A lot of people treat it that way and that's where value investors make their money.

Take a listen to Roger Montgomery's latest ASX podcast/talk

Audio: http://secure-au.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/b?cg=av&ci=asx&tu=http://www.asx.com.au/podcast/asx-investor-hour-2012021.mp3
Slides: http://secure-au.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/b?cg=av&ci=asx&tu=http://www.asx.com.au/documents/slides/asx-investor-hour-20120221.pdf

His philosophy gels well with nerds like us. He likes to treat his investing as if he were buying a whole business instead of little numbers on a screen.

I sort of share your view but keep in mind that most investors will want a company to keep all of its profits and NOT pay dividends while the company is still able to make a larger return on that retained profit.

Apple has so much retained profit that it can't use it fast enough to stimulate growth. So the best thing to do is to pay some of that profit off as a dividend.

To put it another way: retaining profit and not paying dividends is the thing a company should do while it can still grow. If a company can make 30% return on equity (number out of thin air) then you want them to keep the equity they create so they can make another 30% next year. When that return on equity drops to below what you can get investing in another company or a bank account then give the investors the profits and let them put in other shares or just in a bank account.

Think of investing as a higher interest earning bank account that requires you to do a shit-tonne of analysis to make sure your money is always invested in the right place.

But wouldn't the developer discount their app if they don't get the sales numbers they were after? If I were selling an app at $5 and no one bought it I'd try to price it down to $2.50 or something and see how it went. Isn't that the process you're talking about?

Isn't that the same as your $10M house example? If my house were on the market for $10M and no one bought it, then it'd be on the market for a year (or month, whatever) before I finally cracked and reduced the price to something that would sell.

Sure the app store doesn't have that direct price negotiation but neither does a website with an app for purchase. I can't just negotiate a cheaper price with Adobe for Photoshop! But Adobe can reduce the price of the software if they feel the lower price will yield more sales.

The 30% that Apple takes is a bargain! Let them handle distribution, credit card payment and to some degree marketing & exposure.

You're not helping the developer by not buying their app just because you don't want Apple taking the developer's money. The fact is that the developer can focus on coding rather than all the messy human stuff thanks to Apple.

Same here! Guys make the same sound too. I love Marco Arment but sometimes listening to his pod cast is tiring because he's constantly speaking with a creaky voice.

Named, not names

lol I suck

You're, not your're
Canon, not Cannon (the company isn't names after a way to shoot things)

Take a chill pill Phil!

Yeah fair enough. Sometimes we do need more privileges but I agree that even a developer that *does* know what he's doing will still lunch his computer at some point. Whenever I've needed help from IT (I'm a developer) I've always been apologetic and accepted their time constraints. Are not most developers like this?

THEN DON'T BUY IT!

I don't see the value in a Louis Vutton wallet because in my opinion they look awful and are overly expensive for what they are. I don't, though, go around criticising people for having them. I just make my choice as a FREE CONSUMER and not buy one.

I used to think Apple fanboys were preachy and annoying but they have nothing on the Andriod Ninnies that feel the need for everyone to have Android phones.

For some people the only reason they use a particular OS is because the app they want to use only runs on that OS. Once that app becomes useless/annoying to them then there's nothing stopping going back to the OS they want to use.

Pretty much yeah ... I can't tell you what the PIN for my credit card is but I can type it out if you give me a key pad that ISN'T upside down!

I mean really ... why the hell are there keypads with 7 8 & 9 on the bottom!? Madness!

haha that sounded like the 'things I care more about than you' rant by Dr Cox in Scrubs! ... oh wait, I'm the only one that watches that show

He explained what he meant. How is that comment 'Informative' anyway?

What if the system has more than one user and the both play that game? Wouldn't it be neat if when user A logs in, the saved games are his and not of user B's?