The headline assumes Apple suffers from hubris, is greedy and arrogant. That’s clearly a subjective opinion. It is based on:
- Ten years after the Think Different campaign ushered in a new golden era for Apple, it has experienced a memorable, legendary and impressive reversal of fortunes, giving it a sense of excess pride and confidence.
- The stock market run up is forcing Apple to take greater financial and operational risk, hence greed.
- Last but not least, my experience with them suggests that the Cupertino-based firm is now arrogant.
This does not, in any shape, form or fashion say anything about the company’s prospects or future. Google too is arrogant, deservedly so, for example. It’s the most valuable Web company, and poised to overtake MSFT in market cap by 2010.
Last week I wrote something (recap here) suggesting that Apple will try to keep the hits coming after the iPod at the detriment of their core products. Naturally, the hardcore Apple fans took this the wrong way, accused me of having an agenda and a bunch of other nonsense. Anyway, having turned that page, today Apple released a statement stating that because they have shifted assets and resources from Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to the iPhone, meaning that the OS’s release will now be delayed until October. Cleary, this is not a mortal blow at all, especially if the iPhone (and by extension, other new products like Apple TV) become hits. The iPod has now sold 100 million units, so a success even a fraction of that would justify the strategic shift.
Of course, some would argue that the stock - which we ranked in the Top 10 Web/HiTech Stocks of Past, Present and Future after having risen tenfold in less than a decade - already reflects bullish sentiment over the iPhone, because many simply assume that Apple will churn out hit after hit… will it? We hope for Apple shareholders that it does, otherwise investors who come in at these levels might find themselves holding the bag.
The stock is down 2-3% after hours… but long term, what do you think?
Is Apple on an upward trend, or at $79B in market cap, is it where Dell was a few years ago?
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April 12th, 2007 at 11:13 pm
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