01.24Apple Values
Apple stock has been taking a pounding since the first of the year. Odd if you consider that Apple’s iPhone is the most coveted mobile device on the market, they just came out with the Macbook Air, an innovative thin laptop, and they announced that you’ll be able to rent movies via iTunes.
The iPhone has now been out long enough for other hardware makers to answer the challenge.
So why has the stock market taken a bite out of it’s stock price? Well part of it is that Apple didn’t meet the expectations of Wall Street. As far as I can tell they did meet their own projected numbers but Wall Street was expecting much more. Apple itself is looking at share profits of 94 cents per share next quarter. That is 15 cents lower than Wall Street expected. There also seems to be a slow in the sale of iPods.
So what does this mean for consumers? We may see some shuffling (no pun intended) of product price points in the next few months. One of the first things I would predict to drop in price would be the iPhone. It has now been out long enough for other hardware makers to answer the challenge. Verizon now has the LG Voyager, a touch screen plus side flip, full keyboard phone. As a result the price for Apple’s iPhone may drop a notch in an attempt to keep the momentum of the platform.
It has also been a while since the iPod line up has changed. Well they did add the color Pink to their iPod Nano line but that hardly counts. Likely there will be a bump in the capacity of iPods and a sorting of the price points.
That leaves the Air. I see a two hundred dollar or more price drop in it’s near future. This is their new big bang in the laptop market, a market they have been gaining in. The design is bold and it’s technical features are striking but these are overshadowed by the reality of it’s current price. Let’s compare it to a similarly configured black Macbook.
| processor (ghz) | ram (gb) | storage (gb) | thickness (in) | wight (lbs) | price | w/ drive | |
| Air | 1.6 | 2 | 60 | 0.76 | 3 | $1,799 | $1898 |
| Macbook Black | 2.2 | 2 | 160 | 1.08 | 5 | $1,649 | $1649 |
| MB Black savings | 38% faster | 0% | 167% more | 42% thicker | 67% heaver | 8% cheaper | 13% cheaper |
As you can see you get a better performing computer for 13% less than the price of the Air. The air is two pounds lighter and a bit thinner but it’s a much less powerful system. The one thing that every one has said about the Air is that if it was a few hundred dollars less they would consider buying one but as it costs now they won’t.
The weeks that follow will tell if my guesses will show to be true.