Apples greatest strength right now is the fanboi base. Great for them, we own apple as part of our portfolio, but will look to diverge ourselves of the assets over the next year, I am pretty certain.
In the mean time, I appreciate what folks like yourself have done to offset the hit our other holdings have caused us.
But, regarding your post, I have never been inside the Apple boardroom, but the reports that flowed out over the iPhone debacle and reception-gate indicated that Apple has once again gone into committee-think. If you have a beef with that general consensus, take it up with those write such things, or give me some indication that you are involved in Apple, and are first hand experienced in a way that can refute those claims. Just “saying so” doesn’t make it so, and no amount of wishful thinking will change that.
Secondly, Apples main stratagem has been to market to the technically challenged. If you can’t see this, it is because you take exception, or feel insulted that by using an apple, you are lumped into that category. This thread is not about emotion, where many apple posts go, it is about the closed end proprietary method that the author is touting as a strength, when that very thinking, for all practical purposes, put Apple out of business for over a decade.
Finally, Apple does market to the eco friendly, of which, most folks happen to be very gullible. To say they don’t, would lead me to believe you don’t read much. To say they don’t would lead me to believe you don’t spend much time on college campuses. You can just head over to http://www.apple.com/environment/ to see their take on it themselves. Or you can do a simple Google or whatever other method you use to search. I am guessing Google may be a bit difficult for a fanboi such as yourself. I say that, now fully convinced, that I am arguing with a fanboi, if you cannot do your own research into their marketing, or you don’t want to, because it assaults your own sensibilities. Whichever the case, in your mind, Apple is the bees-knees, and neither logic nor research will sway you otherwise. I’m cool with that. Keep that stock price up there, I do appreciate it.
I do agree that Apple HAS performed like a start up, but the trend this year, and the product line for the next year, leads myself, and those who invest into the product to be gun-shy about further investments, thinking there are other options that will play out stronger. Of course, there are always analysts on both sides of the isle, but as an investor, and not a fanboi, I have to wade through and sort out the propaganda from the fact, and base my decisions on ROI, not on what feels good.
As far as becoming the number 1 tech company... Texas Instruments also held that title for 3x the period that Apple has, and they didn’t have the benefit of the Inventor of the Internet, Al Gore on their board.
YOU are the one who swallowed the purely manufactured hype when you claim there was an "iPhone debacle" and "reception-gate." We owners of the product did not because we did not experience what we were being told we should be experiencing! Believe me I tried to get my iPhone4 to drop signal; I couldn't get it to do it!
The fact is that as soon as the totally UNCHANGED iPhone4 was released in the world market, away from the Google and Verizon manufactured hype machine, the Antenna Gate hype completely fell apart! The rest of the world's Cell phone markets simply could not duplicate the issue. Absent AT&T's already flakey network, the iPhone4 performed as advertised. In fact, as of November, the "flawed antenna" iPhone4 now commands 72% of the smartphone market in Japan!
When the iPhone4 was released in those markets the reviewers COULD NOT DUPLICATE the problem. They, almost to a man, claimed the Americans were wrong! Strangely, the issue disappeared almost overnight in the American press as well as more and more glowing foreign reviews came in WITHOUT claims of reception and antenna problems. Gee, what happened? Apple changed nothing about the phone. The only thing that was different was the FUD hype engine got turned off... It was too expensive and unnecessary to run in too many markets where the Android phones were not yet being released.
You asked for "first hand experience" to refute these claims, I offer that I have no over thirty friends and family with iPhone4s and ONLY ONE has experienced reception issues and she lives in the boonies, and had worse problems with her iPhone 3Gs. NONE of us can duplicate the attenuation problems to the degree we drop any calls. Independent tests done by competent signal engineers who tested the iPhone4, not the amateurs at Consumers Reports who had NEVER done such tests before and had no clue how to do it, found the iPhone4, got BETTER reception than it's predecessors. I have posted the certified results on here, along with their critiques of the CU tests.
On September 30th, Apple ended the free case program band-aid it had to put on the scratch it got from the FUD attack in the US. Sales of iPhone4s went up.
So much for "antenna gate." it was and is FUD.
Secondly, Apples main stratagem has been to market to the technically challenged. If you can’t see this, it is because you take exception, or feel insulted that by using an apple, you are lumped into that category. This thread is not about emotion, where many apple posts go, it is about the closed end proprietary method that the author is touting as a strength, when that very thinking, for all practical purposes, put Apple out of business for over a decade.
Again, you ASSUME something not based in fact. When, exactly was Apple "out of business for over a decade?" are you talking about the period before the return of Steve Jobs 13 years ago? You assume that a system based on open source UNIX and open standards is somehow "closed end" and "proprietary" yet Microsoft's reliance on proprietary licensed file systems and proprietary DRM Systems is not? The thinking that you claim and denigrate as merely "marketing to the technically challenged" is what has made Apple the largest and most successful tech company in the World... By making products that are easy to use yet still very powerful AND still give access to industrial strength hardware and abilities just under the surface for any geek to tweak as needed... Along with providing best in the world tech support.
As to marketing to the Eco friendly, that's what's expected these days. So you found ONE PAGE on their website about it. You'll also find them giving lip service in their store ads. BUT you won't see big TV ads showing vistas of blue skies and babbling brooks with bunny rabbits leaping in their ads with no sign of their products anywhere to be seen. The ecology push is merely an addenda. Not a PUSH. It's an afterthought. The icing on the cake of their well thought out product mix, not the marketing thrust.
I do agree that Apple HAS performed like a start up, but the trend this year, and the product line for the next year, leads myself, and those who invest into the product to be gun-shy about further investments, thinking there are other options that will play out stronger. Of course, there are always analysts on both sides of the isle, but as an investor, and not a fanboi, I have to wade through and sort out the propaganda from the fact, and base my decisions on ROI, not on what feels good.
As far as becoming the number 1 tech company... Texas Instruments also held that title for 3x the period that Apple has, and they didn’t have the benefit of the Inventor of the Internet, Al Gore on their board.
Forgive me, but you apparently seem to fall for the propaganda and the hype without really digging for the facts underlying the stories. Your research is seriously flawed and out of date. I disagree that TI ever held the number 1 tech position, as I believe IBM was probably in that slot during TIs biggest heyday. Your last point about Gore being on Apple's board is twaddle and has nothing to do with reality and certainly nothing to do with making serious investing decisions, although during his tenure on the BoD, Apple's stock has more than quintupled in value. It's a non sequitor. In fact most of your conclusions about Apple are based on myth and simply do not follow... and are apparently much more based on emotion than a fanboi's; making your opinions those of an anti-fanboi.
You dismiss me with the claim I don't read much. . . or spend time on college campuses. To the latter, I will plead guilty. I got my degrees in Finance and Economics over 40 years ago... and my time has been spent using them, managing businesses, and reading. Lots of reading. What little time I spent back on campuses was spent guest lecturing. I wager I've read a LOT more about Apple and other tech companies than have you.