A Cloud Like a Man's Hand

Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. (1 Kings 18:44)

As an Apple shareholder, I'm not concerned about the big Cloud that's going to store all our data and integrate our lives. It's the little clouds that worry me.

iPad shipping delays: Apple's U.S. website said new pre-orders for iPads would not ship until March 19, three days after the official launch day.

Accusations of price-fixing: "The Justice Department has warned Apple Inc. and five of the biggest U.S. publishers that it plans to sue them for allegedly colluding to raise the price of electronic books, according to people familiar with the matter." [Update: Forbes columnist Tim Worstall thinks that any monopolistic/oligopolistic price fixing in e-books will evaporate quickly in the age of contestable markets.]

New iPad profit margins are lower than for the iPad 2.

The problems that Apple has had perfecting its iPad trademark in China. For those who don't care to watch, the linked video talks about: 1) How Apple asked Amazon to remove the iPad from Amazon's Chinese website because Amazon is not an authorized reseller; 2) Apple's dispute with the bankrupt Proview, from whom Apple says it bought the rights to the iPad trademark. Proview claims it never sold Apple the trademark and has ratcheted up the actions it wants the Chinese authorities to take, from pulling iPads from store shelves to banning all exports of iPads manufactured in China. The WSJ reporter said that the latter action would be a "big deal" but also said that iPads were still being sold in Beijing.

Apple's superb track record makes it very likely that these problems will be worked through. But the clouds are getting bigger, and we'll have to watch them more closely.