INSIGHTS
AUG
29
THE WAY IT SHOULD BE
With Apple (AAPL) now the most valuable company in history (inflation or no inflation, who cares), its time to take stock (pun intended) in the importance of this milestone.
Now I secretly wish that Apple would actually fail at something and come back to Earth. To have one of its products be an ill-conceived mess and the company’s stock price would tumble. This is strictly based on the fact that I never bought the stock at 95 dollars a share when several guys I worked with were loading up on it. Yes, I missed it and have hated Apple ever since.
Hated it so much that every computer I have bought in the last 10 years has been an Apple. IPads, IPhones, ITunes, Imissed it.
I digress.
Even though I have this secret jealousy of those people that took the plunge and bought the stock, I do understand that what this company has done is simple. While the world believes that social media will take over the world, Apple has proven that what is important and what is successful is producing something.
Apple just happens to produce some of the most incredible pieces of technology that an average person can buy. They make it functional, they make it
look great and they make sure that you feel like you can’t live without it.
That is the beauty of Apple. They didn’t invent anything. They just used superior design and intelligent marketing and took over the World.
They also didn’t try to win market share by lowering prices until no one could compete. Although people might disagree, this strategy has saved jobs and kept the field competitive. Had Apple decided early on that they were going to win market share by cutting prices, other manufacturers would have to cut their prices even more than they do now and profits would be squeezed. This squeezing of profits for competitors would have been disastrous for the whole industry. Without
some margin for profitability, the industry would look completely different.
The most important thing that Apple has proven is that there is a very basic benefit to being successful. They make a lot of money. They have a lot of money. They will continue to make a lot of money. They will have even more money. That is why the stock is trading where it is trading and Facebook (FB) is trading where it is trading.
So, no matter what everyone will have you believe, being able to produce something, whatever it might be, is still the most important business model there is.
Now I secretly wish that Apple would actually fail at something and come back to Earth. To have one of its products be an ill-conceived mess and the company’s stock price would tumble. This is strictly based on the fact that I never bought the stock at 95 dollars a share when several guys I worked with were loading up on it. Yes, I missed it and have hated Apple ever since.
Hated it so much that every computer I have bought in the last 10 years has been an Apple. IPads, IPhones, ITunes, Imissed it.
I digress.
Even though I have this secret jealousy of those people that took the plunge and bought the stock, I do understand that what this company has done is simple. While the world believes that social media will take over the world, Apple has proven that what is important and what is successful is producing something.
Apple just happens to produce some of the most incredible pieces of technology that an average person can buy. They make it functional, they make it
look great and they make sure that you feel like you can’t live without it.
That is the beauty of Apple. They didn’t invent anything. They just used superior design and intelligent marketing and took over the World.
They also didn’t try to win market share by lowering prices until no one could compete. Although people might disagree, this strategy has saved jobs and kept the field competitive. Had Apple decided early on that they were going to win market share by cutting prices, other manufacturers would have to cut their prices even more than they do now and profits would be squeezed. This squeezing of profits for competitors would have been disastrous for the whole industry. Without
some margin for profitability, the industry would look completely different.
The most important thing that Apple has proven is that there is a very basic benefit to being successful. They make a lot of money. They have a lot of money. They will continue to make a lot of money. They will have even more money. That is why the stock is trading where it is trading and Facebook (FB) is trading where it is trading.
So, no matter what everyone will have you believe, being able to produce something, whatever it might be, is still the most important business model there is.