Apple Stock Slump Shows ‘Hyper-Growth’ Over

(Bloomberg) Anyone who expects Apple Inc.’s growth to rebound after sales and earnings shortfalls last quarter is “living in denial,” according to David Nelson, chief strategist at Belpointe Asset Management LLC.

As the CHART OF THE DAY shows, shares of the maker of iPhones and iPad tablet computers have trailed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and a gauge of S&P 500 technology companies since the company reported fourth-quarter results a month ago.

“This is no longer a hyper-growth company,” Nelson said yesterday in a telephone interview. Apple’s products are now reaching customers who are less likely to upgrade as newer models are released, he added.

Net income will rise 26 percent this fiscal year, 15 percent the following year and 8 percent in fiscal 2014, judging by the average estimates of analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Profit at the Cupertino, California-based company surged 85 percent last year even though fourth-quarter earnings, amounting to $7.05 a share, and sales of $28.3 billion trailed projections. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-18/apple-stock-slump-shows-hyper-growth-is-over-chart-of-the-day.html

:eyes:

It is priced like a utility now (cheap).

But their growth may well have peaked

I saw a ridiculous product advertised as an iPad accessory. It's a big bracket that puts the screen up at a good viewing angle to free your hands, and it has a full keyboard attached to it. That's right, this ugly, clunky thing makes an iPad behave just like...

A laptop computer.

iPad: Dumbest invention ever.

I was recently asked to help out with a project for another department here at work. They wanted to buy a bunch of iPads for the students to use for photo capture and processing. They were going to buy the iPad, the photo connector kit, the display mount, the keyboard kit, and a whole pile of 32GB SDHC cards because the storage was insufficient. During our discussion, I asked them "Why not just buy a laptop, which already has all of this stuff?" Their 'tech guy' actually responded, "Oh, laptops are outdated technology. We don't want to be stuck with Edsels."

So they actually wanted to go with LESS capable hardware with a HIGHER price tag and LESS user friendliness, simply because it was "modern".

People are weird.

One university (can't remember which) bought 500 netbooks to check out to students for 35 bucks a semester... at about 250 a pop, it's a sustainable program..and the netbooks are popular with students who need a regular keyboard, and word processing.

I use the ipad for 1- playing games (mostly free or 99c, far less than any handheld game, far more variety). I don't care about 'ultra-realistic, multiplayer' games like Call of Duty. All I need is a quick distraction, with lots of variety. Most of the people I know who have these feel the same.
2. Reading ebooks (didn't have to buy a kindle, not locked into Amazon)
3. Watching streaming movies or ones I have ripped from DVD's.
4. checking email when on the road
5. checking up on sports using ESPN's app.
6. very occasional note-taking when I don't have my laptop with me.

It's not a computer. It's not meant to be one. It s a game platform/content viewer, and it does a great job with that.