News on the markets focused on President Bush’s removal of a 30-year-old ban on offshore drilling off the coast of the United States. But that’s only one step – he needs Congress to remove the ban completely and so far that’s showing no sign of happening.
But there was some news in the tech sector. One potential problem comes from Applied DNA Sciences, one of the more prominent DNA security up-and-comers. It’s announced that its annual meeting of stockholders has been rescheduled to an as yet undetermined date. APDN also announced that its board of directors has canceled the current record date of July 15, 2008 and will notify shareholders when a new record date has been set. Also, the company recently announced a shake-up in management, as well.
Fair or unfair, when a company reschedules a board meeting and pushes a key financial deadline back, you have to wonder. APDN is a classic “pink sheet” company – a trading commodity that Wall Street considers to be frequently traded at under $1 per share. Such stocks tend to move and up and down with alarming speed. This time that speed might be headed downward – stay away from APDN.
There’s also a growing sense that Apple has a huge hit in the new G3 iPhone. As I pointed out in my last post, the company said it sold one million units in just three days. But on the first day the iPhone went on sale, Apple's servers collapsed as buyers tried to activate new iPhones in stores, while owners of older iPhones and the iPod Touch were updating and reactivating their devices. Consequently, both new and existing users were out of luck, service-wise.
Altogether, Apple has sold over six million units of the first-model iPhone since it launched in the U.S. in 2007. The company has set a goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. Looks like they’ll make it. For the day, Apple's stock rose $1.35, leveling off after a big morning trade-up.
A note: if you want to cut the price of your new iPhone service – and you’re an existing iPhone customer – you may be in luck. A company called Freeiphoneswap.com has had street teams out in or near Apple and AT&T distributors offering existing iPhone owners the chance to trade their old iPhone for $200 and the opportunity to upgrade to the new 3G phone for free. The new phones cost as much as $600 when they were first announced but for existing iPhone owners upgrades are available for $200-$300 depending on the model.
Here’s the deal. Freeiphoneswap.com will pay consumers $100-$200-$300 depending on the model of iPhone that they presently have, which will in turn allow the consumer to upgrade to the new 3G for free. Check it out at www.freeiphoneswap.com or call 1-877-899-7779.
What does Freeiphoneswap.com get out of the deal? The iPhones that are traded in will be stripped for their essential components, and resold in the after markets.