Is it time to sell Apple? I’m conflicted:

“Apple shipped 2,496,000 Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing 41 percent unit growth and 43 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 11,011,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 12 percent unit growth and seven percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone™ units sold were 717,000 compared to 270,000 in the year-ago-quarter. ”

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/07/21results.html

“Munster thinks Apple should easily sell 4.47 million iPhones this quarter, up 9% from his previous guess of 4.1 million, and up 299% from the 1.12 million it sold during the September quarter last year.”

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/apple-s-sept-quarter-iphone-sales-to-quadruple-to-4-5-million-says-piper

“With a current annual run rate of around $360 million, it’s not out of the question that App Store could eventually become a billion dollar business for Apple, according to Jobs.”

http://www.crn.com/software/210002313

So all in all. Apple is still kicking the snot out of it. What about this “slow down” due to the crunch. I’m calling your bluff there. When a product still has lines to get it a month after its launch (http://www.nashvilleistalking.com/node/58722), I think it is safe to say that demand isn’t going to slow down soon…. in fact:

“Apple is continuing to add countries – the iPhone is available in 23 countries today, and another 50 will be added this year” and “xconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant that produces the iPhone 3G for Apple, has ramped up production to 800,000 units per week”

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/04/foxconn-building-800000-iphones-a-week/

Thats looks like a “slow down” that I can get behind. Now with all that being said this does concern me:

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/8/apple-now-worth-more-than-google-aapl-goog-

If you compare their financial histories, Google looks like it has a much more solid track record over the last few years so we may be getting some exuberance here:
http://finance.google.com/finance?fstype=ii&q=NASDAQ:GOOG
http://finance.google.com/finance?fstype=ii&q=NASDAQ:AAPL

Honestly I’m OK with a sale. We have made some cash on it, but I wouldn’t necessarily consider them down and out.

It might be hard to swallow, DOW “in the business of change” from their 2007 annual report because they have been around for 110 years.  However think about changing markets and the challenges faced in 110 years and the pieces begin to fit.  Evidence on paper that DOW is up to the change challenge is 34% of their $53 Billion in sales come from products produced in the past 5 years.  They have divided services into what they call “Performance”(accelerating innovation) and “Basics”(integrating raw materials).  Each sector currently makes up 50% of their business, I believe what is important is the DOW leadership over “Performance” will have to meet challenges in sales with the model of selling products, while the leadership over “Baciscs” will have to meet challenges through joint ventures creating solutions to major national issues.  For example DOW has a new foam product which uses 60% less energy to produce and is green house gas nutral for the furniture, carpet and bedding industry.  This product will sell company to company under the “Performance” leadership.  However in China DOW is involved in a joint venture for the chemical side of an energy efficient coal to chemicals plant, which is a large joint venture being operated under the “Basics” leadership.  This gives experience to thousands of their employees to expand in two different and healthy methods of operation.  Regardless of the leadership, DOW has a baseline 2004 energy used per pound of product and a goal for this figure to be reduced 25% by 2015.  They were 4% better in 2007.

I believe Ben Hur should purchase DOW because they have the team in place to handle the major issues of the world today.  The company culture understands challenges are to come and they will be a part of national solutions resulting in earnings for the long term.