One Trick Pony?

Apple stock has hit a new high … again. Sales are up, Macs are showing up in more homes than ever, iPhones are everywhere, and things are super fantastic in Apple land. Are we getting a little ahead of ourselves here. While stock owners are smiling ear to ear, analysts are a little more critical. Has Apple become a one trick pony? Sure, Macs and Macbooks are being bought up by consumers but overall Macs makeup a small percentage of overall computer sales. The bulk of the revenue is coming from iPhones. How many more iPhones can Apple continue to sell? Eventually the market will become saturated and increased competition from Android phones will only bring down the Apple train.

Another concerning factor was the less than spectacular sales numbers of iPods. An 8% drop from the previous year. Quite a significant drop. Despite being the clear leader in portable media device less people are buying iPods. For a while Apple’s newer versions brought something new to the table but the latest iPods seems to have stalled in the innovation department.

Bottom line, sales numbers are up. That’s good but Apple engineers hopefully are working on the next big thing to give shareholders something to look forward to.

iPods with cameras worth buying? Yes.

Despite my distaste for Apple products I still own an iPod Nano first generation mp3 player. Not because it’s the cool thing to do but because it simply does the best job when it comes to playing, sorting, displaying my music files. I’ve played around with the SanDisk music players, Samsung Yepp (or Yapp, whatever), Archos, and yes even the Zune (which BTW is equally annoying with the Windows Media player tie in). ITunes has to be one of the biggest factors why I don’t like updating my music list.

However all ranting aside, the ipod is the best. My 2GB first generation is still chugging along. The second generation model tempted me, the third no so much, the fourth I almost pulled the trigger several times and now here we are. 5 generations of iPod nano’s later and I don’t think I’ll be able to resist buying another one. An iPod with a camera just makes sense. One could argue why not just buy an iPhone and be done with it. 2 words my friend, data plan. I’m not warm to the idea of spending an extra $25 a month for mobile surfing. If only Rogers wireless could only get better phones then I could be a happy owner of an HTC Hero but I digress.

Apple iPod nano generation 5 with a camera + photos + music + fun times = worth the buy. Darn you Steve Jobs! You’ve tempted me yet again with your irresistible trendy gadgets. Let’s hope it doesn’t explode or catch fire.

Botnets take control of Macs

Did you happen to download that pirated copy of iWork ‘09? No? Then why are you spamming me with your ads for viagra and cialis? A couple of malware programs, OSX.Iservice and OSX.Iservice.B, have proven successful in obtaining passwords to take control of seemingly innocent Macs. Welcome to the party. Reportedly its the first serious attempt at creating an Apple-centric botnet and it’s picking up steam. It’s still early but the code appears to be fairly flexible for future modifications. I guess this won’t be the end of virus and malware programs for Macs. In the meantime, stop downloading torrents and just buy legit software already! (link)

$1 annual salary

Plus expenses (up to $1 million), plus other perks (private jet, home security, chauffeur, etc.), oh and don’t forget stock options. Do Apple shareholders really care about Steve Jobs’ total compensation package? Probably not because he’s Steve Jobs. He’s THE man. What if it was someone else? I’m pretty sure they would care. The whole “$1” is kind of silly. We all know he’s getting paid in other ways but it sure sounds good on paper. However it is important to note that Jobs portfolio lost more than a billion dollars in value during the economic downturn. That’s right, “a billion”. So how much do you make?

Rogers expected to have a good year

Rogers released some year end numbers recently. Their mobile division signed up approximately 200,000 new customers (thanks Apple). Compared to 183,000 last year (who the heck is still buying all of these cell phones?). In other unrelated news Rogers sold about 130,000 iPhones during the 2008 4th quarter (thanks Apple). Those are some good numbers if you’re a Rogers media stockholder. Whoever negotiated that Apple deal is probably getting his own money printing machine. Cha-ching!

Despite the tough economic times Rogers should do well this coming year. All of those new iPhone users and their expensive data plans and all of the other potential customers who drool over their friends’ phones. There are so many impressionable teens out there who don’t even need a data plan or a touch screen phone but will ultimately end up convincing their parents into buying them an iPhone so they can be “cool”. Meanwhile Rogers just keeps counting their money. Forget that Rogers service absolutely sucks. Forget that they’ve been raising prices over the past few years claiming “expensive infrastructure” or “increased service costs”. Plain bullshit. Can we get another player in the Canadian cell phone market with their own towers. Telus/Bell you need not apply.