Category Archives: AAPL

Steve Jobs Resigns – Names Tim Cook As Preferred Successor

Posted on by

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community: I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

How Apple Became A Monopsony

Posted on by

In what I thought to be a gross misspelling of Monopolist or Monopoly CNN Money is running a story about how Apple now controls the supply market much in the same way a monopoly would control the consumers.  Since for a lot of things made, Apple buys so much volume that these companies find themselves with a single buyer of their product.  Apple has for quite a while struck deals that shut out other companies so Apple can get their products to market and in the hands of waiting consumers.

Later in the story they begin talking about Apple’s huge cash reserves and why Apple is not spending the money.  Apple’s probably not spending the money because the economy has too much uncertainty to it at this moment to make any big moves.  If the last recession proved anything it’s that Cell Phones are indispensable because you can lose you house, but you can’t lose your phone if you expect to find a job.  iPads and everything else would fall by the wayside.

Some may ask why these companies are not expanding to fill the needs of multiple buyers, and that’s a valid point.  The reason is that their profit margins are so thin in many cases they’re not able to expand.  Foxconn has to make their profits through volume and the proof is in their Brazilian expansion, but we will see how that works out as Brazil has a modern economy and would expect modern wages.

Bloomberg – Faster iPhone 5 In September

Posted on by

Bloomberg predicts that Apple will release a faster iPhone 5, in September augmented with a faster processor, and a upgraded camera.  While they go into detail on how this will help Apple compete against Android phones, they make no mention of LTE being part of this upgrade.  Simply put, if Apple releases an iPhone 5 without LTE, customers may migrate over to the faster Android phones.  Despite AT&T’s upgraded 3G network capable of faster speeds, rarely have I ever gotten anything better than what Verizon offers today with CDMA.  Also the LTE phone makers are already hitting the iPhone with ad’s showing the speeds that the iPhone is simply not capable of in it’s current form.  This would be problematic for Verizon Wireless as they would have to defend a phone that can not take advantage of the large LTE network they have been pouring billions of dollars into over the last few years.

Apple stock holders should be worried as well, the lack of a clear succession plan for Steve Jobs and the non-announcement of an iPhone 5 has dragged Apple’s stock lower over the last few weeks.  Failure to keep up with market demands of a LTE equipped iPhone may trigger a consumer backlash which would further hurt Apple’s earnings and directly impact the value of Apple’s stock which may not recover appreciably if Apple delivers later a LTE iPhone and consumers still ignore it.  The only deterrent for iPhone customers at this point is any heavy investments in media or apps which would make it expensive to switch over to an Android phone.

Microsoft looser if Google or Apple win Nortel Patent Bid

Posted on by
Reply

The Department of Justice cleared Google for their bid on the Nortel patent war chest that Microsoft had previously said was unfair because if allowed to acquire the patents and nullify existing agreements then Microsoft would lose what they stated was a free license to those patents.  Apple is also bidding on these patents with the bids topping 1 billion dollars.  If either Google or Apple win these patents which include LTE patents it would be a huge victory for either company allowing them to re-license the patents to those who are using the technology.  Google wants the patents to fend off other lawsuits over Android, and Apple wants the patents so they can further establish the iPhone as a LTE model which might be cheaper if they own some LTE patents to begin with.  I think license money would be secondary, but if Apple did win the patents it would make Android that much more expensive for carriers who at first paid nothing, but now have to license patents through various firms who won against Android.

This the same crux of the battle with Samsung.  If Apple is victorious then Android will cost that much more to license and they’ll have to license with Apple.  Nokia recently settled with Apple which also forces Android makers to pay Nokia for patents they may be infringing.  Expect a flurry of lawsuits as Nokia loses its position as the #1 phone maker, and falls back on their extensive patent portfolio to extract revenue from those patents.

Apple Worth More than Microsoft, Dell, and HP?

Posted on by
Reply

It’s a virtual tie at the moment, but Robin Wauters over at TechCrunch writes that Apple’s 301 Billion market cap is tied to the combined amounts of Microsoft 200 Billion, HP 72 Billion, and Dell 29, Billion.  She also goes to talk about how it’s not the best metric, but one metric I consider is the actions of these three companies.  Microsoft is a day late and many dollars short with their WP7 phones of which Carriers liken them to the plague.  Followed by the huge mass of companies touting tablet computers which rarely eclipse the iPad 2 in features or usability.  Now after Jobs talks of the desktop being dead, you can already see companies like HP maneuvering into position to hedge against that doomsday prediction of the demise of the PC.

Steve Jobs Unveils New Space Ship Shaped Campus

Posted on by
Reply

Apple New CampusWhat does Steve do after WWDC, well it seems he had some campaigning to do at the Cupertino City Council meting to make his case for a new Apple campus to house 12,000 employes. It’s a very interesting building, and it’s just up the street from their current headquarters.  Lots of curved glass which may explain all the glass cutting machines :)

Parking is to be 4 stories under the ground, with the building rising 4 stories above the ground.  It’s going to have full backup power for the people space to allow employees, and they also want to make their own power and use the grid as their backup.  There are also plans for a presentation center that may hold more than the current WWDC location, and a fitness center.  Jobs hopes to have a full 13,000 employees eventually.  You can watch the presentation by clicking here. It’s very well put together.

 

Apple Pre-Announced WWDC Keynote Topics Due to Stock Backlash Fears

Posted on by
Reply

That’s the summary of this article on business insider written by Aaron Holesgrove.  In the article he discusses the reasoning Apple must be using for the WWDC Keynote, where making sure the markets know there’s not going to be an iPhone announcement at this event and thus avoiding a drop in the stock if shareholders believed Apple was not going to release a phone this year.  It would be a dumb move in many circles to ignore the competitive threat LTE is offering and also considering that Verizon Wireless would be expanded to over 200 markets come this fall based on their announcements.  Even if AT&T has decided to deploy at a snails pace and milk their GSM which while can be fast, it does not hold up to the benefits of LTE.

Apple Increases Carrier Count from 186 to 200

Posted on by
Reply

A report from Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope, shows us that Apple has increased their carrier count from 186 to 200, and COO Tim Cook is very bullish on the tablet market eclipsing PC’s in the next few years.  Also iPads year over year sales have increased by 72% which bodes well for Apple’s bottom line and of course Apple stock.