analysts pretty much suck. you know that if apple falls even .1 million below estimates, they're gonna be proclaimed to be failing, and their stock price will fall.

Yeah, that's the thing that gets me; An analyst makes a guess and is wrong and somehow it's the companies fault.

The simple thing is that analysts are not held accountable for their predictions. Is there some organization that chalks up their predictions and compares them to the real world and gives them a grade?

Some years ago, Wall Street Week on PBS asked its panel members at New Year's to predict the market and pick stocks. The next year, their predictions were compared with what really happened. Few got it right or even close. These were supposedly smart people (at least, they were highly paid), all working with the same information, yet their predictions didn't vary just slightly, but were all over the place. Some would predict massive growth, others a downturn or minor crash. It was hilarious.

Why are they so highly paid if their performance is so terrible? It may be that their employers don't care if they're right as long as they make predictions that will generate transactions. Remember what the Duke brothers (Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche) say to Billy Ray (Eddie Murphy) in Trading Places (paraphrasing from memory), "If the price goes up, we make money. If the price goes down, we make money." Good racket, isn't it?

it was all my fault. I was on track to upgrade but didn't since I decided to wait for at least 100 GB & a larger screen. Also, wanted to save some money for an iPhone this summer.