Reason Apple is going down today...

[Article Accelerator]

samintx wrote:
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/art...its-a-Wall

good sales but not stellar i.e. not living up to inflated talking heads day dreams.

Yeah, I believe Goldman Sachs. They're competent people, right?

[incognegro]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/17/apple...index.html

very interesting take on this announcement.

To keep its position as one of the tech industry's most buzz-generating machines, Apple will need to find something to duplicate that experience without attending Macworld. And that of course brings up the elephant that has been in Apple's room all year long: the future of Jobs' association with Apple.

Apple declined to comment specifically on Jobs' health Tuesday, but the company has had to fight off rumors of a recurrence of his cancer ever since June, when he appeared to have lost a lot of weight. The move to have Phil Schiller keynote Macworld doesn't necessarily give any credence to those rumors--although watch the stock market run wild with them tomorrow--but no matter how you slice it, Apple the corporation is going to outlive Jobs the CEO.

The end of Apple's association with Macworld gives the company a chance to introduce new faces and new methods of putting together its most important marketing presentations of the year. Apple has been making room for executives other than Jobs for years on the keynote stage, but the most important topics were always reserved for Jobs alone.

And Macworld was always going to be associated with Jobs' legendary performances; very few current Apple executives could have hoped to duplicate that exact role.

It may seem obvious to say this, but Apple's performance in the future will mostly rely on the quality of its products rather than its marketing vehicle of choice. Still, don't discount the role that Apple's singular ability to whip the digerati into a frenzy has played in the company's fortunes over the last five years.

[Jem]

Perhaps they ought to offer Ron Popeil a seat on the Board?

[RAMd®d]

Perhaps they ought to offer Ron Popeil a seat on the Board?

Apple doesn't need hucksters.

Popeil *could* help Ballmer. There's tons of room for improvement, and it would certainly be a step up.

[davester]

Nobody will know the answer until someone spots Jobs raining spikes down on Misty May on a beach volleyball court. However, it seems to me that if Steve is healthy and he and the board have recently made the decision that Macworld is no longer worth attending, then it would be pretty likely that he wouldn't attend this keynote unless he had a super duper product to hawk. Other than a Mac Mini freshening, the rumor mill hasn't suggested anything new in the pipeline recently that I'm aware of.

This might represent a super buying opportunity. This seems to be a case of "buy on rumor (which in this case would oddly mean sell your AAPL due to the rumor), sell on news" (which would mean buy AAPL when the news is not as dire as rumored). I've missed the "buy on rumor" part, but "sell on news" may mean it's time to snap up some shares when the rumor-based divestment looks like it's petering out.

[NewtonMP2100]

. . .too many to choose from. . .

[Article Accelerator]

Couldn't have said it better myself:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/111258-m...urce=yahoo

[samintx]

Apple shares drop after Macworld pullout
Analyst downgrades shares, saying company needs to disclose more
By Dan Gallagher & Benjamin Pimentel, MarketWatch
Last update: 4:26 p.m. EST Dec. 17, 2008Comments: 54SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Apple Inc. saw its shares slip Wednesday morning after the company's dramatic decision to pull out of the highly visible, annual Macworld trade show, which also raised fresh speculation about the health of Chief Executive Steve Jobs.


....Mixed reaction on news
Other analysts had a more positive take, citing sources who described Jobs' as healthy and noting that Apple has made past moves to pull out of trade events so it can better introduce products on its own schedule.
The Macworld show is owned and operated by media company IDC, not Apple.
"I think Apple wants to get away from the tyranny of MacWorld where it is forced to introduce new products on IDG's schedule, rather than its own," wrote Charlie Wolf of Needham & Co. in a report Wednesday.
He added that he had "reliable sources" who said Jobs is "cancer-free."
Keith Bachman of BMO Capital Markets said investors may conclude that Jobs is leaving the company sometime in the near term, but that he believes Jobs plans to stay with the company at least through the 2009 calendar year.

However, he also noted that the absence of Jobs on stage next month may also suggest that the company won't have any compelling new products to unveil.
"We believe that not having Mr. Jobs lead the 2009 MacWorld does suggest, consistent with our note of December 4, that this event will not be terribly meaningful," Bachman wrote. "Hence, the downside in the stock for a disappointing MacWorld is probably realized near-term rather than at MacWorld."



Now Jobs health is coming in view again...or he is leaving in 2009.

[Silencio]

Thanks Article Accelerator, you've saved me a lot of typing.

Now is the time when all the moronic stock "analysts" and armchair Steve Jobs health conspiracy theorists get to run rampant. Idiots, one and all!

[Rick-o]

Article Accelerator wrote:
Couldn't have said it better myself:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/111258-m...urce=yahoo

Nice read. Carl Howe always seems to write with sane reasoning. I enjoy his work.