A day at a time

Update 8.0.1. Incredible that not even Microsoft managed that kind of scrutiny when a windows release or update goes wrong. The fact that Apple released iOS 8.0.2 the very next day flew people by and all your brain is left with is the impression that the 8.0.1 contained a network bug for a few users in Australia. Ok maybe you wasn't aware of the last bit... I feel like the folks of Axiom in Wall-E, the arms just not long enough to reach for the remote to save themselves. In this case the letter "O" and "P" on the keyboard of my iPhone 6 P-L-U-S are just out of reach of the mighty thumb. It's a ridiculous phone, i.e. it's an insanely crap one for one-handed operation I've been so used to with the iPhone 5. So I kept telling myself I have 14 days to change my mind. I went into a shop and tried out the iPhone 6 again but it just doesn't have the same vibe. Clearly I'm having some fun with the folks. #   ...

Something that puzzles me a lot is the valuation of some large cap stocks. We all heard of the efficient market theory but I'm thinking of stocks like BP, Vodafone, even the latest Royal Mail IPO or Tesla and Facebook. Take Vodafone. They just sold Verizon Wireless to Verizon for U$130bn, and yesterday has a market cap of U$170bn. It seems badly priced. Worse if you think 3 months ago when it's market cap was U$140bn (U$10bn for their non-US, global, operations and assets, including a UK 3G license they paid U$10bn for and cash - granted they have GBP40bn in debt)!! Now AT&T wants to buy up Vodafone, sending shares even higher. I mean who wouldn't at this silly valuation? Can it be true that this Verizon deal that has been on the cards for the last 10 years could lead to their top shareholder, Neil Woodford, the best rate fund manager in UK with the largest fund in the UK to dump all his Vodafone shares (that he held more the donkey year...

Plenty of doom and gloom (again) on Apple's latest quarterly result and guidance. I have been reading articles like "Apple profits decline despite iPhone sales boost " from the BBC, "Despite sales of 34 mn iPhones, including iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C, Apple Inc results fail to enthuse" in the FinancialExpress, Forbes: "...despite selling 33.8 million iPhones, nearly 7 million more than a year ago and a bump of 26%, the company actually saw earnings fall (to $7.5 billion as margins shrunk)." Is it worrying that the margins are down to around 37% this time round, 5 quarters in a trot, from about 47% when they hit a record in 2012? Yes and no. Two reasons I'm not yet panicking as an investor: (1) although the moat is shrinking and price pressure builds up from maturing competition, unit sales held up (2) Fourth quarter is a weak quarter where it includes only one week of new iphone sales, meaning lots of older discounted iphones in that 33....

From http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/09/apple-inc-aapl-estimates-by-morgan-stanley/ "Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone 5C was on the receiving end of plenty of derision from analysts, mainly because of how expensive it is. But a few are looking on the bright side. Morgan Stanley analysts Katy L. Huberty, Jerry Liu and Scott Schmitz report that they have raised their 2014 fiscal year earnings per share estimate because of better pricing and margins for the iPhone 5C." What's an analyst if they tell us the story after the event? Aren't they called historian? Such is the global economy we live in.... it turns out the Blighty bought the most 5C (to 5S ratio) compared to the rest of the world; and China (surprise, surprise!) bought the least. Not to say China is now rich but unfortunately an increasing sign of inequality and rich-poor divide throughout the world. Rising trade-ins in the developed worlds will surely find its way to rural BRIC's. This will...

Frankly I still can't quite believe it. Keep hearing and see news proclaiming even today that somehow the iPhone 5C is an emerging market product or worse Chinese targeted product. Southern European maybe to be sarcastic but in fact just a product differentiation for Apple itself. Apple is at the sticky end of journalists fight against extinction. They make a wrong call on 5C being low cost for close to a year and then rolls out articles counting how many chinese are not buying the 5C, sigh. Given the 5C effectively is cheapened but discontinued iphone 5, how is it even newsworthy that's comparable to saying the iphone 4 is not selling as well on the iphone 4S day of launch? Who cares if it's 1X, 2X or 10X? The fact that Apple can force all retailers and networks to stomach so many 5C is a clever copy of Samsung's strategy. Regarding finger print sensor: Apple never claim to invent touchscreen or gyro or MP3. What they do is simply integrate the best technolog...

The calm before the storm. Can't wait for the flurry of uh's and ah's. And the revenge of the droids. The new metallic home button ring is quite sexy. Some say an iPhone user is either in touch with his feminine side or is a female. I have to applaud the fruity firm for not throwing themselves at the Wall Street crowd and trying compete at the low end. They'll the eaten alive by the likes of Google and Xiaomi that sells at zero profit. And they call it an "online business". See my iPhone 5 review: http://cp-aor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/iphone-5-review.html