Categories
Opinion

What’s in it for Apple? A financial outlook:

Let me preface this article by saying that I am by no means an expert in finance, risk calculation, or the current state of the stock market. That said, I think there has been a lot of jumbled advice being thrown around about Apple (AAPL) in the past few weeks, and I mean to throw in my two cents about the company with a little bit more resolve. Take it how you please.

Apple Stock 2009 to 2013

As most investors know, for the last 4 years Apple has been an incredibly profitable company to invest in, provided you invested correctly.  The stock was at a 52-week low in 2009 at about $90, shooting up to a high of $705 in 2012. However, since 2012, the stock price has plummeted to what seems an improbable low of around $450 for what once was the most valuable company in the world. Provided you bought apple in 2009 and sold in 2012, you would have made 780% of your initial investment. But what caused Apple to shed over 35% of its value over the last few months? That is the most important step to figuring out what to do with the stock.

I’d like you to picture Apple in 10 years. Go ahead; close your eyes and picture where you see the white knight in the year 2023.

For some, Apple is dead. Crushed under the weight of behemoth companies such as Samsung in a rivalry for market share, without its captain of creativity, Steve Jobs, at the vanguard – unable to compete in an increasingly competitive market. For others, whom I like to call the ‘dreamers,’ Apple has regained its near monopoly in the gadget market, despite no longer being the clear leader for high tech niche products.

I am currently sided with the former opinion in the long-run, as much as I’d like to be a dreamer. However, in the short- to-medium run (the next few months), I’m actually quite optimistic about Apple. Provided Apple doesn’t throw a curveball at investors, I see Apple rising moderately through these unstable times. From March 13th to March 22nd, Apple consistently beat out companies such as Google (GOOG) and Dell (DELL) and made gains on bearish days where almost every tech company fell in value. Popular opinion has Apple at a ‘tentative buy,’ and other sources advocate a vehement avoidance of the company. Why am I buying Apple?

Well, we should look to two reasons: trends and context.

Trend-wise, Apple looks good. The company has fallen from it’s previous high but looks to be on track for some serious gains. Context-wise, Apple has been facing serious rivalry from Samsung, but I believe the current overwhelming popularity of the iPhone in countries such as China is not adequately reflected in its stock price. Therefore, I believe the company is undervalued, and is a “buy.”

However, I’d like to remind you that I’m talking short-run to medium-run here, meaning over the next month or two, I expect Apple’s stock to reach  500 to 550 dollars a share, which is when I will sell, ceteris paribus.

After that, I likely won’t be touching the company with a 50-foot pole, depending on the exact circumstances of the company’s outlook.

 

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of Therealmacgenius.com. However, we encourage you to take caution with your investments and therefore we hold no liability in losses. Material taken from this article is to be cited as from Therealmacgenius.com. Stock graph extracted from Yahoo! Finance 2013.

Categories
News

Apple Increases PC Marketshare with iPad

iPad mini
Apple’s iPad mini

According to a report released by the research firm Canalys on February 6th, one in six PCs shipped in Q4 2012 was an iPad. iPads make up a third of worldwide PC shipments in Q4 2012. The worldwide PC shipments also increased to 134 million units, a 12% year-to-year increase.

Apple, like before, continued to lead the PC market, shipping 27 million units and holding a 20% share of the PC market. Apple is followed by HP, which shipped 15 million PCs and took an 11% share of the PC market. Lenovo also shipped about 15 million PCs and also took an 11% share as well. Samsung shipped 11.7 million PCs and took a 9% share. Dell is in fifth place, shipping only 9.7 million PCs. Dell is declining but the potential buyout may change things.

Apple showed strong demand for the iPad mini, but Apple’s pad share dipped to 49% in Q4. Amazon’s worldwide pad shipments grew 18% to 4.6 million along with Samsung’s shipment increasing 226% to 7.6 million pads. With Amazon and Samsung’s increase in popularity, 46% of the pad share is Android-based pads.

With Android increasing it’s tablet market share, Apple has more to worry about in terms of competitors. Nonetheless, Apple’s iPad mini has helped Apple remain competitive and not lose its popularity in the tablet market.

Feel free to leave questions or comments!

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Categories
Average Joe's Tips

Tips to Take Advantage Of: iCal

Invite Friends to Events

  • Sending event notifications to friends is as simple as typing in their email. When making a new calendar event simply type your friend or families email into the Invitees section (located under Alert) and it will send them an email containing the event information. Your friend can choose wether to accept or decline. If your friend or family accepts it will show a check mark next to the name.

Quickly Create an Event

  • To create an event quickly just click the “+” button or “command” + “n.” When creating an event keep in mind iCals new smart feature where it can tell what time to set an even if you put in phrases like “on Saturday at 7am until 10am.” This helps to create less havoc when creating many events, so that you do not have to go through the monotonus work of adding times, dates, alerts, and many other things.

Heat Map

  • The heat map is a cool new feature that when in the Yearly calendar viewing mode you can see the days when you have the most things going on. The heat map is a helpful visual for what is coming ahead in the year.

 

 

 

Add Accounts

  • I had done this tip previously about a year ago, but I feel that this tip is important enough that it can be restated. Todo this go into iCal Preferences. Then go to the Accounts section and select the “+” button on the left side. Then to add an account fill in the information. For example, my account type is Google, then I fill in my Google email, and password because that is the account I want to sync. This account sync will also work with Yahoo and iCloud. Something to note is that if you are trying to sync your Google calendar with iCal then under the Google account you will need to go into delegations, then select the calendar categories you would like to add. Also, when creating a new event to sync this with the account, goto the section that says Calender on

Set Full Screen

  • Setting full-screen mode is very simple. Just like any other application goto the top right of iCal and click the expand buttons. To get out of full-screen mode just goto the top menu bar and click the retracting arrows.
Categories
News

The iPad mini

On October 23, 2012, Apple released the new iPad mini. It is said to be 23% thinner and 53% lighter than the previous iPad. It starts at $329 for a 16 GB Wi-Fi model. It is also available in 32GB and 64GB and in Wi-Fi + Cellular models. There are two color choices: Black & Slate and White & Silver. The iPad mini is very similar to the iPad, except that it is a lot lighter and can easily be held in the palm of your hand, like other tablets in the market, mostly those running Android OS. Can the iPad mini compete? Some of the features of the iPad mini are nothing new to those who have seen or used an iPad before. It has the standard built-in apps such as FaceTime, Email, and Message, and it also has access to the App Store, which houses over 275,000 iPad apps. In terms of tech specs, it uses the fast A5 chip that provides speed and fluidity to the tablet screen. It is stated to have a 10-hour battery life as well. One feature specific to Apple products is FaceTime. It is a built-in app and can be used over Wi-Fi or cellular data. While using the iPad mini, you can take advantage of the front-facing FaceTime HD camera or the iSight camera on the rear. The iSight camera even lets you capture videos in 1080p HD and takes full advantage of the 5-megapixels to capture photos. The iPad mini features dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, which means faster Internet connection with download speeds up to 150 Mbps. If you do get the Wi-Fi + Cellular model, you also have access to LTE, HSPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPDA, and cellular and wireless networks. nude pics DaddyDom919 The iPad mini also comes with Siri: the intelligent assistant, iCloud: Apple’s cloud service, and iOS 6: the most recent and advanced of Apple’s operating systems. However, the most recent iPad contains these features, so the iPad mini is essentially only a miniature third generation iPad. It has the same resolution as the previous iPad, 1024×768, but has a smaller screen to pack all those pixels. On the downside, it doesn’t have the Retina Display that most iPads have. It does have the same front and rear camera as the iPad with Retina Display, but lacks the Dual-core A6X with quad-core graphics, meaning slightly slower performance. For approximately $170 cheaper, you can get a miniature version of the newest iPad with slightly less advanced tech specs. Whether it can compete against the iPad with Retina Display or other similar tablets, has yet to be determined. Your best bet is to go to the nearest Apple Store and try it out yourself. Who knows, you may end up walking out with a brand new iPad mini.[Image Source]

Categories
News

Apple iOS 6 to come this fall

Apple has announced that this fall, iOS 6 will be released. Most current iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users will end up upgrading to iOS 6 in hopes of new features, and we hope that Apple doesn’t let us down. Based on what Apple has announced so far, most people are excited to get iOS 6 on their devices and take advantage of the newest features. I will go over some of the new features that Apple has announced so far.

The first thing that iOS 6 will provide is an upgrade for the Maps app. For those who have used the Maps app on previous iOS, they will notice that Apple has completely redesigned the app and has made it much more vivid and detailed. The new Maps app also provided turn-by-turn directions and offers different routes if traffic conditions have changed. Maps uses real-time traffic conditions to help you avoid traffic accidents and slowdowns. The app also has a 3D view of major areas that gives you a very clear image of the location you are viewing. Siri works well with Maps to help you get to your destination. You can even tap a pin on the map and view different information about that location, especially with the integration of Yelp into the Maps app.

Siri has also been improved. Siri works in more countries, understands more languages, and will now be available on the new iPad. You can tell Siri to look up the scores for a sports game, look up movie show times, find local restaurants, and even tweet or update your Facebook. Siri can even launch apps for you.  Apple is also working on getting Siri integrated in cars, a feature called Eyes Free. This will allow you to press a button on your steering wheel to communicate to Siri and allow you to call people, select music, text message your friends, and much more, without even lighting up the device’s screen.

Facebook will now be integrated into iOS 6. You can share photos from your Camera or Photos app, post your location from Maps, post your score from Game Center, integrate your friend’s profile information into Contacts and integrate events into Calendars.  Facebook is now part of every aspect of your device and you can even click the Like button in iTunes and the App Store. Not only are Apple apps integrated with Facebook, non-Apple apps can also connect to Facebook. This update is definitely going to be attract those who use Facebook frequently to post updates and pictures because it adds even more convenience to the use of mobile applications.

iOS 6 also gives you the option to Share photos from the Photos app with friends and family. If they are using iCloud on an iOS 6 device or a Mac running OS X Mountain Lion, the photos you share with them are delivered straight to their Photos app or iPhoto.  People can even like or comment it, similar to Facebook. If you want to share it with someone who doesn’t have an iOS 6 device or Mac running OS X Mountain Lion, they can view it on the web on the iCloud website.

A new application that Apple is adding is Passbook. Passbook is your organizer that replaces a wallet for coupons, tickets, boarding passes, etc. Passbook also takes advantage of time and location to coupons and passes will appear on your lock screen when it is appropriate, like when you are about to reach the airport or walk into the store where you will use the coupon. Airplane tickets also update if the airline announced changes. Passbook provides convenience in one simple application. The only problem is that companies need to support the app for it to be useful.

Apple has finally announced the use of FaceTime over cellular networks, instead of only Wi-Fi. This means you can FaceTime with your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and Mac, wherever you are as long as you have Wi-Fi or a cellular network. This feature is something I would have expected of FaceTime previously, but it’s better late than never.

iOS 6 also improves the Phone app. This improvement will be very useful for those using the iPhone.  The new feature gives you the option to send a preset text message or custom text message if you can’t answer a call. You can also set a time- or location-based reminder to alert you to call someone back. There is also a Do Not Disturb setting that will silence all incoming calls and notifications for a certain period of time or schedule, depending what you choose. It can even allow calls from specific people but silence the rest. This provides you with a whole new set of features for your iPhone.

With iOS 6, even the Mail and Safari app is updated. In the Mail app, you can set up a VIP list for important contacts. When you receive an email from someone on your VIP list, there will be a notification on your lock screen and those emails can be found in your VIP mailbox. Apple has made it easier to add photos and videos with just a few taps and allows you to use the swipe down to refresh your mailbox. Safari now has iCloud Tabs to keep track of webpages open on any device connected to your iCloud account. Safari also saves webpages in your Reading List so you can view them while not connected to the Internet. You can also post a photo or video from your Camera Roll or take a photo or video to post without even leaving Safari.

There are many new features on the new iOS, but some features will also be removed. Something of note is that Apple will remove the YouTube app with the update of iOS 6. Its license with Google to include the YouTube app has expired, but Google is already developing a standalone app for the Apple App Store. This isn’t a major difference but may be taken as a move by Apple to deviate away from Google apps.

With all these new features with the coming of iOS 6, who can wait? Improvements to many of the apps already provided by the previous iOS will make a big impact on the user experience. I’m definitely going to upgrade to iOS 6. The most exciting thing about iOS 6 for me is the new features with Maps and Phone, and the use of Passbooks. What are you looking forward too?

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