Reuters: “High iPhone price spooks investors, Apple shares drop”
“Investors were put off that Apple’s price point didn’t go low enough to attract a new market. It doesn’t have the same range in price that Apple’s competitors have,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia, which manages about $58 billion in assets.
Obviously they missed the point of the event entirely. Ben Thompson of Statechery summed up what Apple was actually saying with their iPhone event thusly:
No, we will NOT compete on price, we will offer something our competitors can’t match.
No, we are NOT selling a phone, we are selling an experience.
No, we will NOT be cheap, but we will be cool.
No, you in the tech press and on Wall Street do NOT understand Apple, but we believe that normal people love us, love our products, and will continue to buy, start to buy, or aspire to buy.
Oh, and Samsung? Damn straight people line up for us. 20 million for a concert. “It’s like a product launch.”
Naturally, it’s not seen that way on a bunch of tech blogs or with the Wall Street Analysts Douche Parade, because that’s just how they play their game. Of course, if I was running Apple, I’d try to build up a giant reserve of cash, announce a stock buyback program, and work over the next few years to snatch back as much of my stock as possible in order to either raise the value of it considerably or pack it up and go private.