Is Apple a buy, sell or hold?

Apple won in China for chrissakes and only trades at 18 times earnings. It’s inconceivable.

The media is transfixed on figuring out how Apple will grow iPhone sales. It’s bananas. Almost everyone is a ‘Newman’ here (see last blog post). I am a ‘Techmeme‘ superfan and was surprised to see CNBC not just on the site, but leading a meme. For the last 10 years it has been the other way around in technology coverage.

This is the same CNBC that just a few weeks ago was freaking out about ‘Markets in Turmoil’ and Apple stock opened at $95. Now they are chattering away about Apple being up on an iPhone weekend number with the stock back at $115 (about $130 billion in market cap in between).

It’s really just another sign of technology becoming more mainstream. It also explains why big Venture Capital dollars are flowing into Virtual Reality, Biotech and Fintech like Bitcoin. You won’t make money if CNBC is covering it.

Jan Dawson has Apple right. The ‘upgrade’ plan is a game changer. Ben Evans also has a great piece up on the Apple upgrade strategy.

Apple has their Google ‘Alphabet’ and their ‘Berkshire Hathaway’.

Verizon can change their logo, but they can’t change their stink. They will piss away fortunes upgrading their stores to look like Apple, but the backend is just expensive Verizon marketing.

Upgrade plans, the supply chain and the stores. Huge Apple edges. The growth fumbles have been happening for a while now because of the law of large numbers.

I also like ‘The Pencil’ plan. The pencil has been pretty uncool since the Palm Pilot. I want a pencil, especially for a big iPad. I think doctors and teachers will like them too. It’s not sexy, but it will sell.

Apple is feeding the beast.

I am holding some Apple and considering buying more.