rogifan_old

I see Eric Jackson is nailing Apple again for the massive stock buybacks questioning what good it's done, 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2016/01/11/the-data-on-apples-failed-4-year-130b-capital-return-program/?utm_campaign=yahootix&partner=yahootix

levi said:

rogifan_old said:

According to a new survey that just came out non-Android phone sales grew 33% in China last quarter. Maybe that's why Apple stock is up 1% today. 

http://fortune.com/2016/01/11/apple-iphone-sales-china/?xid=yahoo_fortune

incidentally Fitbit stock is down over 8%. I believe it's below the IPO price now.

Fitbit has taken a beating since CES - down more than 30% in the last week. They are a couple of class action suits brewing, and Wall Street wasn't enthusiastic on their new fitness watch. 

I wonder if this is a similar case to Apple where the reality with the company and the stock performance aren't mirroring each other. 

Thanks AI for throwing the word "reportedly" in the title. I wish Mac Rumors would to the same.

canukstorm said:

"One fundamental problem with Apple that Cook failed to fix and DED failed to address is Apple's perennially weak cloud."

I agree. Cloud computing, AI, Lifestyle-based services (biometrics, health, fitness, home automation, etc.) is where the next major battleground for the next era of mobile will be. As great as Tim Cook has done up till now, I'm not convinced he's CEO to lead Apple into this next era of computing where cloud / AI becomes more important. That's not to say that the device is unimportant, it just won't be the main competitive advantage. Apple needs a CEO that has the vision to be able to lead it for this next era of Cloud & AI.

And Eddy Cue isn't the right guy to run Apple's cloud business IMO. I've posted this before; I think it would be wise for Cook to hire an SVP to run Apple's cloud business and then move all of Apple's first party professional software under Craig Federighi. Let Eddy focus on what he does best, content and deal making. Subscription services and expanding Pay are going to be very important going forward. I'd also love to see a unified App Store where you can buy apps on any device. This is what I think the structure should look like under Cook:

Cue - iTunes, Music, TV, Pay, News
Ahrendts - retail & online
Federighi - all of Apple's operating systems and pro software
Ive - all design & future proucts like project Titan
Riccio - hardware engineering
Srouji - semiconductor, wireless & batteries
Schiller - product marketing and App Store
New - iCloud, Siri, Maps, Proactive and future initiatives with machine learning, AI etc. 

And then you'd have support staff like COO, CFO, HR, advertising, etc. I think this is good for Apple as a business and I think it would be good for the stock as Cook would he signaling that Apple is serious about the cloud and serious about monetizing the installed base and creating recurring revenue streams outside of hardware. Turn on CNBC any day of the week and you'll find some clown going on about how Apple is a hardware company.  It's nonsense of course but it's out there and is one of the reasons the stock is valued where it is.

Philip Elmer Dewitt's got a good piece up. Click bait wins in the end.

http://fortune.com/2016/01/10/apple-clueless-press-commentary/