“If you needed any indication that the Apple ecosystem is growing, you got it this morning: Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company has paid out $8 billion to developers, up from $7 billion earlier this year,” Matthew Lynley writes for The Wall Street Journal.
“Apple CEO Tim Cook just wrapped up a big keynote address at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference this morning. There weren’t a whole lot of earth-shattering surprises, but Cook did reveal a few new numbers that weren’t otherwise known,” Lynley writes. “Things are moving pretty quickly over in Cupertino, it seems, and Cook is extremely bullish.”
Here are a few other takeaways from the keynote:
• Retail is still a major focus
• Specs don’t matter
• Halo effects matter
• Services are also important
• There’s an enormous amount of head room for smartphones
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
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Apple CEO Tim Cook: Tablets ‘the mother of all markets,’ Mac cannibalization not a concern – February 12, 2013
Piper’s Munster sees evidence of Apple dividend increase, low-cost iPhone in Cook’s comments – February 12, 2013
Apple to expand, move 20 retail stores to accommodate growing crowds – February 12, 2013
Stalking giants don’t spill their beans!
Because if they do, a lad named Jack (or maybe Jae-yong) will scoop them up, plant them, climb the resulting growth to the otherwise inaccessible island in the clouds, locate the giants through stealth, and slay them
And Wall Street was really excited about all Mr. Cook had to say. The stock is down only 3% following his positive, optimistic, and meaningless declarations.
Oh looky here, the only TP asshole that keeps beating his shaven chest against brilliance and intelect- pp tiny!
@ breeze:
In other words, you can’t offer anything that disagrees with ppeterson’s insight.
Looks to everyone here that pp called it right, and all you could do was attempt juvenile bullying.
You’re wrong. It’s only down 2.56%!
As much as I detest pp, I have to admit that it does seem that whenever Tim Cook talks, Wall Street walks. I wonder if anyone has done an analysis of the correlation to see if it does in fact exist, or if it just seems like it does.
He may be a bit of a shrike but he is right about the two things correlating.
I am not so sure about his other idea of Cook being clueless. To me Cook is more like the detective Columbo, seeming a fool only to guys- too smart for their own good – who belittle the trench coat & the cigar, etc. but fail to notice the shrewd mind. Also at the end of each episode did he not say “Just one more thing”.
Every time. Every time this guy speaks or appears in public, the stock takes a dive. What is it about the reality of how clearly he is dismissed by investors that you folks don’t understand? And, the reason he is dismissed is because he is blatantly clueless. He could be wearing a sign that says “I’m Clueless” and it wouldn’t be any clearer.
Or maybe Wall Street wants him to make promises about the cash… and what he wants to talk about is Apples continued strength. It’s obvious that Wall Street is trying hard to be the tail that wags the dog.
Larger iPhone. Had they made this important decision six months to a year ago you wouldn’t be complaining about Tim Cook. The phone would have been a tremendous success and all the fanboys would be pissing in their pants. As well as those buy and hold investors who are shitting in their pants now. Clearly it is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. No one at Apple that is! I don’t know who is responsible for not making it happen but someone should be held accountable. The smartphone landscape would be completely different than it is today. That’s something that you just can’t deny. Samsung would not be selling all their crap phones like they are now. And it would be an easier time waiting for the “next big thing”. It’s just a big mistake and Tim Cook has to gloss over it quickly. He has a difficult job and I don’t envy him at all. But clearly they should have seen that a larger form factor iPhone had to be made and needed to come to market at least six months to a year ago. And a more affordable iPhone for the emerging markets was also obvious and they failed to deliver there too. This is almost as important as a larger iPhone. The lack of Apple having these phones is it’s real issue now and in the immediate future. They’re playing catch-up. Not a position they are used to.
Meh. Larger screens. Is that Samsung’s big innovation? And here I was thinking Samsung’s edge was Cheap. Ripoff.
IMHO Apple is looking a few years ahead while Wall Street can’t see past their own noses. Too soon to have meaningful opinions about China afaic. That market is still in its infancy. Is Samsung kicking ass there or something? (serious question, actually)
Look, you Upstart … What you just don’t get is that iPad Mini is no big deal because its just a smaller version of the iPad. However, a bigger iPhone would be a major innovation.
I hope that’s finally clear to you now!
Sometimes it’s just like talking to a brick wall here.
Yeah. Billions in sales and profit don’t matter. Only raw useless specs mean anything. Right?
You just don’t get it do you? I don’t care that Samsung has large screen phones. I care that Apple does not. If Apple had them, Samsung just couldn’t sell very many. It’s as simple as that. Apple doesn’t have them. That’s a mistake. It’s as simple as that. You can play fanboy and make all the excuses you want. It doesn’t matter. Let me put it to you this way, if large screen phones don’t matter then Apple will never make one. Right? That’s a yes or no answer. I say yes. And in six or eight months when it comes out the public will say yes too. Clearly it will outsell the iPhone 5S. Which means simply that if Apple had it now it would sell like hotcakes. Apple is late to realize that they need a larger iPhone. They don’t have it so they can’t sell them. That’s a mistake Again, in six or eight months Apple will have a larger iPhone. Why? Because consumers want it. So, when it comes out it will be proof that you are wrong and I am right. Why are some of you so defensive about a larger phone? If you have small hands stick with the iPhone 5S.
Show me a sales figure for Samsung phones.
No one else can…
Are you sure you are on the Apple blog and not the MS or Delll blog???
This is Mac Daily News.
Not:
Microsoft Daily News
or My Dell News
Because it seems you live in a dark cave with internet access and all you do is look at stock numbers like some stooge.
Go outside and take a deep breath and smile or something and notice all the happy people and critters using their Apple gadgets.
Not much Mac News on MDN these days as it is having an identity crisis. Somewhere between an Apple tipsheet and something else.
I have quite a few shares of Apple tho not nearly as many as some here. I have had Apple products as far back as the Mac Plus in the late 1980s. Tim Cook deeply understands Apple and up is a great CEO and is doing fine.
The stock price is not a measure of anything. Right now we have Netflix with a huge PE ratio and they may not exists in 3-5 years. We have Google with a pretty high PE and they have exactly ONE product that may go down in value, Amazon huge PE. Etc. stock market is nuts now but it will fix itself in the long run.
Tim Cook said a bad word. If specs don’t matter then why upgrade. See, didn’t he know as a CEO that you can’t say customers will be satisfied with your product.
agreed…
specs do matter…
he should have said… specs ALONE dont matter… its the whole user experiences…
i.e. iPhone 5 uses a chip that has 3 cores yet is faster than the Quad core whatever in most Androids (sans Phablets).
In any case… Apple markets specs with words…
‘Retina display’, A5 chip… blah blah blah…
So far its still working for them… As Samsung floods the market, Apple has a market to grown into…
The stock probably dropped with mention of lowering the cost of entry to the Apple ecosystem. Wall Street interprets that as “lower profit margins” and acts accordingly (if incorrectly). But it makes it sound like Apple’s got increasing competition and has its work cut out for it and is preparing to commoditize, which usually in the past has meant the beginning of the slide for other companies.
These interpretations would explain how Wall Street can devalue Apple in spite of world record performance.
“There weren’t a whole lot of earth-shattering surprises…”
Well, that’s what we’ve come to expect from Cook, isn’t it? Predictable small incremental steps instead of bold moves that create new markets.
As for the “specs don’t matter” statement: Cook, that’s the stupidest thing anyone in your industry could attempt to assert. Properly assessed specifications represent objective measurements of the quality of a device. Your challenge is to teach your customer to focus the important specs. In one way or another, everyone who reviews consumer electronics is going to benchmark battery life, display qualities, and time required to perform operations. You should too, Cook.
I think his point is that reviewers don’t make a whole lot of difference. People buy great products, period. Apple makes great products. And those “specs” you mentioned are not specially weak where Apple is concerned anyway.
Mike, I take your analysis at its face value. Pure BS.
Raw specs never tell the story. Design, usability and ecosystem do tell the story. It’s all too easy to assemble a pile of components, each with top specs, into a substandard device that isn’t very usable. In fact, that happens all too often.
Tell me, though. When Apple’s products are designed with usability for their purpose, which has been a strong focus of the company, how badly do the resulting specs and performance suffer by comparison to other products?
As it happens, I don’t want a mobile phone with a larger screen than the iPhone 4S or 5. I want a mobile phone to be compact and easy to carry around. I do want (and get) a very good display and battery life, and I enjoy the seamless ability to send photos among my Apple devices, share calendars and addresses among them and other benefits of Apple’s family of hardware devices and their software ecosystem. No other manufacturer offers those features as satisfactorily.
No, Apple under Tim Cook isn’t declining. Yes, we’ve been seeing another episode of FUD to drive down AAPL stock, as has happened many times in the past. That simply makes it a good opportunity to buy more AAPL, as I’ve done. Wait a while, and the speculators will start pumping AAPL again. It’s happened before and will happen again.
My email is cluttered every day with newsletters and advice from Wall Street analysts. Once in a great while, I see advice that I agree with. But if I followed their advice without reservation, I would be broke. On balance, I don’t value that advice much more highly than the old pump and dump pronouncements of boiler rooms pushing penny stocks.
Fortunately for Apple, their corporate position has been to not follow the advice of Wall Street for their business plan. They have successfully avoided the low quality, low profit commodity markets that so many have recommended to them. Hello, Dell. You were the darling of Wall Street, and took their advice.
In other words, Bill, you select products (or investments) that have the specs which match your preferences. got it.
What doesn’t matter again?
“Specs don’t matter…”. – Steve Jobs
Sixth takeaway: lately, every time Tim Cook makes any public comment the stock reacts negatively. Don’t get me wrong, I think Tim Cook is a very intelligent and capable person, but as CEO, one of his main objectives is to maintain and increase shareholder value. Apple has a perception problem among Wall Street analysts (who seem to have no clue about what Apple is all about) and Tim Cook as CEO needs to address this in agressive, practical and creative ways. The mantra: “We only care about building the best products that people will love” isn’t cutting it anymore.
Take a look at the history of AAPL stock nosedives that happened when Steve Jobs was at the helm, and the company was performing brilliantly in product development.
It was Steve Jobs who developed that mantra, in response to the (always) clueless Wall Street analysts: “We only care about building the best products that people will love.” He meant it, and I hope Tim Cook does, too. If Apple loses that perspective they will go the way of Dell, Nokia, RIM, Microsoft and many other flash in the pan companies.
Sorry…your sense of entitlement is showing.
‘…as CEO, one of his main objectives is to maintain and increase shareholder value.’
That’s just hopeful nonsense…if you are meaning stock price?
As CEO, Tim Cook’s responsibility is to ensure Applle’s continued existence. Share price is secondary and definitely best avoided as a major policy concern in the light of the recent stock options shenanigans.
Actually, I think everyone seems to have missed a major change…with Tim Cook himself. I have read large chunks of his speech and it seems Tim has decided to stick his head above the parapet. He was disparaging of competing technology, Eindhorn’s court case, those ‘analysts’ who lack Apple’s long term view and those who doubt Apple’s philosophy. It was strong stuff in such a meeting.
I like it.
The size of iPhone. In simple words. My iPhone 4 fitted right inside my front left jeans pocket. Now, with a new iPhone 5, lighter, beatiful retina display and design, thinner and powerful, hardly fits at the same pocket. All this because of some uninspired asiatic copycat? I hope Apple doesn’t miss the point.