Investors Wonder If Apple Has Matured Too Much

Many people have tried and tried, unsuccessfully to date, to call the peak of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL). We will not try to claim that Apple has peaked. After all, we just saw that Canaccord Genuity reiterated a Buy rating and raised its target to $800 on Wednesday. Still, this launch of the iPad Mini felt a bit tired and it feels like Apple’s idea generation is just increasing the current lines to more models rather than bringing new products. The iPad mini looks like two iPod Touch models combined into one. As this product launch was rather well telegraphed for weeks now, investors yawned.

Here is a brief description of all the Apple products launched Tuesday.

The 32GB iPod Touch for $299 has a four-inch retina display. The iPad mini starts at $329 and comes with a 7.9 inch screen. The iPad 2 starts at $399 and the iPad with the famed Retina display starts at $499, both of which come with a 9.7-inch diagonal screen.

Technically the new mini is closer to the iPad in size than it is the iPod Touch. It is still not such a stretch that we think of this as a larger iPod Touch. One thing is for sure though. No one will be strapping their iPad mini to their arm to go to the gym or running and biking.

Apple shares started sliding right as the new model was displayed on Tuesday in a classic “sell the news” reaction. Its shares closed down 3% at $613.36 on Tuesday, but shares are indicated higher on Wednesday by 0.8% at $618.20 along with a stable market.

JON C. OGG