Apple Inc (AAPL)

[DD2Gain]

Asia presents a significant market, but Apple has been wildly successful without bending over backwards to cater to the peculiarities of those markets. The reason? Innovation. Apple is dangerously tip toeing the Blackberry curse and needs to dramatically adjust course to save itself from (at best) simply being "on par" with other tech companies as opposed to setting the standard. There's no faster way to ruin the Apple brand of rebel genius than marketing in a manner that is uninspiring and boring.

Apple did not dominate the market by chasing anything, but right now it looks like it is running out of steam which is why the pps is hurting and Android is coming out ahead.

Asia will certainly increase profits. But if that's the best game plan Apple has, then welcome to the "Any other tech company" club. Such a vision will not support a $400 pps. That is for premium companies. Just look at any other tech company's pps to see that in action.

In today's market, image is as important as profits- possibly more. Apple's image right now is pretty much like Tiger Woods: everyone is looking to see if the best days are history and this last tech show was just another par game. The difference is that Apple is much more promising if it bothers to step up.