Dear Friends,
The cold temperatures are not just up here in the north country where we are a bit more, let’s say, insulated from the impact, but also have drifted into the deep south. A little snow and some ice combined to make a serious condition with people stranded, kids trapped in schools and general mayhem for those that wondered what that white stuff was floating down from the sky. We got a few inches of snow and some more below 0 temperatures, but generally, it has been a very cold but not particularly snowy winter. Whenever I feel a bit cold, I turn on the surveillance cameras down in Key West and still see people in shorts and sandals with sun streaming in the windows.
Apple released their holiday quarter financial results. It was the 4th best quarterly results for any company anywhere at any time. The other three were oil companies but Apple posted record profits on record sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs and was rewarded with their common stock taking a beating and falling about 10%. I shudder to think that I am about to write this, but I have to agree with Carl Icahn, as he increased his holdings to near $4 Billion of AAPL, that Apple’s value is a “no-brainer” and that Apple’s long-term picture is completely unchanged and bright.
What happened is that a small group of Wall Street “analysts” decided that Apple was going to sell 55 million iPhones and when the company only sold 52 million they were shocked out of their pants and started selling the stock without realizing both that Apple had to make a quick adjustment and make more of the MORE EXPENSIVE AND PROFITABLE iPhone 5s than the 5c, and that Apple doesn’t even recognize all of the revenue from an iPhone sale when it is sold. They conservatively recognize the revenue over a longer period of time because the OS and iWork is free so they haven’t, from an accounting point of view, completely delivered the product. Apple posted extraordinarily strong financial results but when you are generating $50 billion in sales each quarter it is really hard to grow by 50%! But more, as they say on NPR’s Marketplace, when we do the numbers.
Speaking of iPhone, have you had a chance to check out our new Hammerhead Jacket iPhone case? I love our new protective case and have been using it since I received the first prototype. As you may know, the Hammerhead Case product line was named in honor of my English Bulldog, but we elected to use the Hammerhead shark as our logo. Around the time we decided to do that I was getting my animal sleeve (a tattoo that covers the arm for those who don’t know the lingo) done and I had to fit in a big Hammerhead shark. It now graces my forearm.
We commissioned an artist to design a special “Hammerflage” repeating pattern for our cases, which is our version of camouflage. We have introduced the Hammerhead Jacket for iPhone 5 and 5s in both purple or orange Hammerflage patterns. As a special for ONLY Kibbles & Bytes readers, I will send you one of each color Hammerflage for 1/2 price! They are normally $19.99, but you will get a purple and an orange Hammerhead Jacket in Hammerflage for $19.99 by clicking here!