Apple Hits First Record of 2025 as iPhone Optimism Fuels Rebound

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00:00It does seem like the optimism that we're seeing with the trade with Apple is giving some momentum

00:05to other companies out there, certainly lifting the major indexes. What's your view on Apple

00:11hitting its first new record of the year? Yeah, a couple things to note. One, this is old news.

00:18We've known for several weeks now that the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max have been a hit. We've known

00:24for some time now that the base level iPhone is a hit. They made major changes on that consumer

00:29model. You have the faster refresh display, the better cameras, the larger screen size,

00:36et cetera, et cetera. The Pro models first redesigned in half a decade. You've got that

00:41orange color, which I happen to like. They're doing very well. Second thing I'll say is I just

00:47continue to find it fascinating. I know I've been in this space for a decade now in the financial

00:53news space that a firm can come out. They could say, we predict that the stock price is going to

00:59X, Y, Z, and then the stock follows, right? Stock goes up. Anyone could just shout out and say,

01:06I think the price is going to that and see what happens, right? So these are predictions. They're

01:11not set in stone. And there's really no way to know how the stock is going to go one way or another.

01:17We don't know what the different ramifications are, different political policies, and what can happen

01:22in the world at the drop of a dime, right? So it's really a coin flip to know where the stock price

01:28is going to go or really the stock price for any company. So that's my take and two cents on that.

01:33I just think it's worth pointing out because I don't think Mark would do this himself. But

01:35oftentimes when Mark does report news that nobody knows, it does move Apple's stock price. So it's

01:41not just the analysts who do that, but Mark's reporting often does that. You know, I was going

01:45to come back at you, Mark, because, you know, we do have with this call out from Loop Capital that

01:50not everyone is sure that that early momentum for the iPhone justifies Apple's valuation that's out

01:56there. Shares trading at more than 32 times estimated earnings, well above their 10-year

02:00average of 22 times. You are not a financial analyst, but your reporting does move the share

02:06price. But you do know what's coming in terms of product services. Fundamentally.

02:10Well, they all use my reporting to make their reports.

02:13There we go. I like it.

02:14What do you say about those that are concerned about valuations? Again, you're not a financial

02:18analyst. I'm not asking you to give me a buy, sell, you know, sell or hold or whatever.

02:22But you understand kind of what's coming at us from the company. There are drivers out there,

02:28right? I think I can give you a pretty good idea, actually, if you should buy, hold or sell. But,

02:33you know, I won't give that black and white. But I will tell you that the product pipeline that they

02:38have is phenomenal. I think the foldable iPhone coming at the end of next year is going to raise

02:45ASPs quite significantly. I think you're going from a device right now, a pro model that costs around

02:51$1,000. You're going to see phones starting at $2,000 from Apple at the end of next year.

02:57And I think that's going to do wonders for ASPs and overall revenue. They're going to expand the

03:02product portfolio that sort of that other product segment with the new slate of smart home devices.

03:08They're going to compete with Ring, their parent company, Amazon. They're going to compete with

03:14Google, Ecobee, and a bunch of other companies in the smart home space with this new smart home display

03:21coming in March. They're going to come out in the following year in 2027 with a robotic smart home

03:27display. This is actually a very popular product category right now. It's growing and it's becoming

03:33increasingly popular, I should say, in China, tabletop robots. So if you're a smart home user,

03:39robotics fan, this is something that I think is going to be fairly compelling. You've got a foldable

03:4518-inch iPad in the pipeline for before the end of the decade. You've got multiple different

03:51variations of smart glasses. So in terms of hardware, you're going to see a pretty rapid and

03:56broad expansion of the hardware lineup. You have the new Siri coming out this spring. Then you have

04:03another update to Siri coming at the end of next year. And then another update to Siri coming the year

04:07after, trying to get something closer to ChatGPT. They're looking at a bunch of acquisitions. So

04:14you know, we're on a very solid path in terms of Apple right now.

04:19A $2,000 iPhone.

04:20You take your bet based on that.

04:22Okay. Okay. So a $2,000 iPhone, Mark, I think would make a lot of people balk at just the list

04:26price there, that headline price. What does Apple need to do or what do carriers around the world need

04:30to do to make that more digestible, to break that up so people actually spend the money but don't

04:34realize they're spending it? Yeah, I think that issue has been solved with installment plans with

04:40from Apple on their credit card in the US. I think it's also been solved by the carriers in terms of

04:47their trade in promotions. And I think people understand that pricing is going up. You know,

04:52one benefit I should say with the tariffs is it's given Apple some air cover, even if they're not being

04:58hit by tariffs directly, it's given them some air cover to do price adjustments. And so I think the

05:03general consumer understands that because of tariffs, because of inflation, pricing is going

05:08up. And so it gives them some air cover there. And they're not going to be the first at this point.

05:12When Apple came out with $1,000 iPhone 10 in 2017, they really were the first to hit that, you know,

05:17massive at the time pricing threshold. Now it's sort of whatever. And I think pretty soon the 2000 is

05:22going to be pretty whatever also. You know, we've always talked about Apple and we're always so

05:25concerned about how much exposure they have to one big product and that is their phone. Are we still

05:31worried? Oh yeah. I mean, at some point the, the iPhone is going to need to be, um, not replaced,

05:39right. By, but succeeded, right. With the iPhone still sticking around. It's kind of like everyone

05:45thought the laptop was going to die because of the iPad. And then everyone thought, you know,

05:50maybe the Apple watch would cannibalize some things. The only real cannibalization that we've ever

05:55seen in the history of Apple, I, in my viewpoint is the iPod or the iPhone killed the iPod, but

06:03nothing has killed the Mac. Nothing's going to kill the phone. You're always going to have that pocket

06:07device. You're going to see fewer people use the laptop because they've got the iPhone. You're going

06:13to maybe see fewer people use the iPhone because you have the smart glasses, but you're still going

06:18to probably want and own and buy all of them. Right. And so that's the tricky needle Apple needs to

06:23thread, but I don't believe the phone is going away.

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