IBD: Apple will lose its cool this year

At the core of the CANSLIM stock investing method used by Investor's Business Daily readers is the  belief that companies have cycles. We have seen Apple ride the coattails of an impressive list of consumer tech products to become one of the most valuable companies in the world. Starting with the Apple iMac and then iPod, iPhone and iPad, the Apple name has become the epitome of technological "cool". For some, merely looking at the Apple logo on the back of an Apple iPhone is enough to trigger the desire to own the device. During that time, the stock has had an amazing run-up from $30 to nearly $400.

But stocks and companies don't rise forever and in 2012, IBD sees some cracks in the Apple image. The paper says that the Apple iPhone is getting stale and looks boxy and flat. According to the paper, "the Samsung Galaxy smartphone seems cooler". Investor's Business Daily adds that with Android being the fastest growing mobile platform, "Apple's software advantage will diminish. Smartphones and tablets will become commodity items and Apple will be eaten by the collective Android gang."

Who can deny that the Apple iPhone is feeling stale? After all, despite the introduction of Siri, the latest version of the device added some features that merely allowed the phone to catch up with Android. And if you examine what changes could be in store for the next iPhone, many of them, such as a larger 4 inch display and LTE connectivity, are already available in Android models.

IBD isn't saying that Apple is going to fall off the face of the earth. But after years of unparalleled growth, the company and its fans have set such a very high bar for Apple, that even a small decline in growth could look like the beginning of a down cycle.

source: IBD via ReadWriteWeb