Dylan

My thoughts, advice and predictions.

Calling out Leonid Kanopka

Just as David Goldstein made the classically abrasive and epically wrong claim Apple would crash and burn in retail, I caught this article by Leonid Kanopka (on my iPhone) when it first came out:

http://seekingalpha.com/article/310800-the-apple-bubble-is-ready-to-burst

It’s true enough everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I think it’s important to point out when they’re so overly confident because they believe failure is a *certainty*:

If the economy does not pick up and the company does not cushion its freefall, we could see new lows into 2012 — maybe $85. Whatever the case, I see a rocky future and a new bubble about to burst. My recommendation: Sell.

Since Apple just reported some stratospheric earnings today, you’re going to be a difficult person to put any stock in, Leonid. But thanks for the giggles.

I was right about Howard Stringer

Thankfully, Howard made it easy to be right.

In my previous post about Howard Stringer:

http://dylan.me/post/12652723904/summing-up-howard-stringer

My good luck wishes didn’t save him from losing his job:

http://www.ceo.com/media_type/blogs/sony-ceo-no-longer-president/

Even though he said he wasn’t leaving:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-corp-chairman-ceo-howard-260183

Well here’s the thing Howie - we all knew you were out. A while before you did, apparently.

Things I Don’t Get

There are quite a few things I don’t “get”. Here’s one:

This person is named entrepreneur of the year:

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101119005238/en/WebVisible-Founder-Kirsten-Mangers-Named-Woman-Entrepreneur

Barely a year later the company the “entrepreneur of the year” started is dead under an allegedly “sudden” crushing mountain of debt:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/28/bank-shuts-down-local-online-advertising-company-webvisible-for-not-paying-debts/

Pretty sure it’s easy to see running out of money coming. Because, well, you know, you run out of it over time unless you blow everything at once. But hey, I’m not that smart so I’m sure I’m missing something here.

Summing up Howard Stringer

Here’s my summary of Howard Stringer’s recent comments about Sony TVs:

  • He’s dedicated five years and tons of money building something to compete with what Apple refers to as a “hobby” product.
  • He says it’s launching now, except that it isn’t since he didn’t say anything about it.
  • His tremendous insight into how to compete with Apple and iOS is: companies need to do what Apple did.

Here’s the thing though - the masses don’t care about Sony anymore; it’s a commoditized brand.

Good luck, Mr. Stringer.

lol @ samsung

Some tech news outlets are reporting Samsung has “toppled” Apple in smartphone sales. Remember, just a month (or so) ago Samsung stated they would no longer be reporting smartphone sales - just shipments. So they’ve increased 4x in Q3 ‘11 compared to Q3 ‘10. Kind of reminds me of RIM talking up shipments vs. actual sales. Maybe Samsung’s taken a page from the RIM playbook. Yes, I went there.

Google + Motorola

So GOOG wants MOT for 12.5B. AOL + Time Warner, Excite + @Home … I don’t see this ending well.