Apple Shares Drop On Samsung Product Releases

Apple's stock took a beating Wednesday after rival Samsung showed off a number of new products at a Berlin trade show.

Samsung's reveal of two new smartphones -- the Galaxy Note Edge and Galaxy Note 4 -- along with virtual reality headset Gear VR come ahead of Apple's highly anticipated Sept. 9 media event in which it is expected to take the wraps off the iPhone 6 and make other product announcements.

The news also trails the widely reported leak of celebrity nude photos hacked from personal iCloud accounts over the weekend. Apple drew steep criticism over iCloud's security capabilities and said in a release Tuesday that "None of the cases we have investigated has resulted from any breach in any of Apple’s systems including iCloud or Find my iPhone."

[Related: Celebrity iCloud Security Intrusion Prompts Apple Response]

The iCloud incident is one in a line of mobile threats gaining the attention of business owners who are only now starting to see the potential security risks introduced by smartphones and tablets, said Kevin Willette, owner of Fridley, Minn.-based solution provider, Verus Corp. The security incident may have tarnished Apple, but it also shed light on the need for better mobile protection, Willette said.

"We're starting to see a lot of vulnerabilities connected to these devices that open up potential avenues of attack," Willette said. "It takes a few public instances where there are victims before people start asking about protection."

Apple's shares closed down about 4% on Wednesday to $98.94 for a recent market value of $592.44 billion.

Apple's share price had risen 38 percent since April as investors anticipated major product announcements coming in the fall. Two weeks ago Apple's stock hit a record high of $100.54, the company's highest closing mark ever when taking into account the 7-for-1 stock split in June.

Along with the iPhone 6, Apple is expected to have a major announcement in the mobile payments industry in addition to healthcare as the company released the AUI for its HealthKit platform to developers in early June.

PUBLISHED SEPT. 3, 2014