Apple’s ” Sauce ”
Well, I can’t say I’m totally disappointed by Apple’s newest i-Pad, but I am a bit surprised that the product announcement wasn’t more than an enhancement of the i-Pad 2. Based on what I have been reading in the biography of Steve Jobs, I thought they might announce another revolutionary gizmo that he presided over before he died.
Apple’s secret sauce of course under Jobs was to ensure that every product release had a “game-changing” magical component built into the product. The new i-Pad is clearly not a game changer, but judging from all reviews the new HD screen is considered magical.
I don’t know about you, but my interest and fascination with all things Apple is both as a user of the products and as an investor in Apple stock. I was holding my breath for a couple of hours after the announcement to learn if the stock was dropping because the new product release was not all that revolutionary. It did dip a bit, but quickly regained strength and is still holding (as I write this) at the $540 level. Like many investors, I am trying to follow the logic of Apple’s release strategy of enhancing the current product while continuing to sell the previous version rather than cannibalize the previous product — as the i-Phone did the i-Pod. The i-Pad enhancement seems to be enough to entice Apple devotees into the buying frenzy that follows a product release while continuing to sell the i-Pad 2 at a slightly lower price. The combined sales should continue to fuel the kind of growth that analysts think will move the stock price closer to $600 by the end of the year, so I’m staying with it.
Given the Apple pattern now of enhancing one product before introducing a revolutionary one, we can probably expect the NEXT release to be the “game changer” that Jobs conceived before he died.
What do you think it will be?