Apple Shares Down 4.1% On The Day And 10% Off April 10 Intraday High

['Bart']

The descent, which accelerated on Monday, has sparked a broader debate about whether Apple is at the beginning of what could be an even larger decline.

Probably, but I see it as a much more gradual decline, taking many years.

Unless they have a new Steve Jobs hatching in some cloning facility, Apple is now being led by the same kind of people as every other large electronics company.

Their post-Jobs momentum will keep them going for a long time, but bigger iPhones and faster iPad processors will just match what the competition is doing.

Do they have someone there with both game-changing new ideas and the single-minded drive to bring them to market? Probably not.

Just being Apple won't be enough, just as it wasn't in 1985-1997 under John Sculley, Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio

[shindigger]

Probably, but I see it as a much more gradual decline, taking many years.

Unless they have a new Steve Jobs hatching in some cloning facility, Apple is now being led by the same kind of people as every other large electronics company.

Their post-Jobs momentum will keep them going for a long time, but bigger iPhones and faster iPad processors will just match what the competition is doing.

Do they have someone there with both game-changing new ideas and the single-minded drive to bring them to market? Probably not.

Just being Apple won't be enough, just as it wasn't in 1985-1997 under John Sculley, Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio

The iHome. Flat pack.

The iHeart. Transplants.

Skys the limit mate.

People will buy.

[Gone baby gone]

Wow this is an amazing surprise!

Look - everyone on this thread has their surprised face on.

(Although I would have thought they could keep the bubble going until the iPhone 5, at least).

[Wurzel Of Highbridge]

[ader]

Profit taking. Even I was tempted.

I reckon they plan products at least a few years into the future so Jobs' demise might not affect AAPL for a while if ever. Then again, what do I know except that people love their products when exposed to them.

[OnlyMe]

Probably, but I see it as a much more gradual decline, taking many years.

Unless they have a new Steve Jobs hatching in some cloning facility, Apple is now being led by the same kind of people as every other large electronics company.

Their post-Jobs momentum will keep them going for a long time, but bigger iPhones and faster iPad processors will just match what the competition is doing.

Do they have someone there with both game-changing new ideas and the single-minded drive to bring them to market? Probably not.

Just being Apple won't be enough, just as it wasn't in 1985-1997 under John Sculley, Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio

Some things a little more basic like being able to replace the battery easily when it does would be useful.

[The Masked Tulip]

The smartphone market is fascinating isn't it... well, it is if yo uare a geek, love Trek and The Big Bang theory....

Despite the enormous sales by Apple the use of smartphones in the US is still incredibly tiny - the vast majority still use what are called feature phones. The growth potential for smart phones is amazing.

But the US market is not the main place that people are chasing sales - the rest of the world is the prize where most people do not have a mobile let alone a smartphone.

Alas, those selling smartphones seem to think that everyone is going to own a phone in the nextc 10 to 20 years - they may be right.

But some need to stop and think how people in China are going to afford 500 t0 600 US dollars on an iphone? Let alone those in the rest of Asia, India, etc. Also, news is apparently common now in China of the alleged working conditions in factories making the iphone - will Chinese people buy a phone from such a company.

Numerous Chinese firms are making good low cost feature phones which is biting into Nokia's dominance of the feature phone market... but the prize is still smartphones.

I almost bought a big load of Apple shares in March 2009 after looking at a friend's iphone 1. I didn't as, at the time, it looked like another Apple dead-end where Apple developed a technology that may or may not have disappeared within a year or so. Boy, that was a mistake.

Is the issue now facing Apple that they have sold their iphones to all those who can afford them?

[Monkey]

Just being Apple won't be enough, just as it wasn't in 1985-1997 under John Sculley, Michael Spindler and Gil Amelio

thats a very good point, how long can Apple trade just on their name?

People are beginning to get wise to the fact that their products, all be it look nice and have great advertising, are just over priced versions of whats already on the market.

Android has a larger market share for Mobile Phone OS that all of the others including iOS. their tablets are becomming more popular and are ALOT cheaper. personally i cant see the iPod or any Generic MP3 player being around for much longer, Mobile phones have been more than compotent for may years to play MP3's and other file formats in very high quality, also giving you the change to hear your phone ring when listening to music on the go. as well as having only 1 product to charge, carry with you, load info on etc.

i'm not calling for the death of Apple, but i think they hay days are over, and they will stil lbe a respected technology inovator, but not to the tune of what they became last year. their company will follow what Nintendo, and possibly Sega have already been through

[Gone baby gone]

Is the issue now facing Apple that they have sold their iphones to all those who can afford them?

That and the fact that the improvements they are making are incremental, not the revolutionary jumps from the original iPhone (no 3G) to the 3G version to the improved display on the 4, etc. How much can you improve the pixel density of a 4 x 2 inch screen before nobody notices the difference...?

[The Masked Tulip]

The other thing to bear in mind is that allegedly about 200 to 250 hedge funds have been the main buyers of the shares in the past 6 months, driving them up by almost 50%.

There are claims on financial sites that this is a classic pump and dump operation designed to lure in Joe Public retail investors, off-load the stocks to them at silly prices and then short the heck out of the stock.

I read last week that some of the futures options on Apple shares were selling for 700 bucks. iSuckers?

[The Masked Tulip]

That and the fact that the improvements they are making are incremental, not the revolutionary jumps from the original iPhone (no 3G) to the 3G version to the improved display on the 4, etc. How much can you improve the pixel density of a 4 x 2 inch screen before nobody notices the difference...?

A diehard iphone owning friend of mine last week moved to a Samsung because the Samsung just was much better looking in the shop.

[interestrateripoff]

thats a very good point, how long can Apple trade just on their name?

People are beginning to get wise to the fact that their products, all be it look nice and have great advertising, are just over priced versions of whats already on the market.

Android has a larger market share for Mobile Phone OS that all of the others including iOS. their tablets are becomming more popular and are ALOT cheaper. personally i cant see the iPod or any Generic MP3 player being around for much longer, Mobile phones have been more than compotent for may years to play MP3's and other file formats in very high quality, also giving you the change to hear your phone ring when listening to music on the go. as well as having only 1 product to charge, carry with you, load info on etc.

i'm not calling for the death of Apple, but i think they hay days are over, and they will stil lbe a respected technology inovator, but not to the tune of what they became last year. their company will follow what Nintendo, and possibly Sega have already been through

Really? I'd rather use a standalone mp3 player over using my phone simply because I'd rather not keep charging my phone. I can get 3 or 4 days out of my smart phone with everything turned off, if I listen to music on it I'd have to charge it most days.

The problem for Apple is the cheaper clones, the killer will be when Chinese tech produce cheap and powerful smart phones. Huawei already produce phones at just over the £100 pound mark.

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.chinabuye.com/fine-and-high-quality-gt-i9100-quad-band-dual-sim-dual-standby-4-3-capacitive-touch-screen-android-2-3-wifi-bluetooth-gps-mobile-phone-black-is-a-multi-functional-and-fashionable-cell-phone-3

Features:

MTk6573 650MHz Dual Core,

Android 2.3.6 system,

GSM Quad band GSM900/1800/1900/850MHz + WCDMA 3G 2100MHz Dual Mode

WIFI, GPS+AGPS, JAVA support,

Analog TV function

5.0” capacitive touch screen, with 480X800 WVGA resolution

Gravity Sensor,

Proximity sensor,

This phone will work with GSM network 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. (work all over the world) In mobile phones, dual-band and tri-band refer to functionality that allows a cell phone to support either two or three frequency bands out of the four major GSM (TDMA) bands - 850/900/1800/1900 MHz.

GSM 900/1800 bands work in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Brazil

$ 169.55

Not sure how good this really is but ultimately this is what the Iphone is going to have to compete against.

[zugzwang]

Come on, fess up!

Who bought this p.o.s. at $636??

[homeless]

another thread about apple, and another chance for me to say that apple are finished.

android whenever the apple fanbhoys like it or not is taking over. its exactly like the sony plastation taking over from the sega, which is all now taking over by the xbox, and so it continues forever. apples day has come and its gone.

i never understood the fuss about apple anyhow, my samsung galaxy tab is a much better tablet than the ipad. the ipad didint even have a camera ffs. and if i wanted to carry about a thing the size of an ipad id just go back to what i used to do and use a laptop with a dongle.

[Brian Potter]

As someone who is not a techy (40's), I really only cared if a phone rang people and sent texts. That is until I got an iphone.

I absolutely love it. It's idiot proof and works great. Yes they are expensive.

I have to say I've spoken to other people I work with who have just done the same and they are equally smitten. All have said they can't imagine switching to another phone. How that works for Apple is questionable because you look after this phone more because it's an aspirational product - so they would need to significantly improve it before you would shell out again.

What it comes down to is it is the first phone I've actually got to really like and covet as opposed to being like a set of car keys.

This is why people buy apple.

I've seen the whole fanboy/Microsoft thing in forums and it does not interest me (nor many others). I might (probably) dont know what I'm on about from a techy view - but I am a fairly typical punter and think apple stuff is great.

[scrappycocco]

apple isn't finished because they get it, make it simple so anyone can use it old or young - they won't deviate from this.........

apple release one phone tablet every year so people can upgrade easily, a new android tablet or phone comes out every bloody week....

also when people have spent over a 100 quid in the app store etc the next product they are going to get is one compatible.....

i dont understand how apple can go down when the market is always watching for what they are going to do next........

i actually think android is the sega of the day and it will be microsoft and apple competing it out.....

i had a 7" galaxy tab and a htc phone, both nasty devices, never bought a single paid app for either......the windows tablet on the other hand, that looks intriguing.....

[Monkey]

As someone who is not a techy (40's), I really only cared if a phone rang people and sent texts. That is until I got an iphone.

I absolutely love it. It's idiot proof and works great. Yes they are expensive.

and this is not a dig at you, but its what Apple has done well, and thats get its name/marketing out there.

you could have easily got a Samsung galaxy S or SII for a hell of alot less and it will do the exact same, if not more than your iPhone. but there is less advertising for those products. and they are idiot proof too.

[The Masked Tulip]

I've seen the whole fanboy/Microsoft thing in forums and it does not interest me (nor many others). I might (probably) dont know what I'm on about from a techy view - but I am a fairly typical punter and think apple stuff is great.

Yep - spot on. Most people want a flash phone that works and does cool things. They are status symbols and people tend to buy the ones that are in vogue or their friends have.

I suspect, like my friend that I mentioned above, lots of iphone users will move over to the HTCs and Samsungs when their phone contracts are up - not because of some geeky tech stuff but because they look glitzy and flash.

I looked at a friend's lumina windows phone last week and he raved about all the techy geek stuff - but the phone looked dull and boring. None of the sparkle of the Samsungs and HTCs. I cannot see people buying it.

[The Masked Tulip]

apple isn't finished because they get it, make it simple so anyone can use it old or young - they won't deviate from this.........

This is why people buy their laptops - they just work so you can concentrate on doing what you do and not trying to get drivers to work with it like on windows machines.

Geeks get too caught up in geekdom not realising that 90% of people do not give a toss - they just want something to work and look cool.

[symo]

I am going to be buying a new PC shortly and was sorely tempted by the mid model iMac. (already own a MacBook Pro and iPhone 4).

However; I can buy most of the parts of a Mac and using guides on the interweb, I can install the Mac OS on a Hackintosh.

Apple's OS is robust (linux based) and easy to use in comparison to Windows, however the cost of hardware is in excess of what the market allows, and with no 'game-changing' product on the horizon they need to convert windows users to Mac buyers asap.

[The Masked Tulip]

I am going to be buying a new PC shortly and was sorely tempted by the mid model iMac. (already own a MacBook Pro and iPhone 4).

However; I can buy most of the parts of a Mac and using guides on the interweb, I can install the Mac OS on a Hackintosh.

Apple's OS is robust (linux based) and easy to use in comparison to Windows, however the cost of hardware is in excess of what the market allows, and with no 'game-changing' product on the horizon they need to convert windows users to Mac buyers asap.

With all respect, this is just geek techie stuff. What you just wrote makes little sense to myself with 20 years experience in IT. Joe Public does not think in this way.

[koala_bear]

Is the issue now facing Apple that they have sold their iphones to all those who can afford them?

Sort of:

They need previous customers to keep replacing old apple products with new ones.

They have convinced all the people who had money and were easy to convince. The rest will be harder to attract as they don't like being ripped off (i.e. apple taking a big cut on app purchases etc.), so additional new customers are likely to be less profitable (this will take a while to show up in the accounts thought).

[homeless]

I am going to be buying a new PC shortly and was sorely tempted by the mid model iMac. (already own a MacBook Pro and iPhone 4).

However; I can buy most of the parts of a Mac and using guides on the interweb, I can install the Mac OS on a Hackintosh.

Apple's OS is robust (linux based) and easy to use in comparison to Windows, however the cost of hardware is in excess of what the market allows, and with no 'game-changing' product on the horizon they need to convert windows users to Mac buyers asap.

just stick a linux variant ie ubuntu or whatever on a ibm compatible, why the hell bother to build a mac outta parts?. at one time it was worth building a pc outta parts, and if your looking for something special or un-usual it still is. but its been years since ive done its just not worth it. The laptop killed the selfbuilder.

[Paddles]

The posters on this thread discussing the technical merits of the products are missing the point.

Look at AAPL on a two year timeline graph and tell me there's no speculative purchasing of stock.