Comments inline below:
"I differentiate between good products/company and good investments."
Okay. I have to say that since buying at $13, this has been my best investment. I didn't do it recently though.
I bought it because I had used the products, and found Apple products not only were easier to use than anything Windows makes (for me anyway) but I really enjoyed the hardware too. No accounting for tastes, but I honestly hate Windows, and thought I bought one, and used it to become familiar enough to become a software tester, I just don't see anything in the Windows world that matches the software or the hardware.
"Apple would obviously have been a good investment during recent months."
It was better years ago than it is now. But still good. It has a long way to go. I think of it as a combination of Microsoft and Dell.
"Apple also makes some good products, but they're nowhere near that which most iDiots believe they are."
Well, here we're just comparing one person's subjective opinion against your subjective opinion. I mean, what could you know about what "most" people "believe" about the products? In the end, doesn't the fact that they DO think they are better accrue to the bottom line? If more and more people make that determination, do you think it's just hypnosis? For whatever reason, more and more people are making that determination.
I don't see how you expect people to have a civil, logical discussion with you about anything when you resort to epithets like "iDiots". Your trolly jumps the track right here from "something you can refute" to just a cheap insult. Just don't do that, and you'll have a better discussion. You started out with "If you treat me with civility I’ll respond accordingly", and then immediately descended into "iDiots".
"I also think Steve Jobs is an idiot."
Well, I only wish I were so idiotic.
"He had a better mousetrap in the beginning but was arrogant enough to believe the market would beat a path to Cupertino to buy it."
So, it was better. We agree on that. What happened next is one of those epic stories of technology-land, and it took a poorly worded contract written by a sugar-water salesman to let Microsoft make a run with an inferior imitation of the Mac. It worked for awhile. It's not working so well for them anymore. Not that they're going out of business, but it's getting harder an harder to find anyone who can say "Microsoft" and "innovation" in the same sentence, except in a joke about imitating Apple. If Apple is so bad, why do so many companies struggle so hard, and invest so much money and effort into making imitations of their products?
"That turned out to be perhaps the biggest brain fart in the history of business."
It's a brain fart that's still paying off. I don't see Apple going out of business, do you? And some day soon, they're going to eclipse Microsoft in market cap.
"His own BOD forced him out of the company."
I wonder how that worked out for them? Sales people don't understand tech or innovation. They understand bs and market talk. They convinced themselves that they didn't need the innovator anymore, since they could make dozens of crappy boxes and stuff shelves with them. They failed, Jobs didn't.
"He is hated by his employees."
Really? The employees he's not laying off because of the economic downturn? The employees that still have great jobs while oceans of people are being laid off all over? Employees whose stock is still going up and up and up? There might be things that happen at Apple that people feel are going to far, but you'll find that everywhere. I haven't talked to every Apple employee, but the one's I've met told me they loved their jobs. (no pun intended)
I wonder how people at Microsoft feel about their stock going nowhere for a decade?
"When he returned to Apple as CEO he eliminated all corporate philanthropic programs and even today as the company has become wildly profitable, they have not been reinstated."
Charity programs are what companies do when they've ripped people off to the point they have bad press, so they cook up a charity gig to buy some sympathy. It's enough for me as a shareholder to see them making great products, and making great profits. With that, I don't need charity.
"You people worship the guy. My expectations are higher."
Actually, "you people" is kind of broad. I thought you were just talking to me. I don't worship anyone. I have to say that I do admire the fact that Steve Jobs has created such a powerful and innovative company. I wish I had that kind of moxie. And after having made a fortune many times over, to keep soldiering on in the face of a crippling illness, really, that's unheard of. He could have retired to France and told Apple computer to F-key itself.
So, tell me about some other CEO that you do admire, and why you admire them. What really do you expect from a head of a company?
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
