focher

There's nothing Tim Cook or anyone else is going to say that is going to convince short term traders of AAPL about anything. They're going to continue to be upset that Apple's fundamentals - revenue, profit, and growth cycles - are not sufficient to overcome the strange valuations of companies like Amazon and Google. Nothing is going to change that except if the market raises the price of AAPL.

However, it's not Apple that has changed. It has never talked about unannounced products. It has never released a new product category that didn't get slammed in the media as non-innovative. This whole assertion that Apple has lost its ability to innovate is a bit suspect, but whatever.

The best advice was Cramer's last line. Own it, don't trade it. I guess I'm lucky because I care about AAPL's value in the next 15-20 years, not the next 15-20 days.

jonl said:

Such a waste of money. The stock is lower than it was in 2012. Guess that's not long enough to be an article. lol

You should just shut your computer off because you simply don't know anything. The stock split in 2014. AAPL is very much worth more than it was in 2012. Since then, Apple has retired quite a bit of shares. It has also increased its cash position by almost $100B. Once again, people cannot distinguish between AAPL (the stock) and Apple (the company).

sog35 said:

Tim Cook wasted $115 BILLION in shareholder money in the buyback. 
He did it because of pressure from Ichan.
The stock has gained NOTHING in valuation from that waste of money.

Before the buyback Apples was worth over $700 billion.
Now after wasting $115 billion in cash its worth a pathetic $530 billion.

But go live in a fantasy world all you want.

All I know is Cook authorized this $115 billion buyback and the stock is worth $170 billion less.

Hard to ever take you seriously when you don't even comprehend the basics of how a company is run. Tim Cook didn't authorize a single buyback, the board of directors did.

You shouldn't care anyway, having said repeatedly that you had sold all your AAPL.  For those of us who are long on AAPL, we're pretty happy with the continued capital buyback. I look forward to an increasingly smaller pool of shares that can be manipulated by day traders and other short time investors.

blastdoor said:

applesauce007 said:

Very curious about Apple's go to market strategy.  

I think it's almost certainly electric, but it's *hard* for electric to make economic sense so long as gas prices stay low. I'm not sure exactly what "low" means in this context, but I suspect that even $4/gallon is still too low. 

Ignoring the environmental benefits of electric versus an internal combustion engine, there's a lot more to the cost differential consideration.

1. Gas prices inevitably will go back up
2. Overall maintenance costs are much lower on an EV
3. Design and manufacture of an EV - excluding the batteries - is greatly simplified
4. Battery costs - the primary driver of any price difference - are rapidly dropping. GM let it be known that they're paying about $145/kW on the Bolt. Tesla is known to have cheaper costs and with their Giga Factory, are driving that cost down even further.
5. Economies of scale matter in manufacturing, so as EV adoption continues to increase then this element gets lower on a per unit basis

The fact is, a significant portion of the population wants to have their own car and whether it makes financial sense factors in very little. The ASP on a new car in the USA is about $31k/$32k. EVs are already available in that range and the list of available choices is continuing to expand.

There's absolutely zero chance Apple introduces a combustion engine-based car.

So much misinformation. 

1.  The tax credit is 7500 for the first 200k vehicles from each manufacturer then has a "ramp down" over multiple quarters that is not volume based. 

2. Existing car manufacturers absolutely have a barrier to their entry in the EV space - their existing product / revenue and dealers who make most of their profit on service and maintenance. 

3. The Model S has captured 25% of the luxury car segment in the US. It's the #1 selling luxury car. 

4. The base Model 3 is $35k BEFORE any tax credits or rebates (some states also have additional over the federal credit). It will be cheaper than the Bolt, much better performing, and is not a Chevy. Tesla is an aspirational brand. Tesla owners are rabidly in love with the Tesla and its products. Sound familiar?

5. Elon Musk has said again and again that he started Tesla to kickstart the move to EVs. He wants the other manufacturers to join in.