I found this while web surfing today. It was very interesting. Enjoy!
Apple a Day Keeps Recession Away

On a side note I found one phrase the author used very interesting. It was "economic earthquake". That was the title of a book I bought years ago regarding the economy by the late author Larry Burkett in 1991. He wrote a column in 2000 that was a follow up. Looking back now I see how eerily accurate he was.
What happened to the economic earthquake?

Both good reads. Can't fault the people who were pointing out the earthquake since they were drowned out by people with a lot of loaned money in their pocket. Did people actually take equity out of their house every six months by refinancing? That just seems so strange to me I cannot even fathom it.

Type A person: joy is all about spending and getting the next new thing.

Type B person: joy is all about watching your mortgage grow smaller over the years.

I am a type B person. Kind of boring but it sure beats the current non joy of owning a house worth less than what you owe.

The Apple story is spot on about how they now stagger the upgrades so everything seems new. I cannot count the number of times someone tells me they bought an iMac, iPhone or iPod and they never check to see what the predicted schedule of the next upgrade is. I just bought a dual quad tower yesterday and cringe that an upgrade will be announced 15 days from now but I am under the Apple spell.

Good read. Thanks!

I still don't get it. Dell posts a dismal quarterly report and shares go up. Apple posts a great report and shares tank.

Apple is dying, dontcha know?

I'm more type A and type B with a strong lean to the B side. I know what you mean about mortgages. Mine was paid off years ago and so is my car. How sweet it is to not owe money!

I'm also glad Mr. Burkett put that book out in 1991. I got it, read it, and learned a valuable lesson about frugality and living within your means. It's the only way all of us are gonna make it through this mess.

It's called Analyst Expectations.

They expected Dell to post a loss, but it wasn't as bad as they expected, so they figure "hey, it's not as bad as we thought, they're doing better." Apple was expected to do better, so they figure "oh sh!t, Apple's goin down - look, they only made 567 billion instead of 570 billion..."

Apple is usually pessimistic on its outlooks and then outperforms those expectations. The stock still drops. Always has for some reason.

Market share

So even with Dell and other PCs are losing money - they still have 90% market share , so analyst still feel they can weather the storm better then Apples measly 9.9% even with increasing sales .

Go figure