The Driver of Apple's Exploding Valuation Is Under Threat. See What's at Stake.
One reason for the continued run in the shares has been the various services Apple sells to people living their digital lives in its ecosystem.

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New York Post
33 minutes ago
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Meta's $250M whiz kid's last AI product ‘sucks at Google Chrome, flopped with Numbers': users
Meta's newest whiz kid has bagged himself a mighty $250 million pay packet, but users of the 24-year-old researcher's last AI offering have labelled it 'clunky' and complained it 'sucks at Google Chrome.' Matt Deitke's last tech tool, Vy is said to handle repetitive tasks 'with high accuracy' and without interrupting users while they browse. The product learns by observing user behavior and executes commands directly on the user's computer. 3 Meta's newest whiz kid, Matt Deitke, bagged himself a mighty $250 million pay packet, but some users of the 24-year-old researcher's last tech product called Vy have complained about its functionality. X / @Scobleizer But some Vy users like Julian Goldie, a search engine optimization expert, said its performance varies depending on the application and others claim the agent's performance hasn't lived up to the buzz 'It sucks at Google Chrome, flopped with Numbers, but it's magic with ChatGPT, Pages and Descript,' Goldie posted on X. Goldie likened Vy to Apple's iPhone during its early development. 'It's like the early iPhone moment for AI agents,' he wrote. He also acknowledged Vy's potential for managing workflow. 'It's like having an intern — except it doesn't ghost you, doesn't get tired and knows how to use your apps better than you do.' Deitke, who ditched his computer science doctoral program at the University of Washington to join Meta, recently turned his nose up at CEO Zuckerberg's 'low-ball' offer of around $125 million over four years, according to the New York Times. 3 Vy is able to observe the user's behavior and repeat commands on one's computer, with great accuracy. But when the Facebook founder had a meeting with him and doubled the offer, he accepted what could be one of the largest pay packets in corporate history, the Times said. Zuckerberg's protegee appears to have jumped ship from his startup, Vercept, which he founded with friends in November. Vercept raised $16 million in funding from venture capital and tech investors to push out Vy, but some users say they're struggling to find practical uses for the tool. One Reddit user, @u/fontainegal66 complained it was clunky. 'Been using it this past week, I've tried a bunch of stuff, some tasks it handles well, others still feel a bit clunky.' 3 One Vy user, Julian Goldie, took to X and said, 'It sucks at Google Chrome, flopped with Numbers, but it's magic with ChatGPT, Pages and Descript.' X / @mattdeitke 'I tried organizing a folder. It takes a lot of time. Takes screenshots, understands and then slowly does it. Maybe jobs like manual scraping it might do. I need to try,' user Glittering-AD-8200 wrote on Reddit. 'I'm really struggling to find a way to make it useful. It's technically impressive, but I … don't know how to get it doing useful things,' user @TonyTrewinnard also posted on X. Some users also noted technical glitches on Vercept's website, including issues signing up for the Vy waitlist. 'Your site won't let us join the waitlist. It keeps saying Mac only. Why does it think I don't have a Mac? You shouldn't make it so hard to follow you,' the @TechGuys account replied to an X video introducing Vy in May. Deitke, who until recently was offering Vy for free, acknowledged before now that the company was still in its early stages. 'We're still very new and very young,' Deitke said in a recent interview with tech blogger Robert Scoble. 'Making it an amazing experience is our number one priority right now.' Deitke did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Zuckerberg told investors on the company's Wednesday earnings call Meta is 'building an elite, talent-dense team. 'If you're going to be spending hundreds of billions of dollars on compute and building out multiple gigawatt of clusters, then it really does make sense to compete super hard and do whatever it takes to get that, you know, 50 or 70 or whatever it is, top researchers to build your team,' he said. 'There's just an absolute premium for the best and most talented people.'


Business Insider
40 minutes ago
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'Three Billionth iPhone': Apple Stock (NASDAQ:AAPL) Slips as Sustainability Questions Rise
Consumer electronics giant Apple (AAPL) might be best known for the iPhone, the product that may have had its start in the iPod, but built on it to the point that, today, it is an institution on its own. But even as Apple celebrates a massive new milestone—its three billionth iPhone sold—questions are swirling over whether or not it can keep this momentum going. Doubt is growing among investors, and Apple shares slid nearly 2.5% in Friday afternoon's trading. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed the news during the third quarter earnings call, and made it perfectly clear that the iPhone is now one of consumer technology's greatest products of all time. With the iPhone's 20 th anniversary still two years out, demand is strong and rising worldwide as emerging markets step into the ring, out to get their hands on an iPhone. Reports noted that Apple went from zero to one billion after nine years, crossing that threshold in 2016. Five years later, in 2021, the two billion mark arrived. Now, only four years later, the three billion mark was crossed. As new shoppers pick up iPhones, and old iPhone users continue to replace their old iPhones with newer models, Apple has found a steady and mostly reliable source of revenue over the years. But Can It Continue? As anyone with an income stream has asked, at one point or another, how long can this go on? The latest move from two billion to three billion came with surprising speed, and some note that the Trump tariffs gave the newest surge a little something extra. After all, people might well have bought iPhones a little faster than normal to avoid any potential price bump from the tariffs. Thus, the question of front-loaded sales came up. If it were the case that sales were front-loaded, with people buying new models ahead of potential price jumps from the tariffs, then that would be bad news for end-of-year sales. Going into the holiday shopping season, this might be especially bad news, at a time when Apple would normally clean house. Is Apple a Buy, Hold or Sell? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on AAPL stock based on 14 Buys, 10 Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 5.59% loss in its share price over the past year, the average AAPL price target of $230.97 per share implies 14.35% upside potential.
Yahoo
an hour ago
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Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is included among the 11 Best Income Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds. A young professional in a suit examining stocks on a tablet computer in a mid-town office building. Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is a leading technology company known for its networking, security, software, and cloud computing solutions. It builds routers and switches that help transmit data across networks. In the third quarter of fiscal 2025, the company reported $14.1 billion in revenue, marking an 11% increase from the previous year. Earnings per share also rose 35% to $0.62. Artificial intelligence has become a key growth area for Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO), generating over $1 billion in AI-related revenue in 2024. The company aims to at least double that figure in 2025. Its recent $28 billion acquisition of Splunk has also played a major role in expanding its capabilities, particularly in network management, security, and AI integration. Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.41 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.41%, as of July 31. The company has been rewarding its shareholders with growing dividends for the past 18 years, which makes it one of the best dividend stocks for income investors. While we acknowledge the potential of CSCO as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: and Disclosure: None. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data