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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stock bull who wrote (68354)	9/9/2007 8:52:06 PM
From: Paul Chiu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213182

it's a subscription thing which reminds me, i needed to renew my annual thingee to get more of these garbage knee-jerk reaction type replays from the likes of eric savitz and his equally clueless colleague, mark veverka btw, neither eric savitz or mark veverka had any wall street or investment management experience. i can't see any on my bloomberg. if the market were to sell off based on their writing, we should be glad that weak hands rid themselves of aapl shares. i look for the shares to hold in the 125.90 to 131.36 region this week, ahead of the FED rate decision. paul btw, anyone catch those iPod Nano commercials during the games Sunday? Beautiful!

To: stock bull who wrote (68354)	9/10/2007 8:36:23 AM
From: AmericanVoter	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 213182

Here is what Mark Vevrka wrote in Barrons Plugged-In btw, and FWIW, short term, sure anyone who bought $599 iPhone is upset ... however, long term, I beleive it's a smart long term move. Millions of new buyers surely outweigh upset early buyers. AV -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- APPLE MAY HAVE JUMPED THE SHARK. CEO Steve Jobs always wanted to cross over from technology into Hollywood. Now, he's looking like a network television executive who has turned a hit into a train wreck -- overnight. If, in Jobs' words, the iPhone is the greatest iPod ever, than the spectacular run of the iPod is in peril. We already know that iPod sales are flattening. Now, we have a strong sense that something is wrong with the iPhone rollout. If the decisions to slash prices on 8 gigabyte phones by $200 and to kill the 4 gigabyte phone weren't evidence enough, than the day-after mea culpa move to offer $100 rebates to early adopters was. We all knew iPhone prices would need to fall to reach critical mass and drive volume growth, but no one anticipated cuts so steep, so soon. What's more, Apple (AAPL) generally prefers to introduce updated models, rather than trim prices. The reduction was a slap in the face to its loyalists, and the knee-jerk rebate indicated that Jobs had misread his hitherto faithful flock. "Despite Apple's statement that iPhone sales are on track, [the] price cut appears to suggest that sales have been more sluggish than expected," says Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi. Data from the analytical firm iSuppli suggest that Apple sold roughly 200,000 units in July, but it must average about 243,000 a month to hit the company's goal of one million units by the end of September, Sacconaghi calculates. Company spin that higher sales will more than make up the difference in margin is hogwash, especially when issuing $100 credits to hundreds of thousands of singed customers. The rebates will directly hurt cash flow -- the metric that bulls monitor most. "Features, reliability, two-handed operation, high cost and Apple's supply-chain and manufacturing strategy will continue to limit unit sales and profits for the iPhone," predicts principal Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder. I've said that earnings are mostly baked into the stock price, but some smart money managers had planned to buy on dips if the iPhone hit its mark. It hasn't, and Apple shares plunged to about 133 Thursday, down 8% from Wednesday's open. Apple is a resilient cult stock, often driven by blind faith. The average target price among analysts is 168. It boasts a massive stock-market value -- $115 billion -- and fat margins, largely owing to low component costs. But last week's news doesn't suggest a growth trajectory that could produce a 35-point bump in its share price. IPod growth is slowing, Macintosh growth -- though promising -- is already priced into the shares, Apple TV is a bust, and now there is static with the iPhone. Plus, the newly unveiled iPod Touch -- an iPhone without the phone -- probably will cannibalize sputtering iPhone sales. Perhaps Jobs is betting that the iPod Touch will be the surprise holiday hit Apple desperately needs. Apple's "aggressive" pricing and blurred iPod merchandising makes it seem as if Jobs is throwing spaghetti at a wall. Something better stick, or Christmas may be a season of discontent.