Yet they still manage to sell out a majority of their shows, including the up coming tour.
With that aside, are you really comparing a multibillion dollar company with a band?
There are points of comparison.
Both have cult followings (altho Apple also has many normal customers).
Both have a dead charismatic leader.
I'd wager that most ardent deadheads "Think Different" and that they prefer Apple over M$. It is part of their lifestyle, and both allow a "us against THEM" mindset for those so inclined.
The highest estimate I've read puts Saudi Aramco at $7 trillion. Apple could solve them quick time with a super-efficient home solar panel. Please!!!!!
Both have cult followings (altho Apple also has many normal customers).
Both have a dead charismatic leader.
I'd wager that most ardent deadheads "Think Different" and that they prefer Apple over M$. It is part of their lifestyle, and both allow a "us against THEM" mindset for those so inclined.
I'd agree with that.
Both have also done well since their leader died, but Apple hasn't been around that long without him.
I need to catch Furthur, those guys can't be along for that much longer
I need to catch Furthur, those guys can't be along for that much longer
I've seen them a couple of times. IMO, they are a mediocre tribute band, a weak pale simulation of the Dead.
Bob Weir is still extremely talented, but without a great lead guitarist, the music suffers. I have no idea why they picked John Kadlecik. He's no better than mediocre. Maybe Bob was sick of playing second fiddle?
The Dead are dead. Furthur ain't the Dead. Much as they try to be.
The stock is not in a bubble. P/E is low, especially when you exclude cash. Maybe earnings growth won't continue much longer at this pace but it shows no signs of slowing down this year.
Earning growth slows down then so do the stock price.
$100 billion "in the bank" save for the $10 billion or so in cash is mostly short term and long term investments.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FriedLobster
This year
Sprint, Verizon and AT&T will ALL be able to sell the ff:
- FREE iPhone 4
- $99 iPhone 4S
- $199 iPhone 5
the FREE iPhone 4 will KILL Android on all 3 carriers.
Apple isnt going to trade profit margins for market share.
I love apple but I believe other companies have hit the trillion mark and then came back down. I remember reading an article. I would love to know if that article was false or if this title is false.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
Shares of Apple have been projected to reach $1,000 in calendar year 2014, which would give the company a market capitalization of about a trillion dollars, making it the first company to ever reach that milestone.
Analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray raised his 12-month price target for AAPL stock to $910 on Tuesday, up from his previous prediction of $718. He sees shares of the company reaching the $1,000 mark just beyond his one-year price target window.
As it has for years, the iPhone will continue to drive Apple's growth going forward, Munster believes. He sees at least 70 percent of all two-year-old iPhone owners upgrading in a given quarter.
"That suggests 33% of iPhones in a given quarter through 2015 are 'in the bag,'" he said. "We believe this is conservative given it expects an average iPhone life of 24 months."
Piper Jaffray's surveys found that 30 percent of iPhone 4S buyers at launch were upgrading from an iPhone 4, which suggests the upgrade window for those users is closer to 21 months.
"If we assume an average iPhone life of 21 months, and 85% of users upgrade to a new iPhone, that implies 45% of iPhones through 2015 are 'in the bag,'" he wrote.
For the March quarter, Munster sees Apple selling 33 million iPhones, which is a 10 percent increase from his previous prediction of 30 million. He expects the iPhone will have an average selling price of $630.
"We believe demand remains strong for the iPhone 4S based on global store checks and momentum from the 3rd-gen iPad launch," he said. His estimates are slightly ahead of Wall Street's expectations of 30 million iPhones for the March qAuarter.
Munster's discussion of a $1,000-per-share value of Apple came just a day after analyst Brian White with Topkea Capital Markets said he expects shares of AAPL to reach $1,001. He sees the price being driven largely by the $100 billion opportunity in the television market, which Apple is widely expected to enter in the next year.
Also this week, Mark Moskowitz with J.P. Morgan increased his December 2012 price target to $715, up from his previous prediction of $625. He sees Apple selling 31.1 million iPhones and 13.8 million iPads in the March quarter.
Apple is scheduled to reveal its earnings for the March 2012 quarter on April 24 after markets close. A conference call with analysts will occur at 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Eastern.
I love apple but I believe other companies have hit the trillion mark and then came back down. I remember reading an article. I would love to know if that article was false or if this title is false.
Wasn't that article about 500 Billion dollar companies of which there have been very few? I'm off to google this too
Apple isnt going to trade profit margins for market share.
1. the FREE 3GS/iPhone 4 is subsidized by the carriers so Apple will earn a profit.
2. People who are interested in a free phone (students, etc.) , aren't going to buy a $99 or $199 phone anyway. These are the same people who got a free (and crappy) Android smartphone because the iPhone was too expensive.
3. AT&T has been offering a FREE iPhone 3GS for a year now so this is not new.
It's not going to happen. If Steve Jobs were still alive I'd say it was possible. But Apple has lost its visionary leader. Already, Apple has started to veer away from Steve's way of doing things in little ways. Over time that process will accelerate and Apple will become just another corporate monster. Apple's cachet, so meticulously cultivated by Jobs, will evaporate and sales will stagnate. The inevitable decline has already begun. Apple may be growing for now, but it's just momentum at this point. The driving force is gone.
This person says Apple will become like any other "corporate monster" because it will lose its "cachet."
Quote:
Originally Posted by scotty321
Totally agree. People just don't understand this fact yet. As one great example, take a look at Apple's newest commercial "iCloud". I sat 3 non-technical people in a room, and not one of them could tell me WTF was going on in that ad. The ad doesn't even have a voiceover to explain what you're watching onscreen. Steve Jobs NEVER would have approved that ad, but now that Phil Schiller is running the marketing show, there's nobody to keep his bad instincts in check anymore. Same thing with all the other executives... Ron Johnson is gone, and the worst retail guy in UK history is now running Apple Retail?! The Titanic is beginning to sink, the cracks are already showing, yet nobody is paying attention.
This person says Apple is like a chicken running around without its head because the visionaries are gone and the marketing bozos are taking over.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AjitMD
I agree... SJ was unique in terms of leadership, creativity. He created products and entire new markets that people were not aware they needed. He ran a tight budget on expenses... now they are busy giving themselves huge stock options plans and using the cash to do buybacks, etc. I do not see anybody filling his place. Kind like trying to replace Alexander The Great... nobody even came close.
This person says that the crew is going crazy over money having lost their Great Leader.
Quote:
Originally Posted by I am a Zither Zather Zuzz
Just look at the Grateful Dead without Jerry. Furthur is just as good!
This person says the Great Leader was like the guiding spirit in an iconic acid head band.
No one considers what Apple is in the business of doing, what it was established to do.
It didn't get big and successful by selling commodities like oil, or by selling dumb transmmission capacity like AT&T, or dumb machines like GM or Toyota, or dumb entertainment like Disney, or even smart entertainment like the Grateful Dead.
Apple sells intelligence machines, mind amplifiers, terminals for communicating with the noösphere. They suck people in relentlessly because people are happy to have devices that give them cognitive power.
This business founded by Steve Jobs and Jony Ive is self-perpetuating and self-correcting. If a new product doesn't delight, it won't make it out of the company testing. If it doesn't do mind amplification, it won't even be tested. This business of selling intelligence and mind amplification is new in human history. You can't compare its trajectory to any previous category of business. It's infinite.
So stop the doom scenarios. They ignore the larger picture of what Apple is doing in the world.
And it won't be apple tv but PC sales. In a year apple will be the biggest seller of pc's in the world. Which will mean the biggest seller of phones/tablets/pc's in the world. That IMO means they are worth 1001$ a share. The other 2 mayor revenue drivers will be a case controller and wireless controller for iOS and apple tv. This 2 will disrupt handheld gaming and tv sales...
To be honest I don't see how apple does not become a trillion dollar company.
It's not going to happen. If Steve Jobs were still alive I'd say it was possible. But Apple has lost its visionary leader. Already, Apple has started to veer away from Steve's way of doing things in little ways. Over time that process will accelerate and Apple will become just another corporate monster. Apple's cachet, so meticulously cultivated by Jobs, will evaporate and sales will stagnate. The inevitable decline has already begun. Apple may be growing for now, but it's just momentum at this point. The driving force is gone.
I see no reason why Apple couldn't reach $1 trillion in market cap by 2014. What a lot of Apple critics, pundits, and haters always seem to ignore is Apple's room for growth in the global handset and PC markets (around 9 and 6% shares, respectively) while the tablet market is just getting started and will quadruple over the next few years.
Apple is only scratching the surface of China and it's already the second-largest market in the world for Apple. Then there are other emerging markets like Brazil and India that Apple has barely touched. So many people here in the US or western Europe look around and see a lot of iPhones or iPads in their vicinity and think that Apple has saturated the market but that is so far from global reality. The world is much, much bigger than most people think.
The Mac won't grow at the rate of the iPhone or iPad but I think we can reasonably expect it to grow at a steady 20~25% rate for some years to come. The iDevices may not continue their 100%+ rate for years but even half of that would be phenomenal for a company Apple's size. Then, of course, there's the TV factor. Apple's growth in the iTunes content business will continue as well. It's mind-boggling but the truth of the matter is that Apple really does have so much room for more growth.
As far as the Steve Jobs factor, I agree that he was a one-of-a-kind visionary but I really don't see why Apple can't continue building on what he has left behind. All the top Apple execs have been with Apple and Jobs for a decade or longer. Surely, they've got a good deal of Jobs' "DNA" ingrained in them to keep things moving forward. And it's so stupid to speculate "What would Steve have done." That's like saying, "What kind of symphonies could Mozart have written had he lived longer?" or how far would Alexander the Great have gone in his conquests had he not died at the age of 32.
It's really funny to read people saying, "Steve wouldn't have done this or that." Really? How do you know? Have you hung out with him for years? I suppose some people like to think that they know and understand his mind or, more likely, they just put themselves on a pedestal to say that their opinion is like that of Steve's. We just don't know and will never ever know what Steve would have thought of something, so why even bring it up?
History does not necessarily have to repeat itself. Yes, it does happen a lot but that does not mean it's inevitable every time. There are plenty of examples in history of people, nations, companies, and organizations of some sorts constantly evolving and moving forward while adapting to new eras emerging around them. The thing about Apple that befuddles and spooks a lot of people is that what Apple has achieved and is still achieving are totally unprecedented. There's just no case like Apple in the history of business or society in general.
One other thing that gets brought up constantly is that Apple is now just too big to be innovative or nimble. Well, Apple has been a multi-billion Fortune 500 company for many years now. I see many much, much smaller companies in both the tech and other industries move much, much slower than Apple. So why is that? And why is Apple raking in like 75% of the profits in the entire global mobile phone industry? Because Apple is simply beating the living crap out of the competition through better ideas and unparalleled execution across all aspects of their operations.
I believe Apple will continue to move into other industries that they can disrupt in the future. The TV market is next but I feel it's more of Apple absorbing the medium into their ecosystem than trying to move into a static market of entrenched incumbents like Samsung, Sony, LG, Panasonic, etc. I surely expect Apple to move into the auto industry with a similar mindset. Tie it all in into the ecosystem and then extend.
Then there's the wireless communications sector and even the energy sector that I can envision Apple absorbing into their ecosystem because it's in Apple's (and Jobs') DNA to not be dependent on anyone else. These are just natural progressions that will strengthen the ecosystem at the core and continue its expansion throughout every corner of the globe. From what I can see, Apple isn't even 5% of the way "there." And "there" will continue moving away from Apple as it gets bigger. I just don't see anything standing in Apple's way. Apple simply needs to stay the course and Tim Cook is the ideal man to steer the ship. Plus, Jobs' imprint and spirit will be prevalent within Apple for decades to come...
History does not necessarily have to repeat itself. Yes, it does happen a lot but that does not mean it's inevitable every time. There are plenty of examples in history of people, nations, companies, and organizations of some sorts constantly evolving and moving forward while adapting to new eras merging around them. The thing about Apple that befuddles and spooks a lot of people is that what Apple has achieved and is still achieving are totally unprecedented. There's just no case like Apple in the history of business or society in general.
Out of this excellent and sane post, this paragraph, and the last sentence in particular.
This is just a new era in the history of technology. There hasn't been a real communication-computer-internet-media device industry until now, only twenty years of kluge—early stuff, like cars were before electric starters. Mobile computing is just getting started. Until someone else figures out how to design these products to work as well and look as good as Apple, they have the field pretty much to themselves. As you say, the growth possibilities are stupendous.
The analysts quotes didn't mention much about the computer business. Were there none? It would be interesting to read if any of them expect OS X to eclipse the Windows OS due to the fact that so many people are enjoying their iOS devices.
Since Vista was a disaster and 7 wasn't very amazing why hasn't the news media or Wall Street jumped all over Microsoft for putting out crappy products? Why would they expect the new prettier version of Windows to be any better in its operating capabilities? Widows 8 looks prettier and seems to have great features, but does it really work or does it crash at least once a week?
If Apple would become too huge it would have to split into separate businesses. Then in 10-20 years Apple is gonna be conglomerate like Samsung conglomerate.
Apple Mobility
Apple Computer
Applesoft
Apple Entertainment (iTunes and eventually more)
Apple Media and Advertising (eventually including Apple Search)
Apple Electronics (TVs, etc.)
Apple Semiconductor (based on acquired Intrinsity and eventually others)
Apple will continue on its momentum for a while just like it did the last time Steve departed and it was highly profitable (during the Sculley era). However, these analysts seem to have no vision beyond extending a growth curve out beyond the present along the same line. Apple stock is in a bubble. Be sure to cash out before it pops!
Please don't compare the team at Apple today to that at Apple when Steve left in 1985. It's not even close.
Comments
Yet they still manage to sell out a majority of their shows, including the up coming tour.
With that aside, are you really comparing a multibillion dollar company with a band?
There are points of comparison.
Both have cult followings (altho Apple also has many normal customers).
Both have a dead charismatic leader.
I'd wager that most ardent deadheads "Think Different" and that they prefer Apple over M$. It is part of their lifestyle, and both allow a "us against THEM" mindset for those so inclined.
There are points of comparison.
Both have cult followings (altho Apple also has many normal customers).
Both have a dead charismatic leader.
I'd wager that most ardent deadheads "Think Different" and that they prefer Apple over M$. It is part of their lifestyle, and both allow a "us against THEM" mindset for those so inclined.
I'd agree with that.
Both have also done well since their leader died, but Apple hasn't been around that long without him.
I need to catch Furthur, those guys can't be along for that much longer
Sprint, Verizon and AT&T will ALL be able to sell the ff:
- FREE iPhone 4
- $99 iPhone 4S
- $199 iPhone 5
the FREE iPhone 4 will KILL Android on all 3 carriers.
I need to catch Furthur, those guys can't be along for that much longer
I've seen them a couple of times. IMO, they are a mediocre tribute band, a weak pale simulation of the Dead.
Bob Weir is still extremely talented, but without a great lead guitarist, the music suffers. I have no idea why they picked John Kadlecik. He's no better than mediocre. Maybe Bob was sick of playing second fiddle?
The Dead are dead. Furthur ain't the Dead. Much as they try to be.
The stock is not in a bubble. P/E is low, especially when you exclude cash. Maybe earnings growth won't continue much longer at this pace but it shows no signs of slowing down this year.
Earning growth slows down then so do the stock price.
$100 billion "in the bank" save for the $10 billion or so in cash is mostly short term and long term investments.
This year
Sprint, Verizon and AT&T will ALL be able to sell the ff:
- FREE iPhone 4
- $99 iPhone 4S
- $199 iPhone 5
the FREE iPhone 4 will KILL Android on all 3 carriers.
Apple isnt going to trade profit margins for market share.
Shares of Apple have been projected to reach $1,000 in calendar year 2014, which would give the company a market capitalization of about a trillion dollars, making it the first company to ever reach that milestone.
Analyst Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray raised his 12-month price target for AAPL stock to $910 on Tuesday, up from his previous prediction of $718. He sees shares of the company reaching the $1,000 mark just beyond his one-year price target window.
As it has for years, the iPhone will continue to drive Apple's growth going forward, Munster believes. He sees at least 70 percent of all two-year-old iPhone owners upgrading in a given quarter.
"That suggests 33% of iPhones in a given quarter through 2015 are 'in the bag,'" he said. "We believe this is conservative given it expects an average iPhone life of 24 months."
Piper Jaffray's surveys found that 30 percent of iPhone 4S buyers at launch were upgrading from an iPhone 4, which suggests the upgrade window for those users is closer to 21 months.
"If we assume an average iPhone life of 21 months, and 85% of users upgrade to a new iPhone, that implies 45% of iPhones through 2015 are 'in the bag,'" he wrote.
For the March quarter, Munster sees Apple selling 33 million iPhones, which is a 10 percent increase from his previous prediction of 30 million. He expects the iPhone will have an average selling price of $630.
"We believe demand remains strong for the iPhone 4S based on global store checks and momentum from the 3rd-gen iPad launch," he said. His estimates are slightly ahead of Wall Street's expectations of 30 million iPhones for the March qAuarter.
Munster's discussion of a $1,000-per-share value of Apple came just a day after analyst Brian White with Topkea Capital Markets said he expects shares of AAPL to reach $1,001. He sees the price being driven largely by the $100 billion opportunity in the television market, which Apple is widely expected to enter in the next year.
Also this week, Mark Moskowitz with J.P. Morgan increased his December 2012 price target to $715, up from his previous prediction of $625. He sees Apple selling 31.1 million iPhones and 13.8 million iPads in the March quarter.
Apple is scheduled to reveal its earnings for the March 2012 quarter on April 24 after markets close. A conference call with analysts will occur at 2 p.m. Pacific, 5 p.m. Eastern.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Can I play, too????
I predict that Apple will merge with France.
Only if France is smart and agrees today.... in 5 years, Apple will acquire France!
I love apple but I believe other companies have hit the trillion mark and then came back down. I remember reading an article. I would love to know if that article was false or if this title is false.
Wasn't that article about 500 Billion dollar companies of which there have been very few? I'm off to google this too
Here is Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/conniegu...ollar-company/
Apple isnt going to trade profit margins for market share.
1. the FREE 3GS/iPhone 4 is subsidized by the carriers so Apple will earn a profit.
2. People who are interested in a free phone (students, etc.) , aren't going to buy a $99 or $199 phone anyway. These are the same people who got a free (and crappy) Android smartphone because the iPhone was too expensive.
3. AT&T has been offering a FREE iPhone 3GS for a year now so this is not new.
Google makes only $1.70 a year per Android device.
Apple, by contrast, generated more than $575 for every iOS device it sold last year
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/04/...iid=SF_F_River
I have one suggestion. Find some more intelligent friends.
Get a fat, bald friend like Joe Ragosta!
It's not going to happen. If Steve Jobs were still alive I'd say it was possible. But Apple has lost its visionary leader. Already, Apple has started to veer away from Steve's way of doing things in little ways. Over time that process will accelerate and Apple will become just another corporate monster. Apple's cachet, so meticulously cultivated by Jobs, will evaporate and sales will stagnate. The inevitable decline has already begun. Apple may be growing for now, but it's just momentum at this point. The driving force is gone.
This person says Apple will become like any other "corporate monster" because it will lose its "cachet."
Totally agree. People just don't understand this fact yet. As one great example, take a look at Apple's newest commercial "iCloud". I sat 3 non-technical people in a room, and not one of them could tell me WTF was going on in that ad. The ad doesn't even have a voiceover to explain what you're watching onscreen. Steve Jobs NEVER would have approved that ad, but now that Phil Schiller is running the marketing show, there's nobody to keep his bad instincts in check anymore. Same thing with all the other executives... Ron Johnson is gone, and the worst retail guy in UK history is now running Apple Retail?! The Titanic is beginning to sink, the cracks are already showing, yet nobody is paying attention.
This person says Apple is like a chicken running around without its head because the visionaries are gone and the marketing bozos are taking over.
I agree... SJ was unique in terms of leadership, creativity. He created products and entire new markets that people were not aware they needed. He ran a tight budget on expenses... now they are busy giving themselves huge stock options plans and using the cash to do buybacks, etc. I do not see anybody filling his place. Kind like trying to replace Alexander The Great... nobody even came close.
This person says that the crew is going crazy over money having lost their Great Leader.
Just look at the Grateful Dead without Jerry. Furthur is just as good!
This person says the Great Leader was like the guiding spirit in an iconic acid head band.
No one considers what Apple is in the business of doing, what it was established to do.
It didn't get big and successful by selling commodities like oil, or by selling dumb transmmission capacity like AT&T, or dumb machines like GM or Toyota, or dumb entertainment like Disney, or even smart entertainment like the Grateful Dead.
Apple sells intelligence machines, mind amplifiers, terminals for communicating with the noösphere. They suck people in relentlessly because people are happy to have devices that give them cognitive power.
This business founded by Steve Jobs and Jony Ive is self-perpetuating and self-correcting. If a new product doesn't delight, it won't make it out of the company testing. If it doesn't do mind amplification, it won't even be tested. This business of selling intelligence and mind amplification is new in human history. You can't compare its trajectory to any previous category of business. It's infinite.
So stop the doom scenarios. They ignore the larger picture of what Apple is doing in the world.
And it won't be apple tv but PC sales. In a year apple will be the biggest seller of pc's in the world. Which will mean the biggest seller of phones/tablets/pc's in the world. That IMO means they are worth 1001$ a share. The other 2 mayor revenue drivers will be a case controller and wireless controller for iOS and apple tv. This 2 will disrupt handheld gaming and tv sales...
To be honest I don't see how apple does not become a trillion dollar company.
It's not going to happen. If Steve Jobs were still alive I'd say it was possible. But Apple has lost its visionary leader. Already, Apple has started to veer away from Steve's way of doing things in little ways. Over time that process will accelerate and Apple will become just another corporate monster. Apple's cachet, so meticulously cultivated by Jobs, will evaporate and sales will stagnate. The inevitable decline has already begun. Apple may be growing for now, but it's just momentum at this point. The driving force is gone.
I micturate upon your verbage.
Apple is only scratching the surface of China and it's already the second-largest market in the world for Apple. Then there are other emerging markets like Brazil and India that Apple has barely touched. So many people here in the US or western Europe look around and see a lot of iPhones or iPads in their vicinity and think that Apple has saturated the market but that is so far from global reality. The world is much, much bigger than most people think.
The Mac won't grow at the rate of the iPhone or iPad but I think we can reasonably expect it to grow at a steady 20~25% rate for some years to come. The iDevices may not continue their 100%+ rate for years but even half of that would be phenomenal for a company Apple's size. Then, of course, there's the TV factor. Apple's growth in the iTunes content business will continue as well. It's mind-boggling but the truth of the matter is that Apple really does have so much room for more growth.
As far as the Steve Jobs factor, I agree that he was a one-of-a-kind visionary but I really don't see why Apple can't continue building on what he has left behind. All the top Apple execs have been with Apple and Jobs for a decade or longer. Surely, they've got a good deal of Jobs' "DNA" ingrained in them to keep things moving forward. And it's so stupid to speculate "What would Steve have done." That's like saying, "What kind of symphonies could Mozart have written had he lived longer?" or how far would Alexander the Great have gone in his conquests had he not died at the age of 32.
It's really funny to read people saying, "Steve wouldn't have done this or that." Really? How do you know? Have you hung out with him for years? I suppose some people like to think that they know and understand his mind or, more likely, they just put themselves on a pedestal to say that their opinion is like that of Steve's. We just don't know and will never ever know what Steve would have thought of something, so why even bring it up?
History does not necessarily have to repeat itself. Yes, it does happen a lot but that does not mean it's inevitable every time. There are plenty of examples in history of people, nations, companies, and organizations of some sorts constantly evolving and moving forward while adapting to new eras emerging around them. The thing about Apple that befuddles and spooks a lot of people is that what Apple has achieved and is still achieving are totally unprecedented. There's just no case like Apple in the history of business or society in general.
One other thing that gets brought up constantly is that Apple is now just too big to be innovative or nimble. Well, Apple has been a multi-billion Fortune 500 company for many years now. I see many much, much smaller companies in both the tech and other industries move much, much slower than Apple. So why is that? And why is Apple raking in like 75% of the profits in the entire global mobile phone industry? Because Apple is simply beating the living crap out of the competition through better ideas and unparalleled execution across all aspects of their operations.
I believe Apple will continue to move into other industries that they can disrupt in the future. The TV market is next but I feel it's more of Apple absorbing the medium into their ecosystem than trying to move into a static market of entrenched incumbents like Samsung, Sony, LG, Panasonic, etc. I surely expect Apple to move into the auto industry with a similar mindset. Tie it all in into the ecosystem and then extend.
Then there's the wireless communications sector and even the energy sector that I can envision Apple absorbing into their ecosystem because it's in Apple's (and Jobs') DNA to not be dependent on anyone else. These are just natural progressions that will strengthen the ecosystem at the core and continue its expansion throughout every corner of the globe. From what I can see, Apple isn't even 5% of the way "there." And "there" will continue moving away from Apple as it gets bigger. I just don't see anything standing in Apple's way. Apple simply needs to stay the course and Tim Cook is the ideal man to steer the ship. Plus, Jobs' imprint and spirit will be prevalent within Apple for decades to come...
History does not necessarily have to repeat itself. Yes, it does happen a lot but that does not mean it's inevitable every time. There are plenty of examples in history of people, nations, companies, and organizations of some sorts constantly evolving and moving forward while adapting to new eras merging around them. The thing about Apple that befuddles and spooks a lot of people is that what Apple has achieved and is still achieving are totally unprecedented. There's just no case like Apple in the history of business or society in general.
Out of this excellent and sane post, this paragraph, and the last sentence in particular.
This is just a new era in the history of technology. There hasn't been a real communication-computer-internet-media device industry until now, only twenty years of kluge—early stuff, like cars were before electric starters. Mobile computing is just getting started. Until someone else figures out how to design these products to work as well and look as good as Apple, they have the field pretty much to themselves. As you say, the growth possibilities are stupendous.
Since Vista was a disaster and 7 wasn't very amazing why hasn't the news media or Wall Street jumped all over Microsoft for putting out crappy products? Why would they expect the new prettier version of Windows to be any better in its operating capabilities? Widows 8 looks prettier and seems to have great features, but does it really work or does it crash at least once a week?
Apple Mobility and Apple Solutions!
If Apple would become too huge it would have to split into separate businesses. Then in 10-20 years Apple is gonna be conglomerate like Samsung conglomerate.
Apple will continue on its momentum for a while just like it did the last time Steve departed and it was highly profitable (during the Sculley era). However, these analysts seem to have no vision beyond extending a growth curve out beyond the present along the same line. Apple stock is in a bubble. Be sure to cash out before it pops!
Please don't compare the team at Apple today to that at Apple when Steve left in 1985. It's not even close.