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Andy Zaky: Apple has hit bottom and is about to bounce

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:25:11 +0000

A cult figure among day traders issues a rare "buy" recommendation

FORTUNE -- With Apple (AAPL) trading just over $530 a share -- under 13 times last year's earnings and 10.56 times his estimated October earnings -- Bullish Cross' Andy Zaky on Thursday told his readers to buy:

"Those who have been waiting for a correction in Apple to buy the stock now have that opportunity to do so. On a technical MORE

Chart of the day: A snapshot of 3,997 distinct Android devices

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:40:29 +0000

A record of the Android phones and tablets that downloaded a single app over 6 months

FORTUNE -- Suddenly you can see the advantage -- both for developers and users -- of Apple's (AAPL) approach of limiting the number of iOS devices on sale at any time to a handful of iPads, iPhones and iPod touches.

Google (GOOG) executive chairman Eric Schmidt downplays the challenge of knowing ahead of time which Android MORE

Meet the men who carved $96B out of Apple’s market value

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Thu, 17 May 2012 12:03:40 +0000

A gathering of hedge fund managers in Manhattan sends the share price on a wild ride.

FORTUNE -- See on the chart at right where Apple's (AAPL) share price dropped to just over $540 shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday?

That corresponds roughly to when the fund manager pictured above left, DoubleLine Capital's Jeffrey Gundlach, told a room packed with investment managers that he was shorting Apple. "I just wonder how many people will MORE

Three scenes from Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs biopic we can’t wait to see

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:35:16 +0000

Apple's CEO left the master of dysfunctional relationships a lot of material to work with

FORTUNE -- Viewers who have followed Aaron Sorkin's TV and film work over the years were delighted to learn Tuesday that one of Hollywood's most gifted screenwriters has officially signed on to adapt Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs for Sony Pictures' (SNE) film.

Sorkin is the master of romantic relationships that are painfully, hilariously dysfunctional. The MORE

The Zooey Deschanel effect

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:56:56 +0000

The iPhone's "buzz" got a bump after Apple started using celebrities in its Siri ads

FORTUNE -- Some purists used the fact that Apple (AAPL) had replaced the always appealing but generally anonymous faces in its TV ads with a couple of Hollywood celebrities -- Zooey Deschanel and Samuel L. Jackson -- as evidence that the company had gone to hell without Steve Jobs at the helm. (See Siri takes a star turn.)

But MORE

Apple bites Android: Customs halts U.S. sales of HTC phones

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:12:18 +0000

Two models held for inspection after a December patent ruling in Apple's favor

FORTUNE -- In what is believed to be the first tangible effect of the two-year-old proxy war Apple (AAPL) has waged against Google (GOOG) though the makers of Android phones, U.S. Customs officials have delayed shipment of two of HTC newest models pending inspection.

The delay is indefinite, but may turn out to be brief.

In December Apple won a MORE

Tim Cook meets John Boehner

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Wed, 16 May 2012 09:37:43 +0000

In Washington, D.C., Tuesday, May 15, 2012

FORTUNE --The photo was posted on the Speaker of the House's website with no details beyond the date. Until we find out what he and the CEO of Apple (AAPL) discussed, we'll leave it to our readers write their own captions.

Filed under: Apple 2.0

Google’s Android profits: ’40% of a little is a lot less’

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:10:04 +0000

An eye-opening comparison of Android's income statement with Apple's

FORTUNE -- As part of an extended look at what he calls Google's (GOOG) "Android economics," Asymco's Horace Dediu on Monday published what may be the first independent estimate of the company's Android income statement.

As the chart at right shows, Android generates revenue for Google through three kinds of ad sales (Google's Search, AdSense and AdMob). After costs and revenue sharing are MORE

Steve Jobs on camera: ‘The publishers are actually going to withhold their books from Amazon’

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:18:24 +0000

Telegraphing an alleged price-fixing conspiracy 2 years before the DOJ caught up to it

FORTUNE -- Paid Content's Laura Hazard Owen, combing through documents newly unredacted in the states' (as opposed to the U.S. Department of Justice's) antitrust complaint against Apple (AAPL) and five book publishers, uncovered a gem: a blunt Steve Jobs e-mail that basically hands the attorneys general their price-fixing case.

In a note to a publishing executive nervous about MORE

Another Apple analyst backs away from iTV’s inevitability

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:27:53 +0000

Pouring cold water on one of Silicon Valley's hottest rumors

FORTUNE -- Although there is no shortage of iTV speculation -- thanks to rumor sites like Taipei-based DigiTimes -- and plenty of Apple (AAPL) analysts ready to calculate to the penny how much an Apple-branded TV set would add to the company's bottom line, some experts have started to back away from what was once seen as an inevitablity.

In December, Richard Gardner, formerly MORE

Anatomy of an iTV rumor

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:16:05 +0000

The latest "confirmation" that Apple is building a TV set turns out to be another soufflé

FORTUNE -- It is perhaps a measure of how badly broken today's commercial TV viewing experience is -- the cookie-cutter sitcoms, the ridiculous reality shows, the ever-shifting channel line-ups, the relentless, merciless commercial breaks -- that the tech press is so desperate to believe even the slimmest rumor that Apple (AAPL) is getting ready to solve MORE

Video: Is this what Apple’s new maps will look like?

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Sat, 12 May 2012 12:01:32 +0000

After 5 years with Google's maps, Apple is reportedly set to unveil its own

FORTUNE -- Big news in iOS mapping this week.

Mark Gurman, 9to5Mac's teen blogging phenom, reported Friday that Apple (AAPL) is prepared to replace the iPhone and iPad's Map app -- built on Google's (GOOG) back-end mapping data -- with something entirely its own.

Its unveiling, according to AllThingsD's John Paczkowski, will be one of the highlights of the WWDC keynote on June MORE

Samsung: Dog ate my e-mail

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Fri, 11 May 2012 15:58:46 +0000

Apple accuses Samsung of taking a slash-and-burn approach to evidence preservation

FORTUNE -- Samsung's failure to produce evidence in a timely manner is emerging as a pivotal issue in the California federal court where Apple (AAPL) has sued the Korean smartphone manufacturer for allegedly infringing Apple's iPhone patents.

Last week, FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller reported that the judge in the case had ordered harsh "preclusive sanctions" against Samsung for what Mueller described MORE

Videos: The new iPad goes on sale in 30 more countries

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:30:12 +0000

Apple's roll-out reaches deeper into Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East

FORTUNE -- The fastest roll-out yet of an iOS device picked up pace this week as Apple (AAPL) prepared to launch the new iPad in 23 countries Friday and seven more on Saturday.

The longest lines are likely to be in Brazil, where Apple and Foxconn have set up local assembly plants to avoid that country's steep import taxes. MORE

The Paris Hilton of mobile phones makes a comeback

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:52:49 +0000

The notion that the Apple has a "carrier subsidy problem" just won't die

FORTUNE -- In the summer of 2009 a Danish mobile phone analyst named John Strand issued a 105-page report entitled "The moment of truth: a portrait of the iPhone," that listed the "10 largest myths" about Apple's (AAPL) smartphone:

1) The iPhone drives data traffic into mobile operators networks 2) The iPhone helps operators attract new customers 3) The iPhone is MORE

For every $1 Google spends lobbying, Apple spends 10¢

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:01:06 +0000

Is that really why Apple has become, per Politico, a "punching bag" for lawmakers?

FORTUNE -- I might feel differently about Apple's D.C. Lobbying Effort Has Yet to Ripen, the 1,450-word piece posted on Politico Wednesday, if I hadn't just listened to Take the Money and Run for Office, This America Life's brilliant hour-long expose of how Washington, D.C., influence peddling really works.

By the end of the radio piece (available as a podcast), MORE

How Apple gets to $2,000

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Wed, 09 May 2012 10:50:41 +0000

Andy Zaky has a plan

FORTUNE -- Most Apple (AAPL) analysts will offer estimates that look a few quarters or even a year in advance.

Andy Zaky is not like most analysts.

For one thing, his estimates over the past four years have been considerably more accurate than your average Wall Street analyst (see, for example, here).

For another, he's not afraid to stick his neck out -- way out -- both in his MORE

The N.Y. Times’ tax-avoidance story didn’t stick to Apple

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:42:46 +0000

Compared with GE, says YouGov, Apple's public image is made of Teflon

FORTUNE -- When the New York Times claimed incorrectly last year that General Electric (GE) paid zero federal taxes in 2010 on worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, the company's reputation took a steep and prolonged hit, as measured by YouGov's BrandIndex Reputation score.

Not so Apple (AAPL).

When the same paper ran a front-page story last week detailing -- again incorrectly, according to MORE

Apple: Samsung owes us ‘billions’ in damages

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:36:18 +0000

Claiming every trial delay is costing them money, Cupertino turns up the rhetorical heat

FORTUNE -- In a motion filed in California federal court Monday, Apple (AAPL) accused Samsung of not only stealing its intellectual property, but using courtroom delaying tactics to steal more of the iPhone's market share.

FOSS Patent's Florian Mueller has the money quote:

"While the parties have been readying the case for trial Samsung has vaulted into first place MORE

How is AMZN worth 13 AAPLs?

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:10:35 +0000

There seems to be a growing disconnect in Wall Street's valuations

FORTUNE -- I know that comparisons, as Shakespeare's Dogberry put it, are supposed to be odorous, but this one is beginning to stink.

How can Apple (AAPL), with $110 billion in the bank, annual sales of $140 billion and earnings that nearly double every year, be valued so much lower than Amazon (AMZN), which has $6 billion in the bank, sales MORE

Nielsen: In the U.S., white men carry the dumbest phones

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:00:52 +0000

Among ethnic groups, Asian Americans are the most likely to pack a smartphone

FORTUNE -- The move from so-called feature phones to smartphones continues apace.

As of March 2012, 50.4% of U.S. mobile subscribers owned smartphones, up from 47.8% in December 2011, according to a Nielsen survey released Monday. Google's (GOOG) Android was the most popular smartphone operating system (48.5%), while Apple (AAPL) was the No. 1 manufacturer (32%).

No surprises there.

It's when the data are broken MORE

Apple’s roller-coaster ride on the Fortune 500 list

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Mon, 07 May 2012 14:11:29 +0000

From Jobs to Sculley to Spindler to Amelio to Jobs (again) and Cook

FORTUNE -- It's been seven months since Fabio Zambelli retired SetteB.IT, the Italian-language blog with which he'd been covering Apple (AAPL) for more than five years. But he's still tracking the company's progress. When Fortune released its annual listing of America's 500 largest companies over the weekend -- a list that showed Apple rising from 35 in 2011 to MORE

The market values Apple’s earnings growth at $0.00

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Mon, 07 May 2012 12:04:57 +0000

The only thing that seems to matter to Wall Street is how much cash it has in the bank

FORTUNE -- It's been a year since Asymco's Horace Dediu -- mystified by the apparent decoupling of Apple's (AAPL) share price from its earnings growth -- first spotted the correlation between the company's valuation and its holdings in cash and marketable securities.

"As far as the market is concerned," he wrote at the MORE

Why Warren Buffett wouldn’t invest in Apple or Google

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:34:00 +0000

The Oracle of Omaha has a second rule: Don't buy companies you don't understand

FORTUNE -- Some 18,300 people -- more than attended Barack Obama's massive campaign kickoff Saturday -- showed up for Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK-A) annual shareholder's meeting in Omaha yesterday. And judging from the New York Times' live blog, it was a lot of fun. There were cartoons and comedic skits and celebrity appearances, including Bono, Bill Gates and Debbie ("Buffett Rule") Bosanek, MORE

Why the father of disruption theory is worried about Apple

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Sat, 05 May 2012 15:42:23 +0000

One hundred and two minutes with Clay Christensen and Horace Dediu

FORTUNE -- About 40 minutes into the interview with Clay Christensen that Asymco's Horace Dediu posted Wednesday on his Critical Path podcast, Dediu brings the conversation around to Apple (AAPL).

Christensen, who was Dediu's mentor at Harvard Business School, is best known as the author of The Innovator's Dilemma -- a book that "deeply influenced" Steve Jobs, according to his biographer. It describes how great MORE

Was Amazon’s Kindle Fire just a flash in the pan?

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Fri, 04 May 2012 11:31:33 +0000

Sales of the Kindle e-readers have apparently also fallen off a cliff

FORTUNE -- Thursday was bad-news day for Amazon's (AMZN) Kindle line of tablets and e-readers.

IDC released first quarter tablet sales data that had Kindle Fire shipments falling from 4.8 million in the Christmas quarter to less than 750,000 units last quarter. "Kindle Fire Shipments Fizzle" was the headline on AllThingsD. E Ink Holdings, the sole supplier of black-and-white screens for MORE

J.P. Morgan: No full-blown TV set from Apple anytime soon

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:49:48 +0000

Apple's next big thing, an analyst speculates, is more likely to be mobile payments

FORTUNE -- If I didn't already agree with him, Mike Moskowitz's note to clients Thursday would have convinced me.

"We do not expect Apple TV this year," wrote J.P. Morgan's chief Apple (AAPL) watcher. "Our research does not indicate any looming TV-related product launch, and our model does not incorporate any potential impact from a TV device at this time. MORE

iPhone owners least likely to switch when service sucks

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:00:37 +0000

Blackberry and Android users are quicker to drop both their phone and their carrier

FORTUNE -- A new survey of smartphone users doesn't speak well for the quality of the cellular telephone service provided by U.S. carriers.

Roughly 40% of respondents said they experience at least five dropped calls a month, and 9 out of 10 said they'd be willing to switch carriers due to poor call quality.

But in this regard, not MORE

With 8.8% market share, Apple has 73% of cell phone profits

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Thu, 03 May 2012 11:48:43 +0000

Among the major vendors, Samsung captured 26%, HTC took 1%, and the rest lost money

FORTUNE -- Asymco's Horace Dediu on Thursday updated his quarterly review of mobile phone profits, and the news for everyone but Apple (AAPL) and Samsung is not good.

Apple is in roughly the same position it was last quarter, with an 8.8% share of the market in terms of units shipped (according to IDC) and a share MORE

How low can Apple go?

Philip Elmer-DeWitt — Thu, 03 May 2012 09:45:09 +0000

There are, in fact, limits to how far the stock can fall

FORTUNE -- Watching Apple's (AAPL) share price see-saw over the past three weeks -- up to $644, down to $555, up to $618, down to $581 -- investors might well wonder whether there's any limit to how high or, more to the point these days, how low the stock can go.

To set some guidelines, we asked Bullish Cross' Andy MORE