24 million iPhone 4G en route

Starting in June. Wait. That's in two weeks. Holy Safari!

This report indicates that Apple will receive the 24-million iPhone 4G shipment starting then. Domestic Mac sales are up 39% (April, year over year). iPod sales are down 17% YOY, but that's the iPad effect. The net change should be enormous for the bottom line.

I know, I know ... do I need to post every single bit of information about Apple? In this market, why, yes. I do. Maybe not every bit, but at least I'll read and post occasionally about AAPL. In a world of fiction and deception, it's always important to keep the eyes on the prize, and the prize involves real facts. Numbers that are true, not bubbliciously fake. That's what makes me bullish, still, on AAPL. I just want a great price.

Shiny Apple People eager for Monday

Boy, that was fast. The quarterly report is around the corner — around the weekend — for the maker of my favorite product, Apple. Monday's Q3 earnings report will tell so much about increasing Mac sales, iPod sales, ITunes revenues and, of course, iPhone sales. The market is bullish, pushing shares to 173 today. I just wonder how steep the selloff will be on the earnings report. I don't wonder a whole lot, though. I'm holding my shares for the long term, and the stock will recover because growth is far from over.

Mac, iPhone sales to lead Apple report

Analyst Chris Whitmore, of Deutsche Bank, said on Oct. 1 that channel checks showed the price cut spurring even more demand for the iPhone. Whitmore said that iPod sales gained more steam following a refresh of the product line that included adding the new iPod touch device, which incorporates many of the iPhone features only without the cell phone capability.

Sweet and Sour Apple

Apple, sour Apple.

I did get more shares yesterday, during after-hours trading. Apple, as I've written many times, is one of the few companies I feel comfortable holding through thick and thin.

Today would be one of those thin times. The stock plunged more than 5% after Apple announced that iPhones would be $200 cheaper, and also that the new iPods — the iPod Touch — will have iPhone-ish capabilities. There are two schools of thought about this.

1. AAPL will continue the nosedive. The price cut will kill revenues. The world is coming to an end.

2. Lower prices will open up the iPhone to a huge number of buyers as the holiday season nears.

Personally, I don't agree with #1. The world isn't coming to an end. It just feels like it sometimes. As for #2, can't fight the holiday trend when it arrives.

And there's something the bears can't argue against: the souped up iPod will is another steroid-fueled category killer. Apple will ring in the new season, all right. Cash registers will do the ringing. Ka-ching!

last100: Apple evolves iPod line, introduces direct downloads

A bite of forbidden fruit

I was a bad boy today. I broke discipline, chased a stock (sorta) and bought it while it sits high above its moving averages. Naughty, naughty.

That's what Apple can do to me. I sold my shares long (a few months) ago at $93 and regretted it ever since. Call it a longing for a lost love. It was my fault, babe. I should never have left you. I'll treat you like a princess now. Please take me back. Yeah, it's that tacky, that emotional. OK, let's just say I've been using Apple products long enough to know that I trust the Co. Yeah, I would've bought at 111 two weeks and one day ago. Complete, utterly cultish faith.

But I didn't have dry powder then. I did today. And after I bought my nephew his beloved piece (another one) of Under Armor — yes, he wears it almost daily — I scoured my A and A- grade stock picks for bargains. The rest of my A graders were far above their MAs. Some of my A- stocks were reasonable. Flowserve was up like the rest of the market, but within its moving averages. So was (is) Google. Even Blue Nile was just a skosh above its 13-day MAs. At 84, NILE is well below its high of 98.

I kept pining for Apple, though. The stock is off its high (149), Monday is Labor Day, which leaves only Tuesday as a possible ramp up to Wednesday's probable introduction of new iPods. Or not. I find myself thinking more like a trader than an investor. I have no plans to trade AAPL. If the stock dips on Tuesday, maybe I'll get more. Or maybe I'll stick with discipline and shop for a reasonable price in NILE.

CEO would've been a good buy yesterday at 116, but it gapped to 122 before the opening bell. Crazy behavior for an oil and gas Co, but I've come to expect that out of CEO. I find myself as interested in the geopolitics surrounding China's No. 2 oil/gas producer as anything else. Still don't own a share.

Apple? I'm halfway back to what I had before I sold in May. The fruit is good. The buy at this price, though, should be forbidden to all cult members.

Security patch solves some iPhone woes

I wrote several days ago that the security flaw in the iPhone was a big issue for Apple Inc. .

The Co has come through. A software patch will fix "some" security holes" in the iPhone. This is not a end-all solution, but it's a start, and it comes in time for doubters and bears to back off Apple's stock for the time being.

As a first-generation product, no one in his or her right mind should assume perfection. But for me, this patch in the midst of the week of Black Hat hackers get-together will silence the yakking. At least a little. The whole rumor problem of yesterday regarding iPod/iPhone production has abated, but not before the stock spiraled down to a low of $131. Today, AAPL is back up to $135.

As dastardly and evil as the rumor was, it gave me and a whole lot of Apple devotees a chance to pick up cheap shares. I'm done complaining about the conspiracy. Time to ride back up on Apple.

Pupule Paul is long AAPL.

So why don't I get more BIDU?

There are a core of stocks that I've looked at, studied, even (ahem) almost worshipped over the past few months.

I'm not proud about it. I've spent more time looking at their assets than I have with human beings sometimes. One of them is Google. Another is Baidu. I could not recommend a more sound stock than Google. So the Co spent a ton of money to hire key people near and afar. They missed "expectations" by $.08. They don't even guide anyone regarding expectations, so I doubt they're overly concerned about near-term fluctuations in a stock that they'll never spli, a la Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway stock.

Baidu? The revenues still don't justify the market cap and stock, but that would be like quibbling over a young Babe Ruth and his growing weight problem. Can the guy pitch? Can he hit? Baidu is going to be a hall of famer one day, and it doesn't hurt to have your friendly neighborhood goverment backing you up.

Beyond those factors, nobody can really justify or deny a valuation of the stock. Well, there's Citigroup's Jason Breuschke, who downgraded BIDU at $197, then upgraded the stock at $215. He told TheStreet.com's Vishesh Kumar that China's warp-speed growth could eventually give Baidu a market cap of $35 to $45 billion. That's a share price of $1,500.

And yet, when I decided to enter the market and get some shares at the close today, Baidu and Google were shunned.

Early in the day, I kept my promise to self and got more Nintendo shares. The ones I should've got at $36, but instead got at $52 a few weeks ago, and at $62 today. It felt right. Maybe the timing will prove to be a mistake in this choppy, brutal market, but Nintendo is No. 1 on my list of best growth stocks. A buy based on due diligence never feels wrong.

After the bell, I also got more Apple on the dip, i.e. conspiracy trap, at $134. It wasn't the bottom of today's pullback, but I'm not complaining. Apple is my favorite Co in the world. Their PowerBook brought consistency and quality to an important part of my life when all other wanna-bes sucked royally. I don't even own an iPod or iPhone, but I know greatness when it is in front of me. Steve Jobs was made for Apple and vice-versa.

I also picked up a few shares of another company for my nephew. I've promised him that I'd buy stock for him on a monthly basis. This month, after studying the fundamentals, he wanted Under Armor. More than margins and revenues, he's sold on the quality of UA's products. I just regret that I didn't pay attention to the stock until the day after UA blew out earnings expectations. At $61, time will tell whether I got the shares at a real discount. UA raised guidance for the rest of the year, like CROX did last week, so I have reason to expect a win here.

Go figure. My nephew has stock in Nintendo and Under Armor. Pretty good for an 11-year-old.

Now only if his uncle can summon the will to get more BIDU and start a position in GOOG.

Pupule Paul is long BIDU, NTDOY.PK, AAPL and UA.

Apple drip? Woulda been simply genius

For several months now, I've kept a mix of faux portfolios based around Apple Inc.

One is a drip version of AAPL investment. What would you have if you'd invested $1,200 monthly into AAPL shares since the start of the iPod era? It's not a whim, of course. There are quite a few investors who had the wherewithal to get into Apple when they saw their kids go bonkers for iPods, iTunes, et al.

So, with a $1,200 monthly investment in AAPL since October, 2004, and counting a $12.99 monthly commission would look like this: 726 shares at a total cost of $41,239 would have turned into $108,243. That's a return on investment of 162 percent.

That first drip in October 2004 would've turned $1,200 into $7,618. Last July's pullback would've been a great buying opportunity. While Cramerica would've sold before the dip, Apple longs would've bought more shares at $52. That month's $1,200 would be worth $3,306 today.

Not bad at all. The beauty of an investment like Apple is that it's the prime hands-on stock. You touch the PowerBook, the MacBook, the iPod, buy songs from iTunes, and yes, own the iPhone. You know the quirks, the weak spots and the greatness that comes with owning an Apple product. You especially know the costs, from expensive-as-hell monitors to the $79 adaptor. Tough on the wallet, nice in your portfolio.

Of course, a great company doesn't always have a great stock, and vice-versa. Apple is that anomaly that strokes the imagination of consumers and investors alike. How much further will AAPL go? As long as Steve Jobs is in charge, there is no hurdle he can't leap over.

Even without any clear plan to leave an imprint in China, Apple seems poised to be money in the bank, at least for those smart enough to hold their shares.

Disclaimer: Sadly, Pupule Paul has only a small slice of Apple pie.

Cool Apple in so many ways

Maybe this is an undeniable sign of a bubble.

Comparing a stock to a work of art — no, just considering a stock such a glorious creation of beauty — has to be grounds for insanity. And yet, that's what AAPL is. From the PowerBook I first bought three years ago, to the Apple computers my old company bought for us back in 1993, all the way to the iPod and iTunes, and now, the iPhone, what else can possibly counter any pro-Apple argument?

It's not even just about the revenues from these products. It's also about the Cool Factor. The Effective Factor. Once I got that PowerBook, my days with Hitachi laptops were long, long gone. I've never had stupid freeze-ups and glitches with my PowerBook as I did with the Hitachi and another since-forgotten laptop from a generic has-been company.

No, I don't like paying a pretty penny for my Apple products, but in the end, they are worth every penny. Quality is worth that extra cost. I'm not alone in this belief, obviously.

Whether Apple climbs to $200, as longtime AAPL bull Georges Yared argues, is not really an issue for me. In fact, when I look at my mock portfolios, three of them are filled only with AAPL stock. Sort of like a DRP program. No matter the swoon of summer 2006. No matter the minor blips of a few failed products. The power of the Co and the stock are substantial.

It is as close as we can get to the proverbial money in the bank, especially for those of us who bought early in the year on the anticipation of the iPhone's success. All of Apple's innovation and commitment to Cool are unmatched, really. It doesn't matter whether they are the originators of a concept. They know how to take it and turn it into ubercool.

A $200 stock? That would make new lovers of art near and far.

Disclaimer: Pupule Paul owned Apple at $93, foolishly sold at $92, and re-entered at $122 with a tiny slice of Apple pie. He is truly humbled.