Key points:
- AAPL stock was trending today, but it was not because of the EU charges.
- Instead, apple was trending largely because of a new book about the firm.
- The book had a minimal impact on AAPL stock, which I expect to continue.
Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) stock has been trending today despite the lack of significant news releases from the largest publicly listed US company. Many might think that Apple was trending due to the European Commission’s preliminary view that the company had abused its dominant position in the mobile wallets industry.
Also read: The Best Tech Stocks To Buy Right Now.
The European Commission accused Apple of limiting developers’ access to its near field communications (NFC) technology that can be used to process contactless payments at stores using iPhones. The EC believes that Apple limited third-party developers’ access to its NFC technology to allow its Apple Pay product to be the preferred mode of payment on iOS devices.
However, this was not the reason why Apple stock was trending today. Instead, the tech company was trending after author Tripp Mickle who covered Apple for many years, released excerpts from his latest book “After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul”.
Tripps’ articles were published in The New York Times and were publicly available to everyone, including people without a subscription to the magazine. Tripp details how Apple changed after Steve Jobs died and Tim Cook, a supply chain specialist, took over in the series of articles.
The articles cover what led Apple’s former design chief Jony Ive, to resign from the firm in 2019 and start his own design firm known as LoveFrom. The articles claim that Jony Ive was tired of fighting accountants and running Apple’s massive design teams alone, given that he used to bounce most of his ideas off Steve Jobs, who died in 2011.
The book points out that Apple’s devices have remained largely the same since Jony Ive left as the company focuses on selling subscription services instead of designing revolutionary devices. Tripp makes it clear that design is no longer the driving force at Apple and that the company is now more focused on its bottom line than on revolutionary tech.
Interestingly, the impact of the articles on Apple’s share price was minimal since AAPL shares were down 0.88% at writing, indicating that investors did not think much of the new book and its allegations, and with good reason.
Apple remains one of the most profitable US companies, and the allegations in the book did not touch on critical issues that investors focus on, such as sweatshop labor scandals, environmental impact and sustainability; hence, the muted reaction from investors.
I am sure that if the book exposed issues related to the three topics mentioned above, we would have seen a significant selloff in AAPL stock since investors care deeply about ESG issues compared to corporate cultural issues.
Therefore, I do not expect the book to have a significant negative impact on Apple shares, given its minimal initial impact. However, the articles are still a good read for people interested in the company.
As a user of Apple tech, I can attest that it keeps getting better with time. One of the latest revolutionary inventions from Apple was apple silicon, which was launched on November 10, 2020, and now powers most of its Mac devices.
*This is not investment advice. Always do your due diligence before making investment decisions.