You think kids don't have budgets for big mobile phone tariffs and you are unaware of the term chav

Are you posting from another country or are you royalty ??

I think the Aston Martin comparison is an interesting one because both Apple and Aston top the CoolBrands list in recent years.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19692371

Aston Martin is a premium niche brand. Their cars are only affordable to a small piece of the market. I could see Apple going the same way, away from mainstream back to being a niche brand.

I've seen the word Chav loads of times. I have no clue what it means as just implying that someone who hangs around on a street corner is a Chav says more to me about the person making the comment.

How are these kids passing credit checks?

I don't buy a device because it is cool. I buy it because I like it.

Samsung seem to be doing quite nicely.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21191431

Agreed.

Samsung should do well as they produce a good variety of phones. Although revenue seems to show the price points are quite low.

Agreed. But there are many out there who DO try to follow the 'cool' things .... the whole fashion industry is built around that.

This does in fact happen. I will give you an example. Burberry got very pissed off themselves because every chav was rocking it, which lead to trendier cool people with money and status, no longer buying, because the look began to be stigmatized as chav gear. Same happened with Kappa, in Italy, it was a cool brand, but here in the UK it started to get so common, especially with the chavs, it was then no longer cool to buy Kappa sports wear.

Iphones were cool products, no doubt, but people are starting to associate it with uncool people buying them, so they move on, and go after the next fashion. Which seems to be big phones and samsungs.

The only 'chavs' (Neds as we call them here) i see around where i live have blackberrys, low end Andriods and the iPhone 3Gs. the only folk i've seen with large phones have been older..

Another good example
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011...rcrombie-fitch

My boss loves his Samsung because it can have 'a huge font'. I don't think this will ever be a cool feature for teens!

probably not.

i dont think anyone was suggesting that every feature on any phone would be considered cool .......

My phone allows me to add a widget showing me stock prices. not cool for kids either i guess

Parents take out contracts for them or they get the hand me downs. Every kid i know including both sisters hubbys kids have iphones.

They are common as much now to be honest. The coolness has gone.

I don't think the coolness was ever there. They sell lots of phones because they are very good phones.

Getting back on topic, with a share price update. A further 2.3% or $10 has crumbled off the price. It's now at $439 a share. Crazy! Still time for it to hit $400. Really is in free fall now! Are investors simply selling up right now? I mean those who have invested big sums of money must be afraid? They stand to lose a lot of money.

But do you accept now that they are in a climate where there are are better phones? At better price points with better value for money?

The coolness was always there for a long time. iPhones were very desirable phones and a huge fashion statement. There used to be an envy when someone had an iphone but they are ten a penny. I guess since they all look the bloody same over the last 3 years they have lost the coolness and desirability. Die hard apple fans wont see this though.

As for very good phones, well i guess that's personal preference. I despised mine!

What are you talking about?? they dont look the same. The iphone 5 has an extra row of icons!!!!! God sake man, do your research!!

Haha! Sorry! Forgot about that

I stand corrected

Just read a comment on an independent article by someone, who claimed Apple share holders only just started getting dividends. That can't be true can it? Anyone know anything about this? Seems to imply they had been getting sod all for their investment. Now they aren't gonna be getting as much.

I'm not an expert on shares though, so whats the story with that?

Yeah, it's true.
Before simply owning the shares was seen as it's own reward because they kept appreciating in value.

I'm no expert but I think a lot of people were under the impression APPL was on it's way to $1000 a share and could only rise and rise. Now it appears it may have peaked and so investors are probably selling to try and make as much profit as possible from their investment and it's a chain reaction.

The company itself is still doing brilliantly and has over $140 billion in cash reserves.

Also, Apple now its the most valued company in the world anymore.

Oh yeah I remember the $1000 a share figure being thrown around at the back end of last year by analysts. So quickly things can change!!

I guess those who were thinking short term and wanted to turn over a big profit in a short time so put in a lot of capital, but are now in panic mode, and trying to salvage whatever profit they can. The $1000 thing looks pretty distant now.

Not anymore it isn't. The share price drop means it's been taken over by Exxon as the wolds most valuable company.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...e-company.html

This is the most important point made so far in this thread. People make a lot of money investing in shares they expect to go up. Once it looks like the shares have peaked, many will sell and buy shares in another company that they hope will go up. This really has nothing to do with the company, just people's expectations on the future value of shares.

It also had almost no affect on Apple if it's shares are going up or down, although I imagine many employees and executives have stock options so they may be a little demotivated.