Recent Comments

  • David Emery on YouTuber Vadim Yuryev anticipates a ton of new hardware at WWDC26 - 'Why are we giving “some dude with a camera podcasting from his basement” any attention?'
  • Horace Dediu on YouTuber Vadim Yuryev anticipates a ton of new hardware at WWDC26 - 'Every year pundits put out their fan fiction lists of hardware expected at WWDC and every year Apple announces new versions of their operating systems so developers can prepare for the new hardware in the fall. Because it’s a developer conference. As in the DC in WWDC. Pundits publish their disappointments and then wait for next year when they can make up a new fan fiction list of hardware.'
  • George Kiersted on YouTuber Vadim Yuryev anticipates a ton of new hardware at WWDC26 - 'Isn’t it true that hardware announcements at WWDC tend to be linked to areas of developer interest? Most of these predictions don’t seem to fit in that framing.'
  • Fred Stein on This week's Apple trading strategies (5/11-5/15/26) - 'Keep us posted. I really value all the details. My option trades are different and still assume the bullish view'
  • Steven Philips on YouTuber Vadim Yuryev anticipates a ton of new hardware at WWDC26 - 'Gets him hits. I’ve never heard of him but I don’t spend time in those circles. What’s his track record?'
  • Gregg Thurman on YouTuber Vadim Yuryev anticipates a ton of new hardware at WWDC26 - 'I agree Roger. Vadim’s announcement is quite large. There’s not enough meaningful time in a one hour (attention span limitations) keynote to cover Vadim’s list'
  • Roger Schutte on YouTuber Vadim Yuryev anticipates a ton of new hardware at WWDC26 - 'All these hardware items will more likely be announced via separate daily press releases the week leading up to WWDC.'
  • Gregg Thurman on Wedbush raises its Apple target $50 to Street-high $400 - 'I think Gianandrea was the right hire at the time he came aboard. He was responsible for advancements in Google Search, and was certainly involved with the Gemini project. Given Apple’s adoption of Gemini to provide the foundation for SIRI he was a natural fit. When he left Apple after several years there, he had more than enough wealth to last him several lifetimes. I think his decision was to smell the roses and get out of the way of Apple’s new CEO. The negatives about Gianandrea I attribute to some people just can’t see beyond the negative spin.'
  • Gregg Thurman on YouTuber Vadim Yuryev anticipates a ton of new hardware at WWDC26 - 'The only NEW hardware I’m expecting is in A and M Series processors and Apple Vision Pro. The processors will enable hardware upgrades. There’s a difference between new and upgrades. The news the market will react the strongest to will be all about SIRI. For me, I think the market will be missing the boat if they don’t pay attention to Vision Pro announcements. Of course, if AAPL follows historic trends, it will rally leading up to WWDC, then start selling off shortly after Cook takes the floor (although I’m expecting Ternus to make his debut).'
  • Gregg Thurman on This week's Apple trading strategies (5/11-5/15/26) - 'This Friday, a small options (24 MAY $272.50/$275.00) play I made a few weeks ago will mature. I used left over funds from my first purchase plus $2500 (~$4500) to make the buy. Before fees they will gross ~$6000. Given AAPL’s strong moves upward since earnings and my own JULY Price Target, I’m going to reinvest those funds into JULY $280/$285 Call Spreads. ROI ~30%. I should note that options premiums have increased substantially. This is a strong indication that market sentiment regarding Apple is improving (you can tell a lot about market sentiment from options prints). This trade, probably my last before July expiry, will bring my total gain on $42,500 to ~$39,200, just over 90% for the about 4 month period. I should emphasize that gains like these are not the norm. My original plan was to make 25% on $40,000 invested. The market’s reaction to Apple’s April Earnings Report and July quarter GUIDANCE caused AAPL to blast handsomely through my original position, with enough time until July expiry to adjust my options positions upward. My options trades did not influence AAPL’s upward movement. All of them were made after AAPL had already made its move. When I started this journey my July price target was $300. My sense is that, as of today, the market is looking at a target of ~$325. Be that as it may, I will not be raising my target and reinvested accordingly. With this last trade I will grow the monies I allotted for this period by >90%, and accomplished it with in the money Call Spreads (~30% gains on each trade). After July Earnings Report and GUIDANCE, I expect to adjust my $300 target upward (for investment purposes) to ~$350 by October. I will continue to invest using a 30% ROI, depending on Apple’s GUIDANCE, and moving my investment upwards as circumstances (speed of AAPL’s move upward) permit. I DO NOT EXPECT A REPEAT OF THIS PERIOD, AND WILL BE QUITE HAPPY WITH A 30% OVERALL GAIN. Also note that I capitalize GUIDANCE. That’s because analysts, no matter how good, are just guessing. On the other hand, barring some extraordinary event(s), Apple management knows how it will perform. After that, everything else is just noise.'
  • Gregg Thurman on WSJ: The iPhone is gold - 'Jobs once said he wanted Apple to be the Sony of consumer electronics. He got what he wanted.'
  • ben luna on Wedbush raises its Apple target $50 to Street-high $400 - 'Then what was all the hubbub about the hiring of John Gianandrea?'
  • Gregg Thurman on The Verge: Samsung's flagship is a MacBook miss - '” I wouldn’t be surprised if Android market slips >10% or more.” Me either. Android’s biggest, possibly only, advantage over iPhone has been its price. If that advantage is gone (price increases and availability of critical component shortages) the winner will be iPhone.'
  • Stephen Gordon on Saturday Apple video: 'My model of business is the Beatles' - 'I love that he didn’t suffer from Dunning-Kruger.'
  • Bill Donahue on WSJ: The iPhone is gold - 'It’s one of the few companies today that treats its customers like its customers, as opposed to commodities. Tech and telecomms companies are probably the worst. But even banks slap the people who walk through the front door and open an account with service charges, in return for allowing the bank to borrow their savings at 0% interest and lend it back to them for prime + 2-3%.'
  • Bill Donahue on WSJ: The iPhone is gold - 'It’s also replaced a bunch of devices of days gone by: calculators, maps, cameras and video recorders, magnifying glasses, Walkmans (for those of you too young, those predated portable CD players, and played tiny reel-to-reel audio music tapes), daytimers, and a bunch of other things… oh, and it doubles as a portable phone.'
  • Bart Yee on The Verge: Samsung's flagship is a MacBook miss - 'Samsung actually doesn’t have a component advantage when assembling Notebooks, smartphones, or tablets. Because of the corporate structures, every Samsung Electronics division (Memory, Foundry, Seniconductor Devices, Display; MX – Smartphones, Tablets, Wearabkes, Notebooks & Computers) all function independently and fight for their own revenue and production so they “might” get a slight discount if that. otherwise, they have to justify how they make revenue. Given memory is now going to be at a premium to EVERYONE, even Samsung MX is not immune to rising parts costs, and guarantee they don’t have anywhere close to the purchasing power that Apple has. This is already impacting Samsung such that despite a modest 3.5% increase in MX Division revenue YoY in Q1 2026 to $25.45B, the combined MX+NW profitability dropped -35% YoY. And that’s with the newest and presumably most profitable Galaxy S26 series being released late Feb, Shipping 2nd week of March. While some reports say the S26 was selling 25% better than last year’s S25 series, profitability was dragged down due to the vast majority of Samsung smartphone sales being the budget Chinese ODM made A0x and A1x series, and low midrangers A3x and A5x series (includes 4G phones as well), assembled in India and Indonesia for local and export markets. (See top 10 smartphones Q1 2026 post) All of these phones will have BOM and margins heavily impacted by rising memory costs. In fact, according to Ars Technica, https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/04/samsung-may-be-bracing-for-first-ever-annual-loss-in-smartphone-business/ MX head TM Roh warned internally that Samsung smartphones may have a net loss in 2026 due to rising costs. Samsung has already begun to raise prices on all series to try to offset. Of course, raising prices in budget models makes them less affordable, and as mentioned in many reports, smartphone demand and sales is likely to fall with rising prices, less so though for the Premium tiers where Apple iPhones dominate. This is going to be a very interesting year in smartphones, notebooks, tablets, etc., anything that uses memory chips.. What once was a “mature market” is undergoing heavy reassessment due to unprecedented parts costs increases. I wouldn’t be surprised if Android market slips >10% or more..'
  • Gregg Thurman on Wedbush raises its Apple target $50 to Street-high $400 - '”It’s such a prolonged and glaring failure.” People really are very forgiving. Something like SIRI’s “failure” will be forgiven (not forgotten) once it works as intended. I say not forgotten because doing so would take away from the media’s subject commentary library. What will never be discussed is that SIRI was the industry’s first attempt at AI. Alexa was the second. Who talks about Alexa today? SIRI “failed” because when Apple bought it, it was still a work in progress. The founder successfully sold Apple a pig in a poke. He left shortly after the acquisition when Apple, recognizing it had purchased a good idea but was to far ahead of the curve to warrant additional R&D dollars. Those monies could be reallocated elsewhere having a much better return on investment (the real power in saying “no” to good ideas). Today, after being sued several times for alleged anti-trust violations, Apple’s “AI” vision has morphed into being the gateway to everyone else, copying each other in a race to see who can spend the most on a model without a profitable monetization plan. In the end Apple was correct, first in buying the promise of SIRI, then sharply curtailing its development, then changing its direction to becoming the gateway to the promise. Remember, Apple never developed a competitor to FaceBook or Google search, but made billions being the gateway to those services. It’s taken a long, and relatively inexpensive, time but SIRI will be the success envisioned years ago, starting next month. Ive’s is right, but $450 is just the start.'
  • Steven Philips on The Verge: Samsung's flagship is a MacBook miss - 'They’re comparing lemons to Apples! 🙂'
  • Steven Philips on This robot vacuum maker's wannabe iPhone sucks (video) - 'Not keeping its iPhone AI “promises” cost Apple 250 million. How much will Trump’s “Failed Phone” ™ cost him? (That’s a rhetorical question!)'
  • ben luna on Wedbush raises its Apple target $50 to Street-high $400 - 'Imagine if Siri actually worked as advertised. Now imagine it not only working as advertised, but then further improved after a few more iterations. That would be amazingly valuable. Siri is still in a MobileMe-like state. What if iCloud or Maps were still that broken? It’s such a prolonged and glaring failure.'
  • ben luna on Report: Trump will bring Apple's Tim Cook to China next week - 'Mostly agree except with one big exception: Taiwan has a say in this too. There’s a very real chance that their democracy will outlast ours. If only our never trumpers weren’t so easily converted into forever trumpers.'
  • ben luna on Premarket: Apple is green - 'Robert, congratulations on your retirement!'
  • David Emery on The Verge: Samsung's flagship is a MacBook miss - 'Is it really “about the same”? $3800. 16″ screen, 32gb RAM, 1TB storage, Core Ultra 7 processor, NVIDIA RTX 5070. That processor has 16 total cores, 4 performance, 8 efficient, 4 low power efficient That “high end” processor feels more like the M5 Pro, -or less-. $3900. 16″ screen, 24gb RAM, 1TB storage, M5 Max (18/32 core) Or for the M5 Pro, $2700. So I’m not convinced “about the same” at all… But I’m sure someone will do benchmarks. I’ll be -particularly interested- in battery life.'
  • Robert Stack on WSJ: The iPhone is gold - 'Richard and Robert: Well said – you two are a great team too. Ergo I’m upvoting both of your comments. 🙂'
  • Greg Lippert on This robot vacuum maker's wannabe iPhone sucks (video) - 'Prompt: “throw shit on the wall and see if it sticks”'
  • Robert Paul Leitao on WSJ: The iPhone is gold - 'Richard: I enjoyed reading your comment. I see Apple’s ethos, inculcated by Steve Jobs as you point out, as a process and approach that adds to the value proposition of Apple products and services. I don’t see Apple customer paying “extra” for Apple products. I see it as Apple customers recognizing the enhanced value of the products through the process, and indeed by the fundamental design of the products, that incorporates the needs, desires and aspirations of the customer from the very start.'
  • Richard Gayle on This robot vacuum maker's wannabe iPhone sucks (video) - 'AI psychodelic hallucinations are the best marketing tool for vaporware. I wonder what the prompt was for that video?'
  • Richard Gayle on WSJ: The iPhone is gold - 'I hate the whole passive view of the customer used in business — They are just standing vessels to be forcibly filled with the choices made by tech leaders like Musk, Zuckerberg, etc. Apple is fundamentally different. As we saw on the PED Saturday video, Jobs created a culture built on teamwork. And for Apple, the customer is part of the team. That is why people pay extra for Apple goods and services. Not because Apple has fooled them all by marketing. As long as Apple includes the customer on the team, it will continue to mine the mother lode. As long as other companies keep the user on the bench, they will be left with panning for the gold fines in a small stream.'
  • Fred Stein on The Verge: Samsung's flagship is a MacBook miss - 'The price is about the same. Samsung’s component advantage doesn’t help. Why? They need Intel’s chips and Microsoft’s OS. Separately, and jointly, they’re no match for M-series running MacOS. With Neo at the budget segment, the mismatch is much worse.'