Apple Digest: October 2010

Friday, October 29, 2010

Apple Pulls Back a Second Week (Charts) Down -2.1% for week, up +6.1% for October AAPL

AAPL

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the all-new MacBook Air at the "Back to the Mac" event on October 20

Apple Overview

AAPL Apple closed at $300.98 on Friday, October 29, 2010. Even with record quarterly revenues and net income reported on October 18, AAPL was down -2.11% for the week and down -2.31% last week, but finished up +6.07% in October, is up an incredible +42.83% for the year, and is up an astronomical +262.15% since the March 9, 2009 market bottom. This equates to -$6.49 for the week, +$17.23 for October, +$90.25 for the year, and +$217.87 since the March 9, 2009 market bottom. AAPL is down -5.35% and -$17.02 from the 2010 YTD closing high of $318.00 on October 18, just minutes from the calendar Q3 earnings report. Apple has traded above $300 for 13 consecutive trading days.

S&P 500 By comparison, the overall market, the S&P 500, was up +0.02% for the week, up +3.69% for October, up +6.11% for the year, and up +74.90% since the March 9, 2009 market bottom. SPX is down -2.79% from the April 23, 2010 YTD closing high of 1217.28. AAPL is outperforming the overall market long-term since the March 9, 2009 market bottom, outperforming the market for 2010, and outperformed the market in October. Apple has underperformed the market the past 2 weeks. A review of the S&P 500 (S&P 500 Rally at Resistance (Charts) *Weekly gain just +0.18, +0.02%*) is here.

Apple Pulls Back Two Straight Weeks

AAPL Daily Chart Below is the AAPL daily chart since September 23, 2010 to illustrate just the applicable price interactions with the current close, resistance, and support. There are no previous price interactions, Apple has never traded this high before, above $300. A monthly chart is included at the bottom of this page for a broader perspective.

Noteworthy Closing Prices on Daily Chart Below

Current Close: $300.98

2010 YTD and All-Time High, October 18: $318.00

2010 YTD Low, February 4: $192.05

YE December 31, 2009: $210.73

* The 100 and 200 day simple moving averages and the uptrend line are not shown on the daily chart this week *

Intermediate-Term Trend The intermediate-term signal, the comparison of the 25 day and 50 day simple moving averages, generated a buy signal on Tuesday, September 21. That is, the 25d sma is greater than the 50d sma. The relationship between these two moving averages is a lagging indicator and finally caught up with the amazing AAPL September Bull Run (+16.7%) that now continued into mid-October (+6.1%).

Resistance AAPL has pulled back from the all-time closing high of 318.00 on October 18, which is now final resistance. Current resistance is the close on October 22 of 307.47 (the highest yellow horizontal line on the daily chart above), next is the 310.00 area, specifically the 309.49 close on October 19 and the 310.53 close on October 20. The all-time closing high and intraday high of 318.000 and 319.00, respectively, on October 18 is final resistance.

Support AAPL surpassed for the first time in history and now has remained above 300.00 for 13 consecutive trading days so there are multiple levels of support below. The 300.00 area is psychological and benchmark support (the middle yellow horizontal line on the daily chart above). Support was found here on October 29 to continue above 300.00. A prior all-time closing high of 292.32 on September 24 (the lowest yellow horizontal line on the daily chart above) and the prior intraday high of 279.01 on June 21 are benchmark support. The prior all-time and 2010 YTD closing high of 274.07 on June 18, the top of the summer trading range, is also key support further below.

Moving Averages AAPL continues well above all the daily simple moving averages: the 25, 50, 100, and 200 (only the 25d and 50d sma's are shown on the daily chart above). The 25d sma is leveling off after two weeks of net declines by AAPL and continues above the 50d, 100d, and 200d sma's. The 50d sma continues ascending sharply and is above the 100d and 200d sma's. The 100d sma is ascending and above the 200d sma. The 200d sma continues to ascend, indicating the overall trend is upwards. These moving averages have been spread out in a bullish fan.

Uptrend Line (Not shown on the daily chart this week) The yellow uptrend line, a rate of price ascent, is from the January 20, 2009 closing low of 78.20 up through the February 4, 2010 cyclical closing low of 192.05. The January 20 closing low has been the bottom for 2010. AAPL dropped below this trendline on August 23, but regained it on September 3 and now has been above for 35 consecutive trading days.

Downtrend Line AAPL is below the recent all-time closing high of 318.00, a significant downtrend line is probably developing, and will be added to the chart next week.

Relative Strength Index (RSI) The RSI 14 day = 56.32 is reasonable, descending, and well below the recent highs during the price runup. The multi-year and 2010 high was 97.49 on September 16. The 2010 YTD low was 21.49 on August 24. The RSI 28 day = 60.19 is reasonable, descending, and well below the recent highs during the price runup. The 2010 peaks have been 84.63 and 83.79 on April 5 and April 23, respectively. The 2010 low was 38.25 on August 31. The RSIs have decreased as AAPL has in the past 2 weeks.

MACD (12,26,9) The MACD = -1.68, has been downtrending for 9 consecutive trading days, and has been negative for 5 consecutive trading days. The September 22 MACD of +3.16 is the 2010 YTD high. The 2010 low was -3.55 on May 7. Previously the highest was on November 4, 2008 at +3.41.

Volume AAPL volume was 15.3M on Friday, October 29 and the 20-day moving average is approximately 20.0M. The 20d sma peaked right after the calendar Q3 earnings report on October 18. The 50d sma is approximately 19.9M, leveling off after the October 18 earnings report. Overall, it the Apple Frenzy has abated for now.

Long-Term Trend The 10 month exponential moving average of 250.67 is a long-term trend indicator and shown on the monthly chart below. That is the line in the sand, so to speak, for the long term signal of a bear market. AAPL is well above this signal at the current close of 300.98. AAPL is in a long-term bull market and has been since April 2009.

Conclusion AAPL led the way during the USA September Stock Market Rally and continued to do so in October up to the calendar Q3 earnings report on October 18. Even with record revenues and net income, expectations were so high Apple did not confirm the 318.00 close before the earnings announcement and has pulled back for the past 2 weeks. We believe AAPL did confirm the 318.00 close and the holiday Q4 earnings report will be another all-time record revenues and earnings. More about AAPL stock evaluation in future posts, but the current AAPL price appears low. Our price target for AAPL is $400. The intermediate-term trend is bullish and the long-term trend is bullish.

AAPL Monthly Chart

Up +285% and +$222.78 from January 20, 2009 cyclical closing low of $78.20!

Below is the monthly AAPL chart since the January 2009 cyclical low. The overall analysis and commentary is the same as for the daily chart above. The current price, the yellow horizontal lines, and the yellow uptrend line are the same, and as described, on the daily chart above. The white moving average line is the 10 month exponential moving average of 250.67, which is the long-term bull or bear market signal. AAPL is well above the 10m ema with a close on Friday, October 22 of 300.98. AAPL has remained above the 10m ema since April 2009 indicating a long-term bull market.

Disclosure

We are long AAPL.

About Apple

Apple Inc. achieved a milestone the week of May 24, 2010, passing Microsoft in market capitalization to become the largest technology company, and second overall largest company, in the USA. AAPL's market capitalization is now $276.09B, compared to Microsoft's of $230.75B. Exxon leads with $338.55B. Apple reported calendar Q3 revenues of $20.3B and net income of $4.3B. Microsoft reported calendar Q3 revenues of $16.2B and net income of $5.4B. Current Apple financial data is at the Apple Financial Performance page. Apple is now 19.98% (10-28-10) of the NASDAQ 100 index, as measured by the QQQQ ETF, weighted by market capitalization. AAPL is one of the most traded stocks in the USA. Per the SEC Form 10-K, Apple had 46,600 full-time employees and 2,800 temporary full-time employees and contractors as of September 25, 2010.

Apple's Mission Statement and described in press releases, "Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices."

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Monday, October 25, 2010

Steve Jobs Speaks: RIM Blackberry, Google Android, iPad Competitors (Review) "Confident iOS will triumph over Google's fragmented approach" AAPL GOOG RIMM

AAPL

Apple CEO Steve Jobs introducing the iPad earlier in 2010

Steve Jobs Speaks: RIM Blackberry, Google Android, iPad Competitors

Apple reported record revenues and net income for calendar Q3 2010. CFO Peter Oppenheimer called it a "monumental year for Apple". We call it near-legendary. A review of the Apple earnings conference call has been posted on the Apple Earnings Conference Call page. The actual financial results, charts, and commentary have been posted on the Apple Financial Performance page.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs showed up unexpectedly at the calendar Q3 (fiscal Q4) earnings conference call because Apple quarterly revenues topped $20 billion for the first time. CFO Peter Oppenheimer reviewed quarterly financial results, product lines, and fiscal year financial results. Afterwards, Mr. Jobs made some remarks about Research in Motion, Google Android, and iPad competitors. He spent considerable time on the Google so-called "open" model versus the Apple so-called "closed" model for Android and iOS, respectively, saying it was actually "fragmented" versus "integrated". That is, there are many versions of the Google Android software platform while there are only two versions of the Apple iOS - the current and the predecessor. Jobs then addressed the weaknesses of iPad competitors with 7-inch screens versus the Apple iPad 10-inch screen. Some of his remarks appear are directed at app developers and why the Apple integrated model is superior. Most of the transcription of his statements are below.

Q3 Earnings Call: Highlights from Steve Jobs' Address

Blackberry vs. iPhone Sales: "We’ve now passed RIM and I don’t see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future."

"RIM has a high mountain ahead of them to climb” to create a competitive software platform to Apple iOS and Google Android
"We await to see if iPhone or Android was the winner in this most recent quarter” in total device activations
“Google loves to characterize Android as ‘open’ and iOS and iPhone as ‘closed’. We find this a bit disingenuous..."
Regarding multiple Google Android app stores: "This is going to be a mess for both users and developers."
"We think Android is very, very fragmented and becoming more fragmented by the day."
"We are confident it (iOS) will triumph over Google’s fragmented approach, no matter how many times Google tries to characterize it as ‘open’.”
"Appears to be just a handful of credible entrants, not exactly an avalanche" of iPad competitors
The 7-inch tablets are ‘tweeners’, too big to compete with a smartphone, too small to compete with an iPad."
"iPad now has over 35,000 apps on the app store. This new crop of tablets will have near zero."
"Our potential competitors are having a hard time coming close to iPad’s pricing, even with their far smaller, far less expensive screens"

Steve Jobs Speaks!

After CFO Peter Oppenheimer’s opening statements and presentation, Apple CEO and Tech Legend Steve Jobs said he wanted to “chat”. He was at the earnings call because of Apple’s record and near-legendary $20+ billion in revenues for the quarter.

Research In Motion Jobs repeated the iPhone sales and growth data. He noted iPhone quarterly sales (14.1 million units) “handily beat” RIM Blackberry sales of 12.1 million units sold in RIM’s latest quarter ending in August. “We’ve now passed RIM and I don’t see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future. They (RIM) must move beyond their area of strength and comfort into the unfamiliar territory of trying to become a software platform company. I think it’s going to be a challenge for them to create a competitive platform and convince developers to create apps for yet a third software platform after (Apple) iOS and (Google) Android. With 300,000 apps on Apple’s app store, RIM has a high mountain ahead of them to climb.”

Google Android “What about Google? Last week (Google CEO) Eric Schmidt reiterated that they were activating 200,000 Android devices per day and have around 90,000 apps in their app store. For comparison, Apple has activated 275,000 iOS devices per day on average for the past 30 days, with a peak of almost 300,000 activated iOS devices on a few of those days. And Apple has 300,000 apps on its app store. Unfortunately there is no solid data on how many Android phones are shipped each quarter. We hope soon that manufacturers will start reporting the number of Android handsets they ship each quarter, but today that just isn’t the case. Gartner reported that about 10 million Android phones were shipped in the June quarter and we await to see if iPhone or Android was the winner in this most recent quarter.”

Google “Open” vs. Apple “Closed” “Google loves to characterize Android as ‘open’ and iOS and iPhone as ‘closed’. We find this a bit disingenuous and clouding the real difference between our two approaches."

Android is Fragmented, Apple is Integrated "The first thing most of us think about when we hear the word ‘open’ is (Microsoft) Windows, which is available on a variety of devices. Unlike Windows, however, where most PCs have the same user interface and run the same apps, Android is very fragmented. Android OEMs, including the two largest HTC and Motorola, install proprietary user interfaces to differentiate themselves from the commodity Android experience. The user is left to figure it all out. Compare this with iPhone where every handset works the same."

Twitter Deck Example "Twitter client, Twitter Deck, recently launched their app for Android. They reported they had to contend with more than 100 different versions of Android software on 244 different handsets. The multiple hardware and software iterations presents developers with a daunting challenge. Many Android apps work only on selected Android handsets running selected Android versions. And this is for handsets that have been shipped less than 12 months ago. Compare this with iPhone, where there are 2 versions of the software, the current and most recent predecessor. In addition to Google’s own app marketplace, Amazon, Verizon, and Vodaphone have all announced they are creating their own app stores for Android. So there will be at least 4 app stores on Android, which customers must search among to find the app they want. And developers will need to work with (app stores) to distribute their apps and get paid. This is going to be a mess for both users and developers. Contrast this with Apple’s integrated app store, which offers users the easiest to use and largest app store in the world, pre-loaded on every iPhone. Apple’s app store has over 3 times as many apps as Google’s marketplace and offers developers one-stop shopping to get their apps to market easily and get paid swiftly."

Microsoft Plays For Sure Example "You know, even if Google was right, and the real issue is ‘closed’ versus ‘open’, it is worthwhile to remember that open systems don’t always win. Take Microsoft’s Plays For Sure music strategy, which used the PC model, which Android uses as well, of separating the software components from the hardware components. Even Microsoft finally abandoned this open strategy in favor of copying Apple’s integrated approach with their Zune player. Unfortunately leaving their OEMs empty-handed in the process."

Open versus Closed, Fragmented versus Integrated "Google flirted with this integrated approach with their Nexus One phone. In reality, we think the ‘open’ versus ‘closed’ argument is just a smokescreen to try and hide the real issue, which is ‘what’s best for the customer?’. Fragmented versus integrated? We think Android is very, very fragmented and becoming more fragmented by the day. And as you know, Apple strives for the integrated model so the user isn’t forced to be the systems integrator. We see tremendous value in having Apple, rather than our user, be the system integrator. We think this is a huge strength of our approach compared to Google’s. When selling to users who want their devices to ‘just work’, we believe integrated will trump fragmented every time. And we also think our developers can be more innovative if they can target a singular platform rather than a 100 variants. They can put their time into innovative new features rather testing on 100s of different handsets. We are very committed to the integrated approach, no matter how many times Google tries to characterize it as ‘closed’. And we are confident it will triumph over Google’s fragmented approach, no matter how many times Google tries to characterize it as ‘open’.”

Tablet PCs “Second, I’d like to comment on the avalanche of tablets that are poised to enter the market in the coming months."

"First, it appears to be just a handful of credible entrants, not exactly an avalanche."

"Second, almost all of them use 7 inch screens, as compared to iPad’s near 10 inch screen. Let’s start there. One naturally thinks a 7 inch screen offers 70% of the benefits of a 10 inch screen. Unfortunately this is far from the truth. The screen measurements are diagonal, so a 7 inch screen is only 45% as large as iPad’s 10 inch screen. You heard me right - just 45% as large. This size isn’t sufficient to create great tablet apps, in our opinion. Apple has done extensive user testing on touch interfaces over many years and we really understand this stuff. There are clear limits on how close you can physically place elements on a touch screen. This is one of the key reasons, we think, the 10 inch screen size, is the minimum size required to create great tablet apps."

"Third, every tablet user is also a smartphone user. No tablet can compete with the mobility of a smartphone. Given that all tablet users will already have a smartphone in their pockets, giving up precious display area to fit a tablet into their pockets is clearly the wrong trade off. The 7 inch tables are ‘tweeners’, too big to compete with a smartphone, too small to compete with an iPad."

"Fourth, almost all of these new tablets use Android software, but even Google is telling the tablet manufacturers not to use their current release, Froyo, for tablets, and to wait for a special tablet release next year. What does it mean when your software supplier says not to use their software in their tablet and what does it mean when you ignore them and use it anyway?"

"Fifth, iPad now has over 35,000 apps on the app store. This new crop of tablets will have near zero."

"Sixth and last, our potential competitors are having a hard time coming close to iPad’s pricing, even with their far smaller, far less expensive screens. The iPad incorporates everything we’ve learned about building high value products from iPhones, iPods, and Macs. We create our own A4 chip, our own software, our own battery chemistry, our own enclosure, our own everything, in an incredible product, at a great price. The proof of this will be in the price of our competitor's products, which will likely offer less for more. These are among the reasons we think the current crop of 7 inch tablets are going to be DOA - dead on arrival. They will learn the painful lesson that their tablets are too small and increase the size next year thereby abandoning customers and developers who jumped on the 7 inch band wagon with an orphaned product. Sounds like lots of fun ahead.”

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Sunday, October 24, 2010

Apple Pulls Back After Earnings Report (Charts) Down -2.3% for week, still up +8.4% for month AAPL

AAPL

Apple reported record quarterly revenues and net income on Monday, October 18

Apple Overview

AAPL Apple closed at $307.47 on Friday, October 22, 2010, down from the all-time closing high set on Monday, October 18 of $318.00, set less than an hour before the Apple quarterly earnings announcement. Even with record quarterly revenues and net income reported on Monday, AAPL is down -2.31% for the week, but continues up +8.36% in October, up an incredible +45.91% for the year, and up an amazing +269.96% since the March 9, 2009 market bottom. This equates to -$7.27 for the week, +$23.72 for October, +$96.74 for the year, and +$224.36 since the March 9, 2009 market bottom. AAPL is down -3.31% and -$7.27 from the aforementioned 2010 YTD closing high of $318.00 on October 18. Apple has traded above $300 for 8 consecutive trading days.

S&P 500 By comparison, the overall market, the S&P 500, is up +0.59% for the week, up +3.67% for October, up +6.10% for the year, and up +74.87% since the March 9, 2009 market bottom. SPX is down -2.81% from the April 23, 2010 YTD closing high of 1217.28. AAPL is outperforming the overall market long-term since the March 9, 2009 market bottom, outperforming the market for 2010, and outperforming in October. Apple underperformed the market this past week. A review of the S&P 500 (S&P 500 Ekes Out A Weekly Gain (Charts) *Bulls rally 3 straight weeks, 7 of last 8*) is here.

Apple News and Fundamentals Apple reported record revenues and net income for Q3, which are reviewed and analyzed on this blog.. Current Apple financial data, charts, and review is at the Apple Financial Performance page, updated for the latest calendar Q3 results reported on October 18. A review and analysis of the most recent Q3 earnings call will be posted soon at the Apple Earnings Conference Call page. On Wednesday, October 20, the all-new MacBook Air was unveiled along with updates for the iLife suite, FaceTime for Mac, and a peak at the next OSX upgrade, Lion. Apple has launched in September both the iPad and iPhone 4 in China, the world's largest Internet market with a growing consumer base with disposable income. On September 1 with the Apple Special Event, CEO Steve Jobs launched new iPods, iTunes, iOS, and Apple TV. A summary and review of these announcements is posted here (Steve Jobs Unveils New iPods, iOS, iTunes, TV) and here (Apple Announces New iPods, iTunes, iOS, TV). Earlier, Apple launched the iPhone 4 in late June and the iPad in early April. International sales accounted for 52% of revenue in the latest quarter reported.

AAPL Earnings per Share Earnings per share for the past 4 quarters have been: Dec09 $3.67, Mar10 $3.33, Jun10 $3.51, Sep10 $4.64 which totals $15.15. At the current AAPL price of $307.47, this is a PE of 20.3, which appears low.

AAPL Cash Flow per Share Cash flow from operations for the past 4 quarters have been: Dec09 $6.29, Mar10 $2.52, Jun10 $5.18, Sep10 $6.12 which totals $20.11. At the current AAPL price of $307.47, this is a cash flow multiple of 15.3, which appears low.

AAPL Stock Valuation Peter Oppenheimer, Apple CFO, stated in the October 18 earnings press release, “Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2011 (calendar Q4) , we expect revenue of about $23 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $4.80.” Apple traditionally provides very conservative guidance. This would imply QoQ minimum growth rates of total revenues at +13.1% and earnings per share at +3.5%. More about AAPL stock evaluation in future posts, but the current AAPL price appears low. Our price target for AAPL is $400.

Economic and Market News Information about the USA and world economies are posted at Boom Doom Economy and Financial Controls.

Apple Pulls Back After Earnings Reported

AAPL Daily Chart Below is the AAPL daily chart since September 23, 2010 to illustrate just the price interactions with current close, resistance, and support. There is no previous price interactions, Apple has never traded this high before, above $300. A monthly chart is included at the bottom of this page for a broader perspective.

Noteworthy Closing Prices on Daily Chart Below

Current Close: $307.47

2010 YTD and All-Time High, October 18: $318.00

2010 YTD Low, February 4: $192.05

YE December 31, 2009: $210.73

Resistance AAPL has pulled back from the all-time closing high of 318.00 on October 18, which is now final resistance. Current resistance is 310.00, specifically the 309.49 close on October 19 and the 310.53 close on October 20 (higher yellow horizontal line on the daily chart above). The all-time intraday high is 319.00 on October 18. AAPL attempted to pin through 310.00 on Friday, October 22 with an intraday high of 310.04, but failed to sustain and pulled back to close at 307.47.

Support AAPL continues at lofty heights, above the summer trading range top, YTD lows, and 2010 pullbacks. Accordingly, there are multiple levels of support below. The 300.00 area is psychological and benchmark support. A prior all-time closing high of 292.32 on September 24 (the lower yellow horizontal line on the daily chart above) and the prior intraday high of 279.01 on June 21 are benchmark support. The prior all-time and 2010 YTD closing high of 274.07 on June 18, the top of the summer trading range, is also key support further below.

Moving Averages AAPL continues well above all the daily simple moving averages (Only 25d sma shown on the daily chart this week): the 25, 50, 100, and 200. The 25d sma continues to ascend rapidly and is above the 50d, 100d, and 200d sma's. The 50d sma is ascending sharply and has regained the 100d sma, negating the August 31 Death Cross. The 50d sma continues above the 100d and 200d sma's and has regained the uptrend line (discussed below). The 100d sma is ascending and above the 200d sma. The 200d sma continues to ascend, indicating the overall trend is upwards. These moving averages are now spread out in a bullish fan.

Downtrend Line Since AAPL is just below the recent all-time closing high of 318.00, there is no significant downtrend line.

Relative Strength Index (RSI) The RSI 14 day = 77.74 is overbought. The multi-year and 2010 high was 97.49 on September 16. The 2010 YTD low was 21.49 on August 24. The RSI 28 day = 71.11 is marginally overbought. The 2010 peaks have been 84.63 and 83.79 on April 5 and April 23, respectively. The 2010 low was 38.25 on August 31. The RSIs have some upside room.

MACD (12,26,9) The MACD = +0.26 and is downtrending. The September 22 MACD of +3.16 is the 2010 YTD high. The 2010 low was -3.55 on May 7. Previously the highest was on November 4, 2008 at +3.41.

Volume AAPL volume was only 13.2M on Friday, October 22, the lowest since September 7 (12.2M). The 20-day moving average is approximately 22.7M. The 20d sma appears to have peaked, which is not encouraging for price support. The 50d sma is approximately 19.7M and also appears to have peaked. Overall, it seems the Apple Frenzy has abated for now.

Long-Term Trend The 10 month exponential moving average of 251.85 is a long-term trend indicator and shown on the monthly chart below. That is the line in the sand, so to speak, for the long term signal of a bear market. AAPL is well above this signal at the current close of 307.47. AAPL is in a long-term bull market and has been since April 2009.

Conclusion AAPL led the way during the USA September Stock Market Rally and continued to do so in October up to the calendar Q3 earnings report on October 18. Even with record revenues and net income, expectations were so high Apple did not confirm the 318.00 close before the earnings announcement and has pulled back. We believe AAPL did confirm the 318.00 close. More about AAPL stock evaluation in future posts, but the current AAPL price appears low. Our price target for AAPL is $400. The intermediate-term trend is bullish and the long-term trend is bullish.

AAPL Monthly Chart
Up +293% and +$229.27 from January 20, 2009 cyclical closing low of $78.20!

Below is the monthly AAPL chart since the January 2009 cyclical low. The overall analysis and commentary is the same as for the daily chart above. The current price, the yellow horizontal lines, and the yellow uptrend line are the same, and as described, on the daily chart above. The white moving average line is the 10 month exponential moving average of 251.85, which is the long-term bull or bear market signal. AAPL is well above the 10m ema with a close on Friday, October 15 of 307.47. AAPL has remained above the 10m ema since April 2009 indicating a long-term bull market.

Disclosure

We are long AAPL.

About Apple

Apple Inc. achieved a milestone the week of May 24, 2010, passing Microsoft in market capitalization to become the largest technology company, and second overall largest company, in the USA. AAPL's market capitalization is now $280.89B, compared to Microsoft's of $219.61B. Exxon leads with $337.79B. Apple reported Q3 revenues of $20.3B and net income of $4.3B. For the prior Q2, Microsoft reported revenues of $16.0B and net income of $4.5B. Microsoft reports Q3 earnings on October 28. Current Apple financial data is at the Apple Financial Performance page. Apple is now 20.39% of the NASDAQ 100 index, as measured by the QQQQ ETF, weighted by market capitalization. AAPL is one of the most traded stocks in the USA. Per the SEC Form 10-Q, the Apple retail segment had 22,400 full-time equivalent employees at June 26, 2010. Per the SEC Form 10-K, Apple had 35,000+ full-time employees and 3,000+ temporary full-time employees at September 29, 2009.

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Saturday, October 23, 2010

They Just Don't Get Apple! (Video) Is Apple a mobile device or a computer company? AAPL

AAPL

Apple reported record revenues and net income for Q3 September 2010

They Just Don't Get Apple!

Apple reported calendar Q3 financial results on Monday, October 18. Quarterly sales surpassed $20 billion ($20.3B) for the first time and quarterly net income was an all-time high of $4.3B. These are near-legendary quarterly results that few, if any, tech companies, have ever achieved. Yet the expectations were so high that Apple was knocked for a 36.9% gross operating margin, down from 39.1% the prior calendar Q2 June 2010 and down from 41.8% the prior year calendar Q3 September 2009.

So what's the story here and is the disappointment justifiable? First, Apple is selling lower margin devices now, and lots of them, such as the iPad and iPhone. Second, Apple stated earlier this year their gross margin would be lower. Is Apple a different company now? Still arguably the tech king of companies, but changed? Has Apple "transitioned from a computer company that made mobile devices to a mobile-device company that makes computers?" That is, has Apple transformed from a higher margin computer company to a lower margin mobile device company?

In calendar Q3 2010, Apple sold 3.89 million Macs, a 27% unit increase over the year-ago quarter, sold 14.1 million iPhones, representing 91% unit growth over the year-ago quarter, sold 9.05 million iPods, representing an 11% unit decline from the year-ago quarter, and sold 4.19 million iPads.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. -- Marek Fuchs, TheStreet's media critic, talks muddled Apple margin coverage.

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Friday, October 22, 2010

Apple Introduces All-New MacBook Air (Videos) Thin, light, fast notebook available now

AAPL

Apple introduced the all-new MacBook Air at the "Back to the Mac" event on Wednesday, October 20

Apple Introduces the All-New MacBook Air

Apple has been busy in 2010, including launching the iPad, iPhone 4, iOS 4, new iTunes, new iPods, record setting revenues and net income for the third quarter, and now an all-new MacBook Air! The Apple press release, "Apple today unveiled the all-new MacBook Air, the first of the next generation of notebooks that will replace mechanical hard disks and optical drives with Internet services and solid-state flash storage. Available in 11-inch and 13-inch models and weighing as little as 2.3 pounds, the MacBook Air is Apple’s lightest, most mobile notebook ever. MacBook Air uses the same solid-state storage technology as iPad to deliver instant-on responsiveness, up to seven hours of battery life, and up to 30 days of standby time. Starting at $999, the MacBook Air is available now on the Apple Store and at your favorite Apple Retail Store."

The all-new MacBook Air was unveiled at the Apple October 20 "Back to the Mac" event, which also included updates for the iLife suite, FaceTime for Mac, and a peak at the next OSX upgrade, Lion.

(CNETTV) Dan Ackerman takes a look at the new 11.6-inch MacBook Air, which features an Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

Apple MacBook Air available in 11-inch and 13-inch models

(Apple) The next generation of MacBooks features all-flash storage, a Multi-Touch glass trackpad, a long-lasting battery with up to 30 days of standby time, and a high-resolution display. Now available in 11- and 13-inch models starting at just $999.

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Friday, October 29, 2010

Apple Pulls Back a Second Week (Charts) Down -2.1% for week, up +6.1% for October AAPL

Monday, October 25, 2010

Steve Jobs Speaks: RIM Blackberry, Google Android, iPad Competitors (Review) "Confident iOS will triumph over Google's fragmented approach" AAPL GOOG RIMM

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Apple Pulls Back After Earnings Report (Charts) Down -2.3% for week, still up +8.4% for month AAPL

Saturday, October 23, 2010

They Just Don't Get Apple! (Video) Is Apple a mobile device or a computer company? AAPL

Friday, October 22, 2010

Apple Introduces All-New MacBook Air (Videos) Thin, light, fast notebook available now

Seeking Alpha

Pages

Friday, October 29, 2010

Apple Pulls Back a Second Week (Charts) *Down -2.1% for week, up +6.1% for October* AAPL

Monday, October 25, 2010

Steve Jobs Speaks: RIM Blackberry, Google Android, iPad Competitors (Review) "Confident iOS will triumph over Google's fragmented approach" AAPL GOOG RIMM

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Apple Pulls Back After Earnings Report (Charts) *Down -2.3% for week, still up +8.4% for month* AAPL

Saturday, October 23, 2010

They Just Don't Get Apple! (Video) *Is Apple a mobile device or a computer company?* AAPL

Friday, October 22, 2010

Apple Introduces All-New MacBook Air (Videos) *Thin, light, fast notebook available now*

Seeking Alpha

Apple Pulls Back a Second Week (Charts) Down -2.1% for week, up +6.1% for October AAPL

Apple Pulls Back After Earnings Report (Charts) Down -2.3% for week, still up +8.4% for month AAPL

They Just Don't Get Apple! (Video) Is Apple a mobile device or a computer company? AAPL

Apple Introduces All-New MacBook Air (Videos) Thin, light, fast notebook available now