Apple

The storm in a teacup that has been Apple's little fiasco with the antenna issue on the new iPhone is becoming sufficiently threatening that more people are starting to pay attention. After Apple flatly denied empirical evidence that the phone's antenna system was corrupt, and insinuated that it was really just a software glitch which could be fixed with a simple software upgrade, today's news that Consumer Reports has confirmed that a hardware flaw is creating a reception problem, and as a
result, saying it has decided not to recommend the
phone, is a huge slap in the face for Steve Jobs and the iFad team, which have now been publicly outed as liars. Obviously the issue is not about the antenna - Apple's fans, like all good lab animals, will habituate to holding the phone with tweezers, chopsticks and a heat glove if it means they get to look cool in public. However the public response by Apple to being outed that even the greatest fad creating company in the world could create a new product failure, has been a royal gaffe. Has Jobs lost enough credibility to it being material to the stock? Probably not, although fans of fads are known to turn from docile lambs to vicious hyenas once a tipping point is reached, and it suddenly becomes cooler to actually hate Apple. Today's development may have just tipped the scales just a little in the wrong direction.

This is an excerpt from part two of a multi-part series on the companies vying for dominance during the 3rd major paradigm shift in personal and enterprise technology over the last 30 years. This one will be a biggie (not smalls) and promises to create an investment behemoth out of the winner and relegate the losers to relatively niche markets. This is saying a lot considering the size of the companies participating in the battle for the pole position. I created this series to provide a truly objective, truly informed, and truly analytical (from an empirical perspective) knowledge source on this very important intersection in personal computing and distributed media.

A hands on analysis behind what the coming wars between the Apple IPhone/Ipad, Google/Android, and Microsoft/Windows means to the technology business, the (fortunate) consumer, and the future of computing. The next Microsoft is about to be borne, and its a good chance it may not be Microsoft this time around.

Now that the Prop Desk traders at GS are on edge, they are starting to bully their clients again with time tested "Shank and Crank" operations to shake everyone out of various stocks. No doubt, attempting to get the money train going again before they are litigated out of business.

To all who trade this manipulated lunacy, you have our sympathies. A 1% market move equates to well over $100 billion in market capitalization. And this value just materialized because Apple stock will (allegedly) be $50/share instead of $200, so the quadrillions in cash on the sidelines can buy buy 4 shares where before they could buy one. Just brilliant. Goldman/JPM/33 Liberty just raped everybody for lunch. And to complete the lunacy, this just made top Bloomberg news. The absurdity is just surreal. In other news, the Greek revolution will be televized in 1 minute YouTube 360x240 mp4 clips via iPhone.

Extremely volatile action: assorted Atari system short circuiting with no benchmark to compare results against.

Blowout quarter, with $3.67 in EPS ($3.50 estimates), on $15.7 billion in revenue ($14.96bn consensus) . Apple sold 3.36 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 8.7 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 100 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 21 million iPods during the quarter, representing an eight percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. Apple had $7.6 billion of cash as of December 31, up $2.4 billion from a year ago, although coupled with a decline in marketable securities from $18.2 billion to $17.1 billion.

As investors of all stripes continue to go gaga for the Cult of Cupertino (snap, crackle, AAPL), what can we actually learn from Apple, Inc.?

Granted AAPL has 0 debt compared to GE's $500 + billion. Nonetheless, the snapback in tech is sure to be vicious once funds have to sell the only performing sector to fund humongous margin calls.

Looks like Mary Schapiro is eager to do something on her first day in office. Instead of focusing on the $1 trillion asset bubble and the thousands of scammers and ponziers, she has decided to go thru Steve Jobs' dumpster and check for old syringes and pill bottles. Enough already - give the man some peace.