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Doug Kass strikes again, citing Woz’s ‘Apple is so arrogant over iPhone 5′ complaint

Friday, October 12, 2012 · 3:16 pm · 27 Comments

“Noted hedgie Doug Kass of Seabreeze Partners, who has warned in recent weeks that Apple (AAPL) is losing its innovative edge, is back today with another missive to the faithful, offering more thoughts on what’s wrong, this time citing an interview with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak that asserts Apple is ‘arrogant,’” Tiernan Ray reports for Barron’s.

Part of me wishes Apple had not been so arrogant and feeling like “We’re the only one with the right clue.” I wish they had made a wider version [of the iPhone 5]…

…I think Apple tricked itself by saying “Oh, you can reach everything with one thumb.” I don’t see anybody having trouble using the larger screen. But Apple said that as a defensive move because everyone else had larger screens…

…Not all people want the same thing. A lot of people really like big screens. – Steve Wozniak.

Ray reports, “Kass spins Woz’s comments out into a bunch of speculation, such as, Does Apple have some problem with its iOS operating system that prevents larger screens? Does it want to withhold large screens for the next iPhone upgrade cycle? … ‘In essence, Apple will have gone from a disruptive innovator and category creator with unique and different products to a company competing on the basis of run-of-the-mill hardware features,’ writes Kass. ‘This is not much different than the low-margin handset industry before Apple entered it and disrupted it.’”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: At least Woz has the plane crash brain-damage excuse, Dougie Shorty McShort.

…notwithstanding the previous successes of the Mac and iPod, there seem to be enough questions regarding the iPhone (is it really differentiated from products already on the market that have advanced features, strong operating systems, have penetrated enterprise and rely on email as their killer application?) — especially in light of the market’s starry-eyed reaction and Apple’s surge in value… – Doug Kass, January 16, 2007

On that day, Apple shares closed at $97.10. Since its release in June 2007, iPhone has only transformed the mobile device industry, demolished those who “penetrated enterprise and rely on email as their killer application,” and sold over 200 million units to date while reaping the bulk of the smartphone industry’s profits, it has propelled Apple Inc. into the most valuable public company in world history.

So, with Dougie’s AAPL cred or lack thereof now firmly established, let’s get down to brass tacks:

What’s important when you are in that hedge fund mode is to not do anything remotely truthful, because the truth is so against your view, that it’s important to create a new truth, to develop a fiction. – Jim Cramer, explaining how hedge-fund managers game the stock market, 2006

As for how iPhone 5 stacks up against other smartphones, we’ll let the reviews do the talking.

As for screen size issue please see the related “Woz” article below.

Related articles:
Woz: Apple has become ‘so arrogant’ over iPhone 5 – October 11, 2012
Hedge-fund manager Doug Kass: Apple is losing its mojo – October 3, 2012

Categories: News

Tags: aapl, Apple stock, Doug Kass, finance, Seabreeze Partners, short sellers, short-selling, Steve Wozniak, Woz, Wozniak

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Comment Feed

27 Comments

Raymond

Friday, October 12, 2012 - 3:19 pm · Reply

All these people asses will be kicked on 25th oct
S#*! Apple Fanatics Say

Friday, October 12, 2012 - 3:20 pm · Reply

Fast forward to 2:01 in this video:

“Don’t listen to Woz! He’s crazy!”
- Gm
  
  Friday, October 12, 2012 - 4:17 pm · Reply
  
  Funny.
Micro Me

Friday, October 12, 2012 - 3:27 pm · Reply

Woz. Shut up. Please.

Others follow your lead and make stupid comments.

Thanks.

MM.
- DeRS
  
  Friday, October 12, 2012 - 3:46 pm · Reply
  
  Actually, this time Wozniak is the one who is arrogant: he thinks he knows better what buyers want, even though they made iPhone to be #1 phone in the world, and iPhone 5 is selling even better than before — “despite” not have 6″ screen.
  - G4Dualie
    
    Friday, October 12, 2012 - 6:01 pm · Reply
    
    Actually, your myopic thinking prevented you from spotting the real danger; AAPL is the target, not iPhone 5, or Woz, or Micro Me, for pointing out the obvious and you apparently failed to grasp.
    
    Woz is playing with all of the gadgets shoved into his hands, so he’s being exposed to thousands of products at hundreds of events each year. Tell me he doesn’t have a finger on the pulse of technology!
    
    This time you’re on the wrong side of the issue. Woz’s words can be used to manipulate AAPL as has been proven in the past. IIRC, recently an ignorant teen caused Apple to lose 6-billion dollars in an hour over a prank, and the FTC and SEC were all over him like white on rice.
    
    Loose lips sink ships. Woz could be implying some strategic path would better suit Apple’s needs in — who really knows which platform at this point — some particular endeavor and not necessarily attacking Apple over iPhone 5 but that is precisely what Fundie managers need; doubt.
    
    You’re just confusing the issue.
Raymond

Friday, October 12, 2012 - 3:28 pm · Reply

Look at Nokia , you know Appke isn’t wrong
- G4Dualie
  
  Friday, October 12, 2012 - 6:36 pm · Reply
  
  Imagine for a moment if Apple licensed iOS to Nokia?
  
  Every Nokia customer would instantly become an Apple consumer. That’s not to say, every Nokia handset becomes an Apple product overnight, or that iOS turns old phones into new but, Nokia might design a phone running iOS to compete with, and not against, Apple.
  
  There’s a difference. It’s subtle but it goes like this, Apple can sustain itself with the narrowest of market shares and margins and are now plundering the largest consumer base in US history, all with a very small base of loyal consumers, who are buying the big-ticket items on a regular basis.
  
  These are the real meat and potatoes prosumers, the life’s blood of Apple, and they are a dying breed and with them go corporate knowledge, historical perspective, and most importantly, the Apple Mythology!
  
  Many believe Apple died with Steve Jobs. These same people believe Woz lives on the Apple campus and that he’s connected. He may still be employee Number 2, but no one with any real access to Tim Cook is speaking candidly with Woz.
  
  If Apple licensed iOS 5 to Nokia, they would rise up and eat Apple’s lunch, right? I mean, they could build a better phone to run iOS, that’s the fear, is it not?
  
  Just as it was with the Mac, Steve Jobs bought up all of the Mac OS licenses and burned them upon his return to Apple, but he left the door open, because with proper handling partnering with Nokia could save the brand from the clutches of Microsoft, who already has a foot in the door.
  
  Imagine if Apple showed up at Nokia’s door pitching an alternative to Metro? Say, for an exclusive European market to begin, before rolling out a global strategy that involves several strategically placed Apple satellites?
felipe carlos

Friday, October 12, 2012 - 3:32 pm · Reply

Woz, just shut up and crawl back into your cave. You haven’t been relevant since the Apple 1 computer You’re like that friend of a friend’s sister’s cousin who keeps hanging around the perimeter of the social scene or showing up at parties, yet everybody just ignores you, or wonders what the hell you’re doing there… Get over it, you’re not part of the Apple scene anymore. Maybe think about getting a life, and actually doing something meaningful, creative and innovative yourself before spouting off on all things Apple. Okay, fella? Thanks.
- G4Dualie
  
  Friday, October 12, 2012 - 7:06 pm · Reply
  
  A friend of a friend’s sister’s cousin is never out of your view? You know when they come and go and you act all back of the bus and shit, but you’re just a creep who hasn’t had pussy since pussy had him.
  
  I was wondering where that brown ring around your neck came from.
  - felipe carlos
    
    Friday, October 12, 2012 - 9:44 pm · Reply
    
    Uh, oh… Listen up. The Neanderthal speaks, but sadly only incomprehensible shit emerges and no one really cares…
    - G4Dualie
      
      Thursday, November 1, 2012 - 11:54 pm · Reply
      
      Your sister cares.
Whatever

Friday, October 12, 2012 - 3:36 pm · Reply

That is why Samsung made a smaller phone…. Cause people want bigger screens.
HCE

Friday, October 12, 2012 - 3:49 pm · Reply

This statement from Kass completely boggles the imagination.

“Does Apple have some problem with its iOS operating system that prevents larger screens?”

I don’t see how anyone with half a brain can come to that conclusion. What operating system does he think the iPad runs? Not to mention that the iPhone is being produced in two screen sizes right now and that there may be a smaller tablet on the way.

– HCE
- ckan
  
  Friday, October 12, 2012 - 3:59 pm · Reply
  
  half a brain? I dont think he got (I mean Kass) got brain. Look at the histry. Every time he tells sell APPLE it’s gone up by miles. He just trying to coverup his ugly face. Nothing else. He shold be fired long time ago as fund manager cant have ego. It’s not him his ego speaks
- Gm
  
  Friday, October 12, 2012 - 4:19 pm · Reply
  
  Kinda dumb isn’t it?
Predrag

Friday, October 12, 2012 - 3:56 pm · Reply

I have only one thing to say regarding the screen size complaint. When even Ballmer’s Left Nut is silent on the iPhone 5 screen size, then you simply know that the screen is large enough.

There are people who think larger is always better. While size DOES matter, too large is simply too large.
- kingmel
  
  Friday, October 12, 2012 - 6:27 pm · Reply
  
  Well, to be honest, BLN has not been completely silent on the subject. The last that I heard, BLN still wanted an iPhone display that is 4.5″ or bigger — something larger than his other hand is holding, I’m guessing
- G4Dualie
  
  Friday, October 12, 2012 - 8:46 pm · Reply
  
  There are people who think larger is always better. While size DOES matter, too large is simply too large.
  
  In Boats and peckers maybe, but too large has never been an Apple weakness.
  
  It’s their “smallest” strategy that is troublesome.
  
  Anyone who enjoys iPad knows what a disappointment it is to suddenly pick up the iPhone and have to adjust one’s eyes to the smaller screen, or having perhaps to resume a game on the latter while mobile.
  
  I think too many people are conflating two different technologies, computers and phones, with added emphasis on the cellular aspect as the basis for all handheld devices, it’s a phone first, and a computer second.
  
  My sense of it is, we want to skip the evolution of the computer’s march into into the realm of an always-on-always-connected appliance on our wrist by shoving a cellular radio into a computer and using that as a platform from which to step off into a world of mobile communications.
  
  Why did Apple choose cellular when broadband is the superior platform and when one of the cornerstones of their existence, ad hoc networking across all of their products, was the original plug and play platform?
  
  Why does Apple continue to elevate the cellular industry when all of their software developers are poised to circumvent these guys once the novelty of mobility has subsided?
  
  They are courting disaster by manipulating the evolution of the Macintosh, in favor of devices that are extremely popular and cheaper to manufacture.
  
  Both Mac and iPhone carry a significant tax when one is forced to deal with third parties, something that has always run incongruent with Apple’s philosophy of removing as much third-party impediment as possible, but here we are using products and software designed to work almost exclusively on cell networks, enabling those who are plundering their customers with fees and tolls and taxes that are almost negligible on broadband networks. Compare the price of a Megabyte!!
  
  The Macintosh must continue to evolve in a Post desktop world, but I think it’s safe to say Apple has been too busy revolutionizing the cell phone industry, to do what? Switch to mobile and eschew the desktop altogether? Probably not, but my sense is, they stalled the evolution of the Mac into a supremely functional mobile platform, in order to milk the edge they created in the cellular market.
  
  Were Jobs alive today, I think he would look fondly at iPhone 5 and proclaim the bar has been set for life and it’s time we refocused on those features that made the SE30 the most powerful machine Apple ever made, in terms of a mobile workstation. It was that huge. But then Steve was gone and the evolution of the Macintosh took an ugly turn; it went bigger not smaller!
  
  Steve comes back and the result is a logical extension of the SE30: the original Bondi Blue iMac. Everything Apple manufactured prior to 1998 was a knock-off of the PC platform to curry favor from Microsoft and other PC giants, and to keep themselves in the game long enough to find a savior. No one wanted Apple. Not IBM. Not Dell. Not Steve Jobs, until Steve Jobs wanted Apple.
  
  When people stop looking at handhelds as phones, then perhaps the paradigm will shift and we can begin looking at them as cameras, or dictaphones, or personal assistants, or whatever…
  
  But dump cellular!
ZRow Price

Friday, October 12, 2012 - 4:32 pm · Reply

This might be a bit unintuitive, so please follow me here. We actually need Kass and his followers, and the more like him, the better for us. Everyone who actually understands Apple knows he’s wrong. When AAPL stock makes new all-time highs, which it probably will in the next few months, Kass’s short covering will drive the stock even higher. It is Kass’s money that we collect. We need people to take the wrong side of our trades. We will gladly take their money.
- G4Dualie
  
  Friday, October 12, 2012 - 8:56 pm · Reply
  
  You’re correct. That’s how it’s played. They’re “hedge” fund managers. As in playing both sides against the middle to earn their bowl of rice.
  
  There will always be a Kass as long as there is an Apple. Kass sees himself as Don Quixote and he pilfers Apple’s coffers stealing grain from their windmills.
  
  Wonder what Kass will do when Apple learns to hover above the ground?
Kass is considered a FINANCIAL GENIUS...

Friday, October 12, 2012 - 5:30 pm · Reply

… he’s quoted over and over again in business sites.

He is on stage on CNBC etc as an ‘expert ‘, he’s referred to as ‘well known, brilliant, successful etc’…

Investors , financial wonks, government folks listen to him.

He believes that iPhone can’t have larger screens because iOS cannot run on larger screens (eh.. iPad? ) . These words are reported as true ‘words of wisdom from the ‘expert’ ‘ without reporters falling down laughing and starting their stories with headlines in bold like ‘the Moron Talks… ‘ .

with the financial sector dependent on ‘experts’ like this do we still wonder why the U.S had a financial meltdown….
KenC

Friday, October 12, 2012 - 9:25 pm · Reply

What a Kasshole.
MacHeadB

Friday, October 12, 2012 - 9:48 pm · Reply

Kasserole cashing checks from Google every week.
Ubermac

Saturday, October 13, 2012 - 11:30 am · Reply

I agree with Woz on this. People wanted a bigger screen not a longer screen. The 5 screen is a stupid format.
- ppctyler
  
  Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 4:13 pm · Reply
  
  And you have no concept of reality. If that were so, why is the iPhone 5 selling so well. Stop speaking for others, troll.
Anton Dubinski

Sunday, October 14, 2012 - 9:26 pm · Reply

While Kass is very careful to say that he doesn’t own any Apple stock, it doesn’t change the fact that people he knows DO. So, it’s all a big game of nudge nudge wink wink. People know he has influence and can temporarily determine the direction of a stock with he publishes in the short term.