Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

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AltaRed
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by AltaRed »

Shakespeare wrote:I see Apple has followed the lead of Microsoft and numerous others in using the customer for beta testing.
Getting to be more so all the time. Some updates can hang. Had to take my iPad in to the Apple agent to have them reboot it after the second last update.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by Flaccidsteele »

48 members of Congress (or their families) are Apple shareholders

Nancy Pelosi's spouse owns approximately $1m to $5m in Apple stock. This doesn't appear to be a significant portion of their net worth.

Note: Lawmakers are not required to disclose the exact value of the assets they hold, but rather a minimum and maximum value for each asset.

http://fortune.com/2014/11/16/forty-eight-members-of-congress-are-apple-investors/
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

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iOS dominates the market for using smartphones to buy things
I know in our household, DW buys books and tunes on her iPhone/iPad. I read the books on Kobo and sometimes play the tunes from iTunes on my laptop. I use my Samsung Android as a phone.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

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Bloomberg wrote:Apple is set to make its biggest ever investment in a European project as the world’s most valuable company said on Monday it would spend $2.0 billion to build two data centres in the region. The facilities will be 166,000 square metres each and will be based in Ireland and Denmark. Apple will work with local energy groups to get all their power from renewable sources, such as wind turbines. The company hopes to get its new data centres up and running by 2017, and they are expected to support online services such as iTunes, iMessage and Siri, Apple’s virtual assistant. Apple said it has increased operations in Europe, spending more than $10 billion on European companies and suppliers last year and supporting some 670,000 jobs in the region. Its own employees grew by 2,000 and number 18,300 people in 19 European countries. Apple CEO Tim Cook described the centers as "some of our most advanced green building designs yet." They will use renewable energy, including wind power. The news comes as Apple shares blasted past the $130.00 mark, reach new all-time-highs.
Seems to be a good use of foreign trapped profits...
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by Bylo Selhi »

Easy come, easy go... Oh well, it's only half a data centre...

Apple ordered to pay $533-million for patent infringement
Apple suggested the outcome was another reason why reform is needed in the patent system to curb litigation by companies that do not make products themselves, such as Smartflash.
Translation: It's OK for us to sue Samsung for trivia but it's not OK for a bunch of greedy lawyers to try to do the same to us.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by Flaccidsteele »

Apple has been crushing critics for years. Will this guy end up looking foolish too?
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

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Flaccidsteele wrote:Apple has been crushing critics for years. Will this guy end up looking foolish too?
Well remember the iPod. There were 100s of MP3 players at the time and everyone said: "Why do we need another music player?"

The the iPod Touch came out and everyone said: "Why do we need a new interface when the old iPod was perfect?"

Then the iPhone came out and everyone said: "What, a phone with no keyboard? That will never fly!" I believe BBY owners were the most vocal.

There is always room for a stumble. But it is too soon to be calling for it...
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by Flaccidsteele »

kcowan wrote:Well remember the iPod. There were 100s of MP3 players at the time and everyone said: "Why do we need another music player?"

The the iPod Touch came out and everyone said: "Why do we need a new interface when the old iPod was perfect?"

Then the iPhone came out and everyone said: "What, a phone with no keyboard? That will never fly!" I believe BBY owners were the most vocal.

There is always room for a stumble. But it is too soon to be calling for it...
I completely agree.

I remember when my BBY owner friends were telling me about the negatives of having no keyboard. At the time, I didn't have a smartphone, but I saw what BBY and AAPL were each offering. I was thinking that if I ever got a smartphone, I definitely wouldn't buy the ugly keyboard one.

With regards to the iPod, I never got into that device, but my wife did. She loved it.

With regards to the announcement of AAPL's $10,000 gold watch, here are a few watches that fall into the same price-range.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

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An analyst on BNN was saying that the iWatch is a positioning step for the next generation beyond the smartphone where everything becomes wearable.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by Bylo Selhi »

kcowan wrote:the next generation beyond the smartphone where everything becomes wearable.
You mean there's an intermediate generation before everything becomes implantable at birth? Whew!
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

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Bylo Selhi wrote:everything becomes implantable at birth
Upgrades should be interesting.

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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by Flaccidsteele »

kcowan wrote:An analyst on BNN was saying that the iWatch is a positioning step for the next generation beyond the smartphone where everything becomes wearable.
There is also discussion about Apple transitioning from a pure tech company into a luxury brand like LV. This would make sense as tech businesses are quickly commoditized and commodities are, in general, challenging businesses.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by kcowan »

Here is a perspective that adds some insight into the watch.
Apple strategy? wrote:The iPhone was a curious device for a very long time. Peculiar keyboard with no spellcheck. Very few apps. Blackberry had already solved mobile email. The web did not work on tiny screens. You could only have eight web pages open at one time, and had to manually close one to make space. You couldn't cut-and-paste, for heaven's sake. First generation iPhone sales were 6.1 million in the five quarters ending Dec. 31, 2009.
Last quarter 5 years later was 74.5 million!

So maybe we should be looking at potential for 2020? If I am still around, I would buy a wearable to replace my Samsung smartphone. As long as it was sweat-resistant. I use a ziploc today. Of course I might buy an Android instead. It depends on the total package.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by Flaccidsteele »

kcowan wrote:So maybe we should be looking at potential for 2020? If I am still around, I would buy a wearable to replace my Samsung smartphone. As long as it was sweat-resistant. I use a ziploc today. Of course I might buy an Android instead. It depends on the total package.
Apple is a fantastic company. It's likely worth more than $1 trillion.

I've never purchased an Android product. Only Apple. Android phones seem to have a hard time generating profit. Or should I have said Samsung phones? ;)
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by kcowan »

Apple is the current master of the upgrade cycle
Ironically it seems that by forcing all users to be on the current software release, they are maintaining the upgrade cycle. Case in point, our iPhone 4S has to upgrade today to iOS release that supports the iWatch and some health apps. Pretty soon, it will be out of memory and useless.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by Bylo Selhi »

kcowan wrote:Pretty soon, it will be out of memory and useless.
So who's going to spend $10,000 on a gold watch that's doomed to be "out of memory and useless" in a couple of years?

Better to spend that money on a Rolex or Omega. Not only is the design eternal but there's even some chance it may appreciate in value given a decade or three.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by kcowan »

Bylo Selhi wrote:
kcowan wrote:Pretty soon, it will be out of memory and useless.
So who's going to spend $10,000 on a gold watch that's doomed to be "out of memory and useless" in a couple of years?

Better to spend that money on a Rolex or Omega. Not only is the design eternal but there's even some chance it may appreciate in value given a decade or three.
I hope nobody here will spend that kind of money on any watch! :mrgreen:
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by Bylo Selhi »

Oh my! There are third world problems. There are also first world problems of somewhat lesser severity. But now Apple devotees have to contend with fanboy-world problems:

1. Tattoos disrupt key Apple Watch functions
Early adopters of the Apple Watch, Apple Inc.’s first new product in five years, are complaining that a number of its key functions are disrupted by their tattoos.
2. Apple Watch defect found during production has slowed device rollout, report says
Apple Inc. is said to have found a defect in a key component of its watch during production, forcing the company to limit supply of the new device
So now fanboys have to choose between their tats and their toys as well as between their taps and their toys.

Oh, the humanity!:(
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

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The early adopters will put up with all that crap and more. When release 7 arrives, it will be worthy of serious consideration. Remember iPhone 1? I didn't think so!

What I am waiting for is the $1 Trillion milestone for earnings....
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by steves »

I've had my Timex 25 plus years. It keeps perfect time, and I think I bought 3 batteries in total. Why would I buy an ugly bracelet which needs to be charged every 30 hours? Wackiness.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by Flaccidsteele »

steves wrote:I've had my Timex 25 plus years. It keeps perfect time, and I think I bought 3 batteries in total. Why would I buy an ugly bracelet which needs to be charged every 30 hours? Wackiness.
You would need to ask the 3+ million people who bought one to answer your question.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by nisser »

I thought about investing in Apple and it's probably a reasonable idea in the short term but then I convinced myself against it. 60% of their revenue come from the iphone. The problem is that they're seemingly losing market share to samsung. They lost market share in the last quarter and this is before samsung released their flagship current generation phone, galaxy 6; it went on market in April 2015. As a longstanding user of iphones I'm seriously considering trying the phone out next contract. Android used to lag behind Apple significantly (given the Appstore and such) but the market has caught up tremendously.

Their hope is that China will kick into high gear but in my mind there's several problems to that. Iphone is relatively expensive; there are cheaper equivalent phones in China. Xiami is a huge up and coming phone company and it's essentially copying apple. What gives them a further edge is that they're from China, making phones for China by Chinese developers. I don't see how a bunch of Americans in California can design a better workable phone/interphace fit for the actual market.

The apple watch is a write off. I think it'll fail as it doesn't really meet any current need in the market. And what's worse it seems to have defects on the market. In any case, Apple can write it off easily as it has a ton of cash but it won't add anything to their revenue in the next few years.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by kcowan »

I know there has been plenty of press on the issue with the FBI. I thought it might be newsworthy that the FBI is using a government regulation from 1789: to pursue their case against Apple.

I can only quote Bill Gates who said in an interview with Charlie Rose that the ruling should be tested all the way to the SCOTUS to determine what safeguards are acceptable to citizens of the world against government's quest for information. Clearly if the US government prevails, so will any other government.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by FinEcon »

kcowan wrote: What I am waiting for is the $1 Trillion milestone for earnings....
I think you will be waiting a while for any firm to hit the 1 trillion dollar earnings mark. Perhaps you have confused earnings and market cap? Or maybe Apple optimism knows no bounds and people believe a 15-20 fold increase in earnings is a shoo-in over the next few years as smartphones effectively replace non-workplace computing.

Their the stuff has minimal appeal to me as a consumer but no doubt it's an incredible franchise. Sadly, if I'm honest with myself, I am unable to value it with anywhere near the same confidence that I can value other businesses so I put my capital elsewhere.
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Re: Apple Corp (Symbol-AAPL)

Post by kcowan »

Yes it was market cap. But it seems like a remote target for a one product company these days.
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