Let me do the same preface I do every time I mention Apple, Inc. – – love the company, love the products, practically worship Steve Jobs (who lives about a mile from me), etc., etc. So: YAY.
Having said that, over the course of its third-of-a-century in existence, Apple tends to move in very broad ups and downs. An uber-low point, for instance, was in 1985, when Sculley kicked Jobs out of the firm. Another low point was in 1997, when Michael Dell infamously said of Apple that they should just close the place up and give the money that was left over back to shareholders (at the time, AAPL was at about $7 per share – – nice advice, there, Mikey).
The national fever that took hold over the unfortunately-named iPad was almost comic. I was interested yesterday to watch Jobs' presentation, because – – well – – something was missing. He kept going on and on with his usual superlatives and hyperbole, but something told me the audience wasn't quite buying it. Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
It's also interesting to see what AAPL's stock price has done recently, what with the blow-out earnings that exceeded the wildest hopes, and the introduction of a widely anticipated new product. Simply stated, AAPL's price action has been sucktastic. And I think that AAPL is, for a while at least, past its prime.
