Successor to Steve Uncertainty Hurting AAPL Share Price?

[sockdoggy]

A couple other things from a business standpoint that I respect about Apple...

Focus on money making/growth products
The iPhone/iPad have been Apple's biggest priority over the last couple of years while the Mac has been pushed down the list.

Stick with what they know
They are one of the few tech companies that haven't gone way out of their sandbox in the last couple years. When they got into the phone business they succeeded because they know operating systems and know hardware. Think Blackberry Playbook or many of Microsoft's failed ventures.

Understanding the consumer
They offer the consumer very simple choices. Fast, Faster, Fastest. iPhone- 2 sizes. What is my grandma supposed to order on Dell's website?

Profit margins
They know they have value and they don't under price themselves. They also keep a very tight market out there as far as selling prices go.

 

[iMikeT]

don't read too much into it. the entire stock market has been going down in the past two weeks.

Two weeks? More like seven.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

If someone gave me 5 grand I might very well put 4 of it into a Roth IRA and invest it in AAPL. Then I'd buy a MBA.

Point proven.

 

[shaynes]

So you would be purchasing three shares of AAPL at the current market price and using what, credit to purchase the MBA?

I don't even know which simple arithmetic mistake to correct here.

 

[Tunster]

It's all about Apple running out of steam - fact obvious wherever you look at it...

1. Lion - although I will be sticking with OS X, quite frankly, Microsoft Windows 8 demos made me more excited...

2. iPad - while OKish device it has reached its peak and it is on its way down from now on due to huge number of equally good or better competitors flooding the market.

3. iPhone - see above...

4. Macs - while great machines they are hugely overpriced and might not be as easy sell as they used to be due to horrible economic situation that will only get worse.

5. And finally, yes, Steve is on his way out...

All this = stock going down and it won't stop going down for quite some time!

That's a very pessimistic way of looking at things! Also, I'm sure there's a little bias from your own personal opinion about the products themselves. Let me put another view on this...

1. Lion - iMac/MacBook sales are still on the increase and have taken a good chunk out of Microsoft's "lion" share of the PC market. Especially when they're up 15% in April/May in a falling PC market. Pretty impressive. Lion I'm sure will get iPad users to buy into an iMac/MacBook if they haven't got one.

2. iPad - Woah? What planet are you on? It's still selling strong against it's competitors as a singular product. You'd expect to see a slow down after the initial release. I'm sure the iPad will be king for a long time to come.

3. iPhone - In a tougher market and where money is valued less, cheaper smartphones will be more appealing. Again, as a singular product; Apple is keeping it's momentum with 113% increase Q-to-Q and I'm sure the iPhone 5 will boost Apple's reputation again.

4. Mac's - A worse economic situation? Wasn't that 3 years ago? Things are slowly getting better and people are starting to see how much value for money you get with a Mac. All down to the help of iPads and iPhones on the market.

5. I would agree Steve Jobs stepping down would be a big hit on stability, but I'm sure he won't go until the next release of the iPhone and leave on a high to make sure a dent in Apple's stocks is very minimal.

Here in the UK, all the Apple shops are crammed with kids and people wanting to buy their products all the time. I'm sure we'll see Apple's reputation to be at the top for a long time into the 21st Century. It's nice to see they've turned their old stigma of being an expensive/media savvy product company to one you can trust in everyday computing.

Oh, and I almost forgot. Who else will be bringing a free, sophisticated cloud related product that streamlines well with all their products in the range? Only Apple. Wonder how long it'll take for Google to copy and say we can allow you to setup your cheaper tablet without a computer (for a cost) too?

 

[mytdave]

it's wallstreet, not apple

The price is down because Wallstreet is clueless about real life. These are the same people who have nearly bankrupted the nation...

There is no problem with the uncertainty surrounding Steve Jobs. Do you really think for one minute they don't have someone ready to take Steve's place? They are just not telling anyone who that person is. And that is a prudent move, because clearly, Wallstreet, and the press, would cause all kinds of havoc with that information.

If there is any real-world motivation for a stock price decline, it's the foolish approach Apple has taken to Lion distribution. The App Store-only download for Lion is not conducive for businesses. It has the potential to wreck commercial sales of Macs. That is the only real danger Apple is facing right now.

 

[shaynes]

Point proven.

What was your point? That you don't understand investing?

 

[jntdigital]

I honestly think Apple has already begun its transition, just not made it official. We are seeing Steve in his new role now. He will be around doing the keynote presentations collaborating on product development until he physically unable to. But If they can maintain momentum under Tim Cook I think he is the new CEO.

Question is, what if Johnny Ive leaves too?

 

[BlindMellon]

There hasn't been any news about Steve's health getting worse, so pointing at this subject to justify a slight decrease on the AAPL stock share (when many other important names, not just Apple's, have also gone down) I think is an erroneous assumption.

The only "news" anyone needs is to see how sickly and frail he looked at the WWDC (and that city council meeting). Had no energy and didn't do much presenting at all (like he did last year - and he looked sick last year, but nothing like now). Unless he has a miraculous recovery, he looks like he's got about 3 months.

 

[doctor-don]

Has nothing to do with the market and everything to do with the fact that Apple is completely changing the course of the ship without anyone knowing who is going to be captaining the ship. Apples move may be great but it won't be great if a bumbling bafoon is running it. Uncertainty and Apple secrecy are no longer going to be a driving force in keeping Apples stock high. I think a lot of investors are feeling burned by the fact that they have no idea what their investments are really going to. Apple will recover of course but for someone to be blindly putting their money into an investment such as Apple, its high risk, high reward.




Famous last words of every single person whos been bit by a Ponzi or a bad stock investment. If getting rich quick was a valid option, everyone would be rich. Its better to gamble your livelihood on something that is going to mature in time and give you better tax options.

What is a bafoon?

Should've cashed in when it was at $330! Damn!

Hold onto your stock - IF you have any. The price will climb again as the new products become available.

If you were going to sell, you should have done it when the price reached $360 this past February and March.

Having to fill in Steve's shoes is going to be a big thing since he was really brought up the company and they need someone who will not bring it down. I wonder is Woz could do the job or Tim

Woz - no, he isn't the CEO that Apple would require.

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People who don't own anything Apple should refrain from making comments because it simply demonstrates their ignorance.

 

[iMikeT]

I don't even know which simple arithmetic mistake to correct here.

Your five thousand dollars as you stated it:

Four thousand > IRA

One thousand > AAPL (three shares @ 315.32)

You have $54.04 for a MacBook Air. Where will you get the rest of the money to pay for it out of the five thousand dollars your originally started with?

 

[sockdoggy]

If there is any real-world motivation for a stock price decline, it's the foolish approach Apple has taken to Lion distribution. The App Store-only download for Lion is not conducive for businesses. It has the potential to wreck commercial sales of Macs. That is the only real danger Apple is facing right now.

Can you expand? Not sure what you mean.

 

[*LTD*]

So you're telling me that investing in a company without knowing any future plans and prices that are astronomical per share is a worthy investment? If you had 5 grand right now would you invest it all in Apple or put it into a ROTH IRA that would make you more money than that Apple stock would? The market is crappy because people make stupid decisions investing and the comments of users on this forum about how happy they are with their 10 shares of Apple is proof that people have no clue what they are doing with their money.

How could you not know their "future plans"? Where have you been the past two years? You can invest on the strength of the iPad alone and stand a good chance. You will *never* know exact details of their roadmap, unless you're involved in some insider trading. But look at their performance, the way they're shaking things up, the coming iPad boom, etc. These are some considerations you should typically make before investing.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

The shareholders can't wait.

 

[deebster]

Who is Steve Uncertainty?

 

[mccldwll]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

There hasn't been any news about Steve's health getting worse, so pointing at this subject to justify a slight decrease on the AAPL stock share (when many other important names, not just Apple's, have also gone down) I think is an erroneous assumption.

The only "news" anyone needs is to see how sickly and frail he looked at the WWDC (and that city council meeting). Had no energy and didn't do much presenting at all (like he did last year - and he looked sick last year, but nothing like now). Unless he has a miraculous recovery, he looks like he's got about 3 months.

I guess you're not BlindMellon[sic] for nothing.

 

[pyro008]

You're looking at this as a consumer and not as an investor. Apple hasn't really done anything lately that gives a long term investor (those are the ones companies really want) a reason to buy and stick around.

Exactly. The iPod resurrected Apple from insignificance, and the iPhone was another great innovation that made them such a great company. The iPad was not even original since tablets had been around before, they just made it sleeker and slapped a fruit on it, yet it still sold like hotcakes because it was Apple, and it was really the only tablet out at the time (since previous attempts failed). Since the iPhone, there hasn't been a lot of innovation and without Jobs there to convince people that the same old **** is actually new and better ****, how are they going to sustain their market share?

I doubt you are going to find any investors out there who think iPad is on its way down.

There are tons of competitors coming out every day. The question isn't if the iPad is on the way down, but how far it will fall.

 

[Blakeco123]

The entire market has been down since around wwdc. It's not just Apple, and it's likely more related to the global economic slump than to uncertainty over Steve.

its not the whole market, its mostly just technology companies. google has dropped almost $150 in the last 3 months, even netflix is down. yet the dow j and nasdaq are up $76 and $13, respectively

 

[*LTD*]

Who is Steve Uncertainty?

Good catch.

 

[sockdoggy]

Woz - no, he isn't the CEO that Apple would require.

Everyone has to admit, Woz would make the best CEO for Mac enthusiasts.

Prices would go down, tech specs would be way up, and everyone would most likely get a share of Apple for every Mac purchase!

The guy is just too nice to run this type of company!

 

[iMikeT]

There is no problem with the uncertainty surrounding Steve Jobs. Do you really think for one minute they don't have someone ready to take Steve's place? They are just not telling anyone who that person is. And that is a prudent move, because clearly, Wallstreet, and the press, would cause all kinds of havoc with that information.

Damn, I was hoping that Apple would pick Steve Jobs' replacement the same way a new pope is chosen.

 

[shaynes]

Your five thousand dollars as you stated it:

Four thousand > IRA

One thousand > AAPL (three shares @ 315.32)

You have $54.04 for a MacBook Air. Where will you get the rest of the money to pay for it out of the five thousand dollars your originally started with?

An IRA is an "Individual Retirement Account". The money in that account can be invested however you please. In my case I said I would invest that 4K in AAPL stock. The remaining 1K is available for the computer.

Those of you who have no experience with investing or the markets, it is glaringly obvious. I am hardly a seasoned investor, yet I know how to use Google to look stuff up. Please stop making yourself look like "bafoon"s.

 

[*LTD*]

There are tons of competitors coming out every day.

I hadn't noticed. Probably because none of them are very impressive.

Oh look, Huaw - who-ahh - hoo-something - Huawei - I can barely pronounce it, just released a "tablet" device. OMG Look out.

 

[cirus]

1. Lion - iMac/MacBook sales are still on the increase and have taken a good chunk out of Microsoft's "lion" share of the PC market. Especially when they're up 15% in April/May in a falling PC market. Pretty impressive. Lion I'm sure will get iPad users to buy into an iMac/MacBook if they haven't got one.

5% is a big chunk? Its nothing.

 

[miografico]

Actually I think you’re the one looking at it as a consumer. Apple’s P/E ratio is 15.03 the last time it was that low was at the depths of the 2009 market crash. At that time the iPad was a huge gamble. Cut to 2011 and the iPad is increasingly looking like it will follow the iPod’s dominance in market share/profit rather than the iPhones dominance in profits alone. The growth for the iPad is massive, the growth of the iPhone is still quite large and if you were paying attention the introduction of iCloud is far more significant than photos and music. If Apple doesn’t blow it iCloud will be as important as the iPad.

The whole of the market is overbought. In the 70's, 80's and 90's you looked for a PE ratio of ten or below when you were looking at a long term growth play. Now, anything below 25 is considered a good multiple. That's throwing your money away in my experience. The new rules of investing are meant for consumer suckers who would be better off playing the lottery.

The whole of the market has a long way to come down. People have no clue just about what kind of pain the world market is going to experience once everyone wakes up. What I mean by waking up is taking a simple look at the DJIA vs. the price of commodities. It's fake! It's the biggest bubble we have ever seen here in the US and its about to come crashing down. The reason the indices are as high as they are is because of the massive amount of liquidity that has been pumped into the system.

It's funny money, no one is buying real residential/commercial property outside of Texas, banks are in worse shape than they were in 2007-2008 because there are far less of them and as such are not lending money, companies are hoarding cash, and gold is still through the roof. Track the relation of gold prices to US Market over this century and tell me any time in the past when the market has been on a perpetual upswing alongside of gold?

We are fast heading into an era worse than the Carter era.

If you're not already wealthy and young you would be best suited looking at long term growth companies. If your interest is tech, as long as you keep the proper mindset and stay away from the OTCBB, look for companies with good IP that will be able to license or produce their tech to offset their debt - eventually leading to profitability.

If you are middle aged, middle income and have a family you don't belong in the market to begin with. There are other investment vehicles that will benefit you and your children once the reality of inflation and the new/worse than the last one recession sets in.