Posts Tagged ‘apple’
Smart Investing Daily – Steve Jobs Is Leaving Apple Again — Is It Time to Sell the Stock?
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Six sentences… That’s all it was. The “explanation” of Steve Jobs‘ illness, as he takes leave of Apple, Inc. (AAPL:NASDAQ) yet again, was only six sentences long.
That should leave more than a little concern in investors’ minds about the direction of Apple’s stock price. But Apple has never been just a “chart” and value stock. It’s been a Jobs stock, and he may be more important to the company’s overall performance than its latest earnings report.
Over the past seven years, Jobs has had to “leave” his position twice as CEO of the world’s most prized tech company to deal with health issues. Apple, which was founded by Jobs and his then partners Steve “Woz” Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, has been built on their pioneering spirit and ingenious designs and ideas.
The early days of Apple can be categorized as trend setting and industry changing in many regards. Apple can be attributed with the mass implementation and acceptance of the graphic user interface (GUI), which was one of the main catalysts, in my opinion, that brought computing to into the mainstream. Of course, the GUI had to Read more
Smart Investing Daily – The Most Interesting Stock Market Chart of the Week
Friday, 05 November 2010
I thought Friday would be the perfect time to bring you a bit of technical analysis insight. This week’s stock market chart just blew me away when I saw it and thought it would be a great candidate. Adobe systems, the Silicon Valley software creator, should not only be known as the creator of PDF’s and flash players, but maybe also for the enormous and frequent “gaps” in its stock price.
Adobe Versus Apple
Before we get to those gaps, there is one thing that we need to talk about and that is the ongoing feud between Adobe and Apple. You see, Steve Jobs doesn’t like flash and doesn’t want it in his devices. In a letter to investors (and the public) Jobs noted six reasons why Apple doesn’t run flash on any mobile devices and the iPad. I don’t know about you, but going head to head with Apple would not be on my wish list this Christmas.
Apple is obviously a dominator in mobile and personal computers and a force to be reckoned with. Flash is a very profitable product for Adobe and they will do what they can to make it work. It’s a battle that both want to win at just about any cost.
Enter Skyfire and their new browser, which bears the same name. Skyfire provides iPhone and other users a way to view videos and other content that is flash-based. So if you have been dying to watch or play anything flash on your iPhone, a solution is here. Skyfire is not related to either company and they actually halted sales due to the overwhelming demand.
Will this hurt or help Adobe?
Research In Motion (RIMM) – “Ya’ Blew It!”
By Jared A levy
Imagine this article title uttered like De Niro said to Stallone in Cop Land, just with much more conviction. I am putting the pom-poms down and the party is over for Research in Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) in my humble opinion – at least for a while. Since 2008, I have written many articles about the Canadian Smartphone pioneer and have built a case for this company recovering from its lagging position in the race to be on top. A year or so ago, I cited RIMM’s acquisition of Torch Mobile as a move in the right direction to get the BlackBerry browser up to date and hopefully looking cool. They did take the name 
RIMM has always been a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race sort of company. They engineer and refine their products to be dependable and capable, which I applaud them for. This is also a trait I thought would help them in the long run as long as they could balance that dependability with creating new and exciting products.
So when I heard earlier this year about OS6, I got excited. I felt that RIMM would really wow us not only with this cool new operating system, which they so eloquently teased, but with a device that would bring “sexy back, ” just like Timberlake! But no, we get another so-so slider that looks the same as about 15 other devices which have preceded it, only much less sexy. Here you can check it out for yourself.
When Steve Jobs is on stage waxing poetic about how magical his devices are and how nothing like “It” has ever been created before, I would think the counter from RIMM would be something with a bit of uniqueness. Maybe a form factor or set of features that really made the Torch stand out. Looking at the Torch, it seems to just blend in with everything else.
Two Ways to Play Apple (AAPL) Earnings
by Jared Levy on July 19, 2010
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock and the company’s product line are both definitely favorites of mine. If you have followed my writing any amount of time, you’ll know that the smartphone universe and the players within it have been under my microscope for almost two years now. Apple, of course, is more than a smartphone company, but its number-one product is the iPhone, so many analysts tend to put great emphasis on sales of that product. Even with strong iPhone sales, the other products do certainly play a role and we will want to see growth across the entire product line.
The iPhone 4 was released this past quarter and the bulk of the new iPads (3G and variants) sales will be included in this quarter’s earnings as well. Now that we are about three months past the iPad’s April 3 release, data on this device’s sales will also be key.
Based on anecdotal evidence and a statement from Apple, iPhone 4 was a record breaker in new product sales. Obviously there is the antenna issue with this product, but Apple is applying a band-aid in the form of a free case for everyone who bought the phone.
Even though some think Steve Jobs’ tone was almost “condescending” in his conference on Friday to address the issue, the equity market made its own decision and the stock actually held its ground among a sharply declining broader market. But given reports that the iPhone 4 drops twice as many calls as its predecessor, future sales are certainly a concern, as are costs to the company and a permanent solution to the issue.
Coming into its Tuesday earnings report, Apple has some serious expectations behind it. According to several sources, the consensus second-quarter earnings expectation is about $3.10 per share, up from $2.01 a year ago. Most are looking for a revenue increase of about 76.8% to $14.7 billion year over year.
Apple (AAPL) iPhone4 Conference Coming Friday
by Jared Levy on July 16, 2010
Apple (NASADQ:AAPL) is doing the unthinkable today; they plan to publicly address the issues with their newest device. The company is under extreme pressure and has even been sued over the “external antenna” design flaws with the iPhone 4.
Apple has a history of saying practically nothing in between its earnings reports and product launches. Even in the forward-looking statements provided on earnings calls, extreme lack of detail is the norm, leaving us (the general public) to really wonder what is going on in the “Wonka Chocolate Factory.” Heck, the iPhone doesn’t even come with a complete user manual; you have to dig through the web for that one. (My grandfather still can’t get past making a call and texting).
That strategy has worked thus far. The Apple mystique and magic marketing machine has pushed product sales to record levels and in turn AAPL stock, which is up $42.00 or 20% year to date (it got as high as $279.00 on June 21). But Apple now faces a serious challenge with this iPhone 4 “problem.” Of course there may be potential costs associated with repairing/recalling the hundreds of thousands of iPhone 4s produced. But the bigger issue may be the firm’s reputation and whether the “Kool-Aid” they have so far been able to get just about everyone to drink is in unlimited supply after all.
A repair solution might be to give users a free case, which could cost Apple a few dollars per phone. Jobs might also offer a big cash rebate to really make everyone happy, but I believe that this weakness has the potential to really affect iPhone sales moving forward.
You see, it’s not just an antenna issue the iPhone has had; the battery life and dropped calls (on the older phones) are reported problems as well, along with some other small quirks. How many people do you know who have broken or cracked their iPhone screen?
Anecdotal Evidence: You Could Have Waited to Get Your iPhone
by Jared Levy on June 25, 2010
The question is, why would you want to? Earlier this week I wrote about the man who was camped out in front of the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) store for seven days to ensure that he got his new iPhone 4. Well. Mr. Wagoner maybe could have saved himself a bit of heat stroke and heartache in the sweltering Texas sun.
This morning, I took a ride by the Apple store at 10 a.m. to check out the insanity. Lo and behold, the lines had died down to about 12 deep. There was still a fully armed Dallas police officer to keep everyone in line; you know how those Apple users can be rowdy and unruly…
But in fact, all of the prospective customers who showed up at the Highland Park Apple store yesterday were able to claim their new shiny glass devices and could, in fact, have waited until Friday to claim their phones, as there were still some in stock this morning. According to a very helpful and seemingly knowledgeable rep (called “Geniuses” at the Apple Store, btw), they were beginning to run low.
Is the Apple iPhone 4G on the Way?
by Jared Levy on June 7th, 2010
Expectations are always high for new Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) products and with Steve Jobs being the showman and master of spin that he is, he can generally deliver. Blogs are lit up with anticipation ahead of today’s Worldwide Developers Conference and Jobs’ keynote speech is expected to contain news of a new product (Note: I am writing this at 7:30 am CT).
There have been many sites that have leaked photos and specifics of the closely-guarded product. Of course there was the notorious beer-garden incident in California, which offered a “free look” into the phone, thanks to Gray Powell, an engineer from Apple who left the phone at Gourmet Haus Staudt (which I hear has a great selection of German beers, by the way). That fourth-generation phone ended up in the hands of the website Gizmodo for the sum of $5,000 but was later returned to Apple.
According to Gizmodo, the new iPhone is thinner than the 3GS and previous iPhones, containing smaller internal components and a 16% larger battery inside the new metal frame; this could mean that poor battery life will be improved. There is now a front-facing camera, which should help with many apps and with video chat, and there is also a larger and better-quality camera with an LED flash on the back, a higher-resolution display, and a second microphone for noise cancellation.
There is also reportedly a new back cover, which is speculated to be glass or ceramic, possibly to address the scratching issues that iPhone owners face every time they sit their naked iPhone on just about any surface other than one coated with cosmoline. It is also reported that there will also now be a MicroSIM slot in the phone, which is the same device used in the iPad.
Apple takes a different approach with the iPhone and with all of its products for that matter. Instead of having dozens and sometimes hundreds of phone models like their competitors, Apple tends to have one product – with one recognizable name and brand – and improve on that one brand, using the ‘generational’ theme. This is similar to the automotive industry.
I always thought this was Nokia’s (NYSE: NOK) Achilles heel; they have produced literally hundreds of different models over the years and I can’t tell you one model name or number, even though I have owned several. That is not to say that their products are inferior, it’s simply that by the time you figure out one phone’s key features and want to tell your friends, there are 10 new models being produced. With the iPhone, everyone talks about what it can do, Apple highlights its features through simple but cute commercials, and you can have confidence that the product will at least deliver certain expectations.