Wall Street believes that making money and investing in the future are mutually exclusive. To please Wall Street to the degree you want, Apple will have to throw the baby out with the bathwater and abandon the very principles that have brought Apple to its current position. I don't think it's worth it.
Nonsense - Apple has to articulate and demonstrate an exciting trajectory beyond the iPhone. So far the market is not impressed with what they have seen vis a vis HOMEKIT / Beats / Apple TV / streaming content negotiation failure / etc.
So, just by way of examples of what you mean, what are Amazon's / Google's / Microsoft's demonstrated exciting trajectories?
Wall Street believes that making money and investing in the future are mutually exclusive. To please Wall Street to the degree you want, Apple will have to throw the baby out with the bathwater and abandon the very principles that have brought Apple to its current position. I don't think it's worth it.
Nonsense - Apple has to articulate and demonstrate an exciting trajectory beyond the iPhone. So far the market is not impressed with what they have seen vis a vis HOMEKIT / Beats / Apple TV / streaming content negotiation failure / etc.
Nah they'd just find something else to be D&G over. Remember the decline in the last calendar quarter is all based on rumors of an iPhone sales decline, not anything Apple has officially reported. In FY 2015 Apple revenue grew 28% to over $230B. Earnings grew 35% to $53B. Yet the stock will be down this year over 4%. It makes no sense and just shows that Apple <> AAPL.
Timing of releases all at once as well as inferior products like the Apple TV, no Touch ID on notebooks (essential & readily available) for enterprise sales was just plain stupid! Tim is great but he clearly got sidetracked on global political issues & badly needed support he only just hired. The phone is fine but the watch doesn't do as everyone expected. If regulations stopped the inclusion of health monitors expected then they should have bought some companies w/those approvals in hand. It was also really stupid that the battery wasn't put in the "bands"! The most idiotic part of the new TV box is zero support for HDMI 2 or keeping the optical out. UHD TV's have much better screens even when watching Standard definition. Yet mostly, the new box isn't compatible w:UHD wired through your surround sound system as it cuts the video down to HD! The timing of Apples Quartely reports favors the high speed brokerage trading & always damages their actual regular consumer/investor. The patterns are there for anyone that looks. Apple did best when it had an April release & an October release (needs to be September). Apples future looks very good but World issues are scary & that future they are making is 2 years away. It all boils down to the GTAT example ... no Apple oversight & unrealistic expectations of production timing (no oversight of the skill level GTAT needed to go from tests to huge mass production?) Surely that is proven as Tim being one of the best ever. Where was he? Last of all ... Beat out by ROKU?
That's the voice of ignorance right there. Listening to too many right-wing nut job economic ignoramuses who base their policy recommendations on ad-hoc theorizing about monetary policy in just the same way that they base their climate change policy on junk science.
The Fed has been running a policy of monetary stimulation the last 8 years, how exactly does that translate to killing the economy and stifling growth?
Nonsense - Apple has to articulate and demonstrate an exciting trajectory beyond the iPhone. So far the market is not impressed with what they have seen vis a vis HOMEKIT / Beats / Apple TV / streaming content negotiation failure / etc.
So, just by way of examples of what you mean, what are Amazon's / Google's / Microsoft's demonstrated exciting trajectories?
Their exciting trajectories are what the market place believes they are - that is why their stocks are being purchased by investors - belief in future earnings & growth. My point is that APPLE is not doing what they need to do to generate a reasonable value of AAPL. That is Cook's responsibility.
My listing of exciting trajectories on other companies will only be met with deriding commentary of how superficial those things are. But the market feels differently.
This just shows what an ABSOLUTE FAILURE Tim Cook is.
The entire Wall Street and Investors still believe that all Apple is is the iPhone. That is a massive FAILURE on Tim Cooks part. He had 4 years to rewrite the message that Apple is an ecosystem company not a pure hardware company. He has FAILED. He either has to hire someone who can articulate the vision or he needs to step down.
Apple is down another $6 billion today. Over $16 billion the last two days. Thats a WHOLE YEAR of Dividends.
Yet Cook does absolutely NOTHING. He sits on his ASS and does NOTHING.
The stock is down over $200 BILLION because of totally baseless LIES and SPECULATION. Yet Cooks does nothing. He sits there on his ASS and worries about gay rights instead of the $200 BILLION that shareholders and employees have lost. He spent $120 BILLION on buyback and half of that is now in the RED. IN a few weeks the entire buyback will be in the RED and will be a total waste of money.
Stock is down $16 billion because of a fucking $300 million tax bill. How the FUCK does that makes sense. Where the FUCK is Tim Cook to stop the bleeding?
I just registered again on this board only in order to ask you to shut the fuck up- and I think I speak for everyone. Your insanity was cute for a while, but your vile messages are now just nauseating in their pitifulness, and you infect every single thread you post in with your screeching, nasty craziness. It's almost scary how little you understand about anything, your childish assumptions (IF COOK ONLY STATES SUPPLY CHAIN UNRELIABLE APPLE STOCK WOULD BE SO MUCH HIGHER!! COOK IS SITTING ON HIS ASS DOING NOTHING!!!) and the misplaced hatred you have towards Cook.
In the same post you state that Apple makes the best products in the world, as well as the most profitable, and yet Cook is a complete failure of a CEO and "pathetic". How the fuck are those 2 statements compatible? Apparently, in your view, the primary job of a CEO is to micromanage short term stock prices, and not run a great company. Your statements about "waste of money" buybacks is hilarious, as if these are short-term focused moves. You've made a fuckload of money on Apple stock, yet you're a spoiled, greedy, nasty piece of work that is now spending all his time and energy throwing barbs at Cook because the stock isn't a fucking daily money-making machine for you. Take my advise- please sell your holdings, so you can shut the fuck up and stop trolling this board with your CAPS-ridden, insane non-sense.
I fucking agree with you. Sog is all about his investment. When AAPL Goes south, he gets cold feet and blames Cook. I'm deep in AAPL too and don't give the fuck. It's my long term investment and I ignore the fluctuations. Apple is still the best company in the world for its products, operations, customer cares and honesty. Sog played games with WS and lost...so, he finds someone to blame of course.
Everyone is down today, Microsoft 1.5%. Of course Apple is going to be down too.
okay. But Microsoft is up 25% the last 6 months with meh earnings.
Apple is down 20% the last 6 months with record breaking earnings.
The problem lies with Cook. He is allowing Wall Street to take over the message of the company. Wall Street keeps yelling that Apple is only the iPhone company and iPhone sales have peaked. Cook says nothing to dispute it or change the message. Thus is stock has lost almost $200 billion in market cap in the last few months.
No the problem is not Cook. The problem is people like you who talk down AAPL every chance they get, posting the most inane, ignorant, panic-inciting, commentary that perpetuates a false investing zeit geist that Apple is on the verge of collapse. Cook is doing the right thing, not letting the clucking of the chicken littles of the world determine Apple's long term course.
I must congratulate you and your tribe though for a very successful market manipulation program that has transferred billions upon billions of dollars from the pockets of the easily-scared investing ignorati into the bank accounts of a few savvy short sellers.
I'm not seeing it. All growth from the past year has been wiped out, leaving shareholders with their dividends this year. I'm not really putting all the blame on Apple. The economy is being killed by Fed policy and excessive regulation, not to mention we are now in a deflationary period caused by Boomer retirements. The full weight of Obamacare also has not yet fallen on the majority of the population, but it does in 2016. All of the bad foundation that has been prolonging our shaky economy remains and may not easily change no matter who comes into office in the upcoming election. We're entering dire times.
I don't see that. The Fed is VERY gradually raising, we haven't entered or started an expensive war recently, and every one can get health care. Those are all really important.
The future: Hilary is pro Wall Street and so are her Republican competitors. A repatriation tax holiday is likely within two years. Federal tax coffers will get a bump and Apple will have $100-$175B to work with. Apple could buy Adobe, FireEye, Sales Force, and Tesla. Or IBM. Dumb ideas, maybe, probably, but the point is that Apple could "buy" $80B in revenue and add that to the top line.
I think the future doesn't look too bad.
As you know, the state of the company versus the state of the stock are often very different stories.
Demographically speaking, every major country is facing a shrinking working population and an outsized retiree population. This is not a new phenomena, but its impact is finally being felt. Apple is already positioned to fit into this new reality with the Apple Watch and iPad Pro and I assume they will make more inroads into the medical field and other areas in which there is growth.
Fot US working taxpayers, these will be dire times. Taxes can only go up drastically over the next 20 years as "the many" will force "the few" to pay for their needs.
okay. But Microsoft is up 25% the last 6 months with meh earnings.
Apple is down 20% the last 6 months with record breaking earnings.
The problem lies with Cook. He is allowing Wall Street to take over the message of the company. Wall Street keeps yelling that Apple is only the iPhone company and iPhone sales have peaked. Cook says nothing to dispute it or change the message. Thus is stock has lost almost $200 billion in market cap in the last few months.
No the problem is not Cook. The problem is people like you who talk down AAPL every chance they get, posting the most inane, ignorant, panic-inciting, commentary that perpetuates a false investing zeit geist that Apple is on the verge of collapse. Cook is doing the right thing, not letting the clucking of the chicken littles of the world determine Apple's long term course.
I must congratulate you and your tribe though for a very successful market manipulation program that has transferred billions upon billions of dollars from the pockets of the easily-scared investing ignorati into the bank accounts of a few savvy short sellers.
But it's only when the stock is down. One minute this guy is saying there's nothing wrong with 16GB iPhones and anyone who thinks so is a cheap bastard who should go buy an Android. Then when the stock is getting hammered the guy's a constant rant machine and Tim Cook is the biggest failure ever blah blah blah.
AAPL deserved to be flat this year! I'm no final arbiter but it was plain to me that Beats, Music, Watch, Apple TV, OS X, and iOS, didn't rise to Apple's lowest past standards. I think Jony Ive took 2015 off and Tim Cook took his eye off the ball. As a substantial AAPL shareholder I wish Apple better luck next year in regaining its past standards. Happy NY AI!
AAPL deserved to be flat this year! I'm no final arbiter but it was plain to me that Beats, Music, Watch, Apple TV, OS X, and iOS, didn't rise to Apple's lowest past standards. I think Jony Ive took 2015 off and Tim Cook took his eye off the ball. As a substantial AAPL shareholder I wish Apple better luck next year in regaining its past standards. Happy NY AI!
Jony Ive is responsible for all those things? What's wrong with iOS and OSX? Heck even Marco Arment (who is not afraid to bag on Apple) said both of those were much better this year on the last ATP podcast. I agree with you about Apple Music and Apple TV but those belong to Eddy Cue.
The stock is down for one reason: Wall Street thinks iPhone has peaked and growth will slow or turn negative in 2016. Until Apple is no longer thought of as iPhone, Inc, I don't see the stock doing much. At the same time though as Apple starts to branch out people will complain that they're losing focus and Marco Armemt will write another piece whining about quality so Apple is pretty much damned if it does damned if it doesn't.
So, just by way of examples of what you mean, what are Amazon's / Google's / Microsoft's demonstrated exciting trajectories?
Their exciting trajectories are what the market place believes they are - that is why their stocks are being purchased by investors - belief in future earnings & growth. My point is that APPLE is not doing what they need to do to generate a reasonable value of AAPL. That is Cook's responsibility.
My listing of exciting trajectories on other companies will only be met with deriding commentary of how superficial those things are. But the market feels differently.
It's not even necessary to deride as superficial. That particular "exciting trajectory" is not, and has not, yielded significant profits, year after year. Same with the other companies. Apple has, and continues to, post huge profits, and continues to defy the market assessment, year after year. Predictions of the demise of the iPhone, the whole company etc., have been circulating for years, and the opposite continues to happen. How many years of growth does it take to establish a pattern? Your entire "exciting trajectory" argument is pure nonsense. The market is clearly being manipulated for reasons unconnected with any kind of reality in relation to trajectories or profits.
AAPL deserved to be flat this year! I'm no final arbiter but it was plain to me that Beats, Music, Watch, Apple TV, OS X, and iOS, didn't rise to Apple's lowest past standards. I think Jony Ive took 2015 off and Tim Cook took his eye off the ball. As a substantial AAPL shareholder I wish Apple better luck next year in regaining its past standards. Happy NY AI!
No it doesn't.
Apple grew revenue in 2015 by 35%, profit by 40%, and EPS by 50%. Those numbers blow away Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix. Yet Apple's stock is in the toilet while those 4 are at all time highs.
Because Apple and AAPL are not the same things. Either be in it for the long term or get out of the stock.
Wall Street believes that making money and investing in the future are mutually exclusive. To please Wall Street to the degree you want, Apple will have to throw the baby out with the bathwater and abandon the very principles that have brought Apple to its current position. I don't think it's worth it.
Nonsense - Apple has to articulate and demonstrate an exciting trajectory beyond the iPhone. So far the market is not impressed with what they have seen vis a vis HOMEKIT / Beats / Apple TV / streaming content negotiation failure / etc.
The market wants to see something beyond the iPhone, but the only way for Apple to "demonstrate an exciting trajectory beyond the iPhone" would be to stop being Apple because as of now, I don't think there's any product ready for mass production. Apple would have to pull a Google or Amazon and reveal whatever it's working on inside its R&D facilities. It would probably go a long way towards pleasing Wall Street but it's abandoning the very principles that helped Apple succeed.
Google isn't that much better than Apple. Google is still as married to search as Apple is married to the iPhone. Just as HomeKit/Beats are products/services designed to bolster the iPhone rather than replace, Android is a platform designed to create an economic moat around search. The difference between Google and Apple is that Google is very public about whatever it has going on inside its R&D facilities. The company spends a lot of time talking about its pet projects whereas Apple doesn't say a word. The media has to just guess.
In summary, I don't think Apple should get defensive over every little thing the media likes to say.
Apple does have some very exciting growth opportunties. But Cook has done an absolutely HORRIBLE job of emphasizing these. Because of this the entire Street is focused on iPhone. If Cook had half a brain he would have:
1. Disclosed Watch numbers. Go brag about the massive success it has been. Instead he's hiding the numbers. 2. Disclose numbers for ATV4 3. Close the FUCKING deal with LiveTV. Stop being so cheap and expecting to get the absolute best deal. Just fukcing do it already. 4. Do a teaser for the AppleCar 5. Release a new iPadAir. WTF is up with that. 6. Release iCloud numbers 7. Release ApplePay numbers 8. Go FRIKEN buy a bank so ApplePay is accepted EVERYWHERE 9. Go release a search product. You let Google piss on your face and you do nothing 10. Make your own Ad-blocker and make it the default on all iOS devices
11. FRICKEN DEFEND THE COMPANY NAME AND STOCK. WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU ALLOWING LIES TO FESTER FOR MONTHS AND ALLOW THE STOCK TO LOSE ALMOST $200 BILLION
I am equally frustrated with Apple's poor stock performance, but I don't blame Cook entirely. The entire management team is rather weak these days in my opinion. None of them come across very well except Craig, who is at least likable. Eddie Cue is a disaster and I have no idea how the guy still has a job when everything he runs is pretty much a piece of sh*t. Jony is becoming more and more of a sniveling little design narcissist whose reputation has far exceeded his talent in my opinion. Sorry, the Watch is ugly and already looks dated. Cook and his team have allowed the various Apple UIs to become a complete mess, full of inconsistencies. I think we'll all look back one day and realize that ousting Forstall was a huge mistake. He might have been tough to work with, but he understood the tech. The current management team is all about the bling.
That said...
The reason there's so much emphasis on the iPhone is because the iPhone is 70% of revenue. Apple is a one-trick pony these days, with a few sideline interests.
1. Disclosing Watch numbers may or may not benefit Apple. While they have no doubt sold more Watches than other wearables, the device hasn't caught fire and the number of units sold, while impressive relative to the rest of the wearables market, might still seem paltry in the eyes of Wall Street. It most definitely hasn't been a runaway hit. I have no doubt that Cook would release numbers if the numbers were really impressive. The fact that he stays mum tells us all we need to know.
2. Again, disclosing ATV numbers might work against Apple, especially with Wall Street looking for another big hit. Personally I'm underwhelmed by ATV4. Had they released this device two years ago, I think people would have been more excited and interested. Now it feels a bit stale and so far the app offerings are really weak, gaming is weak, game controller support is foolishly limited, etc. The whole product feels like one big compromise to me. It's a nice accessory, but hardly a must-have device. If Apple were really serious about TV, they'd build an Apple TV with Cable Card support, a great DVR app, etc.
3. There's really no incentive to close the live TV deal if you can't offer a better (cheaper) product. If the cost of Apple's content package rivals a cable subscription, why not just stick with cable? I believe Apple has miscalculated with TV. They waste tons of money on Beats because they think they can buy "cool" and release an anemic Apple TV with crappy "casual gaming". They should have bought Nintendo and all of its much loved franchises and released a "must have" gaming system with apps as a bonus. That would have been an exciting product and it would have been flying off the shelves this holiday season.
4. Never going to happen. Apple has never been about promoting vapor and I don't expect them to start now. They're going to stay quiet until they can orchestrate a big reveal. The question is...will anyone care? Personally I find the idea of an Apple Car hilarious. It's one thing to move from computers to phones and media streaming boxes. It's quite another to build a car, much less service and support it.
5. While I can't argue with this...a new iPad Air isn't going to get the stock moving in the right direction.
6. What numbers? Number of users? Or number of times iCloud Music Library has screwed someone's iTunes to the wall? Or number of times iCloud Photo Library has mangled someone's photos? Or number of times iCloud has lost contact, calendar, or email data? Or number of times iCloud Drive hasn't synced properly and resulted in a pile of sync conflicts? iCloud is better than previous Apple cloud offerings, but it's still far from reliable. Again, how Eddie Cue still has his job is beyond me!!!!
7. By all anecdotal accounts, ApplePay isn't popular. I've asked at a few stored when checking out how many people use it and the clerks have all said the same thing: "hardly anyone". I don't think releasing numbers will make Wall Street happy.
8. Ha!
9. Where's the money? I don't really see why Apple needs search. Others are doing it just fine. The last thing I want to see Apple do is put forth another mediocre cloud/online product. They need to fix what they have before they roll out new features.
10. Wall Street will not care.
11. I agree with you here. Cook should be more aggressive in defending the company and pointing out the absurd double standard to which Apple is held compared to Google, Amazon, etc. But...
No amount of defending Apple is going to fix the obvious problems:
1. iPhone is 70% of revenue. Most of their eggs are in one basket. 2. Apple Watch is essentially an iPhone accessory, not a stand-alone product that gets people (much less Wall Street) excited. 3. ATV4 is way too little, way too late. 4. Cloud services aren't reliable. 5. HomeKit, something that could have been exciting and revolutionary, is an embarrassment.
My Apple brand loyalty died with Steve. I still prefer the products, but I hear a lot of people (friends and business associates) complaining about Apple these days. I think the shine is off for a lot of people. I personally think Apple has lost focus and is trying too hard to create ongoing nickel and dime revenue streams. I also think the industry, in general, has plateaued a bit and we're not seeing anything new and exciting from anyone these days. Unfortunately the public and Wall Street both expect Apple to constantly WOW, while others are rewarded for incremental advances.
I'm not seeing it. All growth from the past year has been wiped out, leaving shareholders with their dividends this year. I'm not really putting all the blame on Apple. The economy is being killed by Fed policy and excessive regulation, not to mention we are now in a deflationary period caused by Boomer retirements. The full weight of Obamacare also has not yet fallen on the majority of the population, but it does in 2016. All of the bad foundation that has been prolonging our shaky economy remains and may not easily change no matter who comes into office in the upcoming election. We're entering dire times.
did you say the same w/ Bush was in office? cuz the economy was put into the shitter. and yet here we are, 8 years later and things are vastly improved. "Thanks, Obama!"
This just shows what an ABSOLUTE FAILURE Tim Cook is.
The entire Wall Street and Investors still believe that all Apple is is the iPhone. That is a massive FAILURE on Tim Cooks part. He had 4 years to rewrite the message that Apple is an ecosystem company not a pure hardware company. He has FAILED. He either has to hire someone who can articulate the vision or he needs to step down.
jesus christ what troll nonsense. are you always so bipolar? if we had a block list again, id surely put you on it.
apple stock is fine. its a long term investment. quit pretending you're a day trader.
Their exciting trajectories are what the market place believes they are - that is why their stocks are being purchased by investors - belief in future earnings & growth. My point is that APPLE is not doing what they need to do to generate a reasonable value of AAPL. That is Cook's responsibility.
My listing of exciting trajectories on other companies will only be met with deriding commentary of how superficial those things are. But the market feels differently.
It's not even necessary to deride as superficial. That particular "exciting trajectory" is not, and has not, yielded significant profits, year after year. Same with the other companies. Apple has, and continues to, post huge profits, and continues to defy the market assessment, year after year. Predictions of the demise of the iPhone, the whole company etc., have been circulating for years, and the opposite continues to happen. How many years of growth does it take to establish a pattern? Your entire "exciting trajectory" argument is pure nonsense. The market is clearly being manipulated for reasons unconnected with any kind of reality in relation to trajectories or profits.
And your "market manipulation" argument is even more nonsense - an over used premise by way too many on forums who have little else to try to explain why it is so under valued.
Well Mr Sog35, how about buying a few shares of Apple stock and then putting down a motion of no confidence in Tim Cook and the BOD for discussion at the AGM. Who knows, you might even get it passed. Ready to run the biggest company in the world then? If not, just shut up and sell any Apple kit you own. You obviously don't like the company, the products, the management, just about everything to do with the company,
I love the company. They make the best products in the world. They make ridiculous profits. But the stock has been an absolute piece of shit since Tim Cook took over.
I'm sorry but Tim Cook is just not elite CEO material. The guy sounds like a clown and a wimp every time he tries to defend Apple. The guy has ZERO presence, ZERO authority. Wall Street pisses on his face constantly because they know he's spineless and he won't defend the company 99% of the time. Cook is a good COO, but a horrible CEO. That Wall Street still thinks Apple is only about the iPhone is shameful and sickening. And that falls DIRECTLY on the head of Cook.
funny how so much of the Cook hate showed up after his public stance on civil rights equality. i can't wait until you people die off.
Comments
The Fed has been running a policy of monetary stimulation the last 8 years, how exactly does that translate to killing the economy and stifling growth?
My listing of exciting trajectories on other companies will only be met with deriding commentary of how superficial those things are. But the market feels differently.
But - fwiw - here ya go: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/30/amazon_dot_com_holds_ludicrous_lead_in_online_retail_sales/
No the problem is not Cook. The problem is people like you who talk down AAPL every chance they get, posting the most inane, ignorant, panic-inciting, commentary that perpetuates a false investing zeit geist that Apple is on the verge of collapse. Cook is doing the right thing, not letting the clucking of the chicken littles of the world determine Apple's long term course.
I must congratulate you and your tribe though for a very successful market manipulation program that has transferred billions upon billions of dollars from the pockets of the easily-scared investing ignorati into the bank accounts of a few savvy short sellers.
Demographically speaking, every major country is facing a shrinking working population and an outsized retiree population. This is not a new phenomena, but its impact is finally being felt. Apple is already positioned to fit into this new reality with the Apple Watch and iPad Pro and I assume they will make more inroads into the medical field and other areas in which there is growth.
Fot US working taxpayers, these will be dire times. Taxes can only go up drastically over the next 20 years as "the many" will force "the few" to pay for their needs.
And:
"The total fertility rate in the United States estimated for 2014 is 1.86 children per woman,[6][7] which is below the replacement fertility rate of approximately 2.1."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States
Also: https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p25-1143.pdf
The stock is down for one reason: Wall Street thinks iPhone has peaked and growth will slow or turn negative in 2016. Until Apple is no longer thought of as iPhone, Inc, I don't see the stock doing much. At the same time though as Apple starts to branch out people will complain that they're losing focus and Marco Armemt will write another piece whining about quality so Apple is pretty much damned if it does damned if it doesn't.
Google isn't that much better than Apple. Google is still as married to search as Apple is married to the iPhone. Just as HomeKit/Beats are products/services designed to bolster the iPhone rather than replace, Android is a platform designed to create an economic moat around search. The difference between Google and Apple is that Google is very public about whatever it has going on inside its R&D facilities. The company spends a lot of time talking about its pet projects whereas Apple doesn't say a word. The media has to just guess.
In summary, I don't think Apple should get defensive over every little thing the media likes to say.
I am equally frustrated with Apple's poor stock performance, but I don't blame Cook entirely. The entire management team is rather weak these days in my opinion. None of them come across very well except Craig, who is at least likable. Eddie Cue is a disaster and I have no idea how the guy still has a job when everything he runs is pretty much a piece of sh*t. Jony is becoming more and more of a sniveling little design narcissist whose reputation has far exceeded his talent in my opinion. Sorry, the Watch is ugly and already looks dated. Cook and his team have allowed the various Apple UIs to become a complete mess, full of inconsistencies. I think we'll all look back one day and realize that ousting Forstall was a huge mistake. He might have been tough to work with, but he understood the tech. The current management team is all about the bling.
That said...
The reason there's so much emphasis on the iPhone is because the iPhone is 70% of revenue. Apple is a one-trick pony these days, with a few sideline interests.
1. Disclosing Watch numbers may or may not benefit Apple. While they have no doubt sold more Watches than other wearables, the device hasn't caught fire and the number of units sold, while impressive relative to the rest of the wearables market, might still seem paltry in the eyes of Wall Street. It most definitely hasn't been a runaway hit. I have no doubt that Cook would release numbers if the numbers were really impressive. The fact that he stays mum tells us all we need to know.
2. Again, disclosing ATV numbers might work against Apple, especially with Wall Street looking for another big hit. Personally I'm underwhelmed by ATV4. Had they released this device two years ago, I think people would have been more excited and interested. Now it feels a bit stale and so far the app offerings are really weak, gaming is weak, game controller support is foolishly limited, etc. The whole product feels like one big compromise to me. It's a nice accessory, but hardly a must-have device. If Apple were really serious about TV, they'd build an Apple TV with Cable Card support, a great DVR app, etc.
3. There's really no incentive to close the live TV deal if you can't offer a better (cheaper) product. If the cost of Apple's content package rivals a cable subscription, why not just stick with cable? I believe Apple has miscalculated with TV. They waste tons of money on Beats because they think they can buy "cool" and release an anemic Apple TV with crappy "casual gaming". They should have bought Nintendo and all of its much loved franchises and released a "must have" gaming system with apps as a bonus. That would have been an exciting product and it would have been flying off the shelves this holiday season.
4. Never going to happen. Apple has never been about promoting vapor and I don't expect them to start now. They're going to stay quiet until they can orchestrate a big reveal. The question is...will anyone care? Personally I find the idea of an Apple Car hilarious. It's one thing to move from computers to phones and media streaming boxes. It's quite another to build a car, much less service and support it.
5. While I can't argue with this...a new iPad Air isn't going to get the stock moving in the right direction.
6. What numbers? Number of users? Or number of times iCloud Music Library has screwed someone's iTunes to the wall? Or number of times iCloud Photo Library has mangled someone's photos? Or number of times iCloud has lost contact, calendar, or email data? Or number of times iCloud Drive hasn't synced properly and resulted in a pile of sync conflicts? iCloud is better than previous Apple cloud offerings, but it's still far from reliable. Again, how Eddie Cue still has his job is beyond me!!!!
7. By all anecdotal accounts, ApplePay isn't popular. I've asked at a few stored when checking out how many people use it and the clerks have all said the same thing: "hardly anyone". I don't think releasing numbers will make Wall Street happy.
8. Ha!
9. Where's the money? I don't really see why Apple needs search. Others are doing it just fine. The last thing I want to see Apple do is put forth another mediocre cloud/online product. They need to fix what they have before they roll out new features.
10. Wall Street will not care.
11. I agree with you here. Cook should be more aggressive in defending the company and pointing out the absurd double standard to which Apple is held compared to Google, Amazon, etc. But...
No amount of defending Apple is going to fix the obvious problems:
1. iPhone is 70% of revenue. Most of their eggs are in one basket.
2. Apple Watch is essentially an iPhone accessory, not a stand-alone product that gets people (much less Wall Street) excited.
3. ATV4 is way too little, way too late.
4. Cloud services aren't reliable.
5. HomeKit, something that could have been exciting and revolutionary, is an embarrassment.
My Apple brand loyalty died with Steve. I still prefer the products, but I hear a lot of people (friends and business associates) complaining about Apple these days. I think the shine is off for a lot of people. I personally think Apple has lost focus and is trying too hard to create ongoing nickel and dime revenue streams. I also think the industry, in general, has plateaued a bit and we're not seeing anything new and exciting from anyone these days. Unfortunately the public and Wall Street both expect Apple to constantly WOW, while others are rewarded for incremental advances.
jesus christ what troll nonsense. are you always so bipolar? if we had a block list again, id surely put you on it.
apple stock is fine. its a long term investment. quit pretending you're a day trader.
funny how so much of the Cook hate showed up after his public stance on civil rights equality. i can't wait until you people die off.