CEO admits Apple is 'looking at new categories' for potential products - Page 2

The iPod was years in development before it was released. Me-too products followed quickly (read that, "knock-offs"). The iPhone was years in development, followed quickly by everyone else. iPad... same story.

All just rumors and quiet before they changed everything. Why should their product development be any different today?

I was speaking as a shareholder, not an employee or customer.  As shareholders, we are not getting full value - the company is currently trading at a huge discount to likely future cash flows even if you don't count the cash horde as being worth anything.

A leveraged buyout under these circumstances would not give us full value for our shares - much better to pay big dividends to pull in demand from buyers and make the stock go up a lot instead.

His sale to Al Jazeera is what I was referring too, as well as "his invention of the Internet". Do you think this is indicative of the values professed to be embraced by Tim Cook and Apple? I don't!

What's wrong with Al Jazeera?

Read about Al Jazeera and you will see for yourself. I don't remember Al Gore inventing the Internet. Do you?

Stockholders elect the BoD. They've reelected him year after year. Get over it.

I actually read Al Jazeera itself, I don't need to read about it. They're a reputable news organization. Why don't you just come out and say what you mean?

 

The Gore/Internet thing was a joke, an old one at that, and Cook was being funny. You apparently don't get the context, so here's some background for you:

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/internet.asp

I never knew where that meme originated. Thanks. It's puzzling that people still reference it today.

You are correct; the stockholders elect the Board, but Management purposes the slate of proposed Board Members, and in 99% of the time, the stockholders go along with the purposed slate. By the way, how many jobs does TC need---CEO, COO, Board Member? He needs to replace the person he hired and then fired to head retail! Can you imagine, Apple still doesn't have someone in charge of retail!

Board members may meet once a month. Lots of CEOs are also members if their own board. There isn't a COO currently. The duties are probably split between Cook and the VP of Ops. While there is no head of retail, it isn't a leaderless division.

Not exactly ideal; however, for a company once touted as the best in the world. I think Apple can do better, don't you? I sure hope you can at least agree with this comment.

Considering their retail and operations are best in their class, though they can do better I would argue they are consistently doing so all the time. 

I agree their retail stores are good, but I personally visit their stores often and the quality of their personnel has clearly deterioted over the last 9 months. I have notified Apple of this fact with specifics, via their Investor Relations Department, and they were most appreciative of my feedback. I also have found that the morale of the employees is down, because of the fall of the price of the stock. The fall of the stock is having a ripple affect in many unanticipated ways, including the desireability Apple products. Of course, owning a substantial amount of Apple stock, I hope things improve.

How can stock price affect desirability? I never heard anyone say "that iDevice looks good but the stock price is only 430. That's a deal breaker. I mean it does most things I want, but that stock price is low. "

Look through a couple of his posts and you'll find a lot of interesting "logic".

 

It depends on the situation. And every situation is different. What might be right & good for Dell may not be right & good (or necessary) for Apple. Also, when taking a company private involves taking on substantial debt (which is the case with any leveraged buyout), it can be bad... very bad. If a company gets itself in a position that every meeting involves discussions about how to service the debt, then that can become an unwelcome distraction.

 

I lay the chances of Apple buying Greece (with money left over) to be higher than anyone attempting to take Apple private. It's simply too big, IMO.

The drastic fall of the stock price poorly reflects on all aspects and products of the company, including credibility and consumer choices. People like winning companies; stock price included. Open your eyes and stop putting you head in the sand.

Funny how consumers couldn't care less and will still rate Apple products highest.

 

Open your eyes.

Do you read the news? I guess not!

 

Having what to do with anything?

 

Wait, what?  You think battery tech isn't up to snuff so we should be putting nuclear reactors in cars?  Doesn't it seem more likely that it would be faster and cheaper to wring additional performance out of battery tech (and battery tech isn't static, the improvements are incremental but steady) than it would be to develop tiny, safe reactors that we would be bullet proof enough to deploy by the millions on accident prone highways?

 

By the time we could reasonably engineer such a thing we'll be seeing 500 mile range electric cars and a national infrastructure of high current charging stations.

I have decided, if you have been appointed a "moderator" and you are supposed to be more informed than the rest of us, I am truly wasting my time on this Forumn. So, good bye to all you morons! I'm out

You were commenting on the brand PR, yet your posts suggest you know just enough to comment. Have you ever with anyone involved in corporate PR? You project a lot of words, yet little information.

 

Bye. I'll just ban you for that sweeping insult so you're not tempted to return (and when you do with another account, it'll be flagged more easily). 

 

 

Well, I see a hundred or so results from dozens of sources over roughly a decade that show Apple remains on top in customer service, satisfaction, and in reports of quality. These are indicators that the people who buy Apple products are willing to speak up as to their quality. When people are looking to purchase a new product, they turn to each other and public sentiment to determine what they want. That's well-known.

 

I also see a claim that regular people take the stock price and recent PPS performance of a company into consideration before buying a product. Just a claim, mind, no proof. Nothing I've ever read has indicated that this would be the case, but I guess now we'll never truly know if it is since you were unwilling to expound.

To be honest with you, after having been involved in the automobile industry for the past 18 years, I'd say putting the money in a pile and lighting it on fire would be about as productive as buying a car company focused on EV technology. No one at Apple knows anything about the auto industry, as far as I know. And with it being a very capital intensive industry (with low margins), turning a profit isn't so easy for even established players.

 

Many have made small fortunes in the auto industry. All you have to do is start with a large fortune... and it will soon be turned into a small fortune. I have a lot of respect for Elon Musk. I like dreamers. And who knows, maybe, in time, Tesla will pan out for him and his investors. But for right now, Tesla is just another money losing auto company with a cool concept. To maintain its growth, Apple needs to either develop some new category of consumer electronic device or refine an existing one to the point that they have another must have device that people will pay the "Apple premium" to have. Personally, I've yet to understand why Apple didn't snap up TiVo a couple of years ago when the share price was down.