Thank You!

Thank you to all of the active members of the Apple Finance Board for your support, feedback and camaraderie. Entering a public comparison of AAPL earnings estimates against many of the best minds on Wall Street was something I figured was akin to singlehandedly taking on the 101st Airborne Division armed only with a pitchfork. A suburban husband and father equipped with an iMac, pad of paper and Internet access to read the news, download financial statements for analysis and moderate an AAPL-discussion board are my claims to resources. Yes. I have a background in finance and accounting and a passion for the intuitive and revolutionary products produced by a company that takes its name from a fruit. Still, this was a challenge by nature I'd ordinarily avoid. I didn't expect my estimates to finish at or around the top. At best I expected a respectable showing. I'd like to thank each of you for being that added resource through your camaraderie and support that prompted me to publicly post estimates and do the hard work involved to produce them.  

Congratulations to Turley Muller on his top placement, to Daniel Tello for his excellent showing and his ongoing examples of hard work and diligence, and Patrick Smellie , Andy Zaky and Alexis Cabot for their fine showings and making the outcome a virtual shut out for the bloggers and unaffiliated analysts. A special thank you to Philip Elmer-DeWitt for not only including my numbers in his comparisons but also for choosing to use my given name. It was a bit startling to see my name in digital print outside of ATPM, the few comments I make on Apple 2.0 columns, and years ago the financial reports and columns I wrote for The Mac Observer. Perhaps for too long I've hidden behind that thin veil of pseudo anonymity that I crafted with the DawnTreader moniker. 

The results of the analyst comparisons can be found in this Apple 2.0 column.

Sincerely, 

Robert Paul Leitao (aka DawnTreader)