Steve Jobs is the Only Employee at Apple?

Good evening everyone,

I promise I will try to refrain from my usual rants on the economy and all of its problems today. My most recent observation has to do with a small company call Apple, you may have heard of it. My love for for this stock dates back to my first semester of junior year (in high school). In my first year of an investment club at my high school I decided to make a pitch for this stock because of strong fundamentals. I love their products, I love their design, and I loved that they cornered the mp3 market. When people refer to any device that plays music, they don't call it an mp3, but rather an Ipod. This simple fact is a testiment to the entire marketing team at Apple.

Simillarly, when the iphone was released my senior year in high school, people raved about all of the things it was capable of: playing music, browsing the internet, keeping track of everything from your photo album to stock portfolio, and of course the simple task of providing you with a phone service. In reality, these features had been out for years, but as far as the American public is concerned the iphone is the only phone that does it. Once again the beauty of Apple.

Within the last five years sales for the Macintosh brand of computers have been slowly rising in market share for personal computers and laptops. One reason it has been helping create large profits for the company is the restructuring of the manufacturing by senior executive Tim Cook.

Cook is not the only executive to play a large behind the scenes role, Johnathan Ive serves as Senior VP of Industrial design at Apple, as well as believed to be the mastermind behind the ipod, iphone, and new imacs. These two are some that receive the most recognition among an unbelievably talented team at Apple.

To me it was no surprise that the company's stock price soared to above $200 at the end of 2007. However, nowadays the company is trading somewhere around the $80 dollar range largely because of the economic slump as well as the health problems with Steve Jobs, C.E.O.

Jobs is arguably one of the best leaders in business today and seems to have taken on a role greater than the face of the franchise. There is no one like him in business today. With the exception of Bill Gates as the face of Microsoft for the past two decades, there may not be anyone that has ever been regarded to as responsible for the success of his company. It is no surprise that when there are rumors about Jobs health arose that the stock tumbled blelow $80 for the first time in a long time. Does this mean that the entire vision of the company is lost?

No one can replace Steve Jobs at Apple, ever. Yet, if he were to step down tomorrow as head of the company, I don't forsee much changing. The company's place in the market is already established and with the minds of Ive and Cook in the drivers seat, not to mention the talent of the entire Apple team this company looks like they will remain a large player in the electronics market for a long time.

Oh and in terms of the stock now, it seems like a great time to buy with the company consistantly weathering the economic storm and the current price drop due to Job's health conditions. Needless to say I was bullish on this stock months ago when I bought in at $105. This is a strong company with great leadership and quality fundamentals, don't miss out on a bargain simply because someone caught a cold.

keep on keeping on young minds,

Matt