How does Trefis factor in the health of Steve Jobs for its Apple estimate?
A company’s stock price is impacted by a number of factors. Steve Jobs’s health could certainly be relevant in the case of Apple. In order to determine how Steve Jobs’s health would impact Apple you should first understand how Steve Jobs helps Apple. Steve Jobs helps Apple to envision, design and launch successful products. So how does Apple’s stock price benefit? It benefits ONLY if his contribution can impact the fundamental drivers of Apple’s business. For example, if Apple can sell more products like iPhones or iPods and/or sell them at higher prices, or both. As you can imagine, beside the health of Steve Jobs, there could be a number of other parameters that indirectly impact the fundamental drivers of a business, like pricing or market share of the products offered. We model a company based on these fundamental drivers of a business in order to help our users understand the very basics of a company. Furthermore we expect and encourage our users to freely express their view about
