Work on the Apple Watch might have seen Apple’s R&D spending hit $4.36 billion over the past financial year, but that’s a drop in the ocean compared to the amount the wearables device cost Apple yesterday.
After AAPL stock prices hit a high of $102.91 prior to Apple’s special event kicking off, prices tumbled back down to $97.99 by the end of trading: wiping $30 billion off Apple’s market value.
As Forbes points out, this is the equivalent of twice the entire market value of Tiffany & Co., the retailer Apple beat out back in 2011 to become the highest ranking U.S. retailer on a sales per square foot basis.
Why the drop? Because having spent months analyzing every shred of Apple-related data and then telling clients to BUY! BUY! BUY!, analysts are now apparently disappointed at the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch, “which seemed less dramatic than many had hoped they would be.”
Yes, it’s another infuriating example of Apple being way too heavily scrutinized by people who don’t really seem to understand its core business, but it still means that the company needs to further convince people of why areas like Apple Pay, health-tracking, bigger screens and wearables are the way of the future.
Still, after yesterday’s performance by Tim Cook, it doesn’t seem that Apple’s exactly short of compelling answers in this area.
And fortunately when you’re a company as valuable as Apple, you can afford to take the occasional hit.
Source: Forbes
