It would be hard to get most growth investors to take Jordan's side. Google is still considered the fastest growing large Internet firm in the world, and Apple the world's most successful creator of consumer electronics. There is, however, some logic in Jordan's view, particularly on Apple.
Apple's shares are up 140% this year. Its iPhone business has most of its growth ahead of it, but that is probably not true with the iPod or the Mac. iPod sales have gone over 200 million since the product was introduced in 2001. It will reach a point of market saturation soon, if it has not already. One things is for certain: iPod sales are not growing at the pace that they used to.
The Mac's problems are more subtle. The machine is still taking market share from PCs, but the introduction of Windows 7 may blunt that. Macs are usually more expensive than comparable machines from PC companies, which is not an ideal situation during a slow economic period. The biggest knock against the Mac is that it's still having trouble getting a foot in the door of larger companies which buy a huge portion of the PCs sold each year. IT departments do not like the idea of support two kinds of computers and two operating systems. This has givenMicrosoft ( MSFT) and PC companies a sales edge.
Apple may be a growth stock, but it has two large business that may stop growing.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.
