Monday, October 20, 2008

Apple rules!

I have known most reporters to generally be cheap bastards who earn their dough with words and paragraphs they puke into published stories by mostly copy/pasting old junk in their meat-machines to produce all sorts of 'new' garbage. Mostly they 'are trying to' reflect the obvious general sentiment of the public and, as such, they are dearly pouring more hot oil to the fire every chance they come across.

I thought again about my such feelings at the reading of this article about Apple reporting it's results on Tuesday.

If you read the report yourselves, you'll find that the actual facts it mentions are nothing short of a stunning proof of success about his Jobness' company performance (who, BTW, is alive and well... a cat with nine lives)! Only the facts are Apple supportive though... Here's all of them:

'The company shipped roughly 2.5 million Macs in the June quarter, up 41 percent year-over-year, along with 11 million iPods, an increase of 12 percent.

Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi upgraded the company to outperform on Monday. "Investors appear to be valuing Apple on an earnings multiple, rather than on cash flow, which fundamentally undervalues the company given the huge deferred revenue growth associated with the iPhone," he wrote.

Apple shares fell 3.5 percent to $98.34 on Nasdaq late Friday afternoon.

The company is expected to earn $1.11 a share in its fiscal fourth quarter, according to a poll of analysts by Reuters Estimates. Revenue is expected to come in at $8.04 billion, which would represent growth of nearly 30 percent.

Like many technology companies, Apple generates a lot of cash and has no debt. Last quarter, the company reported more than $20 billion in cash and short-term investments.

Apple's once high-flying share price has fallen around 50 percent since the start of the year.

Apple released its new, less expensive iPhone on July 11.'

That was it! Now, the remaining of the article is one and all SPECULATION! Pure wishful thinking that the pathetic reporter struggles to present as 'objective' as possible. Problem is, he's only rumoring without offering the possibility for verification. Here's an example. He says, in bold, as a matter of management summary:

Investors are cautious about Apple's ability to sell high-end products during a recession, but some say Apple stock is being undervalued.

I've spent most of my adult life wondering about reporters stating things like that, about their sources of information. Who are these 'investors' in the first place. There are almost 900 million outstanding shares of Apple Inc (a fact). Only less than 7% of these shares are traded daily on average (a fact). So, who are the freaktard investors who 'are worried'. And how was that monkey reporter able to poll them and understand how they feel? Lemme tell you somethin': I challenge you to replace the words 'investors' as the verb subject with 'I, the moron reporter', or 'My sneaky and corrupt shortselling trader friend, managing a few billion of funds, promised to pay me (and few more of my sort) a good dough if we spread some negativity about AAPL right now'.

Common sense dictates that Apple products cannot be easily compared to any other company's in any market. Not their desktop computers, not their phones and not their MP3 players. Apple's products are fashion icons that are normally purchased by a very small percentage of the world population, albeit sought with passion by many more out there. Those who can afford them usually enjoy earning above average incomes and they are not quite going to feel the upcoming  'depression' unless a rain of meteorites destroys the northern hemisphere. Apple's market share in personal computers is relatively small, such as an even 50% growth wouldn't mean anything significant whatsoever. There are more than a billion computers in use today, so a few extra million boxes sold by Apple isn't going to change the world! Same for smart-phones. Conclusion: Given the size of the market compared to Apple's growing output has led the company to fundamentals that are and will remain stunning for the foreseeable future without the shadow of a doubt. So, where are the investor concerns?

But the writer goes on with more BS like this:

Another question mark is the new iPhone which was launched in July. While almost everyone expects the device to rack up strong sales, will it be enough to drive growth, especially if Mac computer sales suffer?

Now, what kind of question is this? Where's the evidence that this could happen? Pure speculation and rumor spreading to scare the living shit out of potential buyers of AAPL stock so the sneaky shortsellers will find the opportunity to make a filthy and easy buck (more than one really...). And this goes on with another statement:

"The concern about the stock is that because of the macro-environment people aren't going to be buying Macs, people aren't going to buy iPhones, because they're expensive," said Andy Hargreaves of Pacific Crest Securities.

Of course, let's add some moronic statement by a loser analyst (thinks the reporter) who, having recently looked at the stock after the facts as usually, decided to throw a double digit IQ statement like people aren't going to buy iPhones... Lemme tell you something, moron! People aren't going to buy because they aren't able to find any available. The moment buyers arrive at the shop the little marvels have already been SOLD OUT! How about that, a-hole?

I could go like this on and on... Unfortunately, there are too many of them useless reporters writing filth like this. When Apple goes up and economy is good they all become suddenly huge Apple lovers (or of any other company they've been reporting on). When Apple dives, they throw in shitloads of negativity, likewise. And in the meantime they earn a 'well deserved' buck.

There's only one reason that this phenomenon is possible at all. This is the insecurity of the flocks constituting the public, and their adoration of bad news, gossip and unverified fiction... as long as it sounds dramatic. The public is starving for stories like those that moron reporters are producing in their mills. As long as the public feels like that, these stories are becoming self-fulfilling prophecies and healthy companies suffer the repercussions. Some of them may even go down for good, like we saw happening to some reputable financial industry players recently. The rumor mill killed the good!

How about this as a partial remedy to the 'Depression' problems we are facing right now: Shut down all media for 90 days and only show 'The Sound of Music' on TV. I betsa (Sarah, oh Sarah!) it's gonna work out for the best...

No comments: