3 of the Biggest Surprises This Week: Dell Inc. (DELL), Apple Inc. (AAPL) and More

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“We know the desire to purchase a next-generation console would be significantly diminished if new consoles were to prohibit playing pre-owned games, limit portability, or not play new physical games,” he told Bloomberg.

The best way to combat shrinking sales is most definitely not to make your product less user-friendly with a higher total cost of ownership. Can somebody make sure Sony and Microsoft get that memo?

3. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) investors fight for bigger dividend checks
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) owns a $135 billion cash pile and keeps adding more to it with every passing quarter. That’s great for Cupertino’s financial security, but large Apple investors have started to question if it wasn’t time to really share the wealth already.

Yes, the company pays a dividend as of 2012 and also started a modest share-buyback program at the same time. But allocating $45 billion to these programs over a three-year period doesn’t distribute any of the existing oversupply of cash, given that the company pulled in $21 billion of free cash in the last quarter alone.

Nice problem to have, but Greenlight Capital manager David Einhorn thinks the company could do more. On Thursday, he filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to make it reconsider its capital allocation strategy.

The lawsuit is the big surprise here. The Fool has called Apple’s dividend policy “stingy” since the beginning, and I agree that the company should embrace its newfound status as a value and income stock with both hands. It’s just a little jarring to see legal action to push the envelope.

The article 3 of the Biggest Surprises This Week originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Anders Bylund.

Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any company mentioned. Check out Anders’ bio and holdings or follow him on Twitter and Google+. The Motley Fool recommends Apple and Nintendo and owns shares of Apple, GameStop, and Microsoft.

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