Boring Market

Whether or not a recession is looming, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) shows no sign of slowing down and still outperforms when it comes to selling Macs, iPods and iPhones.

Apple released earnings yesterday, while beating analyst’s expectations by posting a 36 percent rise in quarterly profit, and their sales really shined through. Apple sold 2.29 million Macs, 10.6 million iPods, and 1.7 million iPhones beating analyst’s estimates of 2 million Macs, 10 million iPods and 1.7 million iPhones.

Even with such growth Apple isn’t immune to outside forces, some companies (such as Starbucks) use the excuse of a weak economic environment to explain horrible sales, while Apple has a certain way of outperforming or at least maintaining their sales. How can Apple, who sells products that are more sensitive to consumer spending and our economy, perform better then a Starbucks? That’s another story.

Apple isn’t bulletproof, just quick to react to consumer needs. They slashed the price of the 1-gigabyte shuffle from $79 to $49 to create demand for its lagging product. Apple also reiterates new technologies such as their Mac Book Air and iPhones to stir continually demand for updates and speculation for upgrades such as the 3G iPhones. Even if the economy is seen as shaking, consumer spending hasn’t dropped off a cliff for Apple. Many analysts can’t put their finger on this “halo effect” that Apple has and I agree with others that Apple is a long term stock to hold on to

Tags: Apple·Consumer·Demand·Earnings·Economy·Recession·Stock