Posted on 10/18/2010 6:58:23 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Related Quotes Symbol Price Change AAPL 318.00
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs went on the offensive on Monday after a rare disappointment in sales by the iPad maker sent its shares tumbling, but even his biting words failed to reverse market sentiment.
Jobs, who has not addressed investors on an earnings call for two years, lashed out at competitors Google Inc and Research in Motion and dismissed the smaller tablets made by rivals such including Samsung and Dell .
"The current crop of 7-inch tablets are going to be DOA, dead on arrival," Jobs told analysts on the conference call. "Their manufacturers will learn the painful lesson that their tablets are too small."
Shares of Apple -- the second-largest corporation on the Standard & Poor's 500 index, after Exxon Mobil -- slid 6 percent in after-hours trading, which would be their biggest single-day loss since 2008.
Supply and production bottlenecks kept iPads, which have a 9.7-inch touch screen, from store shelves and buyers waiting weeks sometimes for their gadget. The company sold 4.19 million iPads in the fiscal fourth quarter.
"A little bit disappointing there. Street was expecting closer to 5 million units. The problem is supply, they can't make enough of them," said Gleacher & Co analyst Brian Marshall.
...
Gross margins fell short of target as iPads, whose profit margin is lower than it is for iPhones, made up a larger proportion of Apple's sales. Investors had expected more from a company that had smashed Wall Street's targets in each of the past eight quarters.
Gross margins came to 36.9 percent, below Wall Street's average forecast of 38.2 percent, despite better-than-expected components costs in the period.
"The one surprise is on the margin side. Everything else is pretty spectacular," said Gartner analyst Van Baker.
(Excerpt) Read more at sg.finance.yahoo.com ...
That pretty much ends the 7” iPad rumor.
Looking forward to The Galaxy Tab.
It isn't. It's the WIFI version sold with a Verizon portabe wifi hotspot contract.
Well, maybe people who want an iPad with Verizon are waiting to buy when that’s available then.
Depends on where you live I suppose, but I hear complaints from time to time about ATT coverage around the fringe areas of Houston.
I’m writing this on one. Paid for itself in a hurry.
Form factor is worth something. I could sell you a 1GHz 256MB 3G 64GB 11-hour desktop computer running off a car battery for a lot less, but you might find ease of portability a problem.
Toy maker 2nd largest? Ouch!
The journalist is a dope.
The Stock went down so the Analyst had to come up with a reason.
Well, you have your anti-Apple talking points in order. Let's see...
"Needlessly expensive". Not if what they sell is what you need. If you don't need it, don't buy it. I recommend that you should avoid buying products you don't need.
"Not upgradable". I have upgraded all of my computers, Windows, Linux, Mac, BSD. Macs are no different from others if you know what you're doing.
"Become obsolete". Only if you stop using them. I have a 5-yr old MacMini (PPC) which is now a Linux (Fedora) box after I got an Intel Mac. Macs only become obsolete if you let them. Are you familiar with the term "resale value"? You should look it up, regarding Apple products vs. others.
"Apple controls what you have". Yes they do. If what they supply is not what you want, don't buy it. Again, I recommend that you should avoid buying products you don't want.
> I’ll take my home built machines that run on Windows 7, or, if I like, Linux. I can buy parts, tinker with it, replace parts, and do what I want, and it costs sooo much less.
I've designed (from scratch) and built and programmed homebrew computers since 1976. Based on 6502, 680x, and x86 families. Stopped a while ago because I was better off buying a mobo and other components and assembling it. So you build your own machines out of components you buy... So what? Of course it "costs so much less" -- if you value your time at ZERO.
As a hobbyist, you or I are of course welcome to do so. But don't fool yourself. You're putting a lot more than the difference in parts cost into the "free" labor you donate to your hobby.
> But, I don’t get to look trendy.........
On the contrary, there are many terrific looking home-built computers out there. There are modders websites that have excellent examples of how you can SET your own trends.
Oh, but be aware -- you'll spend a LOT more doing that than buying an Apple. But if it's a labor of love, it's worth it.
Analysts. What a bunch of wankers.
They don't know how to do ANYTHING. Can't generate a single visionary idea, can't design a single product, can't manufacture anything, can't run a company, can't find their own ass with both hands and a Google map...
(I was going to say something pithy and witty here, but I can't seem to find the proper words for it, so I'll just say again...)
What a bunch of wankers.
Or possibly even less.
Maybe DennisW would short his APPL stock now, if he had any... :)
Maybe when you read the article you find out it’s because Apple can’t make them fast enough.
We are soooo proud of you and your technical skills. Bravo!
However, this is an Apple thread, not a hooray for Sto Zvirat, whatever that is, thread.
I'll take the hours it takes for you, as an expert, to build the computer minus the 1/2 hour it took for me to pick up my MacBook Pro, divided by what my time is worth and come out ahead. Let alone the hours it would take me as a neophyte to build one. I have enough hobbies, I don't need another one.
So, got any pics of your home-built tablet, equivalent to the iPad? Thought not.
I don’t need an I-toy. I have a Kindle, I don’t have to keep paying to use it.
Apple, needlessly expensive trendy crap, made for people that need the self esteem.
I can build a computer and install an operating system in just a few hours, its fun and worth it. I don’t need to get ripped off by some Best Buy idiot trying to upsell me worthless warrantees and delivering me a machine with all kinds of garbage on it that I don’t want.
Not hard to build a PC, case, power supply, motherboard, processor, graphic card, hard drive. Piece of cake.
So, your answer is no, you can’t build one. Nor is your Kindle capable of doing what an iPad does.
Go right ahead paying yourself nothing an hour to tweak around with computer parts. Everyone needs a hobby. I’ve got better things to do with my time than cobble up homebrew computers.
My kindle is built to let me read books, it does that, indoors, or outdoors. I don’t have to keep paying for it to be connected to the web. I can download hundreds of newspapers or magazines for free, plus any number of books.
As for building my own machine, it keeps my brain going, its nice to have to use your brain when you compute, Apple did a nice job of providing computers for folk that don’t want to think much, but pay more. My “home brew” is cutting edge, I like that. I’ve got better things to do with my money than waste it on dumbed down pieces of trendy glitter.
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