Cogent analysis from MG Siegler on smart phone market share:
Apple had a deal with one carrier in the U.S., AT&T. Meanwhile, there were Android devices on all four major U.S. carriers. And by all accounts, the ones being sold by Verizon were doing the best in terms of sales.
20+ phones on four carriers (including the nation’s largest) were outselling one phone on one carrier. It was really shocking.
Michael Mace has some great analysis on Research in Motion’s horrific quarter:
I am astounded that average revenue per unit sold dropped in the quarter when the (relatively expensive) PlayBook shipped.
He also makes a good point regarding layoffs and share buybacks:
The other hit to morale is going to be RIM’s announcement that it will buy back up to 5% of its shares. At current market value, that is about $900 million in cash that could have gone into R&D or marketing or price cuts but will instead be used to prop up the stock price. If you’re a RIM employee, the combination of layoffs plus stock buyback seems to say that management thinks the stock price is more important than the work you’re doing.
I think the situation at RIM is much more dire than management appears to believe. Spending $900 million to buy back shares now is like offering to buyout your partners in an office building while it is on fire.
Pandora (NYSE:P) is now trading below its IPO price one day after listing. It popped on an intra-day basis to $26 before closing at $17.42.
I was saddened to hear of the death of Eliyahu Goldratt yesterday. I read The Goal
He lives on through his work.
Nice analysis from Phillip Elmer-Dewitt:
Apple’s shares have fallen the week of the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference every year since 2003. They fell 6.7% in 2008, the year Jobs looked so thin, and 9.1% in 2004, the year Apple previewed but did not release OS X 10.4 (Tiger). Average post WWDC loss: 5.4%.
Apple’s shares, along with several other large-cap tech stocks are trading very cheaply in relation to their cash holdings and long term growth prospects.
Disclosure: I am long Apple shares.
Today, the U.S. Senate failed to pass a delay to rules that go into effect next month which limit swipe (interchange) fees on debit card transactions to $0.12 per transaction. The Wall Street Journal identifies three losers from this vote. Tops on the list: Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA).
Interesting commentary from Robert X. Cringley:
Apple’s announcements yesterday about OS X 10.7 pricing (cheap), upgrading (easy), iOS 5, and iCloud storage, syncing, and media service can all be viewed as increasing ease of use, but from the perspective of Apple CEO Steve Jobs they perform an even more vital function — killing Microsoft.
Disclosure: I am long Apple shares.
Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) is currently trading at $15.56 per share. They have $7.88 per share in cash ($43 billion!), and are expected to earn $1.72 per share next year (July 2012).
If you back out the cash, Cisco is now trading at just 4.5 times next year’s earnings (15.56 – 7.88 / 1.72 = 4.46).
Even if you assume little or no growth, that is really, really cheap.
Disclosure: The author is long Cisco calls.
John Cook for GeekWire has a nice quote from Jeff Bezos to a question at today’s Amazon share holder meeting. The question was in regard to innovation.
“We are stubborn on vision. We flexible on details. … We don’t give up on things easily. Our third party seller business is an example of that. It took us three tries to get the third party seller business to work. We didn’t give up.”
Who would have thought this ten years ago?
Apple’s market cap is greater than Microsoft and Intel combined.
You can see Apple’s ascendency, and Wintel’s decline, in this WolframAlpha chart.
Amazing.
(via daringfireball)