Isaac Newton's AAPL

Sir Isaac Newton was sitting under a tree when an apple fell and hit him on the head.  He suddenly had a great insight.
"I am going to rethink buying Apple.  Both the product and the stock."

There was a confluence of reasons.

1.  While Apple admits to missing out on Netflix, there is no mention of Time Warner.  It was reported on CNBC that Apple discussed the idea in 2015.  However, I wrote the article 11 February 2013. 

AAPL + FB Should buy AOL, Time Warner, CNN


2.  Apple is planning to go into Original Content.  Then, too, so is everyone else.  They missed a base to build on.  Did AT&T lose money on buying Time Warner?

3. Samsung announces a new foldable phone. Actually, this is not a cell phone.  This is a computer. And, Samsung announced 5G.  The news reports?  Apple will be coming out with its own 5G.  Ho hum.

4. I posed the question, "What happens when a Chinese tech company announces the launch of the Pomegranate? About 60 years ago, the pomegranate was known as a Chinese Apple.  I started out in life as "an English Major". I would call that foreshadowing. 

5. Tim Cook is touting the Apple Watch.  A fine piece of equipment.  However, does it work independently or does it require an i-Phone?

6.  Tim Cook chose to distance himself from data-gather-security-issues claiming we make machines. In the next breath, he announced a move into health care.  This, I understand, requires Apple to gather and retain every personal, medical, and financial aspect of everyone's life. 

7.  While the health care is a fine strategic move, losing out on 5G, competition in the phone business, competition from China, losing out on "content", and moving into credit cards with Goldman Sachs impugns the veracity of Tim Cook's claim on personal data.

A few more articles about Apple

Newton's AAPL

Polish the Skin Off AAPL

Apple, Google, Facebook, India

And the Winner Is...

AAPL Meets Hollywood



Regards,
Slim

If you find anything here to be helpful, please don't hesitate to send me a really tricked out Google Pixelbook [or an Apple Mac Book--I will keep an open mind.] and to tuck a few dollars into the envelope along with the thank you note.
Sincerely,
Slim.

Bob Asken
Box 33
Pen Argyl, PA 18072

Copyright (c) 2019 Bob Asken
All Rights Reserved

Is Facebook Really a Tech Stock?

Is Facebook really a tech stock?

It is more like one of the most successful business models since Television itself.

Call it Techcast.

Watch programmes.

Watch the advertisements.

Analogous to Television shows,

Watch the show,

watch the commercials.

Then came Market segmentation.

Now?

Turn on the i-phone,

tune in to your favourite programmes,

watch the "commercials" (I think they call them digital ads now)

Buy Doritos on Amazon.

Remember, "the cord" ends at the front door.

There needs to be a major adjustment in the industry to benefit from the new paradigm.

Facebook is leading the way.

1.  The Corporate Parabola:

Apple Meets Hollywood.

How do I know it happens?
It always does.


2.  Transforming Technology & Money

Ad Revenues & the Media 


3.  The Media Middleman

Market Dis Satisfaction


4.  Clix v. Brix & Cord Cutters

Mob Technology: Retail & the Media

The inability to see the change coming.


(If you find anything here to be helpful, please don't hesitate to send me a really tricked out MacPro or I-Pad and to tuck a few dollars into the envelope along with the thank you note.


Warmest regards,

Slim

slimfairview@yahoo.com

slimviews@gmail .com  


Copyright (c) 2016 Bob Asken
All rights reserved.

Upscale Buggy Whips

      
     Through the magic of metaphor: years ago, my great, great grandfather, Pap pap Fairview, known to his friends as Old Slimviews behind his back,  was in the custom-made, upscale buggy whip business.  (Not really. This is merely a fictive device to introduce the metaphor.)  

      As time moved forward, the motor-car appeared.  And the market for custom-made, upscale buggy whips began to whither.  Well, Pap-pap knew he had to do something.  He called a meeting of all his managers to announce that the industry was in jeopardy.  That he had to move with the times.

      "Times are changing.  We either move with the times or go out of business.  The motor car is encroaching on our industry, our customers.  Therefore, I went out and invested in some knew equipment.  As much as I am loathe to do it, I am going into mass-production buggy whips.  With mass costs will plunge, prices will fall, we will outfox our competitors.  With low cost buggy whips, folks’ll be flocking back into the buggy-wagon showrooms and we’ll be doing a booming business. Besides, the motor-car is just a passing fad.  A noisy smelly toy for the rich.  It’ll never replace the horse.” 

     The rest is history.  And now you know why I have to work for a living.  But I digress. 

     The joke is in the way I said it. Not in what I said.

     The Media, Marketing, and Advertising industries are using an old paradigm to address the latest advances in technology, shift in demographics, and changes in market demands and consumer taste.

     Read the following:

     Mob Technology: Retail & the Media

     Apple Meets Hollywood

     Ad Revenues & the Media   

     Market Dis Satisfaction

     Read Sandy Richardson's Book

     Warmest regards,

     Slim.

     slimviews@gmail.com 

     slimfairview@yahoo.com

     

     Copyright (c) 2016 Bob Asken

     All rights reserved.

Market Dis Satisfaction

I could have called it customer dissatisfaction, but the media might feel that this does not pertain to them.  Therefore, 

I will begin with the ending.

***********************

Media Middleman 

A few years ago I said, “Newspapers are in the advertising business. They sell ad space to advertisers and sell advertisements to the readers.  However, people won’t spend a dollar or two for advertising, so newspapers give away the news as an inducement to buy the ads.

Television works on the same paradigm. “You sell commercial time to the advertisers, and sell commercials to the viewers.  However, as the viewers won’t pay for commercials, you give away the TV shows as an inducement to watch the commercials.  

When that business model is disrupted, your company and your industry are endangered.

Now!

Younger audiences are buying (paying for) games, apps, or downloading free apps. They are not watching your programs—the inducement to watch commercials is losing all potency.

************************************** Back to the article already in progress.

Deny it all you want, have the public relations department issue any statement making any claims, however, this paradigm is valid. Why? Because it focuses on the customer.

The customer believes that you may care about your customers, however, both you and the customer know that the customers do not care about any one customer.  For example: If Charlie is unhappy with your goods or services, you will try to make it right. If he is still unhappy he will take his business elsewhere.  However, you have many satisfied customers who do not care about Charlie.  Your business will go on. Unless…

You lose your market, your market share, revenue stream and so on.  This brings us to…

The Media. 

While watching old videos of recorded TV programmes, I realised there weren’t many commercials.

Market Segmentation

1.  When you go from 10 to 50 to 150 television stations you will lose market share.

2.  Advertisers have smaller audiences. Advertisers want to pay less for ad time.

3.  Regardless of the cause of downward pressure on the revenue stream, you increase the number of commercials. This for revenue enhancement.

4.  You reduce customer satisfaction or increase customer dissatisfaction.

  

5. There is an interim pushback.

6. The VCR and TIVO ® are invented to time shift the viewing experience and to allow commercials by-pass.

7. There is a major shift in the entire industry paradigm.

Today, the market has shifted but the suppliers are using an old model to understand it, to respond to it, and to profit from it.

1. The delivery system has changed.

2. The market demographic has changed.

3. Consumer demand (taste) has changed.

Viewers are now on:

Computers

I Pads

I Phones

And so on.

A growing segment is now “streaming”.  The [real] translation: A growing segment is not watching “television” and the incumbent commercials to pay for it.

NB.  Remember!  The “cord” goes only as far as the front door.

Just as many are predicting that the newspaper as we know it will cease to exist being replaced by digital, the television sets may be reduced to “entertainment occasions”.  

For example: 

Super Bowl, 

World Series,

March Madness, 

Man U. v. Liverpool or 

Movie Nights.  

We must now ask, is that Flat Screen TV compatible with that i-phone; with i-phone technology?  

Look at modern trends.

Young people are spending money on gadgets and eating out instead of clothes.

Mall traffic is down. (Some figures put it at 40%)

Amazon has penetrated the Wal-Mart Market.  (Wal-Mart is closing stores, and Amazon is going great guns,)

Young audiences are streaming.

The result of all this is that advertisers are moving, or trying to move, with the times to reach consumers to drive sales up, to drive revenues up in order to stay in business.  

Of course, the advertisers will have an easier job if corporate remembers 

Marketing: Find a Need & Fill It. 

Mall Real Estate is poised (positioned nicely) to be repurposed.   

This will reduce the downward pressure on revenue streams that arise from rising city rents; the repurpose will increase foot-traffic thus answering any business renter’s prime question.

“Will I have customers?”

The Difference?

I am an expendable customer.  If I don’t like your products or services and I take my business to another "store". The Point?  The other customers don’t care. 

The other "store" is the threat.

You sell black and white television sets. Your competitor sells colour television sets. You lose not one but many customers, market share, and revenues. You change your product line or go out of business.  

Does that sound contrived? Simplistic?

Silent Films v. Talkies

Black and White television programs v. color.

35 millimeter v. Digital Cameras v. i-phone Cameras.

Media Middleman 

A few years ago I said, “Newspapers are in the advertising business. They sell ad space to advertisers and sell advertisements to the readers.  However, people won’t spend a dollar or two for advertising, so newspapers give away the news as an inducement to buy the ads.

Television works on the same paradigm. 

“You sell commercial time to the advertisers. You sell commercials to the viewers.   

However, the viewers won’t pay for commercials, therefor you give away the TV shows as an inducement to watch the commercials.   

When that business model is disrupted, your company and your industry are endangered.

 

 

Now!

Younger audiences are buying (paying for) games, apps, or downloading free apps. They are not watching your programs.  

The inducement to watch commercials is losing all potency.

If you find any of this to be helpful, please don’t hesitate to send me a really tricked out MacPro or i-Pad and to tuck a few dollars into the envelope along with the thank you note.

Warmest regards,

Slim

slimfairview@yahoo.com

Copyright © 2016 Bob Asken

All rights reserved.