Before I start hating on Apple, I want to preface with a different form of hate. TARIFFS DO NOT WORK. I was watching the debate last night, and I heard from Donald Trump, a dumb idea, not uncommon. Tariffs raise prices and hurt trade and trade relations. They are a tax on the populace and are ineffective. Just to be fair to his opponent, TAXING UNREALIZED CAPITAL GAINS IS SO STUPID. Kamala, come on, that is stupid. Just quantifying an unrealized gain is tough, at least if it is not a stock. I know that she is trying to bridge the gap between rich and poor in our tax system, which is good initiative, but this is bad follow through. Dumb ideas from everyone involved but mostly Trump.

Now, on to Apple. As context for those who are not hyper-dedicated Pax Romana readers, I recently sold out of my Apple position. I first bought around $140 or $150; I cannot remember. As the stock accrued in value, I bought some more, and my belief in Apple increased. Over the past year, however, I have become increasingly disillusioned by Apple. The lack of innovation, the increasing scrutiny, everything, made me feel like I was buying an old stag.

     And you may say, “Well Henry, you love Microsoft. That is a comparably sized tech company with similar scrutiny.” In response, I would point at revenue growth. Apple has been completely flat. Over the trailing twelve months (TTM), Apple has seen their revenue increase 0.43%, while Microsoft has seen theirs grow 16% over the TTM. Beyond revenue, Microsoft has incurred less scrutiny from the EU and DOJ. Microsoft is also better positioned for AI. And really, in short, the vibes are better at Microsoft. Microsoft feels like a company on the cutting edge of technology, churning out interesting gadgets, growing their cloud revenues, and yielding cheese from software and hardware. Apple feels like a complacent company at the top throwing hundreds of billions at stock buybacks and sloppy fines.

     Wow, that turned into a bit of a rant. What I meant to say before I got sucked into Microsoft vs. Apple was that I was keeping a close eye on the Apple Event. I cannot remember if I wrote about my pessimism, but I was pessimistic about the level of innovation coming out of this event.

     My immediate reaction to the tech Apple dropped was: “I was right.” The biggest addition they made to the iPhone this year, an iPhone that has failed to grow sales massively for years now by the way, was a button on the side to take pictures with. THAT SUCKS. For some reason, all the tech websites are glazing this addition (because they are paid by Apple). Also out of the event was a seriously weak Apple Intelligence. It can provide summaries for emails, a slightly less useless Siri, and a visual search, which means nothing.

     None of these updates show any sign of life at all. This sucks. Nobody (and this is exaggeration) is dropping between $800 and $1600 just because Siri can tell them what something in real life is. WHO CARES? The one slightly interesting tidbit, although I do not care enough to tell anybody to invest, is the Apple hearing test. As my favorite investing YouTuber, Joseph Carlson, pointed out, this is a move by Apple into healthcare.

     Apple has gotten really into healthcare recently. Their Air Pods can now be used as hearing aids, they have a ton of health apps, and the Apple Watch knows everything about your body. This is an interesting path for Apple to go down, and I am relatively interested to see what they do with this. HOWEVER, I expect more from a company worth as much as the GDP of Spain, Saudi Arabia, and the Netherlands combined.

     This event has turned me from “I will not own this stock in a collection of what I believe to be the seven best stocks in the world,” to “I would not tell my family to buy this stock, and I would ask them to talk to an actual financial professional about selling.”

     Sorry Timmy, I am out, but plz do not take my iPhone, Air Pods, Mac, and Apple Watch I discarded a few years ago back.