Apple is scheduled to release an earnings report today, and the general feeling tends to be that they will have a good quarter. In the wake of the financial crisis, their stocks are down considerably at the moment, the inference in this is that the growth potential of Apple is lower. As with most things stock market though, emotion has a lot to do with this. As of Monday close Apple was sitting at just under $100 per share which is less than half it’s $203 peak. At this new level Apples price per earnings ratio is still almost 20 (which is moderately high).
Realistically Apples share price probably had little to do with real growth prospects for Apple. Apple is known for having a premium price point in the market though, and will this hamper its potential to maintain its market? I am not sure that it will. The last downturn was due to the Internet bubble and saw larger than normal numbers of IT workers out of work. Before this downturn though, the IT sector was actually in a pretty good state and even in the entrepreneurial areas there is very little bloat. There is very little chance that there are going to be many IT professionals out of work. As this demographic is a large part of the Apple purchasers it may not hit Apple to hard.
I am also seeing some anecdotal evidence from my friends in the IT industry is that Apple is starting to make its way into corporate environments in a limited way. While large corporates are not adding Apple into their SOE, with the iPhone and good looking laptops that can run corporate Windows images, the executive jewelry market is running hot with Apple now. Regardless of how tight belts get in companies, the VP’s will still get the laptops they want.
In the end there is a good chance that Apple, and many other IT companies won’t feel much from this downturn