Briefly:
- I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I am often well out front of my headlights. I am often appropriately accused of hyperbole when it comes to the Bakken.
- I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
- I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.
- See disclaimer. This is not an investment site.
- Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.
- All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.
- If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them.
- Many posts are not proofread for several days after they've been posted.
- Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken, US economy, and the US market.
- I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple.
- And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution.
- I've now added Broadcom to the disclaimer. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Broadcom.
- And Oracle.
- Longer version here.
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Apple -- AAPL
I just updated my iPhone (an older model) with the latest IOS version. Updating was incredibly simple. Apple notified me that an upgrade was available. I plugged my phone in to a charger because that is recommended when upgrading the iPhone IOS. The upgrade was accomplished in less than a minute and appears to be working flawlessly. I was surprised. I now have "liquid glass."
When Tim Cook introduced Liquid Glass earlier this year I was disappointed thinking that my older hardware would not be "eligible" for the upgrade. But I was wrong; it was. And unlike new products with Microsoft, there was no charge, free, subscription required for this upgrade. and it wasn't pushed to me without my consent, unlike, also, a lot of Microsoft upgrades.
Due to an incredible amount of Apple turnover in the past six months to two years, there will be a lot of volatility in AAPL stock, mostly trending lower.
Analysts, investors, and traders who become concerned / bearish on Apple / AAPL during this period -- the next two years -- simply do not understand Apple.
Analysts generally overestimate and overthink the Apple AI issue. The real problem Apple hardware and firmware has is this: it all works so well together and it works "forever."
My only desktop is the 27-inch iMac that Apple no longer makes. That iMac was released in 2009 and is the mainstay for my streaming while working in the Bat Cave. I doubt that the operating system can take any more updates, but for streaming, Facetime, Zoom, YouTube -- in other words, everything I need -- works perfectly on that old, old iMac. Google search says the entry-level price when introduced was $1,699. I don't recall what I paid for my 27-inch iMac but I doubt I paid that much. One can still buy that 27-inch iMac on eBay -- they generally go for $250 to 399, but I see one is going for $35 plus $98 for shipping.
My iPad Pro, 13-inch, 3rd generation was released in late 2018, and for me there is no need to upgrade. Seven years old. Wow.
Apple needs folks to keep upgrading their existing hardware and when what you have works so well and so long, it's hard to come up with a reason to upgrade.
Low hanging fruit but really, really difficult to break the glass: getting the MacBook Pro or MacBok Air into the business community. With the new MacBook Air, M4, 13-inch / 15-inch edition and the new MacBook Pro, M5, 14-inch / 16-inch, Apple may have just succeeded, at leas to some extent. The two new laptops (the Pro and the Air) look like they were styled with the business community in mind. The Pro comes in two colors only -- silver and space black. The Air comes in four colors, including Trump's favorite color (gold) and midnight. The "black" laptops are stunning, to say the least. And the Apple logo is practically invisible in the "black" laptops. That's a huge selling point for those using laptops on the air.
No other company has the business model that Apple has.
No other company has more customer loyalty than Apple. I am unable to think of any company with an active device install base of Apple's magnitude that has the brand loyalty that Apple has.
Apple's active device install base surpassed 2.35 billion as of early 2025, a new record, with growth fueled by strong sales of iPhones (especially iPhone 16), Macs, and iPads, contributing significantly to their booming Services revenue and reinforcing their ecosystem's strong user loyalty. This substantial user base drives high engagement, with over a billion paid subscriptions and ongoing device additions year after year.
With regard to hardware, there is only one competitor to Apple's iPhone.
With regard to hardware, no other company can compete with Apple's MacBook Pro and Air lineup. When "Android" users switch, for whatever reason, to Apple MacBook Pro and/or Air, they never go back to "Android."
With regard to CPUs, no other company can compete with the pace of change that Apple has with its M-line of chips. In addition, Apple keeps it simple. Quick: name the leading chips that Intel is manufacturing. For the laptop, Apple has one CPU line-up: the M-chip or the M-series.
Android laptops are slapped together in the same business model as they were in the 1980s. Apple has taken a different path, and it turns, out, a much, much better path.
The talent at Apple runs very, very deep. The turnover at the top is good. It prevents talent at lower levels from jumping ship. In some / many / most cases, those in the trenches are more than happy to see some of the "old" managers leaving.
It's hard to imagine Tim Cook retiring at this point, but it is expected that he, too, will depart in 2026.
I'm not convinced Steve Jobs could have navigated the Trump headwinds as well as Tim Cook has done.
I don't have plans to acquire more AAPL stock as I am so overweight in AAPL. However, I'm not precluding a new share of AAPL every now and then.
It's possible to have more than one iPhone with the same telephone number though it's "cumbersome" to get the configurations to work simply, quickly, and intuitively. I'm still waiting for Apple and the telephone companies to solve that problem.
When we get into our automobile and turn on the "radio," the "radio" immediately -- through CarPlay -- connects to the iPhone. I mean immediately and seamlessly. If there are two or more active iPhones in the car, the system connects to the iPhone that is most often used. It's all wireless and one can easily jump from one iPhone to another.
GM has decided not to employ iPhone but rather their own proprietary system. If I was searching for a new car that would not be a deal breaker, but I think after owning one non-iPhone/non-CarPlay automobile, I would swear never to buy a non-CarPlay automobile again. CarPlay is just so incredibly awesome. Of the major automobile manufacturers only Rivian, Tesla, and GM do not offere CarPlay, and unfortunately newer Germany luxury brands Mercedes Benz and BMW and Swedish Volvo are "backing" out of the new CarPlay Ultra, their older models still carry CarPlay.
As I write all this, I can't name one product that I rely on more than a cellular phone. Obviously I need a place to live, but I think if forced to make a choice between an automobile and a cellular phone, I would have to choose the cellular phone. There are many folks in NYC, I am told, that do not have a driver's license.
Anyway, enough of this. Time to move on.
