David Drinkwater on 'For an AI loser, Apple did an awful lot of winning last year' - 'I agree with this wholeheartedly, and it doesn’t hurt to say so. I’m also frustrated with CarPlay. It should be so, so, so much better. On those occasions where I’ve had a loaner car that does support CarPlay (my old beaters don’t), I would often rather still use my iPhone, because the interface is just so much better. I think CarPlay is a big deal. From a very First World perspective: You own a house, and the world looks at that. You own a car, and the world looks at that. You own a phone, and the world looks at that. You own a watch, and the world looks at that. You own/wear clothes and accessories, and I guess the world probably does look at that. You own your own body, and the world looks at that. I don’t totally know how to rank and rate these items (and I do not actually tend to be particularly materialistic, myself, but I am carving out an argument), but I think a car and a phone are things that people definitely notice and they think about them when it comes time to spend money. I would never buy a car that does not support CarPlay, and yet … why am I so disappointed with it???'
on NJ 'hits' Apple — a $3.8 trillion company — with a $150,000 penalty. Is that joke? - 'If anything, it’s a record-low.'
on Saturday Apple video: Steve Jobs' last Time Magazine cover shoot (2010) - 'I was at the IL (Infinite Loop) Caffé Macs on a visit from Elk Grove, Cali that same year and saw Mr. Jobs from a distance and saw him sideways. Yes, it was sad to see him that way, like a stick, but his posture was straight, true, and confident. As he was. Magnificent.'
on Horace Dediu's answers to Laura Martin's Apple bull-vs.-bear Qs - 'Apple has long term growth Fred, I’m in agreement with you. Other firms may grow faster, like a sprinter for a short period of time, but not over a long duration. That’s because Jobs instilled, and Cook refined, true long term vision. Apple is willing to invest in its vision of the next big thing over an extended period of years (decades?). The Jackrabbits (META?) may achieve a semblance of the vision quicker, but they won’t flesh out the totality of the vision before Apple. Yes, Apple has had some missteps, but it demonstrated a willingness to cut bait when progress no longer advances that vision. This is where I see the Vision Pro ultimately succeeding beyond our wildest imaginations. By the time the competition recognizes the potential in Apple’s “vision”, it will be years too late to the party, as will be the regulators. Because of Apple’s benign mindset, its philosophical relationship with the consumer will become the regulated standard. Today’s AAPL investors will become tomorrow’s multi-millionaires.'
on Premarket: Apple is red - 'What’s with the call peak at ~150? Who thinks they need to buy an option to buy Apple at $150? I just checked Yahoo and you can buy $150 calls for next Friday for ~$118. Is this some sort of odd way of moving money around?'
on Premarket: Apple is red - 'IMO, we have 2 more weeks before Apple returns to buying AAPL on the open market. Barring a black swan, the retrenchment back towards a new ATH should start in about a week. Unfortunately, these days there are a lot more black swans….'
on Horace Dediu's answers to Laura Martin's Apple bull-vs.-bear Qs - 'Why was Candice Bergen doing the interview?'
on Horace Dediu's answers to Laura Martin's Apple bull-vs.-bear Qs - 'I’ve said for a while that the regulatory risk is the thing that keeps me up at night with respect to Apple. Not only is it a big fat target, but as its ubiquity grows world-wide, the imperative to manage the ‘iPhone as utility’ will grow. And at least within US law, the argument “using a monopoly to build a new monopoly” has relevance to Apple with the growth of ‘services on top of iPhones’. Now I don’t think most of the regulators have really thought this through from the ‘best for the consumer’ perspective, beyond listening to rear ends like Tim Sweeney argue that “what’s best for Epic is best for consumers.” One reason the Apple ecosystem is so beloved by consumers is that the alternatives inhale so vigorously! Apple would do well to champion advances in privacy and security liability, even at the risk of improving their competition, to forestall a lot of the ill-advised regulation we’re seeing now.'
on Inviting friends-of-the-blog to Apple’s Q1 2026 Earnings Smackdown - 'I’m sticking with $2.82. Loose number but The Street has eps far too low. $2.68-$2.73seems to be the range.'
on Horace Dediu's answers to Laura Martin's Apple bull-vs.-bear Qs - 'Thank you Horace – and thank you PED. ‘Nuff said…except for and just wait til that (relatively) inexpensive Mac comes out!'
on Horace Dediu's answers to Laura Martin's Apple bull-vs.-bear Qs - 'PED, I have a request. Horace marries the art of rigorous data analytics with insight. I believe (and lack the data to back it up), that Apple has long term growth in youth, in addition to long term growth in emerging markets, cited above. We have seen. here, US teen iPhone preferences cited here. That’s great but it’s US only, point in time only, and iPhone only. The on-ramp starts early, often with and-me-down iPhones to kids. It has decades of growth, more so as purchasing power and compute need increase. We see this in growth of services and the Mac+iPad franchise. Note Mac and iPad unit sales growth has been steady while replacement cycles expand.'
on Horace Dediu's answers to Laura Martin's Apple bull-vs.-bear Qs - 'Seems to be a good number of nails being prepped for the OpenAI coffin. Horace smacks another one in: “OpenAI wants a device to deliver its service, hence the “Ive Pen”. I see it as a mobile Alexa, not in any way a smartphone alternative.”'
on Horace Dediu's answers to Laura Martin's Apple bull-vs.-bear Qs - 'I love Horace’s right down the middle, no need for hyperbolic rhetoric style of delivery. Just the facts please with a side of here’s the trajectory where these facts can lead. We’re all adults (or at least we should be if we’re playing this game) and can have different opinions about where these facts can lead, but you’d have to come to the discussion with pretty solid facts to bend the trajectory.'
on Premarket: Apple is red - 'Index futures are mixed an hour out from today’s opening bell. TSMC, which gained $14.53 on Thursday, is ahead $2.90 this morning at $344.60. Apple, which dropped $1.80 on Thursday, is down another $0.72 pre-market at $257.49. Goldman Sachs, one of yesterday’s big gainers, is off $4.40 at $971.48 after gaining $43.19 yesterday. Let’s see what happens after today’s opening bell…'
on Bloomberg: Apple feeling the pinch of soaring memory prices - 'Yep, Neal had same thought. Apple in its wisdom has not raised prices in years past when it certainly could have, thus building trust capital within its user community for when they must raise prices. They also have been growing overall GM for years, as well as managing prepurchased capacity well.'
