Apple’s next big move will probably be smaller than you think

Sometimes we go astray by confusing entertainment for value. In sports, it’s a draft or (in the case of this past month in Major League Baseball) a trade deadline that provides some entertainment – who will go where? – but in the end, very little nourishment. The sound and fury you just witnessed don’t quite signify nothing, but what they signify won’t be known for months or years.

This happens in business, too. I’m thinking about it because of an exchange in last week’s Apple conference call with analysts. Piper Sandler analyst Harsh Kumar asked Tim Cook if, since stock prices have crashed for a lot of companies, Apple was specifically looking to acquire companies to grow its services business.

“We always look and we ask ourselves how