Now that Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO, the question is what's the next buy signal forApple (AAPL)?
There have been a number of announcements and rumors this week relating to Apple including that the company will announce a slimmed down version of iPhone 4 announced in September. It will be called iPhone 4GS with 8G of memory -- a much smaller version.
There was also news on Tuesday that Sprint (S) would sell the iPhone starting this Fall. It helped juice Sprint's stock by 10% on Tuesday and it means that Apple might sell another 6 million phones next year.
While all that is a net positive for Apple's stock, these are both relatively small pieces of news for a company the size of Apple.
What might be much more significant for Apple and its stock is if the company can confirm a specific plan for taking this smaller and cheaper version of the iPhone (or perhaps an even smaller/cheaper model) that is targeted for the pre-pay emerging market with specific carrier partners in China and India.
There has been a lot of speculation about Apple announcing a deal with China Mobile(CHL). In addition to newly appointed CEO Tim Cook's personal visits, Steve Jobs apparently courted China Mobile directly over the last few months.
Announcing a deal with China Mobile that is geared toward the prepay market in China (representing over 90% of China's cell phone market) would be a huge deal for Apple.
That is the kind of single news piece that could move Apple's stock. And it might be coming as soon as in a few weeks.
As far as Jobs himself, I actually think we're about to see that there has been a "Jobs discount" built into Apple's stock, rather than a premium. This fear -- will Steve leave? -- has been hanging over the company for some time. Now, there is certainty about Cook's ascension.
I don't expect it to happen today, but I think that as investors see Cook perform in the next few weeks and months, we are going to see many more buyers than sellers of Apple.