this quarter was amazing and guidance was not "weak." It's 6% growth in revenue that they guided and that's on a huge number.
I also own a good chunk of IBM. Look what has happened to IBM in the past couple of months. A complete meltdown. Why? Same reason - they have no strategy for the future, and the present finally has caught up with them. What's happening to IBM today and what happened to MSFT 15 years ago. It is what will happen to AAPL if the leadership doesn't come up with a viable strategy fast.
 
Valid comparison - people love to refresh.

A $30-50,000 car refreshed every there years (lease, mostly) vs an iPhone refreshed every two years is not even close. Even a Walmart employee can do the iPhone refresh.

If Apple succeeds in recruiting new customers 20-25% more every year in any of their lineup, they will $2 Trillion in three years. Don't hold me to this statement - but I will take the credit in 2021!:):apple::D

Yeah, that's what puzzles me when people say Apple is now exclusively a luxury brand. Even a kid with a part time job can obtain one. Apple isn't exactly selling billion dollar yachts.
 
What are you basing it on? It's certainly not the actual numbers. Don't let emotion get into your decision. The strategy is working, as we see in the data.

I understand people are frustrated with price increases, but it just shows Apple has pricing power. Every company raises prices...

Exactly--it doesn't necessarily make sense to compare Apple to other companies that have failed at this, because they did not have the power that Apple has amassed.

Hell, I'm almost embarrassed to say how much more I'd pay to stay in the iOS/macOS environment; it would be hell just to make the initial switch, and I can't stand using the competition's products.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Baymowe335
I also own some IBM. Look what has happened to IBM in the past couple of months. A complete meltdown. Why? Same reason - they have no strategy for the future, and the present finally has caught up with them.
There was a reason gerstner was brought in. IBM is not Apple. Of course anything can happen. It’s been predicted Apple would implode when Tim became ceo. Maybe it will take years and years. But Apple is not a stupid company.
 
There was a reason gerstner was brought in. IBM is not Apple. Of course anything can happen. It’s been predicted Apple would implode when Tim became ceo. Maybe it will take years and years. But Apple is not a stupid company.

If he is that worried and has made millions already why not sell? He can sleep better at night and has made millions. It seems he thinks the stock will not do well but won't sell because greed is getting the best of him. If I had made millions i would maybe jump ship as well. It all depends on what goals people have but the market always goes up so you can never sell at the highest point if you look at the long run.
 
I also own a good chunk of IBM. Look what has happened to IBM in the past couple of months.

Then see my plight - I own GE!

Will they rise again? I hope to infinity that they do. Apple and GE are on opposite tracks.

The people who bought Google, Amazon, UA and those coffee pods at $2 equivalent are the ones who are ecstatic now. Don't really know how the coffee is doin now - too detached to follow that.
 
I also own a good chunk of IBM. Look what has happened to IBM in the past couple of months. A complete meltdown. Why? Same reason - they have no strategy for the future, and the present finally has caught up with them. What's happening to IBM today and what happened to MSFT 15 years ago. It is what will happen to AAPL if the leadership doesn't come up with a viable strategy fast.
Did you just compare the state of IBM with AAPL?

They could not be more different. For starters, IBM's has a terrible CEO while Cook is probably a top 3 CEO. IBM has terrible executives. Apple has outstanding executives.

IBM has also had declining revenue (adjusting for recent hardware sales that are kind of one time) for something like 22 consecutive quarters. Apple is a growing business with far more financial strength with better leadership.

IBM is fighting for cloud share against Amazon, Google, and Microsoft while Apple is the clear leader in their space. Watson is terrible and the strategic imperatives growth cannot outweigh IBM's declining businesses.

IBM just has terrible management overall and the company is floundering while Apple is firing on all cylinders.
 
Er, it actually kinda is somewhat magical, as literally every other business in existence has not been able to figure out how to do it as well as Apple. You get that this is quite a bit more complicated than raising the price, no?

It really isn’t, it’s marketing at the end of the day, that’s created the following, and people who throw money at Aplle no matter what.
I’m also pretty sure last time I chwas died their are other companies older then Apple still going... you seem to have ignored that?
 
I also own a good chunk of IBM. Look what has happened to IBM in the past couple of months. A complete meltdown. Why? Same reason - they have no strategy for the future, and the present finally has caught up with them. What's happening to IBM today and what happened to MSFT 15 years ago. It is what will happen to AAPL if the leadership doesn't come up with a viable strategy fast.
I actually sold the small position I had in IBM at $142 AFTER the last earnings call. They are a disaster and that was the last straw for me. I don't think there is much downside left, but the $142 sale was a good call at least.
 
I also own a good chunk of IBM. Look what has happened to IBM in the past couple of months. A complete meltdown. Why? Same reason - they have no strategy for the future, and the present finally has caught up with them. What's happening to IBM today and what happened to MSFT 15 years ago. It is what will happen to AAPL if the leadership doesn't come up with a viable strategy fast.
Apple does have a strategy, it just clearly takes time for the technology to actually be ready for manufacturing. You might want to take a look at where their patents are pointing....
 
They haven't lost market share. While there is a price point they cannot cross--and it's an extremely difficult line to toe--they haven't found it yet.



Ah, so you're busy planning your exit from AAPL?
I am actually seriously considering my exit from AAPL. Obviously not tomorrow, and judging by what happened to the stock tonight probably not until late January early February or perhaps even in a year from now. But yes, I don't think I should stay long in AAPL anymore unless something amazing happens between now and when the stock price hits $230.

I've also pushed against those who predicted gloom for AAPL, but frankly, Tim Cook irks me, and being a technical person, I see major issues in the Apple's cloud offerings that others may not see. I see sloppy software update releases getting sloppier every year. I can't help but wonder what those tens of thousands of Apple engineers are doing on the daily basis. I see nothing new being produced software-wise besides minor improvements to existing platforms. Maybe they are all working on something revolutionary, or maybe they have lost their way. I don't know how to interpret that, but I am starting to side with those who predicted this a while back.

I don't believe in Tim Cooks' CEO leadership skills. He is a great supply chain guy, but he has neither clue nor vision. Steve Jobs was not an engineer, but he had a tremendous vision. Tim Cook has nothing other than being able to manage the supply chain well. That's my opinion, but I don't believe the ship has a captain in Tim Cook.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: freedomlinux
There was a reason gerstner was brought in. IBM is not Apple. Of course anything can happen. It’s been predicted Apple would implode when Tim became ceo. Maybe it will take years and years. But Apple is not a stupid company.
He said he owns millions of dollars in AAPL. I'm beginning to doubt that if he's that clueless about the strategy they've implemented brilliantly. The damn stock is also up 30% for the year, so this small leg down isn't surprising. The market is now flat to down for the year and AAPL is still way up.

People forget AAPL has only traded over $200 since August. It's never been at these levels, so it's natural for it to pull back.
 
  • Like
Reactions: FFR
He said he owns millions of dollars in AAPL. I'm beginning to doubt that if he's that clueless about the strategy they've implemented brilliantly. The damn stock is also up 30% for the year, so this small leg down isn't surprising. The market is now flat to down for the year and AAPL is still way up.

People forget AAPL has only traded over $200 since August. It's never been at these levels, so it's natural for it to pull back.

The looming election isn't exactly helping either.
 
You can't drive the pricing up forever. There's a limited supply of money in most people's budgets. There will be (or has there already been?) a point when most folks will tell Tim Cook to f*** himself and will go with a competitor, which, by the way, is getting closer and closer to being on par with Apple. This is true for everything Apple is making. I still think Apple's devices are the best, but the competition is breathing down Apple's neck in every category, and in a few categories, the competition has passed Apple a long time ago.

Thing is - nobody really knows what this ceiling is yet, and it seems like Apple doesn’t mind pushing the envelope to find out just what this threshold is.
 
That is 300% the stock price since its split in 2014!

Long on this stock. (Did not sell all my holdings recently)
AAPL was in mid-$700 in August-September of 2012. That' is a little under $100 in the post-split price. So, the reality is that the run-up in the stock price is not 300%. It's about 150% since the highs in the pre-split prices, which is about six years. It averaged about 25% per year since the highs of 2012, which is better than the overall market, but not as good as some of the FAANG stocks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KPandian1
Thing is - nobody really knows what this ceiling is yet, and it seems like Apple doesn’t mind pushing the envelope to find out just what this threshold is.

Last time around they (Apple) thought it was $700! Maybe that is their psychological threshold.
 
AAPL was in mid-$700 in August-September of 2012. That' is a little under $100 in the post-split numbers. So, the reality is that the run-up in the stock price is not 300%. It's about 150% since the highs in the pre-split prices, which is about six years.

When it split 7:1 on June 09, 2014, the low price was $90.88 after the event. So, 250%.
 
Hahahaha, seriously doubters were saying iPhones weren’t selling “as well as apple hoped”.

Ok....that’s hilarious.

200,000 increase in units sold isn’t really flat, when everyone else in the smartphone market are losing sales. Also taking into account the 29% increase in revenue yoy for said 200,000 units not bad at all when you when the entire smartphone market is contracting.
did you notice the asp rising as well? Or do you cherry pick to support your conclusions?

Right Samsung galaxies aren’t selling, and their asp and revenue in mobile have cratered, and according to you only brand fanfics care about current market conditions.

Remind me did you sell your note for a pixel or is it sitting in a drawer?





Aw bud, don't be pedantcally disingenuous. In any financial discussion a YoY growth rate of less than 1% is considered flat. Considering it's less than a half percent... let's be real.

Your phone stats are made up as well. Everyone else in the smartphone industry isn't losing sales. Multiple reports every qtr back my claim. Your conflating the overall market being down with every vendor being down. That's not it works.

Also go re-read my quote. I mention the increased ASP. So there's that. We can continue to to engage but if you're going to debase the discussion with ad hominem bs about phone choice, I'd rather you did it with someone else who engages on that level.

Your post is messed up btw.

Pedantically disingenuous, that’s bold assertion, not quite accurate in the current context, but funny nonetheless.

Sure let’s be real; 200,000 unit growth over 47 million units shipped in the quarter when almost every other android oem is posting unit, revenue, and asp declines....yeah some one is definitely owing “pedantically disingenuous” by ignoring apple near record asp and 29% revenue growth. ;) real indeed.

Almost every vendor isn’t the same as every vendor. No idea why your making stuff up, but the fact remains and your assertion isn’t backed up by the contracting smartphone market or the reality it’s based it in, but please do go on. Samsung not only missed smartphone projections but their 10 million unit decline this quarter was embarrassing to say the least, note 9 and Samsung s9 are failures bringing their asp and revenue for the quarter down. It’s truly embarrassing, I hope you didn’t pay full price for your note 9. However it’s even worse for HTC, lg mobile, Sony mobile, essential, and Lenovo, to name a few, you know the smartphone industry at large. Huawei seems to be doing well, but their asp have fallen quite a bit as of late.

I did reread your post and at no point do you mention iPhone revenue increasing by 30% yoy or service revenue reaching 10 billion, you seem to have selectively left that out, honest mistake I presume.

You feel attacked because you use a note 9 and pixel 3? Never heard anyone using android call it “debasing” but whatever floats your boat. You don’t seem to fundamentally understand financials or the smartphone market your attempting to debate on any given level, but carry on. It’s entertaining to say the least. Good luck.
 
No offense intended, but please stop saying that. They have a very viable strategy right now, and they are executing it very well.
What is their strategy? I'm honestly very interested in hearing your answer, since I see no strategy other than the tactical decision of raising the price for now.

I'm taking about a trajectory right now. Stuff that goes up will eventually come down unless it leaves the stratosphere and enters the outer space. Even then, if it orbits the earth, it will eventually crash down to earth and burn. I'm not arguing that for the next few quarters Apple may continue to show higher revenue and higher profits. What will happen when their current tactic of raising prices no longer works?
[doublepost=1541117789][/doublepost]
If he is that worried and has made millions already why not sell? He can sleep better at night and has made millions. It seems he thinks the stock will not do well but won't sell because greed is getting the best of him. If I had made millions i would maybe jump ship as well. It all depends on what goals people have but the market always goes up so you can never sell at the highest point if you look at the long run.
That's excellent investment advice. Thank you.
[doublepost=1541117865][/doublepost]
I never doubted anything you said.
I know; I couldn't delete that post. It was an answer to another poster. Sorry.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ryanwarsaw
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.