[Kishin]

I love apple, and I am an apple investor. Their stock will do fine for at least a few years. Though, no one knows if apple will stay "cool" and their products will still sell 4,000,000 units (iphone 4S) in a weekend. Many people thought nothing would happen to Sony when they were hot and innovative. Same thing with Microsoft.

It is slightly different because Apple has more vertical integration and horizontal integration as well, so people buy into the Apple ecosystem. For example, I have a mac and an Android phone, but I like the way the iPhone syncs seamlessly with my mac, so I might get an iPhone when my contract is up.

Ultimately, sales/revenues and profits GROWTH determine the stock price. At their current P/E it is hard to say they are overvalued. A multiple of 16.63 (close on 10/17) is very low for a high growth tech company. In fact, McDonald's, which is considered a value stock, has a higher multiple (almost 18). And as a more relevant example, Amazon's is over 100. Apple clearly is not overvalued at this point (in my opinion at least).

Random thoughts: Apple has roughly 1 billion shares outstanding and Microsoft has 8 billion. If Apple did an 8 for 1 stock split, the price would be at $50, and no one would ask this question.