luxetlibertas

redhotfuzz said:

luxetlibertas said:

There doesn't seem to be any proof of misconduct by Huawei.

You sit in on Western countries' intelligence briefings, do you?

Also, only a complete ignoramus would deny China's open and rampant practice of IP theft.

This is sloppy thinking. Proof should be open to questioning, and nothing has been brought forward, not even an accusation. Likewise, accusations of IP theft should be substantiated in court.  And Huawei is not China and China is not Huawei. China does have lots of policies that disadvantage foreign companies, even apart from the problem of being a one-party state, and these things have to be worked out preferably working together with allies. But Trump is open about what this whole trade war really is about: "‘Not on my watch’: China won’t be number one in the world, says Donald Trump" (see link in 'Reply 35'). This is standard would-be dictator strategy, inventing enemies.

There is still to consider: 1) battery age (2017 model is not fresh from factory) and A10X is probably less efficient than A12 2) apart from 20% better performance, the A12 has the Neural Engine that may be mandatory for a future version of iOS or for functionality such as Siri-on-device (but no idea if that is even possible) 3) Bluetooth 5 is better to have than 4.2 4) No camera bump for the Air3.

Spotify wants to raise prices and blame Apple for it. Not a pretty picture.

GeorgeBMac said:

Apple didn't start paying large dividends or make stock buy backs because they had excess cash.   They did it because activist share holders like Carl Icahn forced them to.   It was not a "business decision".

You claim to know something but it just does not hold up at all. Icahn had less than 1% of the company. Totally irrelevant. He also sold in 2016 when he had some profit and missed a 100% gain since then. In 2018, Apple increased the buybacks more than twofold and said it planned to get to cash neutral in the future. There was no pressure, they clearly judge it to be the best use of the money to create shareholder value.

Buybacks are equivalent to (untaxed!) dividends. Compare a 1% buyback with a 1% dividend: 1) they cost the company the same dollar amount. 2) after the buyback you own 1% more of the company, exactly the same as if you reinvested the dividend (ignoring tax). If you prefer the cash, just sell 1% of your holding and your share of the company and its profits remains the same, just as if you received a 1% dividend.

The current slump in share price is a big windfall for shareholders because of Apple's big buybacks. If the share price had remained at $220 there would be no talk of 'bad investment' but Apple would have had to spend several billions more for the same number of its own shares. As long as I don't need to sell right now, I greatly prefer the low share price!