Is it time to short AAPL? They've lost some value recently, and the growth proposition doesn't seem to be where it has been. I could see them stay where they are, even with an earnings miss or two, however they are very much a stock traded on public perception.
My perception is that Apple could lose every one of these lawsuits and still make crazy profits, but YMMV.
Looking at this particular case, it seems extremely arrogant for Apple to offer to pay nothing for the ~100M admittedly-infringing products they've already sold.
Where did this idea of Apple paying nothing for the patents come from? I've never heard anyone suggest that, and it seems completely unrelated to debacle's comment.
Apple proposed to pay Moto at most $1/unit "going forward", which has been interpreted (perhaps wrongly) to mean that they want to pay nothing for past infringement.
Their P/E ratio is just 13.26, while Microsoft's is 16.05 and Google is 21.38. While P/E is just one simplistic measure, it does seem to indicate that their stock price already assumes lower future earnings relative to other mature tech companies.
Or it indicates that they are a hardware company, which is to say their ability to grow (or sustain) their business depends on any number of factors, not the least being political stability and conditions in China. Factors over which they can exert very little control.
Not till the day where we see Android based tablets littering nearly every good TV show and movie. These lawsuits and such are meaningless to the coffee shop / college crowd. Apple is as much an image thing as BMW cars were for the previous generation.
Far too many think that their phone, tablet, or laptop, confers status. That is going to take a lot of work to overcome that attitude. The marketing and product placement that it took to create that is the real power of Apple
Apple loses its cool right now... quickly. Wait and see. The problem for Apple is that also the "uninformed crowd" slowly starts to realize that Apple rips them off.
That's at least what's happening here in Germany where also mainstream newspapers talk negative about Apple's politics when it comes to marketing and / or lawsuits.
This may just be a pricing factor. People that earn more money and more discretionary income are able to and want to purchase luxury, or higher-quality, goods. Those at lower income levels with less discretionary income will either not purchase the high priced goods, or will try to acquire a similar product at a lower price.
In other words, the rich are less price sensitive than the poor. Thus, I don't see how one can make a connection between education and Apple ownership without correcting for income.
Or it could be that older, better educated and wealthier people are willing to pay a little extra to get something that works. Because you know as you get older you realise that time is more important than money.
My point was that blanket statements like Apple users are uninformed is stupid.
I'm not actively trading, but my "system" would have suggested to consider shorting them on 9/20 and again on 10/23.
I think you're right about public perception. For that reason, I think heavily about any signals with a technical base.
I've had some sense of a perception shift since summer when the price was in this area previously. Though, I haven't taken a real position on AAPL since it was going sideways around $380 almost a year ago.
