Delayed Product Fulfillment, Apple and Nikon

May 3, 2016 by 1 Comment

by,

Suzanne Coleman

After not receiving my very eagerly-anticipated newly released Nikon camera on April 29th, I started looking into what had happened.  When I called the store I ordered it from, they had no information, so I turned to Amazon.

Amazon’s item page now states a release date of July 1, instead of what it said before, which was April 29th, but there was no reason for this sudden and significant change in release.  So I had to dig further.

I searched Nikon’s website for info and they revealed the reason behind the delay.  A recent earthquake in Japan has impacted their ability to produce or deliver the item.

Dang.

So I thought, maybe I can just use my new iPhone camera in the meantime?  The phone I ordered almost two weeks ago but still have no tracking information on?  The one that is still unavailable in the stores all across my area?

Yeah, that looks like it’s not going to happen either.

On a hunch, I researched where iPhones are produced and learned that their screens and some chips are produced in the area where the earthquake hit.  Double damn.

This is not good on many fronts, not good for Apple (I still own some of their stock) as its stock price drops on decreased sales due to their own outstanding product successes in the past, not good for Japan and its people, and not good for people hoping to upgrade their electronics in the wake of this natural event.  It cannot be determined how long it will take for this area to recover and be able to produce and supply these products again.

I had finally found the “perfect” camera after years of considering the options.  Now I will likely need to choose another, less perfect option to complete my upcoming documentary.  Any suggestions?

And I guess I’ll be keeping my old phone number a little bit longer too…

 

Filed Under: Apple, POP News, Stocks and Economics, What You Need to Know Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Who Violated Apple’s Firewall System to Destroy iTunes?? WHO DID IT?

March 11, 2015 by Leave a Comment

by,

Suzanne Coleman

While Apple (AAPL) stock has been trading down since the Apple Live Event on Monday, the 12 month expected price of the stock continues to creep up, seemingly unnoticed.  Over the last week or so it has increased several dollars and is now noted to be $137.80.  Current trading price of the stock is $123.76.

Per other news media outlets today (take your choice, pick one), many of Apple’s (AAPL) online services were not functioning this morning for several hours, and some outages reportedly continue at mid-day (Reuters).  There are several possible reasons for this, let’s take a look.

The most likely reason is that somebody really, REALLY wants to get their hands on Apple Watch’s undisclosed secrets and has penetrated the company’s security systems in search of their “gold,” leaving utter code destruction and dysfunction in their wake.

On the other hand, it’s possible that it could be someone from Anonymous who read yesterday’s article about how Apple has failed to respond to thousands of customers’ concerns for several MONTHS over a software issue that is driving people crazy and has decided that they need to “take the company down a peg.”  See the article here:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/03/10/apple-ios-8-2-problems/

Equally probable, it could be Iran who desperately wants to start up their own App store so that they can raise their “cool points.”  Taking what seemed to be the easy route, they busted into Apple’s systems to get a copy of the code that Apple uses to run their store.   They probably figured that since our government thought it was ok to just illegally access their computer systems, heck why not do the same thing they did?

Maybe it’s Martians (are there any still up there, or have they all relocated to the suburbs, wearing smart outfits?) having a bit of Wednesday fun.  You know how BORING the suburbs can be.

Maybe there were so many people trying to download the new Apple Watch App that they overloaded the system, you know, fried it.

Maybe Apple finally realized that the search software in iTunes is the worst I have ever seen, likely causing them to lose millions in potential sales.  So this morning, before they had their coffee, they decided to revamp the whole project, again, but forgot to tell all of us that they were going to do it today.  Oh, well.

Maybe Tim was just so tired after Monday’s event that he threw his hands up in the air and wanted to “just take a break from it all.”

Whatever the reason, I think shares should be back up at at least 129 asap.  I agree with other analysts that $160 is a very likely 12 month price target.

🙂

 

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*NOTE:  I own shares of Apple stock, but I still try to keep my sense of humor.  Oh, and in case you could’t tell, most of the above is an attempt to make you laugh, or at least think.

 

Filed Under: Apple, Stocks and Economics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

YY reports it doubled revenues this quarter

March 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment

by,

Suzanne Coleman

YY is China’s online social networking, gaming and music platform, similar to our facebook (FB), but with more features and it monetizes user activity as well.  YY just reported great earnings with an increase of approximately 100% year over year.  This stock just may do very well in your portfolio and I recommend that you check it out.

I’ll have you do your own research but its current price (before earnings) was about half of its estimated 12 month price.  Now that earnings are in, I would think that that 12 month estimate may increase.

I would keep in mind that for some reason this well-perfoming company has a bit of an erratic stock price history.  Also, factor in the unknowns about investing in a company in China.

This stock reminds me of Yahoo! (YHOO) back in 1996.  Time will tell the tale.

 

Filed Under: Stocks and Economics, What do YOU think? Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Apple Stock, Looking Good

February 28, 2015 by Leave a Comment

by,

Suzanne Coleman

 

I think this is a good time to buy Apple stock.  It’s down quite a bit now off it’s intra-week historical highs.  It reported record increased profits last quarter of over 40% vs. last year’s holiday quarter.  The current quarter might show stronger than expected sales as well due to the popularity of the newest iPhone versions around the world.  This is particularly true in China, and they just celebrated their new year’s holiday where a part of that celebration is that nice gifts are exchanged.  Because of this some analysts have said that they think iPhone sales may show a significant boost this current quarter.

The negative news in the last few days about patent lawsuits being brought against the company is not likely to have a significant impact on the value of the company.  The judgement just laid down in Texas in favor of Smartflash (the company that brought the suit) is being challenged by Apple, and the next legal battle will take place in another court, in another area.  The original suit was tried in same area of Texas whereSmartflash is based.  It has been reported by others that this same retrial method has been used in the past in similar suits brought by Smartflash against other technology giants, and those suits ended up with verdicts that were much more favorable for the sued company after the appeal.  And while $500 million or so sounds like a lot of money, it is less than one percent of Apple’s annual revenue of about $199 billion, or about 8% of their annual profit of about $70 billion.

The new suit brought by Ericsson is a negotiating tactic (per the press).  Each of Apple and Ericsson have brought a suit against the other for the same reasons in this situation, contract term renegotiations.  In other words, they want better terms for themselves and they are playing a game of chicken suit.  Lawsuits are essentially a part of big business, at least they have been as long as I have been following business (almost 20 years).  In most cases, these suits do not result in any detrimental outcomes to either party.

The Apple Watch is looking more and more like it will be a hit, though no one can truly predict that.  Competing businesses who also make techy watches (like Pebble) have already had millions of orders for theirs.  Those watches are not as highly functioning as Apple’s and one might say that they are not as “cool” or “trendy.”  Plus, big bankers like Morgan Stanley are predicting big sales in the Apple Watch this year.  So that is another plus for the stock.

There are some people writing about how the NASDAQ’s lifetime high is “bad” and “dangerous.”  What did they think, that it would never grow?  I just don’t get it…  To me it seems more like people who are trying to manipulate the market to get the outcomes they want so that they can get a point to buy in at a lower price than the current one, and then sell it later when it rebounds.  You see this a lot with people who write about the market, putting out “news” headlines that are overly strongly worded to give the reader a negative or positive sense of urgency, but in reality, in most cases, it isn’t even news at all.  People still react to it though, to some degree.  Maybe if everyone learned not to, there would be more stability in the market.

So to present the other side of the argument.  Could Apple plummet?  Yes, it has happened before.  Could the market plummet?  Yes, especially if everyone starts panic selling based on unreasonable fears.  So, let’s not do that, ok? 😉

Apple is very well-valued with a low PE, especially for a company showing continued good growth.  See my other article on PE and “reasonability” here:

https://sliceiconic.com/2015/01/27/reasonability/

If there is one thing I have learned, it is that the stock market is both predictable, and unpredictable.  Unfortunately, that’s the way it goes.  As some have told me, it is like gambling, and I’ve come to realize these days that they are right.

 

NOTE:  I own shares of Apple stock.

 

 

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Filed Under: Apple, Stocks and Economics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yahoo! Finance charts, unreliable

February 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment

the UGH

by,

One Frustrated American

 

When will Yahoo! ever get its act together again?  I mean, it’s been years now of messed up e-mail, finance, and news sections.  I wish I got paid $100 million to manage a company that badly.  Seriously, that would NEVER happen under my watch.  If you’re hiring, call me.

For the last few days Yahoo!’s financial charts have been showing highly inaccurate after-hours data.  Either not updating as trades occur, or for the past two days, showing numbers that are off by 10%.  I mean, learn your decimals programmers!

And not only do they fail to properly program their functions, they don’t test them, and they refuse to take customer feedback.  Like Hello!  Stupid, just plain stupid.  The best way to know your product is to LISTEN to your customers, not ignore them or send them around in circles so that you don’t have to listen to their complaints about the problems with your product.  I mean, where am I?  What country is this now?  Geez.  I guess their board of directors is only concerned with the stock price.  That will be interesting to follow if and when the market does deflate…

It would be nice to be able to rely on one of the big internet companies we have here in the United States these days.  They’ve only had, what, like 20 years to get their act together?  Yeah… again, hire me…

Yahoo! is not alone in this.  E-Trade has problems with its website too, and they don’t make corrections after they are given direct, specific feedback on the issues.  Not a good sign.  They are overdue for hiring an analytical consultant, like me.  Call me, and watch your value grow.

Who do you use for your info and have you found them to be reliable?  Let us know in the comments section below.  It’s kind of a big deal, you know?

 

 

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On facebook, we’re at http://www.facebook.com/sliceiconic.

 

Filed Under: Stocks and Economics, What do YOU think? Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tesla Has Competition

January 11, 2015 by Leave a Comment

By Gage [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

By Gage [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

By Ajzh2074 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

By Ajzh2074 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http:// creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

by,

Suzanne Coleman

It will be interesting to see what will happen to Tesla (TSLA) stock on Monday with the news that GM will be producing a 200 mile-range mass-market vehicle in around 2017.  This is in direct competition with Tesla’s plans for their mass-market vehicle.  Tesla did recently report though that they will have extended the potential range of their newer vehicles to up to 400 miles per charge which might help to mitigate the negative impact that this news will have on Tesla’s stock.

Interestingly though, I think this is great news for Tesla, or more accurately, its owner Elon Musk.  As a fellow idealist, he has said that his goals are to spread the implementation of electric vehicle technology in order to decrease the negative impact of vehicle use on the environment.  He has openly shared his designs for efficient electric vehicles to prove that he is truly interested in seeing this change occur, whether it is his company alone, or his along with others, that bring it to fruition.  And as such, he might just react positively to this news, and not negatively as one might expect.

 

What do YOU think?  Add your comments to the discussion.

 

 

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Filed Under: Stocks and Economics Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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