Bobbing For Apple

The other big news of the day is that Apple is bobbing under $400, and Mr. Market seems irritated. Mr. Market will, eventually, figure out that Apple stopped being a computer company years ago. Today, they're a toy company, just like Mattel, although it's P/E is more than twice Apple as I type. As of their last 10-Ks, both held about 10% of assets in physical capital.

Jobs was deemed a God for bringing Apple out of the desert, but in doing so, he morphed Apple from computer company to computer-driven appliance company. "Mobile computing" is an oxymoron, and the pundits should have known better. As a toy company, it is constrained by discretionary income of the middle class. Oops! They ain't no mo. Without a new, at least for Apple, toy, there's hell to pay. One should note that Apple hasn't invented any of the platforms it exploits. Jobs' strength was convincing the masses that the Apple version of some existing device was not only superior to others, but that it had made a whole new class of device. And those with more money than brains lapped it up.

What Apple needs is P. T. Barnum.