Liberty

Welcome to the forum, thanks for posting. :) You are very articulate in front of the camera. That wasn't your first TV experience, was it?

One thing (not huge, but still worth noting) that I haven't seen mentioned much anywhere is Facetime Audio. If well integrated (and it will be), it will basically allow you to easily do the equivalent of a Skype call to anyone with a iOS or OSX device, but without needing you and the other party to be logged in some extra software. Should be quite useful to the average person (who doesn't always want to make a video Facetime call) and make the platform a bit stickier. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FaceTime#FaceTime_Audio

Why does he have to tell everyone before his 13F is due? Why can't he just keep buying more at low prices and/or let the company do buybacks rather than risk another price spike just because of this story? Makes no sense.. In any case, I also bought more today.

If you haven't seen the keynote, watch that first. But if you have and are looking for more, the Verge has a good hour-long video discussing the announcements:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-11/buffett-backed-heinz-expects-160-million-cost-on-job-cuts-1-.html

This workaround helps Google with its own apps, but third party app developers are still left with a fragmented target afaik. Better than nothing, though.

Apple isn't going after rich people. It's going after discerning people (lots of teenagers and students and starving artists use Apple stuff, and lots of rich people don't), those who can tell the difference between its products and others. If you can't tell the difference in the experience, Apple isn't targeting you because you won't pay for something you don't notice. Wellmont obviously doesn't see it, and that's fine. Personally I won't pay up for a nicer car because I don't care about cars, but I care about my electronics. Really well made ones make my life significantly better.

Apple isn't trying to go after everyone. Apple has never gone after the very cost-sensitive people. Think of it this way: If Porsche is going into China, are they going to make a Corolla-level vehicle just to sell to poorer people? Are they going to sell their 911s for half the price that they're selling them in the Western countries? Of course not. They'll just grab the premium and most lucrative slice at the top of the market and leave the rest to others. If the premium market is growing fast because the country is getting richer quickly, that'll just be an extra tailwind. There's still tons of growth left to be had at the top of the market worldwide. But even in a world where Apple owned 100% of the top market everywhere, they don't have to keep growing revenues forever to reward shareholders. As long as they have the most profitable part of the market (which developers will always flock to), they can use those profits to do buybacks and dividends and reward shareholders that way. No need to become a trillion+ dollar company if the sharecount keeps going down and they don't need that much cash for operations. And that's just the phone and tablet market. There are also big opportunities in TV, cars, wearables, and other stuff we haven't thought of yet...

Exactly. I suspect that lots of people who bought cheap smartphones because they thought it would be just like the iPhone but cheaper will switch back in the next upgrade cycle. Earlier this year my sister asked me for advice on buying a tablet. Price was an issue, so I recommended the iPad Mini. She ended up going with some on-sale Android tablet and saved maybe $150 bucks. I've never seen her use it, it's in a drawer somewhere, and she's constantly on her iPhone 4S, even at home sitting on the sofa (prime tablet territory)...

The city where I live has actually been testing a BYD electric bus. Doubt they'll have a fleet soon, but it was very cool to see on the street.

BBRY failed because its products became inferior, not because some fad was over and randomly moved to some other fad (hemlines going up and down for no reason other than fashion business wants you to buy a new wardrobe). That's not too surprising considering that historically RIM has been a phone/messaging company, while smartphones - despite the "phone" in their name - are now really pocket computers. So companies with lots of expertise in software and general computing came to dominate (Apple, Google). BBRY just didn't have what it take to make a competitive computer, it seems. Same with Nokia. Phone maker, but not computer company.

Except you can't get the same experience with your $220 smartphone, just like you can't get the same experience with your Nexus 7 v iPad Mini. Apple's industrial design is far superior, their fit and finish is better, their software is simple, well thought out and fun to use. It just looks and feels great. The first time I saw a MBA up close (at my dr's office), it was like "WHOA that's sleek". Couldn't justify paying $500 more for that, but I'm not really their target customer. ;D That's what I was saying earlier. Not everybody sees the difference, and that's fine. Some people care about quality kitchen knives and notice the difference, while others use cheap knives that have never been sharpened. Apple can't force people to notice quality, which is why they'll never have the huge market share that some would like to see them have. Why? Because people who can't see quality won't pay for it, and it's just not worth chasing those people.

I disagree with that way of putting it. For some it can be a status symbol (in the same way that for some, getting something other than Apple is about being contrarian now that Apple is so popular), but I think that for most, it is a tool. They just think Apple makes better tools worth paying more for.

Wasn't that exactly what Steve Jobs did every time he uttered the phrase "one more thing"? http://everystevejobsvideo.com/steve-jobs-one-more-thing-complete-compilation-1999-2011/ I don't think so. It varied a lot.

Viking, agreed. And you didn't even touch on the new iPads. The Mini with a retina screen will sell really well IMO, and if they put the fingerprint scanner on the 5th gen, along with the 64-bit A7 (or A7X with more cores) and badass new camera, that'll crush the tablet competition for a while. I wrote it as specs above, but what most people will see is: That thing is more secure, easier to use, takes much better photos, and is blazing fast with amazing looking games (on top of all the previous iPad advantages + the new very modern iOS 7 look). Oh, and they come with iMovie and iPhoto and office apps out of the box...

I'm sure Apple tests all kinds of stuff internally, but they don't release them as products until they feel they really have something good enough. Google does its beta testing in public. It's a different model, and both have pros and cons. But you're asking Apple to be something it's not. I doubt they'll change to be more like that. If you look at the past 10 years of announcements, you'll see that it's not like they had a big surprise or breakthrough ever year. The media portrays them like that, but they've never been that way. It also usually takes a while for people to realize what they've got (see the "iPad is just a giant iPod Touch, meh.." comment above).

valueInv, looks like you got your wish for cheaper buybacks. I think there will always be a divide on how Apple is seen to be doing between people who can "see it" and those who can't. A friend's wife couldn't see the difference in sound and image quality between VHS and DVD, and from DVD to Bluray. She was physically capable of seeing it and if you pointed it out to her she would, but she just didn't notice as long as it was whatever content she wanted to watch. Same thing as how some people will be mesmerized by the quality of the writing and attention to detail on a HBO drama like The Wire while others will yawn and go back to watching CSI:whatever. I think many people are like that with their technology. You put a Macbook Pro and a DELL laptop side by side, and they'll go down the feature list and think "why should I pay hundreds more for the Mac? they both can go on the web, play movies and music, store files, have fast CPUs, lots of RAM, etc...". Same with iPhone vs Galaxy. "They both can do X, Y and Z, why pay more?" While for others, Apple's a bargain. Just a bit more money for a much better user experience, with lots of attention to detail, to getting things to feel just right, etc. That's cheap for a device that you'll be spending your life interacting with. In fact, if windows PCs were free, I'd still have bought my Mac Pro because I spend 10 hours a day on it, and if Android tablets were free I'd still have gotten my iPad. There's still a big difference in the quality of the experience and in the usefulness of the devices (which shows in usage surveys, showing that iOS devices are used a lot more). That's why the Apple stores are brilliant; people who didn't think they'd care get to try the devices, and many realize that what doesn't seem like a big difference on paper is actually much bigger in practice (ie. when the iPad first came out, lots of people were disappointed "Meh, it's just a big iPod Touch!" -- and it was on paper, but in practice, that's not what mattered). Those who don't see it might think it's about elitism, but it's not. Paying more for something that truly makes you life better can be good value. For some it's a quality automobile, kitchen knives, mattress, clothes, etc. In consumer electronics, Apple's simply the best IMO. That difference doesn't come from just the technology -- all their competitors have the same kinds of technologies in their R&D labs and have software engineers who could in theory write the same code; it comes from the company's DNA (liberal arts + technology, intense focus on customer, focus on a few things but try to be very best at those, only hire A players, intangible taste and design sense, etc). As long as I see the company focusing on the right things, I'll hold my shares. If one day I try a product from another company and think that it's overall better (not "oh, it has that feature that Apple doesn't have yet", but really a better experience as a whole), then I'll sell my shares. What makes it tricky is that the experience of a consumer product ends up being kind of intangible. With CPUs, you can run benchmarks. But with a kitchen knife, you have to use it and decide if it's worth the money to you.

That would make sense. I haven't watched the video yet, so maybe that was made clearer than it was in the liveblogging that I was following. edit: I've had a chance to watch the Keynote and you are right. China wasn't highlighted on the slide when if first came up, just when they mentioned that it as the first time that they launch on day one there. They also then highlight Japan for NTTDocomo. After watching the actual video of the keynote, I must say I'm still quite confident that these phones will sell well. Tim says some important things at the end that most people will gloss over because it sounds like fluff, but I think they matter; he says that they don't just pack features in to pack them in (or to follow what others are doing), but think deeply about what kind of experience they want for their users and build technologies to do that. That's still a big difference with Apple and the few companies that think similarly (Tesla Motors is one, IMO).

I thought it was a bit strange that China is so much bigger on this slide: http://live.arstechnica.com/apple-september-10-event/images/IMG_7136.JPG Are they foreshadowing a deal?

As a shareholder, I'm kind of glad that the media is perpetuating that ridiculous standard for Apple of "if they don't blow us away with something totally unexpected at each announcement, it's a letdown"*, which makes the stock sell off after announcements, a good thing now that they have big buybacks. Over the past 10+ years, Apple has had big unexpected surprises only a few times. But they were so epochal that they stuck in everybody's memory and now they expect them all the time... Yet the reality is that 90% of the time, they just announce improvements to what they already have, big enough to stay the best at whatever they do. To me, the iPhone 5S seems like the best phone, the iPads are the best tablets, and the various Macs are the best computers in their various segments. In software and services, I'd say OSX and iOS are respectively the best OSes, and iTunes and the App Store the best paid digital content delivery platforms. I'd say they're doing pretty well on all these fronts. Of course, not everyone will pay up for quality (or even recognize it), but that's fine. Some users are not worth chasing down, while others are worth multiple times what a bottom-market user is; upgrading more often, investing in the ecosystem with app and content purchases, multiple devices, etc. A bit like how a restaurant would rather have patrons that come twice a week and order lobster and good wine, rather than have those that come once every two weeks and split an appetizer while drinking water. *And big surprises will be harder to deliver now that basically the whole internet is running an industrial espionage campaign against the company and its suppliers. It's possible, but for that they'd have to announce something before they start producing it at their suppliers to that prototypes only exist on Apple's campus and don't leak...

New iPads coming in October is my guess. I'll probably be upgrading my 3rd gen iPad with this new 5th gen. I spend so much time on it, it'll be totally worth it even if they just put the A7 (or maybe an A7X) in it and bump up the RAM. Any extra features are just gravy to me.

I'm very satisfied so far because everything I've seen is user-centric - making life better for people using the device - and will allow developers to create great new stuff. As usual, it'll probably take a while for people to realize how much of a difference all these things make, but I think it'll be very good for Apple.

And even more speculation... This time about using part of their SIRI stake to raise funds for a cable acquisition. http://www.kpinsider.com/161814/liberty-media-corp-nasdaqlmca-may-fund-cable-buy-using-sirius-xm-radio-inc-nasdaqsiri-stake.html

http://stratechery.com/2013/thinking-about-iphone-pricing/ Interesting thoughts on potential 5c pricing strategy.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-09/icahn-gives-up-dell-fight-while-saying-offer-too-low.html