Macenstein

I’ve been pretty busy lately, mainly trying to beat @marcusmichaels at Tiny Wings (and failing miserably) – so there’s a couple Apple-related things I haven’t gotten a chance to comment on. So let’s fix that.

It’s kind of hard to argue with Jon Bon Jesus

First up:

Jon Bon Jovi says Steve Jobs is “personally responsible for killing the music business”. (link)

I won’t argue that the music industry is dead, but Steve has an alibi – he was making something called the iTunes music store in order to put the “steal all you can eat” Napster out of business at the time so artists and labels could actually get paid – so it couldn’t have been him. If you ask me, the music industry was killed by an angry mob consisting of Ke$ha, the Black Eyed Peas, and the cast of Glee. With a lead pipe. In the Conservatory.

Sure, Bon Jovi may rightfully lament the death of the experience of going to a record store, buying an album of your favorite artist, holding it physically in your hands and flipping through the liner notes while playing it, but how many artists today are capable of putting out a full album’s worth of quality songs? And has Bon Jovi been to a record store lately? They charge about $17 for an album. If I give Jennifer Lopez $17, it’s not going to be to hear her music.

By the way, I get extra points for being the only one to comment on this story without making a “You Give Love a Bad Name” pun.

Apple shares lose billions in stock downgrade (link)
As an Apple stock owner, I’ve long known that nothing causes Apple’s stock price to drop faster than good news. For the past 6 years, every quarter Apple has beat analysts estimates by about 25% or so, and then forecast a conservative (yet still insanely profitable following quarter). Analysts invariably freak out, fearing the Apple pipe dream is finally ending, Apple’s stock goes down 7-12%, then goes up 20% by the time the next quarter’s record-breaking earnings are announced. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

So if 50% gains year over year can cause Apple’s stock price to drop, you can imagine what happened when a Wall Street analyst recently SLAMMED Apple by changing its rating from OUT PERFORM to the Scathing “market perform”.
OUCH!
That’s right, according to this ONE analyst, Apple will only do as well as everyone else in the sector this quarter. Of course, odds are Apple will do a least a little (if not quite a LOT) better than its sector, but we’ll have to wait and see. The interesting thing is this downgrade is not actually based on any inside information on Apple – he based his downgrade on the slowing growth of Hon Hai Precision Industry, a company that makes components and products for Apple. Of course, Apple only accounts for a small portion of Hon Hai’s revenue, but why should that matter? Obviously the Apple Pipe dream is finally over.

Naked Ukranians unbox the iPad2 (link)

The story here isn’t so much that there’s naked chicks unboxing an iPad 2, or even that they are dressed like street-walking mimes. The real question is how did an iPad 2 slip into the Ukraine so quickly?

Ok, just kidding. The real story is in fact that there’s naked chicks unboxing an iPad 2. More pics here.