Having followed APPL for many years, I'm beginning to think this is because Wall Street doesn't think of Apple as a company. No, Wall Street thinks of Apple as some kind of broken miracle-working religion. This is a little kooky, but Steve always did KIND of resemble a priest in his black shirt up on stage. The Apple Stores do KIND of (in a way) resemble a sacred heavenly space. So maybe the expectation isn't of high profit and low P/E, but rather, of miracles. Divine miracles. People look at Apple and they think, where are the miracles? Where is the reality-defying magic?
Google stock ALSO engenders magical thinking. The Google Stock fantasy: Technology could replace everything. Amazon stock encourages magical thinking. The Amazon Stock fantasy: Amazon will become a monopoly that destroys even Walmart. Apple is about magical beliefs. The Apple Stock fantasy: Apple invents new boffo categories and breakthrough devices every year.
Only with Google and Amazon, there is no reality check -- because the magical expectation is for something in the future. With Apple, people can see that its success is (merely!) intelligent, incremental and systematic. That's Tim Cook. He's triumphing in a very methodical way that combines creativity with practicality. But that is not the myth of Apple that the public/investors/Wall Street wants and (still) believes.
Therefore, I can confidently predict, that APPL will only go up significantly, the day that Tim Cook walks on water.
Thank you for reading my ridiculous speculation lol.
Reading all this criticism it's miracle Apple stock is still selling at this price. If Cook is such a lousy CEO who would believe him when he would be defending the stock? Some people here should get their story straight.
Maybe the reason this company put out an earning warn,(they did not say volume was down) was the fact Apple negotiated kick ass deal on pricing and company took it instead of loosing all of the business. But Wall Street know this, they just using the FUD to drive the stock down so they can make money on the churn.
Interesting take: Apple does have a track record for some bare knuckle negotiating doesn't it? though rarely to the point they bankrupt the other company, but even then....
He takes the time to trump up gay rights, minority rights, and coding for 10 year olds.
Yet he does not have 5 minutes to go on an interview on CNBC and say holiday sales are going great and confirming guidance? If he just did that the stock would be solidly at $120 right now.
I so sick of this pathetic CEO. So many reasons why he sucks. But it gets masked because of the power of the Apple brand. Let me name you the ways:
1. Not bringing an bigger iPhone in 2013. No excuse for not bringing out the 4.7 inch iPhone along with the 5s. This allowed Samsung to make massive inroads. It took almost 2 years to reverse that bad move.
2. Waiting too long to get into streaming music. If they were ahead of the curve they would have been dominating streaming music.
3. Pathetic iPad lineup. Intentionally hamstringing the iPad Mini. Then refusing to release an updated Air in 2015. WTF is that about. iPad sales shrinking 20%. Not pushing for iPad specific Apps. He totally botched the iPad the last 2 years. Things such as the Pencil and type cover should have been out TWO YEARS AGO. Yet his arrogance refused him to believe that the Surface had something right.
4. Watch software failure. The software is too hard to use. Too much emphasis on the $20k watches. Apps are way too slow. Prices are way too expensive.
5. Refusal to sacrifice some short-term profits for long-term success. Keeping the 16GB iPhone. Being stingy on RAM. Releasing half baked iOS updates with a ton of bugs.
6. Crappy jobs controlling the narrative. Wall street spews bullshit and Cook does nothing. Some flyby night media in China is seen as more crediable than Cook. Pathetic.
But this should not be a surprise. Cook is a bean counter not a visionary. He has not VISION. All he cares about is trying to meet the profit goals for the next quarter. He spends $120 billion on a buyback to appease Wall Street yet does not have 5 minutes to shut down bullshit Wall Street rumors.
I hate to agree with you (only because I don't want to kick people in general) but every point is well taken and the people on here accusing you of "being high" or worse are doing exactly the same thing as Tim is doing/did that you pointed out. Ignore it and it's not true?
Each point you made was well taken and I would like the people who are attacking your point of view to explain why you're wrong. For example waiting for 2 year for the larger phone which is now obviously their best seller to date TWICE! Both with 6 and now with 6S too. And especially the messy and confusing late entry into music streaming.
Thank you you for taking the time to remind us that sitting back and resting on our laurels is just as bad as playing catchup and releasing a mess in the process.
I mentioned this sabe thing about Apple TV using Fibal Cut Pro X as an example of getting it wrong then taking 12 more months to get it right and I was blasted because FCPX was so incredible? Well according to the AI article two days ago even Apple doesn't want to use it so my point was not only well made but on point as well
You do realize this is someone that only pushes out these rants when AAPL is going backwards. sog has argued against me many times when I've argued against 16GB storage or 1GB RAM. Then anyone who argues against 16GB is a cheap bastard that needs to go buy an Android.
He takes the time to trump up gay rights, minority rights, and coding for 10 year olds.
Yet he does not have 5 minutes to go on an interview on CNBC and say holiday sales are going great and confirming guidance? If he just did that the stock would be solidly at $120 right now.
I so sick of this pathetic CEO. So many reasons why he sucks. But it gets masked because of the power of the Apple brand. Let me name you the ways:
1. Not bringing an bigger iPhone in 2013. No excuse for not bringing out the 4.7 inch iPhone along with the 5s. This allowed Samsung to make massive inroads. It took almost 2 years to reverse that bad move.
2. Waiting too long to get into streaming music. If they were ahead of the curve they would have been dominating streaming music.
3. Pathetic iPad lineup. Intentionally hamstringing the iPad Mini. Then refusing to release an updated Air in 2015. WTF is that about. iPad sales shrinking 20%. Not pushing for iPad specific Apps. He totally botched the iPad the last 2 years. Things such as the Pencil and type cover should have been out TWO YEARS AGO. Yet his arrogance refused him to believe that the Surface had something right.
4. Watch software failure. The software is too hard to use. Too much emphasis on the $20k watches. Apps are way too slow. Prices are way too expensive.
5. Refusal to sacrifice some short-term profits for long-term success. Keeping the 16GB iPhone. Being stingy on RAM. Releasing half baked iOS updates with a ton of bugs.
6. Crappy jobs controlling the narrative. Wall street spews bullshit and Cook does nothing. Some flyby night media in China is seen as more crediable than Cook. Pathetic.
But this should not be a surprise. Cook is a bean counter not a visionary. He has not VISION. All he cares about is trying to meet the profit goals for the next quarter. He spends $120 billion on a buyback to appease Wall Street yet does not have 5 minutes to shut down bullshit Wall Street rumors.
I hate to agree with you (only because I don't want to kick people in general) but every point is well taken and the people on here accusing you of "being high" or worse are doing exactly the same thing as Tim is doing/did that you pointed out. Ignore it and it's not true?
Each point you made was well taken and I would like the people who are attacking your point of view to explain why you're wrong. For example waiting for 2 year for the larger phone which is now obviously their best seller to date TWICE! Both with 6 and now with 6S too. And especially the messy and confusing late entry into music streaming.
Thank you you for taking the time to remind us that sitting back and resting on our laurels is just as bad as playing catchup and releasing a mess in the process.
I mentioned this sabe thing about Apple TV using Fibal Cut Pro X as an example of getting it wrong then taking 12 more months to get it right and I was blasted because FCPX was so incredible? Well according to the AI article two days ago even Apple doesn't want to use it so my point was not only well made but on point as well
You do realize this is someone that only pushes out these rants when AAPL is going backwards. sog has argued against me many times when I've argued against 16GB storage or 1GB RAM. Then anyone who argues against 16GB is a cheap bastard that needs to go buy an Android.
He takes the time to trump up gay rights, minority rights, and coding for 10 year olds.
Yet he does not have 5 minutes to go on an interview on CNBC and say holiday sales are going great and confirming guidance? If he just did that the stock would be solidly at $120 right now.
I so sick of this pathetic CEO. So many reasons why he sucks. But it gets masked because of the power of the Apple brand. Let me name you the ways:
1. Not bringing an bigger iPhone in 2013. No excuse for not bringing out the 4.7 inch iPhone along with the 5s. This allowed Samsung to make massive inroads. It took almost 2 years to reverse that bad move.
2. Waiting too long to get into streaming music. If they were ahead of the curve they would have been dominating streaming music.
3. Pathetic iPad lineup. Intentionally hamstringing the iPad Mini. Then refusing to release an updated Air in 2015. WTF is that about. iPad sales shrinking 20%. Not pushing for iPad specific Apps. He totally botched the iPad the last 2 years. Things such as the Pencil and type cover should have been out TWO YEARS AGO. Yet his arrogance refused him to believe that the Surface had something right.
4. Watch software failure. The software is too hard to use. Too much emphasis on the $20k watches. Apps are way too slow. Prices are way too expensive.
5. Refusal to sacrifice some short-term profits for long-term success. Keeping the 16GB iPhone. Being stingy on RAM. Releasing half baked iOS updates with a ton of bugs.
6. Crappy jobs controlling the narrative. Wall street spews bullshit and Cook does nothing. Some flyby night media in China is seen as more crediable than Cook. Pathetic.
But this should not be a surprise. Cook is a bean counter not a visionary. He has not VISION. All he cares about is trying to meet the profit goals for the next quarter. He spends $120 billion on a buyback to appease Wall Street yet does not have 5 minutes to shut down bullshit Wall Street rumors.
I hate to agree with you (only because I don't want to kick people in general) but every point is well taken and the people on here accusing you of "being high" or worse are doing exactly the same thing as Tim is doing/did that you pointed out. Ignore it and it's not true?
Each point you made was well taken and I would like the people who are attacking your point of view to explain why you're wrong. For example waiting for 2 year for the larger phone which is now obviously their best seller to date TWICE! Both with 6 and now with 6S too. And especially the messy and confusing late entry into music streaming.
Thank you you for taking the time to remind us that sitting back and resting on our laurels is just as bad as playing catchup and releasing a mess in the process.
I mentioned this sabe thing about Apple TV using Fibal Cut Pro X as an example of getting it wrong then taking 12 more months to get it right and I was blasted because FCPX was so incredible? Well according to the AI article two days ago even Apple doesn't want to use it so my point was not only well made but on point as well
You do realize this is someone that only pushes out these rants when AAPL is going backwards. sog has argued against me many times when I've argued against 16GB storage or 1GB RAM. Then anyone who argues against 16GB is a cheap bastard that needs to go buy an Android.
Well fortunately for him then I don't keep a tally of people's past rants. I'm just saying in this instance he is right and like the guy that wrote after my post, he could have included 1.) the 2 year wait for Apple TV that resulted in nothing they couldn't had done two years ago. 2.) The complete disregard for keeping new technologies moving forward in computers too.
It's like lately they take two years to think about something and during that time others have already beat them to the punch. Granted Apple does it better, but with all these people they employ and a massive R&D budget....that's what we got with the new Apple TV? A store that sells apps for the device??? They did that with the iPod a decade ago. Now that's something completely new and unique?? Seriously?
to make matters worse I get it home and find out I have to buy a crappy adapter to use the same setup that was running fine on the older model? All because they didn't include an optical port? For $200 you'd think that sucker would make me coffee too. Again it's not like it does anything it couldn't have done two yeas ago it's just they took two yeas to put out what they could have put out two years ago.
Thats the same point this guy is making. They could have done a larger phone back in 2013 and not let Samsung get business because people actually liked a larger phone. Then years later they put out 6 and it sells better and faster than any previous model? And people act like "wow who knew??" Well to start with Samsung knew. I guess we call Samsung now to find out what we'll have two years from now?
That's this guys point. I don't care what his past gripes were about. I (and he) was making comments on this article and that was what my comments agreeing were about to THIS ARTICLE - THIS TOPIC
In the same report where Credit Suisse again lowered its iPhone estimates, they also estimate earnings per share for fiscal 2016 at $9.22. That's exactly the same as Apple earned in fiscal 2015.
One wonders whether these analysts have taken into account:
1. Continued growth in China, of both iPhone and iPad, plus a spark of life in India
2. Apple's relatively recent enterprise push
3. The existence of new products for the entire fiscal 2016 year that were available only for a portion of fiscal 2015 (Watch, MacBook), or not available at all during fiscal 2015 (iPad Pro/Pencil and the Apple TV App Store)
4. About 5% fewer outstanding shares going into fiscal 2016 versus 2015
5. The fact that Apple will NOT simply stand by and suffer a drop in iPhone sales, should their daily field reports suggest the threat exists. Apple has many tools to deploy to prop up sales, as evidenced by their recent subscription model rollout and expanded in-store trade-in programs. Heck, if the company needed to, it could go slightly down market, as suggested by the recent reduction in iPhone 5S prices in India, and the rumored update to the 4" model as a mid-tier priced model.
So Credit Suisse is suggesting a reduction in iPhone sales, for which their evidence is weak, will offset all of the above. Doesn't pass the smell test.
1. Since when have Gene Munster been right? He was the one calling for $1000 when Apple was trading at $700 (pre-split). It went down 50% before eventually recovered. At the aame time that we riducule Katy Huberty or Kulbinder Garcha for their negative commentaries, should we take a caution to positive ones, like Gene Munster's, too?
2. Tim Cook is an operation genious, no doubt about that, but he and his management team have been a PR disaster for the investors. I remember August 24 very well. The stock tanked to $92 before Cramer revealed Cook's email. The stock quickly recovered and closed the day at $103. Some simple words from the CEO calmed the investors and brought the stock up 10%. Why not do it again in this time of uncertainty? He doesn't even need to say something new, just emphasized his previous comment from the earning call.
3. Gay rights, giving away his wealth, hour of code... these are all good. But he forgot that his first responsibility to shareholders. The company is doing extremely well, but I'm not rewarded proportionately as a shareholder. Buy backs didn't help. Dividends didn't help. Why isn't my management looking out for me?
He takes the time to trump up gay rights, minority rights, and coding for 10 year olds.
Yet he does not have 5 minutes to go on an interview on CNBC and say holiday sales are going great and confirming guidance? If he just did that the stock would be solidly at $120 right now.
I so sick of this pathetic CEO. So many reasons why he sucks. But it gets masked because of the power of the Apple brand. Let me name you the ways:
1. Not bringing an bigger iPhone in 2013. No excuse for not bringing out the 4.7 inch iPhone along with the 5s. This allowed Samsung to make massive inroads. It took almost 2 years to reverse that bad move.
2. Waiting too long to get into streaming music. If they were ahead of the curve they would have been dominating streaming music.
3. Pathetic iPad lineup. Intentionally hamstringing the iPad Mini. Then refusing to release an updated Air in 2015. WTF is that about. iPad sales shrinking 20%. Not pushing for iPad specific Apps. He totally botched the iPad the last 2 years. Things such as the Pencil and type cover should have been out TWO YEARS AGO. Yet his arrogance refused him to believe that the Surface had something right.
4. Watch software failure. The software is too hard to use. Too much emphasis on the $20k watches. Apps are way too slow. Prices are way too expensive.
5. Refusal to sacrifice some short-term profits for long-term success. Keeping the 16GB iPhone. Being stingy on RAM. Releasing half baked iOS updates with a ton of bugs.
6. Crappy jobs controlling the narrative. Wall street spews bullshit and Cook does nothing. Some flyby night media in China is seen as more crediable than Cook. Pathetic.
But this should not be a surprise. Cook is a bean counter not a visionary. He has not VISION. All he cares about is trying to meet the profit goals for the next quarter. He spends $120 billion on a buyback to appease Wall Street yet does not have 5 minutes to shut down bullshit Wall Street rumors.
Put your Money where your mouth is. Short the stock. Please. Post the transaction receipt here. Otherwise, you're a troll.
Consider the reasons a company would want to see its share price higher?
1. The company intends to use its shares as currency in acquisitions.
Apple doesn't have this need, as it has plenty of cash to use in acquiring companies.
2. The company rewards its shareholders with stock and stock options.
Apple does use stock options to reward management and engineering employees, and offers discounted share purchases for retail employees. On the retail side, the employees are able to buy a small number of shares at 50% off the market price (shares directly issued to these employees from treasury stock). So retail employees see the lower market price as a means to pay less to acquire their allotment of shares. stock options, for employees receiving these, Coke with vesting periods, usually spread spa cross multiple years as an incentive to retain employees. So a subdued stock price in the near-term, while not desirable to these employees, is not tragic, as they are even further invented to work hard to get the future stock price higher in time for their options to vest. So bolstering the stock in the near-term is likely no a priority for Cook&Co based merely on employee incentives. Cook likely feels that employees should take a long-term view and he feels they will be well rewarded as the company continues to strengthen its product offerings, market position, and financial condition.
3. Customers look to the stock price as an indicator of the Heath of the company. I suppose this is the case for some businesses, such as those selling huge contracts where the buyer wants confidence that the company will remain viable going forward. But that's not the case for the vast majority of Apple customers, few of which are likely to even thing of Apple's business metrics, much less as implied by its stock price. Sure, I might slow down my Apple purchases, because I'm losing money on my Apple investment and that's crimping my overall budget for such expenditures, but I'm an outlier in that regard.
---
Conversely, there is certainly incentive to allow the market to manipulate the short-term price, as this allows a company with ample cash reserves to aggressively buy back shares cheaply. In short, I think any complaints brought to Tim Cook regarding his views on the short-term performance of the stock would be met by his view that you are the one with the wrong way of thinking. If he's thinking Like Buffett, for the longest of long-terms, then pulling in the maximum number of shares way back in 2013-2015 will seem like the most brilliant business move come 2022.
Meanwhile, my options positions are being slaughtered, but that's my own fault, I guess.
That assuming Apple is going to meet guidance. How do any of us know that?
If they are not going to meet guidance they would have released a warning by now
OK what void does reaffirming guidance do then? We all know Wall Street doesn't give a shit about meeting guidance. They'll find some other iPhone metric to be doomed about, YOY unit growth compared to last years YOY growth, March guidance, margins etc. Again as long as Apple is viewed as iPhone, Inc. and Wall Street considers the smartphone market to be slowing AAPL will do nothing.
Apple is usually CONSERVATIVE with guidance. Even if they slipped from what internally they specced as their top end estimate, they'd likely meet it. Don't try to explain how Wall Street values Apple, there is no logic.
Unless you urgently need to sell the stock, a depressed share price is a positive to shareholders. Buybacks add more value, adding to your position is more attractive, dividend is higher as a percentage.
So, the hand-wringing here is only a sign of lack of confidence. I have no lack of confidence in Apple.
If I had ever done as bad a job as these analysts do in predicting Apple's success or failure, I would have been rightfully fired from every job I ever had. When has a report from any of Apple's vendors, positive or negative, ever tracked with Apple's resulting sales? Never, I would say.
I certainly have my own criticisms of Apple (although most of them are not the complains documented above), but we're talking about the most successful consumer electronics company of all time that also consistently breaks sales records.
I think Apple's greatest accomplishment might have been how well the company did during the recession. Even I thought Apple's sales would have collapsed during that period.
While one could certainly argue that some of the products indicated in the "complaint" should have been released sooner, the fact is that Apple doesn't need to release everything at one time when they're growing anyway. It's a perfectly legitimate business strategy to pace the releases ( and also give inventory time to pare down).
One concern I do have is that Apple might be getting too big and therefore too large to manage. From my outsider's perspective, I think this is why we're seeing so many bugs and design flaws. Sometimes it does seem like there's no one in charge whereas when Apple was smaller, it seemed like they paid better attention to every detail. Some of the changes Apple had made to the OS and apps simply boggles the mind and really doesn't pass the 'smell' test. Too many times in recent years, I've thought, "what were they thinking?" instead of "Wow...these improvements are unbelievable!" And then of course there's the Apple obsession with form over function. I had to replace the battery in my late-2008 MBP the other day. I remembered that if this had been a newer machine, I couldn't have done it myself. I find that incredibly frustrating (as well as not being able to self replace the drive in a newer machine), especially since I am going to finally have to bite the bullet and buy a new machine in 2016.
Especially if Apple is really going to release a car, maybe it's time for the company to split itself up with separate CEOs for each division.
As for some of the people who seem to spend their lives on here (I keep picturing Scrooge with nothing to do but post, with FoxNews on in the background), their comments speak for themselves.
There's a lot of arm-chair quarterbacking of Apple's management decisions, much of it long after the fact.
Apple should have released a larger-screen iPhone two years earlier. Yeah, maybe so, and that would have crimped Apple's margins as larger screens in 2012 were more expensive to procure than two years later. Apple always stated that it releases products and features when they are ready. Having not released a significantly larger screen, Apple still took some 52% of smartphone industry profits in the iPhone 5 cycle, and 80+% in the iPhone 5S cycle. And now they are taking 94%.
Given Apple's success in absorbing the majority of smartphone market profits, the aggregate decisions the company has made seem to be good enough. Certainly good enough by the expectations placed upon any other company out there.
A mind experiment that should be performed by anyone who would see themselves as capable of running the show better than Cook would be to imagine the company as merely a black box. Inside the box, out of sight and without your knowledge, resides a management team. The company makes some products and plays in some markets, of which you are not aware. You also don't see the stock price. And you aren't aware that there was a CEO who died and was replaced with another member of the management team.
The only information you're given is the financial metrics, total revenues and profits, EPS, cash and cash equivalents, share count, etc, with these numbers presented for each of the last, say, five years. Next to this information you are given the same information about other companies. You don't know that these other companies are Google, Amazon, etc. Your job is to determine, with just the pertinent business metrics you've been handed, which company you would want to own a portion of; company X (AAPL), company Y (GOOGL), or company Z (AMZN). Pretty sure most would laugh company Z right out of the competition. And you'd likely think of company X that it's got some pretty great management and is in a great business, which go together, as it's management that determines what businesses a company plays in. You'd think, whomever these guys are, the decisions they made over the five years, whether some were mistakes and others were great, in aggregate turned out pretty darned well. This is the mind experiment I want Wall St to run through its collective skull.
The last time he did something like that he was accused of an SEC violation and there was speculation as to whether he would be charged. That happened when he called in to Jim Cramer’s show to defend some other nonsense analysts had puked out.
Don't expect anything resembling sense out of sog35...the guy has gone further down the trolling path...
Tim Cook needs to hire a C-level media relations officer immediately. Its painfully obvious that Cook has no idea how to handle the media and Wall Street.
Cook allows total bullshit rumors to fester for WEEKS on end. Just hire someone who knows Wall Street and knows how to defend the stock. Its pathetic.
Apple grew revenue by $50 billion this past year. Revenue was up 30% Profits up 40% EPS up 55% Yet the stock is worth LESS than it was a year ago.
The problem is Cook is not controlling the narrative. Even though Apple is dominating the entire tech world in reality the narrative is the exact opposite. According to the Wall Street narrative Apple is a dying brand and will be demoted to Dell/HP status in a few years.
Goldman Sachs a few weeks ago came out with a note that said Apple will transition to a services company and thus should get a higher PE than a hardware company. The stock went up 4% that day. Why could not Cook say the same thing WEEKS AGO! Its like the guy has no clue what Wall Street wants. We need a CEO with VISION. I'm doubting that Cook has that.
Troll. Derailing every thread. Go to MacRumours with Ben Frost.
He takes the time to trump up gay rights, minority rights, and coding for 10 year olds.
Yet he does not have 5 minutes to go on an interview on CNBC and say holiday sales are going great and confirming guidance? If he just did that the stock would be solidly at $120 right now.
I so sick of this pathetic CEO. So many reasons why he sucks. But it gets masked because of the power of the Apple brand. Let me name you the ways:
{{ RANT OMITTED }}
But this should not be a surprise. Cook is a bean counter not a visionary. He has not VISION. All he cares about is trying to meet the profit goals for the next quarter. He spends $120 billion on a buyback to appease Wall Street yet does not have 5 minutes to shut down bullshit Wall Street rumors.
Someone needs to put down the crack pipe.
sog has finally outed himself as another glass-half-empty naysayer who thinks Timmy Cook is a failure.
Anyway I agree that the company, and especially Tim Cook needs to do a better job driving the narrative. At some point you have to hold the company responsible for the sentiment about it.
you mean that of most beloved tech firm in the history of the human race? highest consumer satisfaction ratings? strongest brand in the world? those sentiments, which are bestowed upon apple annually?
nope, nothing wrong w/ what Cook is doing, at all. his being gay and promoting equality for all dont detract from his work at apple and the record breaking, unfathomable success they've been met with in recent years.
He takes the time to trump up gay rights, minority rights, and coding for 10 year olds.
Yet he does not have 5 minutes to go on an interview on CNBC and say holiday sales are going great and confirming guidance? If he just did that the stock would be solidly at $120 right now.
I so sick of this pathetic CEO. So many reasons why he sucks.
are you bipolar?
Cook is the CEO of the most successful public company in the history of our planet. with the highest consumer ratings and world adoration. get fucking real, dude.
the real problem? you were pretending to be a day trader, and thinking you could wheel & deal your portfolio. nope. you buy apple stock, then go along for the ride, and sell it years later. many years later.
sog has finally outed himself as another glass-half-empty naysayer who thinks Timmy Cook is a failure.
its rather pathetic. i remember him doing the same a while back, claiming he'd sell all of his stock if they ever reached $125. he didn't do it then, of course. prefers to rant on the inter webs.
Anyway I agree that the company, and especially Tim Cook needs to do a better job driving the narrative. At some point you have to hold the company responsible for the sentiment about it.
you mean that of most beloved tech firm in the history of the human race? highest consumer satisfaction ratings? strongest brand in the world? those sentiments, which are bestowed upon apple annually?
nope, nothing wrong w/ what Cook is doing, at all. his being gay and promoting equality for all dont detract from his work at apple and the record breaking, unfathomable success they've been met with in recent years.
Well I never once mentioned Cook's sexuality in this thread so...
Comments
Google stock ALSO engenders magical thinking. The Google Stock fantasy: Technology could replace everything. Amazon stock encourages magical thinking. The Amazon Stock fantasy: Amazon will become a monopoly that destroys even Walmart. Apple is about magical beliefs. The Apple Stock fantasy: Apple invents new boffo categories and breakthrough devices every year.
Only with Google and Amazon, there is no reality check -- because the magical expectation is for something in the future. With Apple, people can see that its success is (merely!) intelligent, incremental and systematic. That's Tim Cook. He's triumphing in a very methodical way that combines creativity with practicality. But that is not the myth of Apple that the public/investors/Wall Street wants and (still) believes.
Therefore, I can confidently predict, that APPL will only go up significantly, the day that Tim Cook walks on water.
Thank you for reading my ridiculous speculation lol.
1.) the 2 year wait for Apple TV that resulted in nothing they couldn't had done two years ago.
2.) The complete disregard for keeping new technologies moving forward in computers too.
It's like lately they take two years to think about something and during that time others have already beat them to the punch. Granted Apple does it better, but with all these people they employ and a massive R&D budget....that's what we got with the new Apple TV? A store that sells apps for the device??? They did that with the iPod a decade ago. Now that's something completely new and unique?? Seriously?
to make matters worse I get it home and find out I have to buy a crappy adapter to use the same setup that was running fine on the older model? All because they didn't include an optical port? For $200 you'd think that sucker would make me coffee too. Again it's not like it does anything it couldn't have done two yeas ago it's just they took two yeas to put out what they could have put out two years ago.
Thats the same point this guy is making. They could have done a larger phone back in 2013 and not let Samsung get business because people actually liked a larger phone. Then years later they put out 6 and it sells better and faster than any previous model? And people act like "wow who knew??" Well to start with Samsung knew. I guess we call Samsung now to find out what we'll have two years from now?
That's this guys point. I don't care what his past gripes were about. I (and he) was making comments on this article and that was what my comments agreeing were about to THIS ARTICLE - THIS TOPIC
1. Since when have Gene Munster been right? He was the one calling for $1000 when Apple was trading at $700 (pre-split). It went down 50% before eventually recovered. At the aame time that we riducule Katy Huberty or Kulbinder Garcha for their negative commentaries, should we take a caution to positive ones, like Gene Munster's, too?
2. Tim Cook is an operation genious, no doubt about that, but he and his management team have been a PR disaster for the investors. I remember August 24 very well. The stock tanked to $92 before Cramer revealed Cook's email. The stock quickly recovered and closed the day at $103. Some simple words from the CEO calmed the investors and brought the stock up 10%. Why not do it again in this time of uncertainty? He doesn't even need to say something new, just emphasized his previous comment from the earning call.
3. Gay rights, giving away his wealth, hour of code... these are all good. But he forgot that his first responsibility to shareholders. The company is doing extremely well, but I'm not rewarded proportionately as a shareholder. Buy backs didn't help. Dividends didn't help. Why isn't my management looking out for me?
1. The company intends to use its shares as currency in acquisitions.
Apple doesn't have this need, as it has plenty of cash to use in acquiring companies.
2. The company rewards its shareholders with stock and stock options.
Apple does use stock options to reward management and engineering employees, and offers discounted share purchases for retail employees. On the retail side, the employees are able to buy a small number of shares at 50% off the market price (shares directly issued to these employees from treasury stock). So retail employees see the lower market price as a means to pay less to acquire their allotment of shares. stock options, for employees receiving these, Coke with vesting periods, usually spread spa cross multiple years as an incentive to retain employees. So a subdued stock price in the near-term, while not desirable to these employees, is not tragic, as they are even further invented to work hard to get the future stock price higher in time for their options to vest. So bolstering the stock in the near-term is likely no a priority for Cook&Co based merely on employee incentives. Cook likely feels that employees should take a long-term view and he feels they will be well rewarded as the company continues to strengthen its product offerings, market position, and financial condition.
3. Customers look to the stock price as an indicator of the Heath of the company. I suppose this is the case for some businesses, such as those selling huge contracts where the buyer wants confidence that the company will remain viable going forward. But that's not the case for the vast majority of Apple customers, few of which are likely to even thing of Apple's business metrics, much less as implied by its stock price. Sure, I might slow down my Apple purchases, because I'm losing money on my Apple investment and that's crimping my overall budget for such expenditures, but I'm an outlier in that regard.
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Conversely, there is certainly incentive to allow the market to manipulate the short-term price, as this allows a company with ample cash reserves to aggressively buy back shares cheaply. In short, I think any complaints brought to Tim Cook regarding his views on the short-term performance of the stock would be met by his view that you are the one with the wrong way of thinking. If he's thinking Like Buffett, for the longest of long-terms, then pulling in the maximum number of shares way back in 2013-2015 will seem like the most brilliant business move come 2022.
Meanwhile, my options positions are being slaughtered, but that's my own fault, I guess.
Don't try to explain how Wall Street values Apple, there is no logic.
I certainly have my own criticisms of Apple (although most of them are not the complains documented above), but we're talking about the most successful consumer electronics company of all time that also consistently breaks sales records.
I think Apple's greatest accomplishment might have been how well the company did during the recession. Even I thought Apple's sales would have collapsed during that period.
While one could certainly argue that some of the products indicated in the "complaint" should have been released sooner, the fact is that Apple doesn't need to release everything at one time when they're growing anyway. It's a perfectly legitimate business strategy to pace the releases ( and also give inventory time to pare down).
One concern I do have is that Apple might be getting too big and therefore too large to manage. From my outsider's perspective, I think this is why we're seeing so many bugs and design flaws. Sometimes it does seem like there's no one in charge whereas when Apple was smaller, it seemed like they paid better attention to every detail. Some of the changes Apple had made to the OS and apps simply boggles the mind and really doesn't pass the 'smell' test. Too many times in recent years, I've thought, "what were they thinking?" instead of "Wow...these improvements are unbelievable!" And then of course there's the Apple obsession with form over function. I had to replace the battery in my late-2008 MBP the other day. I remembered that if this had been a newer machine, I couldn't have done it myself. I find that incredibly frustrating (as well as not being able to self replace the drive in a newer machine), especially since I am going to finally have to bite the bullet and buy a new machine in 2016.
Especially if Apple is really going to release a car, maybe it's time for the company to split itself up with separate CEOs for each division.
As for some of the people who seem to spend their lives on here (I keep picturing Scrooge with nothing to do but post, with FoxNews on in the background), their comments speak for themselves.
Apple should have released a larger-screen iPhone two years earlier. Yeah, maybe so, and that would have crimped Apple's margins as larger screens in 2012 were more expensive to procure than two years later. Apple always stated that it releases products and features when they are ready. Having not released a significantly larger screen, Apple still took some 52% of smartphone industry profits in the iPhone 5 cycle, and 80+% in the iPhone 5S cycle. And now they are taking 94%.
Given Apple's success in absorbing the majority of smartphone market profits, the aggregate decisions the company has made seem to be good enough. Certainly good enough by the expectations placed upon any other company out there.
A mind experiment that should be performed by anyone who would see themselves as capable of running the show better than Cook would be to imagine the company as merely a black box. Inside the box, out of sight and without your knowledge, resides a management team. The company makes some products and plays in some markets, of which you are not aware. You also don't see the stock price. And you aren't aware that there was a CEO who died and was replaced with another member of the management team.
The only information you're given is the financial metrics, total revenues and profits, EPS, cash and cash equivalents, share count, etc, with these numbers presented for each of the last, say, five years. Next to this information you are given the same information about other companies. You don't know that these other companies are Google, Amazon, etc. Your job is to determine, with just the pertinent business metrics you've been handed, which company you would want to own a portion of; company X (AAPL), company Y (GOOGL), or company Z (AMZN). Pretty sure most would laugh company Z right out of the competition. And you'd likely think of company X that it's got some pretty great management and is in a great business, which go together, as it's management that determines what businesses a company plays in. You'd think, whomever these guys are, the decisions they made over the five years, whether some were mistakes and others were great, in aggregate turned out pretty darned well. This is the mind experiment I want Wall St to run through its collective skull.
nope, nothing wrong w/ what Cook is doing, at all. his being gay and promoting equality for all dont detract from his work at apple and the record breaking, unfathomable success they've been met with in recent years.
are you bipolar?
Cook is the CEO of the most successful public company in the history of our planet. with the highest consumer ratings and world adoration. get fucking real, dude.
the real problem? you were pretending to be a day trader, and thinking you could wheel & deal your portfolio. nope. you buy apple stock, then go along for the ride, and sell it years later. many years later.