[Zanu Bob]

http://online.wsj.co...2297007410.html
'The meteoric stock-price rise that has propelled Apple Inc. AAPL -4.33% to become the world's most-valuable company is showing signs of faltering, threatening to drag much of the market down with it.

Apple's shares plunged 4.1% on Monday, extending their slide to a fifth consecutive day and sparking worries about whether the maker of iPads and iPhones may be headed for a bigger descent. Apple is now down 9.9% from its intraday peak of $644 hit on April 10, just shy of the 10% level that market watchers call a "correction." On Monday, Apple fell $25.10, to $580.13, in 4 p.m. Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.

Apple Inc. chief Tim Cook speaks in March in the first product release following the death of Steve Jobs.

The past five days' decline has seen more than $50 billion shaved off Apple's market capitalization. That is more than Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HPQ -1.06% entire market cap of about $48 billion.


The slump has exposed just how large and influential Apple's stock has become. The shares have soared 43% this year, driving the company's market value briefly above $600 billion last week. After Monday's decline, its market value was about $541 billion. Moreover, Apple is the largest stock in the Nasdaq Composite Index and the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index. As Apple goes, so, too, do those indexes.'


as per title.

is it a sign?........

trillion dollar stock?

This post has been edited by Zanu Bob: 17 April 2012 - 09:38 AM

['Bart']

Quote

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]

'Bart, on 17 April 2012 - 09:56 AM, said:

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).

[Gone to Ireland.]

[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.

This post has been edited by ader: 17 April 2012 - 10:15 AM

[OnlyMe]

'Bart, on 17 April 2012 - 09:56 AM, said:

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]

'Bart, on 17 April 2012 - 09:56 AM, said:

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]

The Masked Tulip, on 17 April 2012 - 10:25 AM, said:

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]

What, on 17 April 2012 - 10:43 AM, said:

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]

Monkey, on 17 April 2012 - 10:39 AM, said:

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...le-cell-phone-3

Quote

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??