I'm home sick today, watching old PVR'd stuff. I watched a Nova episode on solar power I recorded months ago, which prompted me to get on the 'net and start investigating solar credits programs in Florida, which prompted me to look at my dashboard widget for stocks and see that AAPL is getting hammered today.

No big surprises here; Apple is announcing numbers this week, and AAPL is about as volatile as a stock can get based upon "news" (they usually dip when all the panty-waists run for cover prior to a quarterly earnings report). The financial analysts also continue to have their heads up their asses, a condition I endured for years as an Apple investor during the iPod frenzy, when nobody seemed to understand the obvious long-term implications of the halo effect, and consistent doubling or tripling iPod sales wasn't good enough for the guys at the big brokerages.

So, what misinformed ruminations are the analysts interpreting off of the inside of their anal passages this week? None other than "disappointing" iPhone activation numbers for AT&T during the first weekend of availability indicating lower than expected unit sales, and perceived slowing interest in the iPhone at Apple Stores.

Well, I think this is just garbage. I'm going to go on record stating that I think the lack of activations is based mainly upon low estimates produced for the number of customers experiencing issues activating during the first weekend. And as far as interest being low in Apple stores, I think most people would rather go to an AT&T store (of which there are tons) than an Apple Store (of which there are a handful) to buy a cell phone. I'll find almost any reason to go to an Apple Store, even if I don't want to buy something, and I'd go to an AT&T store way before an Apple Store to buy an iPhone. I just have a natural expectation that a cell phone store would be able to help me out better with the purchase than a computer/gadget store would be.

Thank God Piper Jaffrey still has the sense to call it like it probably is. They seem to be the only group of analysts that understands Apple as a company and knows what the hell they are talking about.

I'm guessing that the rest of the analysts are just manipulating the market as usual so they can buy a crap load of shares before AAPL hits $200. After all, back in the iPod frenzy, I picked up most of my AAPL stock at around $30 while the detractors rambled on; and I'm still long on AAPL at $134 today.