That's one thing about AAPL--everyone on Wall Street both misunderstands its business, and hates it for not going out of business every year as they predict.
On Wall Street, a computer company will never make any money unless its business plan is to eventually become the dominant WinTel player.
Wall Street, as you know, has no clue that a niche player can make lots of money and be a very valuable company.
That moron who wrote the weekend's piece in Barrons about Apple was totally wrong and totally bogus (and as such, reflected conventional Wall Street wisdom vis a vis AAPL perfectly). By their argument, Mercedes U.S. luxury car division is worthless and about to go out of business because they will never displace GM and Ford. It really irks me that AAPL has always been viewed this way... and I don't think it will ever change, regardless of how many machines AAPL sells or how much money AAPL makes.
I think your call on the *company* is likely correct (that with the G4, iBook, etc., they will be minting money--a lot of it), but the street will never fully value that.
Sorry for the rant, but I've been reading Wall Street prognostications on AAPL since it went public...
-- Pete |
