So Apple keeps hitting new milestones (as does the rest of the tech sector, it seems) even though today seems like a wild rollercoaster: stocks hitting all time highs around lunchtime, retreating that ground and then some by mid-afternoon.
The last time I purchased Apple shares was when it was trading at $13 or so. That was 2 splits ago, so I’m pretty happy. (Wish I hadn’t sold most of it when I bought my house…I could own my own house if I didn’t)
Do you think Apple is valued properly? Do you own Apple stock? I’m doing an informal poll here…part of me thinks that one of the reasons why we care so much about what Apple is doing is we’re connected to them in 3 parts of our life:
Practical: It’s the computer we use (and it’s better than Windows)
Emotional: It’s the company we root for (because it’s the underdog)
Financial: It’s the company we own (we have a real stake in it)
All these things add up to being more than a product, or a company, or a stock. It’s all 3 and it’s why we care so much. Do you?
My connection is only Practical and Emotional, unfortunately. I owned an amazingly small number of shares an amazingly long time ago, and sold them at a small profit — I think when buying my first house. (sigh…)
sure, you hit the spot. even non-apple fans buy apple stock probably, so the emotion of financial gain/loss belongs in the apple care package. all your 3 points, work-play-eco & life’s philosophy…melt into the emotional.
well, the better apple does financially, the better users are doing, as there’s more funds for R&D & steve & ive to resume their onslaught on improving everyone’s life.
god save steve jobs, as even if he did find a replacement for him, the stock will plummet, as no one has ever achieved 3 miracles, 2 comebacks – let alone 2! Mac Classic, iMac, iPod, iPhone, aTV even. which genius will resume that calibre – everyone it seems in the tech industry is asleep, brain dead, boring, unmotivated, greedy, except for…
i was a graphic designer since 1984. if apple disappeared in 1996, i would be forced to use windough os – i’d have quit my career!
what also affects apple success is the stupidity of most humans. any media article affects the apple stock instantly. 95%+ of journalists & tv presenters are stupid, ignorant, biased or bribed when it comes to reporting on apple stuff, but unfortunately influencing people who can’t think for themselves & jumping to dangerous conclusions. too often the news is so silly, one wonders if MS or other apple rivals don’t pay off media news. ms has not at all innovated anything though billy gates from hell claimed the opposite when sued by 23 (?) u.s. states, and that even though employing the world’s 100 biggest brains + 1000s of coders…it’s perplexing how stupid the human race can be. it’s frustrating & shameful that so little practical stuff protrudes from think tanks or labs or r&d.
giant ibm, ms, sony, samsung, nokia, the entire music & film industry etc. …no one can compete with the small firm: apple! why?! greed! focusing on ipo, never the end user. god or life or the universe is punishing them all now, as it’s their turn to suffer on the lies we were all fed for so long. apple deserves it all. so be it, if they soon own the world. all bitch about the iPhone’s lacking features, but hey, why bring apple down when the rest of the world abused us and only since iPhone, iP.D. (not A.D.) are moving their butts, a little – all these iPod & iPhone “killer” products are just more hype. astonishing how much bull humans create or love.
amazing, no?! ms can create so much hype, lies, b.s., yet no one bitches. apple recreates or improves the wheel, yet everyone instantly focuses on the shortcomings. why break a co. or product, when it’s the best there ever was?! humans are mean & pathetic! jealous! neurotic!
political correctness: to lie is to be
political incorrectness: truth is it
all this bloody arrogance of so many companies & countries to feel “chosen” like a fair god would take sides…no one deserves any success more than anyone else, lest they work hard from the heart & give more than take. apple deserves it. people who still bitch about apple are just jealous & incompetent, blind or plain dumb. we don’t have to love apple products, but there’s no denying it’s more brilliant & generous than anyone else can produce.
still bitching? get a life. leave this planet. go cry with bill or scream with ballmer. or just jump out that Window & shorten your life’s misery. people are self-destructive. there’s never enough reason for wars. it’s due to laziness. lazy thinking. not thinking differently. facts please! the world is miserable because we can’t cope with what we have, no matter how good it is, it’s never good enough. god should’ve never created mankind i guess. but why be so pessimistic or cynical – enjoy your apples…
more later…
Lost some money in the market on tech companies I didn’t really understand or know enough about when the bubble burst in ’00-01, and swore from that time on only to buy stock in tech companies whose products I used and liked, and whose business model I understood (at least on a rudimentary level), and who seemed to be intent on actually building useful and usable products, rather than on seeing users/customers primarily as “revenue sources.”
I’d been using Macs since the original 128K Mac back in ’84, but had soured on them in the 90s (too slow, no multitasking, buggy OS 8), but when I got a TiBook running OS X and the original iPod hit the market back in 2001, I could tell that Apple was on the right track, and so I bought a good chunk of AAPL at around $16 a share ($8 adjusted post-split). And I’ve held on to it ever since because I use the products every day and love them, and because I think they are overall the best (and best-marketed) tech products on the market — despite many people telling me to unload some/most of it to take some profits.
I’m holding still because I have confidence that (despite some recent missteps on the strategy side) the designers/developers there still seem to have end-users’ best interests at heart in the vast majority of cases. You can agree or disagree with Apple’s corporate/marketing/development strategies surrounding the iPhone, but there is no denying that, from a user’s perspective, it is an earth-shattering, game-changing device on the level of the first Mac OS’s GUI — an utterly stunning, and utterly practical, work of art that simplifies the complex and is a luxurious pleasure to use. Any company that could both conceive of as well as create/bring to market such a thing will continue to get my investment $$$ as well as a good chunk of my technology budget.
So I guess I own the stock for all 3 reasons you list.
I use the products, used to root for the underdog and own the stock. Given the the gang-busters pace of people switching and the robust, continuously updated product set including the iPod success it is becoming hard to see Apple as the underdog anymore.