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Apple rocks! Love both IPads - Gen 1 & 3. Support is tremendous. ICloud backs up everything easily and free of charge in case you crash and burn (or loose your device). Match ($25 a year) takes all your music stored on one device (we rip to a MacBook) and makes it available on all your other devices - automatically. Every OS upgrade brings new features. Seri is getting really good now too. I drive with it on the car seat and reads out directions clearly and loudly (no need to have the wife along:-). The newer one with 4g also serves as a wifi hot spot for a small additional fee. We could use more than the 8GB edition now that we load so much music on it. There's some really good Bluetooth earphones out there - so you don't even need to connect with a wire any more. Great for running on the treadmill. We've dropped the Gen I a number of times, including on a hard tiled floor once. Small crack in the screen, but it continues to operate well.
Course, it's a fast moving and maybe cut-throat business - so Apple might drop out of sight some day. On the other hand, innovations like ITunes Match and their ICloud which likely only supports their devices will keep a lot of us as loyal customers for a long time. Bottom line: With Apple you don't just buy a device, you buy a whole package of services which make your life a lot easier. Guess that's why these devices sell so well and fetch a premium price.
I still like Apple here. Even though the media pundits tend to trash them due to lack of "the next big thing", Apple is working on projects that will quietly enter our lives in new technology. In the automobile, education, healthcare, and media.
The media talking heads are impatient for sure. Don't pay attention to the screamers.
BTW, in our family we have two Macbook pros, a new iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, airport, iPod ( a very old one at that), icloud, and so on. Yep, we have bitten the Apple. It works for us in every way.
This latest news confirmed a plan I was pondering and I executed after hours. I moved one last bond fund holding into another fund that is biased towards technology. Not a pure tech play but a direction I see as fruitful in the coming years. Of course I may be wrong too. That's the game we play.
Reply to JohnC: Since IOS 7.0 launched, less than a year ago, there's been at least 2 more upgrades. Of course, users have to take a few minutes to upgrade (free of charge). And some really cool improvements are apparent in each progressive upgrade. I'd surely be remiss if I even tried to list any. But they are for real. So, as you suggest, analysts might be looking in the wrong direction. Regards
PS: I can't believe Amazon launched the "Fire" without even putting GPS on it. Hopefully, they've incorporated that basic item by now.
I don't own Apple stock only some of its products.
I find the entire financial engineering all at once very odd. Stock split, increased buy back, raising dividends. Seems like they are trying to manage share price concerns. There are rumors that iPhone 6 is delayed. They have just launched an ad campaign for the iPhone, which they do outside the holidays only when sales start lagging. iPad sales weren't that great this quarter.
If I had to guess, I would say they are expecting a rough quarter to June which is always the slowest quarter.
Hank: I have absolutely no idea re EV-DO. Quit horsing around over here and read my outstanding rebuttal to your scurrilous charges in the "efficient markets" thread.
(We may end up selling a few Fires here. As long as folks make sure to purchase using the special MFO link, that's OK with me.)
I stand corrected. I knew early e-readers had 3G, but it got dropped for a while. I didn't know about the tablets.
I have a smaller and older tablet, but when it's time has come I'm downgrading solely to an eink device. It will keep me far less distracted. I'll happily do my part my part for MFO and make it a Kindle, though I'll have to lose my Nook DRM content...
Comments
Course, it's a fast moving and maybe cut-throat business - so Apple might drop out of sight some day. On the other hand, innovations like ITunes Match and their ICloud which likely only supports their devices will keep a lot of us as loyal customers for a long time. Bottom line: With Apple you don't just buy a device, you buy a whole package of services which make your life a lot easier. Guess that's why these devices sell so well and fetch a premium price.
The media talking heads are impatient for sure. Don't pay attention to the screamers.
BTW, in our family we have two Macbook pros, a new iPad, iPhone, Apple TV, airport, iPod ( a very old one at that), icloud, and so on. Yep, we have bitten the Apple. It works for us in every way.
PS: I can't believe Amazon launched the "Fire" without even putting GPS on it. Hopefully, they've incorporated that basic item by now.
Regards,
Ted
http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/04/23/apples-7-for-1-stock-split-is-very-unusual/tab/print/
I find the entire financial engineering all at once very odd. Stock split, increased buy back, raising dividends. Seems like they are trying to manage share price concerns. There are rumors that iPhone 6 is delayed. They have just launched an ad campaign for the iPhone, which they do outside the holidays only when sales start lagging. iPad sales weren't that great this quarter.
If I had to guess, I would say they are expecting a rough quarter to June which is always the slowest quarter.
Nope. Currently Fire offers 4g (and I think 3g or 4g was available early after launch). http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Fire-HDX-Display-Wi-Fi/dp/B00BYIUEXU/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1398441151&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=fire+4g
No GPS - but something else (EV-DO) which I never heard of that's supposed to help you navigate. http://www.laptopmag.com/advice/tips/amazon-kindle-tips-and-tricks.aspx?page=2
Wish some techie would explain what the heck EV-DO is and whether it's as good as GPS.
(We may end up selling a few Fires here. As long as folks make sure to purchase using the special MFO link, that's OK with me.)
OJ
Regards
I have a smaller and older tablet, but when it's time has come I'm downgrading solely to an eink device. It will keep me far less distracted. I'll happily do my part my part for MFO and make it a Kindle, though I'll have to lose my Nook DRM content...