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Comment by breckinloggins | Hacker News Reader

It pains me to admit it, but I'm relatively relieved. Sure, the stock price will take a beating, but I have to believe that Apple, the company, will remain strong under Tim Cook's leadership.

Why am I relieved? Because, although AAPL is still quite high, I think that investors have been weary of the stock due to the uncertainty of Jobs' health and future. Make no mistake, we'll have a roller coaster for quite a while, but I strongly suspect that the next few product cycles will demonstrate that Apple is still a game-changer even in a world where Jobs is not at the helm.

That being said, I'll miss him. He's a true visionary and such high-profile leaders only come along once in a great while.

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AAPL is trading at 14.xx P/E. It's low for a company with such an astonishing growth rate. To add some perspective, AMZN's P/E is hovering at 85.xx.

AAPL on one had is a Wallstreet darling and on the other a rebel. They don't listen to Wallstreet analysts or investors and are constantly punished for it in their stock price (really it should be much higher but it's not). Instead of producing cheaper laptops to increase market share they just make more featurepacked ones at the same price. Instead of going after the enterprise market they just do basic enterprise sales and implement some enterprise features. Other PC manufacturers got out of the PC business because there is no money to be made there and they double down on it.

Instead of following trends like many other companies they completely buck them. And this gets them painted as unpredictable. And this is why there PE is so low. Because they are constantly growing but the analysts are convinced this is their peak and it only goes downhill from here.

I have to insert one mild troll here: you seem to be writing in the voice of an Apple investor, yet from context you seem more like a user or developer. Why is the value of AAPL a universal good? Seems like it's quite high enough already.

Not a troll... a good question. The answer is I am all of those. The high value of AAPL is not a common good (although it's obviously good for me), but I was referring more to the constant fear in the markets of the eminent instability of the stock. There are many who believe that Apple IS Steve Jobs. I disagree, but it will be nice to see them come out of his shadow. And Apple will be a much easier stock to judge from an investment standpoint when that happens.

Hmm can you expand on why you think Apple isn't Steve? There are surely many great people at Apple. But Steve maintained an unwavering, fanatical commitment to product. That's the secret sauce. With him gone how will that continue? With a company that size, surely politics and other bullshit will eventually creep in and win out in arguments over product.

A plausible explanation is because Steve created an enduring culture at Apple, one which strongly set Apple apart. Not only does this permeate from the upper management down to the rank and file, but Apple also has the benefit of seeing how well it did without that culture.

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