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Marc Faber: Apple 'could go bust'

Marc Faber: Apple could go bust
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Marc Faber: Apple could go bust

Famed investor Marc Faber believes that Apple is a troubled company making an array of frivolous products—and for that reason could be on the road to bankruptcy.

"This is the kind of stock I'm really not interested in," Faber said about Apple on Tuesday's "Futures Now." "I'm not saying it will go bust," but "it could go bust eventually."

(Read more: It's officialApple event set for Oct. 22)

Faber added that it won't go under "tomorrow" or "the day after tomorrow." But the editor and publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report compares Apple to another technology company that's now infamous for moving slower than the times.

"This is kind of like Polaroid of the 1970s," Faber said. After all, Polaroid, like Apple, was founded and driven by a famous innovator who eventually left the company.

"Dr. [Edwin] Land, who was the founder of Polaroid, had more patents under his head than anyone else in the world," Faber noted.

In 1982, Land (who received more patents than any other American save Thomas Edison) left his seat on Polaroid's board, and gave up his research post at the company. In 2001, Polaroid filed for bankruptcy protection, and proceeded to sell off its businesses.

(Read more: Apple snags Burberry CEO as new retail chief)

Marc Faber thinks Apple could go bust.
Scott Eelis | Bloomberg (R) | Getty Images (L)

Apple certainly looks strong on a fundamental basis. The company has $43 billion in cash and short-term investments on its balance sheet. Apple took in $35 billion worth of revenue in the second-quarter alone, and on Tuesday, the company was worth more than $450 billion.

But Faber maintains that the tech industry is littered with the graves of former market leaders. "We have many other examples of high-tech companies that just faded away," Faber noted.

And for Faber, Apple's biggest problem may be that its products aren't exactly human necessities.

"It's basically a toy company for grown-ups," Faber said.


—By CNBC's Alex Rosenberg. Follow him on Twitter: @CNBCAlex.

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