Not So Big Apple

Analysts have also worried that the Disney position might distract Jobs -- who is widely viewed as having saved Apple from irrelevance or death -- from his duties at Apple.

Additionally, recent disappointing earnings reports at Yahoo! (YHOO Quote) and Google (GOOG Quote) appear to have resonated with some Apple investors, Biggam says.

Investors are fearing that these and other technology companies are maturing, implying slowing growth, said Paul Foster, an options strategist at TheFlyOnTheWall.com.

"People are rotating out of maturing tech stocks," Foster said.

Another concern is the past weekend's column in The New York Times that denounced Apple's iPods as being fragile devices with a short, useful life and that accused Apple of having poor customer service.

The column accused Apple of being an "extraordinarily arrogant company" and warned that the company's customer service practices could cost it customers in the long run.

In general, the fear among investors, Biggam and others say, is that the valuations of Apple and other highflying technology stocks have gotten ahead of themselves. Last month, Apple, for instance, was trading at about a quarter of Microsoft's(MSFT Quote), valuation, says one hedge fund manager, who asked not to be named.

But Apple's earnings and revenue constitute a much smaller fraction of Microsoft's than that.

"There's no way you could say this business model is as good as Microsoft's or two doubles away," says the hedge fund manager, who is long Apple's shares but recently sold off 90% of his stake.

The opinion of investors seems to be "take the money and run," said the fund manager. "A lot of people are just doing that."