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They shouldn't let traders work with all that kind of money, they know jack shit about business

Here is bonddad's typically insightful take on Apple:

http://bonddad.blogspot.com/2008/01/apple-reports-disappointing-projections.html

"NASDAQ's advance/decline line and new highs new lows line has been decreasing since October. This is a prime reason why I have not bought into the "tech will save us" bandwagon. The bottom line is fewer and fewer issues are advancing and making new highs. As a result, fewer and fewer stocks are responsible for the market's gain.

Apple was one of those stocks responsible for the market increasing. But now it's being conservative with its earnings and it's dropping hard as a result. A final piece of the NASDAQ puzzle is starting to fall."

Even Apple can't weather a post real estate bubble recession.

I think you were warned long ago to take your profits. I did.

Don't cry now. Just wait it out and don't sell, it will rebound by this time next year.

And tell Apple to fsck off the cheap glossy screens please. Thank you. (your future eyesight)

Jan 23, 08 - 10:48 am Comment from: Jubei

A scary look into the future. The only one that can profit and weather the recession is MS. Guaranteed revenue in hand, they can keep producing wannabe products like the Zune. The economy is so strapped users will buy it since "it's good enough" and soon will take over the iPod. Since the Zune is cheap and good enough. Another win for MS. How sad is that.

Jan 23, 08 - 10:51 am Comment from: gzero

Old Mac Man:

The screens are fine; it's your eyesight that most likely sucks.

Jubei:

Just say no to drugs.

Jan 23, 08 - 10:53 am Comment from: doc

Traders make the market. These traders are called market makers. A brokerage firm, say Morgan Stanley, underwrites an IPO for a company, say Apple. They then give the shares to a trader who represents them on the the seat of the trading floor they have purchased at NASDAQ. These individuals decide among themselves how much a stock is worth and then try to talk others into holding these same beliefs, and once they have done that, they sell shares until the stock price goes high enough that they can shorten the position in share count by 10% and still have, say a 300% profit. They will then decide that the stock is worth less, say 40% less, justified or not, borrow money on the unrealized profit, and buy up any shares sold buy anyone that sells due to the new "value" they have given the stock.

The screens are fine; it's your eyesight that most likely sucks.

And how, praythee, did you think my eyesight got so bad?

Yep, staring at glossy CRT screens for 20 years.

I know what I'm talking about. It's called Computer Vision Syndrome.

Read up on it sometime, but in a nutshell it's intensive eyestrain and eye muscle fatigue caused by the eye automatically refocusing between the true image and the slightly out of focus reflections.

The eye muscle fatigue means that your eyes get lazy and can't focus correctly anymore, requiring the premature need for glasses.

Glasses are a pain in the ass. But don't let me warn you now. just go ahead and keep using those nice shiny glossy screens.

Is there another liberal rant wrapped inside this one?

It's not the screen, you idiot, it's the lighting.

The reflections disappear with proper lighting.

Jan 23, 08 - 11:18 am Comment from: doc

@R2

What?

st1

They shouldn't let traders work with all that kind of money, they know jack shit about business


...what he said!!!!!

@Al "The reflections disappear with proper lighting."

- ahhh non-reflective lighting?

I agree with Old Mac Man. I've put off buying a new iMac cuz of its terrible glossy screen. Looked at one the the Apple store the other day... all I could see were the rows of lights in the ceiling behind me.

tsk tsk come on Apple... your slipping badly.

It's not the screen, you idiot, it's the lighting. The reflections disappear with proper lighting.

Of course they do, in a dark hole.

But again praythee, tell me how many workplaces and homes are dark hovels?

How many workplaces are going to spend a lot of money to correct what is basically a design flaw?

How many people are aware of the problem?

One can try to slap a cheap anti-glare filter on your nice new shiny Mac or PC screen. See how much it really helps in 20 years. It doesn't.

How many workplaces are going to spend a lot of money to correct what is basically a design flaw?

Should read:

How many workplaces are going to spend a lot of money to correct their enviroment for what is basically a product design flaw?

I'm not alone in this, research the polls and opinions from longterm computer users. Glossy is a pain in the ass if you have to use the computer all day like we do.

MacPolls, Ar Tech "glossy vs matte" and even MacSlash Polls all prefer matte over glossy screens.

It's time Apple start listening to people's needs and quit dictating our hardware requirements.

Jan 23, 08 - 11:36 am Comment from: MaLvado

Oh yes, the CRT's glossy screens didn't affect you after years of use but the LCD's same glossy finish does...

Why is that?

The era of the iPod is over. In two words I can say BULL CRAP!

How many other companies have sustained sales of this magnitude? NONE! This is some inside conspiracy against Apple with nothing to do with how the company itself is doing. The company has 18 BILLION dollars in cash building interest and record profits. All products are selling like crazy and the anal-lists have already said that Apple is the only company to sell at double the rate of anyone else. So this stock price fixing I think should be investigated seriously and I hope Apple is the one that starts legal action.

Old Mac Man,

How about this? Your eyesight is changing in "middle age" as it does for almost everyone, including generations before CRT's were invented. It's called "presbyopia" -- read up on that sometime.

No good deed goes unpunished.

Jan 23, 08 - 12:11 pm Comment from: mr_matalino

Just think of all those idiots who are panicking right now and selling all their AAPL shares because everyone else is (most for a loss). Buy now.

Oh yes, the CRT's glossy screens didn't affect you after years of use but the LCD's same glossy finish does..

Glossy CRT screens did make a lot of people complain, matte screen LCD's were a welcome change for the better.

Now Apple goes back to glossy LCD screens to fool the ignorant.

Your eyesight is changing in "middle age" as it does for almost everyone, including generations before CRT's were invented. It's called "presbyopia"

My diagnosis and the early need for my glasses was done in my late twenties.

Eyestrain and muscle fatigue caused by extensive computer monitor use. (It was my job)

The glasses sure went over well with the ladies too. (not).

Argue all you want. Glossy is bad for your eyes. I just try to warn people not to do what I did.

It's kind of hard when you have computer OS combined with a rather small hardware line. You basically have to take what APPL feeds you.

Jan 23, 08 - 12:24 pm Comment from: iWill

Yesterday, after due diligence, I bought into AAPL ahead of their earnings report. Today I'm wincing from the panic driven street reaction. Tomorrow will be bright because I know that Apple is systematically producing the best products in its class. Period.

Remember that Abbie Hoffman once said "Free Speech is the right to yell 'Theater!' in a crowded fire.". Today is an example of that.

Please remain calm. All will be well. Maintain the long view, and this too shall pass.

(-_-)

Jan 23, 08 - 12:25 pm Comment from: critic

First, I really wish MDN would put up a permanent thread for people to complain about glossy screens.

To address the topic at hand, stock price movements are not related to the underlying business when the market is as volatile as it has been, especially to the downside.

The large institutional investors invest heavily on borrowed money (margin), and when the market drops quickly, they have to cover their margin loans as the value of the collateral they borrowed against drops. A lot of the selling in this market will be margin calls as people scramble to pay margin calls.

Many of these institutions bought AAPL at lower prices, and they are cashing out to cover their calls, not because they think their is any issue with AAPLs business. They just don't think that their is a short term upside to the stock, and they may as well lock in whatever gains they can.

Jan 23, 08 - 12:51 pm Comment from: Gandalf

Yes it's looking at computer screens, glossy or not.

You may have noticed bibliophiles mostly all wear glasses too, that's from looking at mat pages with no reflections.

Women traditionally have needed glasses at earlier years than men, that's because they spent most of their lives working inside the home without the opportunity to exercise the eye muscles.

The reason is that the eye is optimized for viewing distances in excess of twenty feet, for watching out for predators. Evolution is a slow process.

Sit near a window and look out often is maybe the best you can do if you work on computers. Play a sport like soccer, ride a bike, lots of things are great exercise for the eye muscles.

Jan 23, 08 - 12:54 pm Comment from: KingMel

@Jubel: If MS "weathers" the recession better than some other companies in terms of stock price, it will be because of three factors:
- Pile of cash on hand (nice to have)
- Low expectations (already factored into the price)
- Little gain in stock price in recent years (less to lose)

Any high flying stock like Apple will be more volatile when people get scared.

Jan 23, 08 - 01:16 pm Comment from: effwerd

This is much ado about nothing. Dan is simply pointing out that iPhone and Mac growth will be more important to Apple as iPod sales growth flattens. It's not that big of a deal.

OMM, I'm sorry about your eyesight, but my understanding is that the issue of glossy CRTs leading to eye issues is isolated to CRTs, not LCDs or LEDs.

@KenC

CRTs lead to eye issues because they're made of reflective glass. Is has nothing to do with the actual technology behind the glass.

LCDs and LED-lit screens don't NEED to have glass screens.

The iMac does.

R2

Is there another liberal rant wrapped inside this one?

Oh, call a Whaabulance. Don't like people saying bad things about the idiots currently running your country? Don't vote for idiots.

The glossy screen issue wont go away. How many other people are holding off purchasing an iMac - hoping Apple will see sense and supply a matte option for serious users?

If I wanted to fight with my computer I'd get a PC Windows box.

It's not like Apple at all to fob its loyal customers off in this way.

Jan 23, 08 - 02:24 pm Comment from: neomonkey

What can you say about someone who keeps whining about glossy screens but doesn't do anything about it? How lame is that?

Old Mac Man, get a Macbook Pro with a matte screen and shut the hell up. And for your eyes try to find a copy of a 1930s book called "Better Vision Without Glasses." Simply put, it's not so-called presbyosis like the eyeglass industry would like you to believe. It's the muscles that wrap around the eyeball that squish it to focus which become weaker with age, just like all the other muscles. Simple exercises, like quick repeated focusing from a near to a far point will keep the muscles toned. Try it, it works. Glasses make your vision worse without glasses. It's a downward spiraling dependency!

Dan Frommer is right, the Era of the iPod is over. The Era of the iPhone starts... now.

@critic

You talk knowledgeably about markets but get confused by the difference between "their" and "there"!!!

Jan 23, 08 - 07:23 pm Comment from: LorD1776

YOU FOOLS !!! Do NOT doubt Old Mac Man! He is NOT joking.
Here is a picture of Old M. Man, showing the hideous effects of using those damn glossy screens. And this was when he was 26 years old.

http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0072608/Ss/0072608/4632_16_2.jpg?path=pgallery&path_key=Feldman, Marty

You DO NOT want to end up looking like this guy.

John Gruber (daringfireball.net) noted something else about ipod growth. iPod revenue growth last holiday season was only 17%.

Revenue growth is much more important since we're talking about profits and stock prices here.

The ipod becoming a more mature business and growing more slowly was LAST year's story. It's just that last year Apple made its growth by selling cheap shuffles. This year Apple made its ipod growth by moving its market leading position onto a higher priced software platform.

And now that we're over iphone mania, we should see it for what it is, an important next leg of ipod growth. So ipod, which was growing at 17% (revenues) last year is now growing at 17% PLUS the entire freaking iphone business.

And macs are growing even faster and have lots of room to run.

Honestly, this is just a bad stock market looking for excuses to sell sell sell.

I've always said I wanted the street to be negative so I could pick up more AAPL cheap. But dammit, I didn't realize that Santa Claus was coming to town, so I bought at $151 instead of $126.

But volatility is our friend. You can make a lot more money on $200 -> $120 -> $250 then you can on $200 -> $250 alone.

And we have the advantage of knowing how on fire this company is. On fire the old fashioned way. Revenues and Earnings. Of shipping products.

As a follower of AAPL for decades it has generally been my observation that the stock leads the general market. So it makes sense that AAPL would be early in negative psychology, getting slammed and finding so-called "capitulation". Every stock will go through this before the current market phase is done--and growth stocks will do it with larger percentages.

Daniel Eran Dilger of RoughlyDrafted.com should be mandatory reading for everyone.

The DEG'ster has a unique and lucid view of matters concerning Apple.