With that much experience, Bush has no excuse for bankrupting the economy, turning the world against us, and violating basic American values during his presidency.

That makes absolutely NO sense.

Who knows what’s up… we’ll find out at the earnings call. But I keep saying the same thing over and over and I think other people are really starting to say the same thing: Tim Cook is not the visionary that Steve Jobs was and it’s a major issue for Apple. People might be getting less confident because they feel Cook is not able to lead Apple into a new future. A future of breakthrough products and innovation.

Let’s see, with Cook we have:

1. Missed earnings for several quarters, the first after a long run of record highs with Jobs.
2. A stock that has plummeted and continues to be very volatile.
3. No Retina iMacs.
4. Bad quality control (dented iPhone 5s).
5. Bad marketing. Where’ all the buzz around Apple anymore? The airplane commercials…
6. The first Apple iOS App to get an average of less than 2 star ratings (Podcasts App).
7. Non Retina iPad Mini. Are you kidding me?
8. Software like iWork getting stale.
9. Forstall, Mansfield, Ron Johnson, other top execs leaving… Apple Stores slipping in sales and customer satisfaction ratings.
10. I could keep going, and going, and going…

Tim Cook is simply creepy and boring with no vision and this won’t end well. Get rid of that guy and let’s get something really fresh in there.

Between high freq trading, naked short selling, and dark liquidity pools we are far and away not a free market associated with healthy capitalism.

A JUNE refresh? That is stretching things for an excuse/explanation/defense.

Apple has one of the leanest supply chains and ships from factory to customer in days. I doubt a refresh in June would explain a change in parts orders.

Naked short selling is the problem.

Cook is a guy who makes the trains run on time- he’s not the guy who builds railroads or takes them to the next level.

It’s the vision thing, and Cook does not have it.

Apple is now spending more on lawyers than on R&D. That alone should tell you something is seriously wrong.

Note: CALENDAR Q1, not fiscal.

MDN’s take should also win an Emmy if they had an applicable category. One of the BEST I have read to date.

MDN covered all the bases and citied the unholy convergence of outside influences running down the finest company in the world for their own gain. Whether your’re a short trader, clueless analyst, jealous competitor, paid plant, or an irresponsible journalist with a bias and hidden agenda — all have been called out.

Hello, SEC. Citing unidentified source whispers your staff ran out of suntan lotion in Margaritaville.

@macman1984: Yes indeed, we enjoy freedom of speech. We also have freedom to lie (if your not caught), obfuscate, hide behind unnamed sources, report half-truths, spread rumors, mock, and influence negative perception for the purpose of negating positive reality.

Have a feeling this won’t be the end of FUD leading up to January 23rd. The volume will most likely increase. How far we have fallen.

There is NO WAY that Apple lowered its component orders in Oct-Dec compared to the previous quarter.  However, Apple makes several iPhones (4, 4s, 5) and iPods and may be getting ready to launch a new product (5s), so it is simply not possible to use random pieces of news to discern what is happening inside of Apple.

I believe the most likely possibilities are: (a) component orders were lowered recently because of a huge increase in component orders in Sept-Oct-Nov to increase the iPhone 5 build rate and address the ‘supply constraint’ associated with Foxconn’s inability to assemble an adequate number of iPhone 5′s and (b) preparation for a new iPhone launch in spring ’13.

Obama was a “community organizer” and a one-term senator who served a total of 2 years and 10 months before resigning to run for president.

Here, as so many websites, the market is ‘good’ and everyone is well-intentioned as long as AAPL is trending higher, but every selloff is explained as market manipulation or some other type of evil behavior. 

People who look at the world this way rather than trying to understand the operation of a (mostly) impersonal, competitive, efficient market are simply ill-equipped to be investors. 

Margin compression isn’t a given. Apple has successfully maintained (and even grown) their margins over the years.

Ask Michael Saylor what he thinks about Apple’s prospects for avoiding margin compression:
http://macdailynews.com/2013/01/12/michael-saylor-if-you-sell-apple-stock-now-you-must-be-a-moron-with-video/

A $500 share that represents $150 in CASH, which is generating $50 a year in EARNINGS (that’s a trailing P/E of only 7). And it’s still GROWING.

I can believe AAPL would drop irrationally for an anonymous rumour of a cut to Jan, Feb, Mar quarter’s estimated production/sales. Sad, but I can believe people would buy that.

But trying to say iPhone sales in the first full quarter that the iPhone 5 was available (and just happened to be the holiday season) were 25% lower than the quarter before that (which was obviously not during Christmas, and was at the tail-end of the iPhone 4S’ year-old product life) is totally unbelievable.

It’s so unbelievable that that can’t possibly be what they meant.

Outlaw short-selling.

We will know more in 9 days from the quarterly report on the 23rd. This was just a cheep way to beet up Apple’s stock AGAIN.

Not at MDN.

Mainstream Media circa 2007: “What if we backed a guy for U.S. President who had virtually no qualifications and ignored his inevitable screw ups? What would happen?”