Hap Allen on Mark Gurman: Forget AI, Apple's core strength is hardware - 'Fast Company disagrees with Gurman’s hardware thesis: “…there is no doubt in my mind that Apple’s most significant contribution in the next fifty years will be the same as its first fifty years. And that is something we will all benefit from.” https://apple.news/AXVgAJmMPREOP3HfGkpnoNA'
on The Verge: In antitrust, Apple is the new Microsoft - '” The details are different” Yes they are. Decidedly different. It is not a crime to be a monopoly. It IS a crime to use monopoly status as a weapon against the competition. MSFT violated that second often, and was caught twice. The second time was its blatant attempt to shutdown Netscape. Netscape ultimately failed, but the DOJ lawsuit against MSFT did not. As for QuickTime, Bill Gates tried to get Steve Jobs (after his return to Apple) to abandon it. Jobs said no, instead convinced Gates to invest $150 Million (non-voting stock) and to continue developing Office for Mac for at least 5 years. Adi Robinson May be a seasoned journalist, but you wouldn’t know it from this tripe. His research is on par with that of a cub reporter.'
on The Verge: In antitrust, Apple is the new Microsoft - 'It’s called the free marketplace and Apple builds superior products that consumers want to use for their mobile computing and other needs. If a restaurant serves great food does that make them a violator and stifles innovation from other competitors and discourages them opening their kitchens because they have too many customers? It’s a tired narrative as App Developers can build their software for the Android platform. No differently than a customer can eat at a great restaurant or choose to devour food elsewhere. Lina Khan’s term paper is structured on absolute nonsense as the market itself dictates what will be successful and what will fall by the wayside. Companies pay slotting or shelf fees to major consumer chains such as Costco, Kroger, and Albertsons to be inside their store. Betty Crocker doesn’t get to go to Federal District Court to demand that her cake mixes are being shut out due to the “Grocery Store Tax.” Such total BS. This is why an academia do-nothing like Lina Khan will never understand the mercantile basis of any business platform. She has no clue how the actual world operates outside of her tiny and useless self generated antibusiness bubble where she exists inside of her own mind. She’s a legend in her own shower. She never had a job in the real world, and was probably even given an allowance every week by her parents for watching the maid make her bed.'
on This week's Apple trading strategies (3/30-4/3/26) - 'As we approach the end of the first calendar quarter (only two trading days remaining in the period), I’m revisiting the year-to-date (YTD) share price performances of the Terrific Ten equities ranked by percentage gain (or loss) in share prices over this time and the performance of the major stock indexes over the same period. Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) – up 9.07% Russell 2000 – down (2.04%) DJIA – down (6.03%) Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) – down (6.80%) S&P 500 – down (6.96%) Apple (AAPL) – down (8.48%) NASDAQ Composite – down (9.87%) NVIDIA (NVDA) – down (10.18%) Alphabet (GOOG) – down (12.76%) Broadcom (AVGO) – down (13.12%) Amazon (AMZN) – down (13.64%) Tesla (TSLA) – down (19.54%) Meta Platforms (META) – down (20.36) Microsoft (MSFT) – down (26.23%) Through Friday’s trading, TSM is the only enterprise among the Terrific Ten that is in the green on share price appreciation this calendar year. Although Apple is in the red on the year so far, it ranks 3rd among the enterprises for share price performance. Apple is off 8.48% year-to-date. Meta and Microsoft are both down 20% or more and Tesla is near a 20% decline in 2026.'
on Mark Gurman: Forget AI, Apple's core strength is hardware - 'Gurman missed one important point, mainly Apple and Alphabet agreeing to have Gemini of Apple’s hardware. They’ve just caught up. Apple will make this work for users and for us investors. PS: Gregg, I upvoted all our friends as well.'
on The Verge: In antitrust, Apple is the new Microsoft - 'Well, this is the same website that says “There is no ethical consumption of HBO’s Harry Potter series” The Thought Police are active across the political spectrum. If you don’t buy into the full set of their “core beliefs”, you’re branded as The Enemy, are tagged with every objectionable belief of The Enemy, and become persona-non-grata.'
on The Verge: In antitrust, Apple is the new Microsoft - '“… [Apple] keeps competitors locked out while levying a heavy toll on the developers it lets through.” The notion that Apple levies a “heavy toll” or “let’s [me] through” is nonsense in my experience of releasing iOS apps since 2008. Because I stink at golf, am a bad painter, not patient enough for birding, and viscerally hate biking up any hill, my hobby is developing apps. I’ve released a paltry 7 apps over the last 18 years, which isn’t many compared to a lot of…ok, likely most, iOS devs. Still, together those tiny apps have done well enough to make vacation or Christmas presents money. For a 30% fee, Apple handles all the stuff that I never want to deal with such as promotion, marketing, distribution, in-app payment, subscription management, notifications, user updates, and a myriad of things that I long ago forgot about when I sold a Mac app back in the mid-90’s. Now that was painful! As far as being “let through”, I’ve never had a rejection by the AppStore’s app reviewers. The worst I’ve faced was a request for more screenshots when submitting an watchOS app. Otherwise, since I’m not promoting porn, violating user’s privacy, using hinky third-party libraries, or trying to use undocumented OS features, my experience with the AppStore and its review process has been a positive one. Tim Sweeney and his ilk want to degrade the AppStore to maximize their own profits regardless of the impact to hundreds of thousand of smaller iOS devs. The big guys hate Apple’s 30% take because they can hire people overseas at slave wages to manage all of the backend overhead and promotion that Apple does for us little guys and likely do so at a cost far lower than 30%. They know that if they create an environment where larger entities have an even bigger advantage than they already do that they clear the field of a lot of potential competitors along with the talent and profits those competitors contain.'
on The Verge: In antitrust, Apple is the new Microsoft - 'I call 95% bullshit. And I’m tired of the commission argument. Without Apple you’d have no market. Google, Sony, Microsoft, etc. do the same thing.'
on Mark Gurman: Forget AI, Apple's core strength is hardware - '🙂 Yup! My exact thought. I do think we need more time to see how all these AI strategies play out. (And pay out!) Agree with PED take, too.'
on Mark Gurman: Forget AI, Apple's core strength is hardware - 'Compare and contrast these two sections, and marvel at the inclusion of both of them in the same piece written by one individual: “The opportunity to turn Apple Intelligence into a moneymaker has effectively passed.” v. “A cornerstone of [Apple’s] strategy is the upcoming iOS 27 Extensions feature, which will let users install third-party AI chatbots beyond ChatGPT and run them inside Siri. This feature will have its own dedicated App Store section, effectively creating an AI App Store. It will be a marketplace of sorts for third-party AI integrations. . . . Apple can maintain sales of the iPhone and other devices while also generating revenue from AI-driven apps, via the App Store’s 30% commission.” Reading Gurman makes me so very tired.'
on Saturday Apple video: Steve Jobs introduces iMac (1998) - 'I’m curious, Gregg. What did your company do?'
on Marques Brownlee: Apple's new laptops are putting Microsoft on notice - 'FYI, every Mac laptop has a headphone jack.'
on In the big tech free-fall this week, Apple stood out - 'For many years now I have heard bear analysts argue that the iPhone, although made by a technical company, will soon become a commodity, and thus deserves a lower PE ratio.'
