Happy Birthday to Tito Renato Ligon aka T. Rene!!! I’m glad we can be together to celebrate this milestone in your life! You’re one of the most eccentric, vibrant and fascinating 70 year olds I’ve ever met!

Off to Eastwood Lipis to dine at T. Vic-Vic VillaVicencio’s Something Fishy for the birthday celebration and a Ligon Reunion!

Short Post.

Apple Close 03/09/2010: $352.47

I found these two links interesting regarding the battle which will begin on March 11, 2011 with the debut of iPad2:

• Behind the Motorola Xoom pricing: Too many cooks in the kitchen?

• TECH VIEW: How The IPad 2 Could Cost More Than The Xoom
  

Outlook: Melancholic – who’s deflating the bull ? ? ?

Congrats Chang. You get your own YouTube play list.  Can you guess the theme?

Blame it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfjtpp90lu8

One more drink:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzZFE-9gb7Q

Wasted:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qql0Yi4DxU

Shots:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNtTEibFvlQ

Bonus Track:

Drake – Money to Blow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjNBC4mC5y4

Drake – Money to Blow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjNBC4mC5y4

Ray J: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeVOnHce37Y

I’m somewhat happy again:  Apple Stock (AAPL) is back to a healthy rise.

03/03/2011 Close: $ 359.56

Yesterday, March 2, 2011, marked the announcement of the iPad 2 from Apple. That device looks pretty spiffy!

I’m seriously encouraged by Eric Savitz coverage of Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster prediction that Apple moves into Connected Televisions. I was on a Celebrity X Cruise in November 2010 and I was surprised and impressed to see that the pictures taken by the various photographers on-board were available on the telly. The operating system and navigation were provided by Apple.

Outlook: Go baby go!!!  See you at $360! Better yet $365!  (However, there seems to be a direct correlation between the stock going down and my Xanga posts)

Argh! Apple Freefall Alert!

So is it time to buy more? Sit tight? …or just freak-out?

The Apple (AAPL) stock has been victim to many rumors (Job’s health, product delays, etc.), which somehow have had a negative effect on the stock price. In addition, I’m not encouraged by the number of sell-offs in Q4/2010 from hedge-funds.

Maybe I’ll just do nothing and wait as advised by Mad Money’s Jim Cramer.  I’m afraid of catching the falling knife. So I have some new trading rules:

1. Never buy (call) options without a clear exit point.
2. Never buy options on your mobile smartphone — this is a real dumb move, especially when you forget to follow up on the order on a full-blown web-browser with more information.
3. Never buy options close to the expiration date of the current month.

Current Stock Price
Feb 22, 2011 $338.61

Shares Outstanding: 921.3M

Feb 16, 2011 $363.13  Market Cap: $334,551,669,000
Feb 22, 2011 $338.61  Market Cap: $311,961,393,000

Estimated Market Cap Loss ($22,590,276,000)

I think losing $22.5 billion with a “B” in less than a week, qualifies as a pretty bad week. But the week ain’t over. Thankfully my theoretical loss is not in the billions!

Links to Analyst Reports

• “Tablet boom to bust already? Think again.” Let the 2011 Tablet Wars begin! I’m confident Apple is one of the clear winners of the Tablet Platform war. Just looking at our internal development efforts on this particular platform (and with no active development on Android), it’s clear Apple is the vehicle of choice.

Statistics on Unit Sales By Quarter/Year
The iPad 2 Launch is scheduled for March 2, 2011.

+27M Units 2011 – Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt (see article at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/41716676 )
~15M Units 2010 – Sold by Apple

Other:

Why Apple Doesn’t Pay a Dividend:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Why-Apple-Isnt-Paying-a-fool-4124682572.html?x=0&.v=1

Personal Outlook

Negative. I was completely wrong last week. Like a turtle, I will hide in a shell and hope the beating stops!

I’ve recently become obsessed with the Apple stock (AAPL) of late. {Primarily because I hold long positions on the stock.} So I’ve decided to start capturing a few things in this new series of blog posts dedicated to Apple.

• Current Stock Price
• Links to Analyst Reports
• Statistics on Unit Sales By Quarter/Year
• Estimates and Predictions from Apple/Analysts
• Competitors / Industry Trends
• Personal Outlook

Here’s a link to Apple’s fiscal 2011 First Quarter results. ( http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/01/18results.html )

Stock Price:

• 02/16/11 Close:  $363.14

Revenue/Profit/Margin:

• $26.74B / $6B / 38.5% 2011 compared to $15.68B / $3.38B / 40.9% 2010
• 62% of Q1 Revenue from international sales
• These numbers are mind-blowing.  Year over year growth, profitability, and margin numbers are beautiful. Apple the World is your Oyster!!!

Unit Sales:

• 4.13M Macs Q1/2011 23% YoY Increase
• 16.24M  iPhones Q1/2011 86% YoY Increase
• 19.45M iPods Q1/2011 7% YoY Decrease
• 7.33M iPads Q1/2011

I think these historical Q1 numbers are meaningful in two ways. It helps me understand some of the Analyst predictions for 2011. It helps set the context for how the competitors are doing in the laptop, smartphone, and tablet computing categories. The latest fiasco is the news for Nokia (NOK) choosing Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Mobile as their operating system of choice. This marriage of giants will have a long incubation cycle.  Nokia has the most to lose in this relationship. Microsoft finally gets an ally in the hardware/handset market for a questionable mobile platform.

Outlook:

• Bullish
• I’m expecting AAPL to break the $365 barrier next week and push in to the $370′s by mid-March. I certainly didn’t feel that way last Thursday 02/10/2011 when the intra-day low was at $348. The general stock market has been really good to investors in the last 6 months – maybe longer.  Everything seems up and positive.

A special thank you to Damon for sending me tons of information on the Apple topic. I’m not able to able to consume or action it at times, but it’s provocative reading when I finally get around to it. 

It’s funny to see that the same hesitation and doubt I had in March of 2009 has not really disappeared almost 2 years later. The AAPL stock on March 18, 2009 crossed the $100 threshold and I questioned its ability to move past that floor/ceiling. I was wrong then. I don’t plan on letting that continue.

Some of my favorite tracks…

Smoovie Baby Ft. Nolan Frazier: Blowin’ Up My Phone (Ring Ring)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFbQtGJL45Q

Crime Mob: Rock Yo Hips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXm3tr5O64k

Chris Brown, Busta Rhymes & Lil Wayne: Look At Me Now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjEyqH8lQaw 

Jeremih & 50 Cent: Down On Me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHh2rreLR4s

Bonus Tracks:

Kafani: She Ready Now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqDLuOD_dhM 

Lloyd Banks: Beamer Benz or Bently

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnHlfhKqoJs

Lil Wayne: 6 Foot 7 Foot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4jGiMKx850

Jamie Foxx Ft Rick Ross - Living Better Now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VI3oRWBqgE

Quote of the Day:

Do not go where the path may lead; Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are other gems on the above link.

• “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
• “For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.”
• “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.”

hi there!

i’ve manged to never try an Amazon Kindle until tonight. cool device. easy to read and navigate. its easier to blog on this than an ipad!

tonight was the company xms party, a quick visit with mafe, anna, and audry, and a trip to the East Bay for a reunion with the Ligon Clan.

cheers and happy holiday!