“There is nothing that causes investor anxiety like uncertainty does. Uncertainty is even worse than declining sales. Apple (AAPL) has been the poster child of uncertainty. Although the company has exhibited 583% growth in its iPhone division and had an unprecedented 300,000,000 downloads at its App Store, the stock continues to drop. The root of this uncertainty can be attributed to two factors: first is the health of Steve Jobs; second is the perceived impact of the recession on Apple’s high priced products. The Steve Jobs leave of absence eliminates the first and now it’s time for Apple to eliminate the second, as only the best company in the world can do. To soothe the uncertainty that exists, Apple needs to replace their ridiculous game of forward looking guidance with increased real-time transparency,” Jason Schwarz writes for SeekingAlpha.
“We live in a society that is used to real-time data and yet Wall Street lags behind the times. Without realizing it, I think that this new norm of real-time information is the single greatest force behind the recent fear in the stock market. We are now accustomed to new technologies that keep us constantly up to date with friends, family, and global news, and yet companies like Apple aren’t keeping us up to date…so we get nervous, especially in tough times,” Schwarz writes.
“Is there a way for Wall Street to catch up with the times? The solution is relatively simple. Provide investors with real-time data. Instead of calling us together to give us the big quarterly announcement that is already three weeks old, why don’t you keep us in the loop on a weekly or even a daily basis. Everybody loves the daily best seller list at Amazon.com (AMZN). Give us an even more detailed report on Apple.com. Tell us how many iPhones were sold, how many Macs were sold, how many songs were downloaded, games downloaded, etc.,” Schwarz writes. “If Apple is as good as I think they are, this procedural change would leave the competition in the dust.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s competitors would love to have such information. Apple keeps the type of detailed information Schwarz describes to themselves for competitive reasons.
