The strength of Zaky is his approach to and depth in analyzing trends. This approach has served him well over the recent past stable environment.

The current environment is however far from stable.

I first acquired Apple stock in 1997/1998 when I noticed that the Apple Resellers in London were becoming uncharacteristically busy.

Like you, I keep tabs on the retail activity.

I can confirm that the London stores remain very busy. The London Regent’s Street store, Apple’s largest, is generally full to capacity and folks are leaving with purchases. There appears to be a huge interest in the MacBooks. The Pros were unavailable (sold out) at the time two weeks back. There was just one of the new LED monitors on display in a corner and this was not attracting much attention.

The surrounding area shows little sign of recession judged by number of people on Oxford Street and Regent’s Street but the shop assistants in many stores appear somewhat bored.

It seems for Apple Retail, business is as usual here in London although many retailers are announcing sharp declines.

Resellers are busy, with “lookers” at least, compared with non Apple like stores in the same neighborhood.

I frequently check the pulse by visiting 4 stores located within 90 minutes of my Sarasota, FL area home. I have also visited three stores in England and get regular reports from friends and family there, as well as, recent personal visits to stores in New York and California.

During the past few weeks, I visited stores in Brandon and Estero (Naples), Florida and got a report on the opening of their latest store in Richmond, England.

The UK store was packed two weeks ago and, last night, I stopped in the store at the International Plaza in Tampa.

In the Tampa, the store staff were all busy with customers, when I walked in and iMacs, Macbooks and lots of Apple bags were going out the door, at 5:30.

By way of contrast, Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus were almost empty. Last Sunday, the staff in Apple stores in Tampa said they were overwhelmed with shoppers.

Before they run off at the mouth, these analysts need to go check the numbers that count. Apple is the only bright spot in an awful lot of dead malls.