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Why Dave wants a Pentium:
I remember wanting a CHRP computer.
I still might want one.
Ron
My ultimo post on penultimate
Cotton was right on target on his defintion of ultimate. In the three romance languages that I am a bit familiar with, however, the word ultimo means last. Penultimate makes a bit more sense knowing that.
Used in a sentence, I would feel better today if my penultimate beer last night had been my last one.
Saw the Doobie Brothers last night, outdoors, at a summerfest. Wow, they can still rock, and old people with gray hair and varicose veins can still dance wildly on the grass :).
Ron
Cotton, No way can I see
No way can I see anymore longterm growth story for any of the PC stocks. Nationwide broadband apps are the only thing I can think of to make any kind of possible driver for the masses of people to continue to "trade up". <l>
Music store, iPod, Video store, VOIP telephone devices, other possible digital devices.
So the question becomes, is Apple a PC stock?
Ron
penultimate and syllables
It does mean that, Cotton, in the context of syllabification :), in other contexts it means other things. Certainly you have read about the penultimate son in a Bible story.
Penultimo is a much used word in Portugues, and its meaning is always second from the last--but the last what depends on the context of usage. This is, for example, the penultimate sentence in this post. This here one, however, be the last.
Ron
The economy: recovery/not recovery
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B024221A4%2DD7C4%2D4771%2D82C2%2D83A2665B974F%7D&am...
But for all the rises in some stocks, there was still evidence aplenty of how soft the economy has been and how fragile is its recovery. And unless and until that recovery becomes more robust, we probably will not have a true bull market.
and later in the article:
As for the U.S., the basic indicators -- consumer confidence, housing sales, retail sales, etc., etc. -- seem to be on the rise. But already military authorities are talking about expanding the U.S. commitment of people and money to Iraq. Small wonder that the federal budget has gone from a $127 billion surplus in 2001 in the last Clinton budget to a projected $455 billion deficit this year. [My comment: This 455 billion figure does not include the cost of military operations in the Middle East, so the true figure will be over half a trillion dollars]
And here are some releases to look for in the week just ahead:
On Monday, the Conference Board will report on its leading economic indicators. On Tuesday, the retail sales index will come out. On Thursday, watch for housing starts and first-time jobless benefits claims. Finally, on Friday there will be new home sales and durable goods orders.
In the same boat.
All of my market investing is done in four tax free accounts. I am in a different marina :).
Ron
How about a tax break for those little guys
But how about a tax break for all the little guys who got stung with some of these stocks that were "going to the moon " based on Wall Street hype. You are allowed to show stock losses on your income tax report, but you can only offset $3000.00 of paycheck income per year with stock losses.
How long can you carry them forward?
Part of the cost of losses can be chalked up as tuition in the school of life. Many have learned the lesson, but given the behavior of internet stocks this year, it seems that many have not, but the market will be happy to make them pay tuition again--and it surely will.
I am not excusing the hypesters, nor am I saying that the tax break should not be expanded--though it certainly should not until some of the tax cuts for the rich are rescinded--in fact that would make a good package deal....
Ron
Just learned that a partner of a mac geek friend of mine
landed a job working on the OS X roll-out at NASA's Ames research center. Pretty neat stuff, and they were at the point of really needing the bucks. She used to be part owner of a mac specializing ISP in the SF Bay area--but I don't remember the name of it right off hand--they sold it a few (again, don't remember exactly how many) years ago and she does consulting and programming for Mac and Palm platforms.
Ron
Mr Burp.
I don't care to contribute to the body of knowledge in this area. Also, for the record, a footnote is not in the body of the text :). I will however, happily accept the incomplete and will let it be engraved on my permanent record.
Ron
Well Mr. Burp, that is a good piece of research, but leaves unaccounted for the number of Mac users who search exclusively via Sherlock.
We do not have an answer for that, hence we have a pretty fair answer, but definitely some room for further research. As a researcher and an academic, I'd probably give you a B or thereabouts had been a short assignment for an Intro to Marketing class, and if you had footnoted the pie chart. Deductions would have been in order for the attempt to draw an unavoidable conclusion from incomplete data.
Ron
Well, Bill
I understand your frustration. Don't agree with it, but understand it. ECM and I had our share of combative exchanges on RB, but generally resolved them. If you met him in person and spent a bit of time with him, as I have, I suspect your opinion of him would change some.
In the meantime, I ain't a going back to RB. Tried to post something there this afternoon, but there was this email verification thingie that prevented me from doing so.
It may be my advancing years (51 1/2), or my increased taste for fairly civil discourse, but I like it here alot. It has become and I suspect will remain my main Apple board. There is more good content and less junk to filter through than on any other stock board on which I have been a participant.
That is my take on it.
No Paper, he was not right
The information can be and apparently is collected at the point of registration of the iPod, not just at the point of sale.
Ron
Bill,
Did you miss the part about Apple finding out when people register their iPods? Granted, not everyone registers their iPod, but I'd bet a significant majority do.
Also, I suppose your genital allusion (Y'all have a xxxx-xx when to comes to....) means you only think men like to accuse Apple management of dirty tricks. Is that correct? Can you phrase that in some other non-sexist way??
Ron
Bootz, how can Wolf tell?
I don't know, but it makes sense. Here is what Wolf was quoted as saying: Sales of Windows version iPods now exceed those of the Mac version, Wolf reveals, "with the difference continuing to grow,"
That difference will explode to the upside for WinPods, I predict, when the Music Store becomes available via iTunes for Windows.
Hopefully, the next great thing involving sale of content by Apple via the net (video anyone?), will involve a launch for both platforms at the same time.
Some, of course, view this WinPod thing with suspicion, but it is all for the good, in my opionion.
Ron
yofal, cash hoard
I don't think we're talking about spending a lot of it. I suspect that an additional investment (the stores are one, for example) toward the goal of gaining market share--particularly one that showed some signs of working--would be welcomed by the analysts.
Ron
Yofal, what I would do is
1) Keep one G4 model available, probably a single CPU and cut prices on it.
2) Crank up the speed on the eMac and iMac and reduce the price of the eMac to $700. Reduce the price of the iMac, I don't know how much.
3) cut the iBook price to $899
4) Advertise the heck out of the deals and plan to maintain them until October 1
Back to school.
If the price reductions, speed increases and advertising is effective, maintain them for the holiday season.
Can Apple afford it? You tell me. 4.5 billion and growing
Ron
MacWorld vendors say expo is good, unlike some
who had derided it on this board
Macworld vendors say traffic, business 'surprisingly good' despite smaller crowds
Switch campaign not working?
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6324033.htm
Not going there cause it ain't happening.
Macintosh is not a religion. It is a computer.
Adopt that as a mantra and improve your life.
Ron
just edited, read again.
Bill, who do you know that is doing that? eom.
It sucks to be right.
I hope you get to have that experience someday :).
Ron
Mr. Palmer
Fully invalid. It's an inaccurate insinuation that every Mac users stops to consider downgrading to a PC before buying their next Mac. It inaccurately implies that Mac users are all on the verge of giving up the Mac platform.
I did not insinuate that. You did. A decision not to change, a decision not to decide is a decision. You could look it up.
Ron
I certainly could be mistaken.
And it is a good practice to admit so on a regular basis :).
Ron
Bill, about this thing of Mac users deciding whether to stay or switch
langostino wrote:
"a substantial portion of the installed base has been waiting and deciding whether to stay or reverse-switch."
To which you responded:
How in the world can anyone take the fact that an existing Mac user hasn't bought a new Mac within the past year or so, and infer that they simply MUST be on the verge of downgrading to a PC?
Except it is not at all a response to what was written.
Langostino's words do not begin to imply what you wrote. it was a simple statement, and it seems to me a true one. Anyone who owns a Mac and buys a new computer decides whether to stay or to reverse switch. It is part of the buying decision. That seems self-evident.
When I bought the new iMac to replace the old one, I decided stay. Wasn't a difficult decision, but it was a decision. If I ever get to tele-commute, I'll bring a wintel machine home because it runs the software I make my living with a whole lot faster than VPC. Another easy decision (fortunately, I wouldn't have to pay for it).
Ron
Bill, about advertising the less expensive Macintoshes, you wrote:
The only area in which Apple would do well to advertise based on price would be to existing Mac users -- those who are sitting on a three-year-old iMac because they have no idea that they can get an eMac, which beats the crap out of what that they've got now, for a significantly lower price than they paid for their older iMac. The reluctance of these people to upgrade (based largely on the fact that the older iMacs are so capable of running most of the newer Mac stuff adquately, if not ideally), is what keeps overall sales from exploding.
There is something in here that seems counter-intuitive to me.
Who has better odds of knowing what computers Apple is selling and how much they cost? Would it be existing Mac users or people who use a) another platform, or b) have no home computer?
It seems like the intuitive answer would be that existing Mac users are far more likely to have knowledge of Apple's current computer offerings. OTOH, it seems far less likely that non-Mac users would have the same level of knowledge.
Now, it could make sense to advertise to existing Mac users to reinforce their pre-exisiting knowledge, but it seems to make more sense (unless one is talking of advertising in the Mac print media) to design something that would really hit home on the low prices of the eMac and iBooks, something that would reach both audiences but would not be targetted at existing Mac users.
That makes more sense to me.
Ron
Bought yesterday at 19.97
Sold today at 20.85.
A bird in the hand and all that.
ron
valuation
Pinza wrote Project today's stock price forward 6 quarters, and you see $20 / $.40 = a P/E of 50.
Then he wrote about Apple's massive cash of $4.5 billion.
Multex shows cash per share of 12.28 (MRQ) per share, up a bit since then. It shows book value of 11.32 per share.
So, how much should price/book or price/cash figure in when valuing Apple? Would plugging either of those into one's mental formulae on an appropriate valuation of Apple yield a different conclusion than it being too richly valued?
Ron
dilleet, aren't PowerBooks
Part of the Pro lineup? Therein could lie the answer to your inquiry.
Ron
Bill, the G5 and laptops
Likely do get some of them in the store, but it likely does not get those into the store who either do not have the resources or any plans to spend $1500-$3000 on a computer. In my opinion, a ad campaign emphasizing the lower priced Macintoshes--the eMac and iBooks--would be a good use of advertising resources. Might even draw in some of the parents of the students you work with--assuming they don't get that information from you or your school district.
Ron
Yes, an eMac for $799
But when have you seen them advertised? Are they being pushed? When will they get to $700 instead of $700?
I don't watch a lot of TV, but it has been a long time since I have seen an ad for the iMac and I have never seen one for the eMac. The eMac, IMO, is the prime switcher machine, or should be in ad campaigns, for example: "Do all this neat stuff (iMovie, iDVD, iTunes, Music store, Safari etc...... for $700---re-introducing the eMac.
Ron
It's Time to Build a List of Trustworthy Stocks
This could be interesting
http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/funds/jubak/10100324.html
Kevin, would be delighted to be surprised. eom.
Listened to some of the conference call, but was occasionally distracted. Part I like was the bit about the introduction of iTunes and the Music Store for Windows and how that will help drive sales of iPods and, to a lesser degree, Mac computers.
I agree that it will and think it is a good business move regardless of how many Macs it ends up selling or not selling.
Also, bought a small stake today. Might sell tomorrow if there is much of a pop (I don't much expect one), but will happily hold into next year.
Ron
Marketwatch headline
Apple Q3 income slides 41 percent
owchie
Conference call QT broadcast link:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq303/
Addressing board issues,
With all respect due, when it comes to some things, posting them to the larger list allows for input by all those affected. I think we should use our individual judgement about when to write a private message and when to write a on-list one.
If a moderator, assistant moderator or Matt has an issue with our judgement, then they could send us a private message about it.
That is what I think. I also think the moderators and iHub are doing a wonderful job of providing a good environment for our discussions, and I appreciate that.
Ron
Best Wishes for ACG
I am starting a hunt for stocks/funds that should do well in an environment of rising interest rates / inflation / improving employment.
I am not assuming that we are beyond any threats of deflation, but I am doing some hunting anyway.
It is why I opened a small position in PAYX, a company that should benefit from rising employment and rising interest rates.
If anyone has any bright ideas, I'd be happy to hear them.
Ron
Please, no involuntary sound files. Thanks :)
Cotton, you are a wise man :). eom.