http://money.cnn.com/2012/02/29/technology/apple_market_cap/

i loled. and man. when it is going to burst a lot of people are going to lose huge huge money!

It really is unstable they have what 60bill in cash that the management don't know what to do with (Jobs always refused to spend it on branching out or as dividends and for Apple his word is still law >.<) other than that they have /maybe/ 3billion real world worth... when that bubble pops Apple may just vanish

is it going to burst?

It's crazy that they withheld dividends for so long.

This. Apple is a ticking timebomb for investment, especially as it relies heavily on just three core products and two services. And with Android gradually eating up Apple's market share, it's just a matter of time before developers shift to Android as their primary platform and the users follow.

Of course, you'll always have the die-hard Apple fanboys to prop it up as it always has done, but I don't think the company will handle the inevitable stock price crash too well.

yep. Apple computers/phones/pads/pods are popular because they are apple. they look good too (for most people. i am really tired of that look myself) but they do not have anything to offer above their competitors. Quite opposite. Every of their product is not only more expensive but also offers less than products from other companies.

It is nothing else just a huge huge fad which grew way too big too quickly in my opinion to be able to sustain itself for long.

Didn't Samsung beat Apple in phone sales last year? I thought they were already on their way down.

http://www.bgr.com/2011/10/28/samsung-blows-past-apple-to-take-no-1-smartphone-spot-in-q3/
yep. so apple is slowly losing the phone market.

That was St.Jobs doing he cut them when they needed to be cut but for some idiotic reason kept them gone when Apple started needing to cash out a little... now it needs to cash out a lot but it's still stuck in his mindset... at the rate things are going the shareholders may force a CEO change to someone willing to start giving dividends again.

I think all this speculation that goes around about Apple not knowing what to do with it's money is silly.

It's their war chest, to be used for suing and being sued. That's what their business model relies upon these days. None of the money will be spent on innovation, it will simply be spent on stifling the innovation of others in court, and eventually making massive payouts when they inevitably lose a big judgement or two at some point.

60 billion isn't a warchest 6billion is a warchest! 60 is I dont know what the fuck to do with this cash which won't destroy the company!

Stock buyback so the shareholders can go screw themselves?

60 billion is a warchest for a company valued at over 500 billion. It's all relative. If you make a hundred products, it turns out something is wrong with them, and they hurt people, you're only going to get sued by a hundred people. If Apple have a major cock up inwhich they have a truely mass recall, or have to give back a percentage of their previous revenues in a copyright dispute, it's feasible that the outcome could cost them tens of billions. The bigger they are, the harder they fall ;)

It's not big enough at current inflated stock prices to buy much more than 10% back which in this case is.. worthless
It's largest recall the Ipod nano 1g total cost of replacements less than 2% of their income hell for every Ipod they sell they can replace 2 more!

There is that. For one, a buyback would raise the already-inflated price even higher, and probably fuel a flurry of further increases from speculation of what the buyback means.