michael_c

Apple is a US based corporation and therefore it's appropriate to comment about things going on in the US.  Family members can dispute things they don't like in their own home, but it would be inappropriate to do so when a guest in someone else's home.  Apple's role in the US is quite different than it's role in other countries.
The NCPPR should learn the concept of the tail wagging the dog.  Sorry to hear we'll have to hear their spiel again on Friday.

So, how will they determine a person is driving?  My car won't allow access to certain functionality when car is moving, not even for the passenger.  Will the same apply for passengers using cell phones?
I understand and appreciate the problem, not confident we'll get a good solution.

wonkothesane said:

Nothing to see here. It has been made clear before that 

a) stock value is reflecting not so much company health but mainly growth potential. And currently, Apple makes most profit from selling iPhones which is reaching a steady state. On the past, adding regions and carriers has been a big growth driver. This is close to gone. again, nothing to worry from a company wealth perspective as it will have a steady rate of switchers and upgraders. 

b) some funds are into the short run, not the long haul. And Apple has a strong growth potential IMO in two areas: services and new hardware categories, both of which require some time to mature to a point where they can replace previous growth by iPhone hardware sales. 

The he only thing I found concerning recently is Tim Cook's somewhat inconsistent narrative in earning calls. Listen eg torte last episode of Gruber's The Talkshow for details. But again, not at all concerning company health or long term growth potential. 

People buy and sell for many different reasons, and I agree the stock action doesn't necessarily reflect company health.  
Whether iPhone sales have reached a "steady state" or not depends on how you look at the sales data.  iPhone sales growth looks poor if you use YOY comps, however if you step back and plot 2nd quarter sales iPhone sales growth is still in tact.

 I could agree with the "steady state" view you mentioned if' the quarter's sales numbers dropped below the trend line.  It may happen next quarter, but too early to say "steady state" has been reached.  None of this matters, though, as the market does what it does and the technicals are driving the price action. 

 The touch bar offers a great productivity boost for anyone who works with FCP X, and I can see similar gains in other apps which have any degree of complexity close to it.  It doesn't take long to appreciate how well the workflow is improved by the touch bar's context switching behavior.  Clearly innovation is still alive and well at Apple.

bluenix said:

So the company was found in 2007 and produced the glass entrance at Apple's Fifth Avenue Store that opened in 2006?

Renovation in 2011

sog35 said:

mr. h said:

Presumably, had Apple not been doing all these buybacks, the stock price would be even lower now? This notwithstanding, surely long-term investors would be better off if Apple spent all the capital return money on dividends?

Hoarding wealth is not necessary for Apple at this point - they have massive reserves and are making money faster than they can spend it. Returning money to investors is the right thing to do in this situation but I’m not sure the buyback is good value for money.

I don't think the stock would be worth less today if they didn't do the buyback.

They would have over $300 billion in net cash if they didn't do the buyback.

Sans cash the company's market cap would only be $264 billion. Do you seriously think Apple would be worth less net of cash than Facebook, which is worth $300 billion?  I don't think so.

IMO, Apple should hoard the cash right now. If the economy gets worse they can buy and acquire foreign and domestic companies for cheap.

Part of the pressure on AAPL stock price is due to large institutions view that AAPL is shifting from a growth stock to a value stock, and the growth funds have been selling at a higher rate than the value funds are adding positions. I still see AAPL in the growth phase, as the 2015 holiday quarter and following quarter iPhone sales were an anomaly and should have been treated as outlier data points - but, it doesn't matter what I, or you think as they will do what they will do. However, at some point they will have such large YOY comps to deal with AAPL will no longer fit any of the institution's growth funds definitions and their rules will force them to sell. It is what it is, regardless of whether the institutions have pulled the trigger early or not. But, at some point the buy/sell rates will equalize, and the buybacks effects will be seen. At this point, any positive effects of the buybacks have been obscured by the transition. Look at the reported activity for the Fidelity funds and you can see the imbalance buy/sell pressure. And, Fidelity is just one of the institutions transitioning. Fidelity Capital Appreciation fund sold all of its 2.48 million Apple shares since June while at the same time Fidelity Series Equity-Income fund bought 1.05 million shares (after having no previous stake) When you look at the 20 year view of AAPL, you see the latest drop (over the last 9+ months) as a 50% retracement - this has occurred multiple times with AAPL. AAPL appears to have bottomed out in Feb, and in the past have resumed their trajectory either one or two month after they have bottomed. Unexpected events can change things, but I have no reason to expect this retracement to be any different.

I didn't vote via Twitter poll, but favor making use of as much of the available real estate - It won't take long for people to become used to the "visual" and the esthetics won't be an issue.
 
There are numerous status indicators that can tuck into the space on each side of the notch - no sense letting this space go idle.  Don't know if the OS provides a way to toggle the display to allow users to scale the content when the notch is problematic and hiding wanted content.  My guess is this won't be a common problem, but wouldn't take much to provide a tool to resolve it when needed.

thewhitefalcon said:

The analysts all seem reasonable here. Cook did well with the messaging overall, I think. 

I think Cook did reasonably well, but could have put the 2014 holiday quarter into perspective a little better, as I don't see the slowdown in iPhone sales as real as it's being made out to be. The 2014 holiday season, included sales from the first large screen iPhones, and was a monster quarter and could be understood to be an unusual situation. One of the points Cook made was how next quarters year over year comps (YOY) were going to be most challenging as the 2015 2nd quarter sales included iPhones delayed due to production constraints - these would have normally been fallen in the 2014 holiday period. This, would have made the 2014 holiday season even higher, resulting in a YOY miss for this last holiday season, but the 2nd quarter YOY would be in better shape. I think a miss in the holiday quarter is easier to understand when factoring in the introduction of the first large screen iPhones.

tallest skil said:

McCarthy was a national hero. Do a comparison to Stalin or something. And there’s nothing wrong with that, because we’re not a direct democracy. Thing is, we ought to undo what Andrew Jackson did (only thing he did wrong, really) and allow the Electoral College to be proportional again instead of winner take all. Makes every state a battleground .

I can understand your point, and there may be a few who still think highly of McCarthy, but it is somewhat doubtful there are many (if any).  Regardless, the term McCarthyism, is hardly something viewed positively - those who liked the goal of McCarthy, and willing to ignore his methods, wouldn't use the term.  
The term has a specific meaning which involves coercion, intimidation and deceit.  The comments made by the FBI are attempts to damage Apple in order to meet their agenda.  Same technique used by McCarthy, ... both in the "name of keeping us safe."