Tommo_UK

Is Apple Set to Make Its Own ARM Chips for the iPhone?

Right but wrong. Apple isn't creating a closed ecosystem at all. Its intending on using a variant of an OS (OS X) which is widely available on iPhones and iPods, and Macs (don't forget about those, will you) on portable devices running on ARM-based chips - an architecture actually helped launched and nurtured by Apple before it sold its stake in the company some years back.

Its launched an SDK for the platform, so the only proprietary aspect is the chipset itself - in other words the manner of the integration between the components and the minaturisation which can be achieved by custom design in-house rather than having to rely on off-the-shelf parts.

The key is, its the same architecture, just adapted and developed in-house, as every other device out there, so its nothing like the original Macintosh paradigm where everything from the OS to the IO ports were propritatary.

I wish writers would stop making this simple error. Vast swathes of OS X are open source. The development platform - XCode - allows tou to code for Macs, iPods and iPhones, and the chips Apple uses - whether designed in-house or not, are based on a widely used and non-proprietary architectiure. Jobs isn't swimming against the tide at all. What he's done is found the ripd tide to drag him and Apple as far away from its competitors as possible, as quickly as possible, leaving them all beached with no hope of catching up.

Apple Rumors: Mac Upgrades and iPhone Production Drop

I call bullshit on this. We hear this crap time and time again when Apple is in the middle of a product transition or new product introductions, and the Street starts as screaming about production cuts and falling sales.

Later, as with iPods, Macs, and iPhones, it turns out they were simply ramping down one model in order to raise production of another (in the case of the 4GB iPhone being cut - remember the call that iPhone production has been slashed by 50%?). This could be more of the same: the 8GB version being cut in preparation of a 16GB/32GB line-up or even a new model iPhone to expand the product line.

I simply do not believe that iPhone sales are falling by 40%.... that's just bollocks, and typical narrow-minded analyst group-think, even in the face of EVERY similar production cutback in iPods and iPhones actually being to do with new models being introduced, or lower-spec'd models being cut out of the line because they weren't selling.

FBR have this all wrong and are stupidly not accounting for this, simply instead calling for plummeting sales and production cuts of 40%. Dumb dumb dumb.

iPod Sales Only 14.2% of Apple's Q4 Total Revenue

The iPhone is an iPod is and iPod is an iPhone. For the purposes of keeping a true picture of the success of Apple's product lines, their sales growth and contribution to earnings, it pays to blend iPhone and iPod sales into one. That's how I've always viewed these two "separate" products: as one.

The Woz Is Sounding Bearish on Apple

Woz - as usual - has iEnvy.. he poo-pooed the iPod, and the iPhone, and now the Mac. What a joker. Its time he was called out for the charlatan he is - the guy's a moron, a one-hit wonder. His glory days are several decades past now, and all he does is warble about how Apple's glory days ended, well, decades ago.

If Woz was still at Apple Macs would still come in wooden cases and have CLIs.

iPhone Sales Drastically Surpass Q4 Consensus; Apple Reaches 10m Goal

Equal credit must go to the IV AAPL Sanity board, whose member HLTR was instrumental in creating and maintaining the spreadsheet referred to.

Apple Reduces iPhone Planned Builds, Suppliers Could Suffer

What's not factored in here is China. The inclusion of WiFi and 3G has long been a sticking point in the China deal and the iPhone. China doesn't want WiFi in the phone for security reasons, and wants its own form of 3G, T-CDSMA, to gain traction, in its home market.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the reason Apple may have scaled back 3G iPhone production is because there's been a China Mobile deal agreed, and its for a T-CDSMA-based (not 3G) iPhone, withouth WiFi, produced on a seperate production line exclusively for the Chinese market, with a guaranteed initial order of approximately 2-3 million iPhones over a 24 month period to make it worthwhile for Apple to produce a handest exclusively designed for one market.

The popularity of the iPhone in China will help boost the chances of success for that country's own proprietary 3G standard and help launch it with a bang, rather than a whimper.

I would be truly amazed if, with 75 countries due to be selling the iPhone by the end of the year, Apple planned on selling less that 15M on top of the 6M sales of the original 2G iPhone, by the end of CY08.

The Google Phone: Blockbuster or Bust?

Google is not positioning itself against Apple. Its positioning itself against Windows Mobile and its lesser competitors. I'm not sure why people find this so hard to understand.

Seeing an End to the iPod's Hegemony

Words fail me, and that's rare.

No Leadership from Apple Right Now

Graduate, I'm often this unpleasant to "Zach Bass" because he's so damn misleading and so damn wrong so damn often, and purports to be a TA guru. In my opinion the guy's a charlatan WRT stock analysis - however nice he might be as a person - and he just gets his facts wrong again and again. Today being a case in point.

SeekingAlpha take note.

No Leadership from Apple Right Now

"In my opinion the favor is to the down side, because we have both the 20 and 50 day moving averages riding inside the pattern, providing additional resistance above current price action at 174.56 and 17.96 respectively."

What are you talking about you fool? The 20-day MA is at about 169/67, and the 50-day MA at 170.22. In fact, the 20-day is crossing above the 50-day today. Resistance? They're support!

Ern, I suggest you return to the wilderness - you're obviously looking at your charts upside down. Or maybe you just haven't got a clue.

Your advice is toxic to investors. You consistently screw up your TA and mislead people, only to apologise when you are caught napping at the wheel having crashed into the TA barrier ahead.

Words fail me.

Apple: Are Investors Overlooking Cash Earnings?

Best analysis I've read on this subject, anywhere, ever. Congratulations. Serious kudos to you for doing the math and DD to such a degree.

Apple Is Biting Off More Than It Can Chew

You're completely wrong. Apple has been selling computers that, spec-for-spec, are ALREADY cheaper than equivalent Dells and HP's - and that includes both desktop and server platforms. Its just that people don't realise it yet.
Go to the HP or Dell website and try it for yourself. To use your own analogy, Apple is already selling Ferraris and Honda prices, and at higher margins too - so they can afford to get even more aggressive, even whilst HP and Dell can't.

Do yourself a favour and think before you contribute any more rubbish like this. garbage in, garbage out.

Strongest June Quarter in Apple History Doesn't Satisfy the Street

There's an echo here.. as Andy said, Steve doesn't "do" conference calls.

Apple's Up to Its Usual Tricks

"In a down market, it wouldn't hurt to rein in expectations and then exceed them--as Apple has in each of the last seven quarters, beating Wall Street estimates each time, including yesterday."

Actuallty its more like the last 17 quarters...

Apple, On Huge Order, Breaks NAND Flash Supply

Wall Street can't see through its darkened Windows (geddit? haha - groan) and is blind to the Apple delivery trucks zooming past them all over the world delivering 61% Mac sales growth and rolling out the iPhone to 75 countries.

But what do you expect from a bunch of numbskulls sat behind their Dells trading in their cubicles: inshight, imagination, and cutting edge analysis?