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Stephen Wildstrom says Mac the best choice for consumers:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2007/tc20070129_832843.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+...
A view from the East.
http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=153138
RAKESH RAMAN
Posted online: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 at 0000 hours IST
After some excessive hype, inordinate delays and probable bugs, Microsoft’s new software sees the light of day - in the US, on the other side of the globe—on January 30, the scheduled date for its consumer launch. Earlier code-named Longhorn, this Microsoft operating system (OS) was christened Windows Vista in 2005, and is now ready to target millions of worldwide PC users. The feature-laden product comes after almost five years of its predecessor Windows XP, and this has been the longest time gap ever between two successive PC-centric Windows products.
Microsoft, the world’s largest software company with over $44 billion in 2006 revenues, promises a rich digital experience with Vista, driven by the ease-of-use that comes with a new graphical user interface (GUI), apart from simplified file management, better visual effects and a slew of other multimedia aids.
Sure, it may have plenty of bells and whistles, particularly for the deep-pocket buyer who likes bells and whistles, but will it succeed in wooing the serious consumer who wants an economical PC for applications as mundane as word processing, Net surfing, e-mail and perhaps a bit of personal accounting?
Therein lies a market problem. While PC makers in developing countries like India are busy trying to introduce low-cost PCs in the Rs 10,000 range, Microsoft wants consumers to shell out at least four times the money to buy (or upgrade) a PC that supports its Vista. This is because Vista expects you to have a top-of-the-line computer—a Windows Vista capable PC or Windows Vista premium ready PC, in technical parlance—with a high-end processor, more memory and better graphics support.
While PC makers try to introduce low-cost PCs for Rs 10,000 apiece, Microsoft wants you to shell out four times the money
With these pre-requisites, will the Indian home, or even enterprise, buyer be willing to adopt Vista? Let’s check. If you want to upgrade your PC to make it Vista-ready, your computer is supposed to be not more than a year old. And during the last one year, an estimated four million PCs were sold in India (true home users are few and far between) at an average price of some Rs 25,000. If these users want to upgrade, they’ll have to spend almost the same amount all over again. Then, there will be umpteen hardware glitches because of component incompatibility and so on. So, unless one deems Vista a must-have for some special reason that justfies paying an arm and a leg for an upgradation, it makes little sense moving on from a machine that works fine for all your necessary applications. But having the market on a never-ending escalator is part of techdom’s business model. So, vendors will soon start offering Vista pre-loaded PCs. Yet, all things considered, it’ll only be a small fraction of the market—to begin with, excitable and gullible first-time users—that might succumb to the hoopla around Vista.
What does this mean for Vista’s prospects in India? In the immediate future, and in a developing economy with weak PC penetration, it’s not going to be a walk in the park for the software powerhouse, even if it plans a no-frills version for the budget-bound Indian consumer. However, the solace for Microsoft could be a low piracy rate. With so few top-end computers, pirates have no chance.
In the US market, though, Vista fits perfectly into the Microsoft scheme of things. Of late, it has been trying hard to prove its dominance in the imminent world of digital convergence in which the computer, telecom, and entertainment markets are set to merge. Microsoft’s affection for the convergence market is evident from its recent offerings in the fast-evolving markets for digital gaming, Internet-based TV and mobile phones. Zune, its answer to Apple’s iPod, got widespread media attention. Like Microsoft, the focus of most computer and telecom companies is moving from than the traditional base of corporate users to the potentially huge home market. So, a techno-entertainment product like Vista will, perhaps, help Microsoft mark its presence in the living room.
After that, it’s one big rumble. It could take quite a shuffle just keeping up with the an arena of entertainment software in which art, music, football, architecture and everything else seem to be coalescing in ways ever-harder to imagine.
Ganasi at #1 - what brake fluid do they use?
Accuracy and facts have nothing on hype and sensationalism. The latter 2 always win in the news business. Unfortunately.
I work for a news organization.
If the reporters/writers have 2 sources for the information then nothing else, credibility included, doesn't seem to matter.
Here is a complete list of splits, divestitures, and stock rewards for ATT holders:
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=191398
I hadn't even checked yesterday's numbers til now. I am up 22% on this now. Any glaring reasons this should draw back on Monday or Tuesday? I'll be out of town until Tuesday evening.
OT: I just had to look that up in the urban dictionary:
Asshattery;
1. The act of displaying properties or characteristics of an asshat. This includes but is not limited to wearing your ass for a hat or saying/commiting an act that causes the audience in presence to become dumber.
2. The art of becoming or practicing flagrantly being an asshat.
They forcasted flurries here too - got nada.
All you have to do is sell before they "pull the rug" then. You know when that's going to happen?
No problem. I am not neo nazi when it comes to posting.
It sure would be nice to see something positive come from Scottsdale...
anything at this point.
That link goes to Aspen's President and CEO Interviewed by Leading Online Financial Portal
Friday January 19, 11:03 am ET
FWIW This was directed at us:
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=16304791
Maybe a bounce today...
Didn't most of the "dropping" today happen before earning were reported?
This should help...
CUPERTINO, Calif., Jan. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Apple(R) today announced financial results for its fiscal 2007 first quarter ended December 30, 2006. The Company posted record revenue of $7.1 billion and record net quarterly profit of $1.0 billion, or $1.14 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $5.7 billion and net quarterly profit of $565 million, or $.65 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 31.2 percent, up from 27.2 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 42 percent of the quarter's revenue.
'We are incredibly pleased to report record quarterly revenue of over $7 billion and record earnings of $1 billion,' said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. 'We've just kicked off what is going to be a very strong new product year for Apple by launching Apple TV and the revolutionary iPhone.'
Still calling it the iPhone
Looks like they blew way past that!
Because I bought it- LOL
9=meaning of the universe - screw 42
As far as I know Patent and Trademarks are cut and dry, no such thing as technical semantics.
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=searchstr&state=9l6am1.1.1
If you look at the results of a search in the US Patent and Trademark Office for iPhone, there is 9 results, of which 6 have been abandoned. The only others, besides Apple, are for a hotel internal phone, and Cisco's, which arguably doesn't conflict with the Apple one - the trademark is in a different field, of "computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks", not "handheld and mobile digital electronic devices for the sending and receiving of telephone calls, faxes, electronic mail, and other digital data..."
Apple might squeak through this one without having to shell out to either of the other trademark holders.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Hours after Steve Jobs unveiled Apple's iPhone, analysts were busy speculating on which semiconductor vendors and system houses have notched up design wins and manufacturing contracts.
According to a report from FBR Research, the winners are Samsung Electronics (applications/video processor), Marvell (802.11), Infineon Technologies (baseband), Broadcom Corp. (touch screen controller), and Cambridge Silicon Radio (Bluetooth).
FBR believes that Apple has contracted with Taiwan suppliers for 6 million units this year, with an option for another three million units if demand is good. The phone is slated to go on sale in Apple and Cingular Wireless stores in June, with a hefty price tag of $499 (4 GByte) and $599 (8 GByte)—and that apparently already includes the subsidy from Cingular based on a two-year contract.
A report from Macquarie Research noted several Taiwan companies will also benefit, including Foxconn International (assembly), Catcher and Foxconn Tech (stainless casing and mechanical parts) Cheng Uei and Entery (connectors/cable and Bluetooth module), Unimicron and Tripod (PCB), Largan Precision (camera lens) and Altus (camera module).
Although Palm and RIM stocks took a hit yesterday after the phone was released, Macquarie expects that Sony-Ericsson's Walkman line of phones will be under the greatest threat since they are also music oriented phones. Nokia's 5300 and N73 may also be affected.
In general, Taiwan's High Tech Computer will probably weather the release of the iPhone pretty well, at least in the early days. Many of HTC's Windows-based phones, including its popular Dopod designs, are a little cheaper and target the business crowd. The same goes for RIM and Palm. Apple's iPhone is limited to 2.5G and with its music focus is very much a consumer-centric device.
FBR Research also noted that Samsung appears to have won the combined video and applications processor socket in the latest video iPod, codenamed M45, which will launch in the third quarter. It replaces Nvidia in that role.
Analysts earlier predicted that media processor maker PortalPlayer Inc. would supply an applications processor for the iPhone.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196802785&subSection=All+Stories
Bootz -sorry if I am not completely up to speed on the 65,000+ posts here. I was on vacation for a few days last week and have a baby just starting to crawl...
I've been watching SKNN since receiving the mailer pumping this. I think now that Zambrelli is on the Board I will be getting in on SKNN. Seems to have based around $2.50 - good place to buy.
If we see a drop in SP because of this I will use it as another buying opportunity.
Do you really think they will "go to court"?
In SJ's Key Note his exact words were, "This is one device and we are calling it iPhone." They MUST have been in talks with CISCO and know exactly what they are doing. I am not privvy to what, but it seems to me that Steve wouldn't have used the name iPhone if they didn't already know this was going to happen.
iThink that the iTV name was changed due to confusion with Elgato's EyeTV - not the same visually but confusing to the ear.
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Intel Corp. (INTC.O: Quote, Profile , Research) denied on Wednesday that it would be the supplier of the main chip inside Apple Inc.'s (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile , Research) highly anticipated iPhone, but said it is supplying chips for the Apple TV.
"We are not providing the silicon inside the iPhone," Intel spokesman Bill Kirkus told Reuters. "We are providing the silicon inside the Apple TV."
Intel was responding to an earlier Reuters story that quoted an Apple spokesman in Germany as saying Intel would supply the central processing unit (CPU) for the iPhone.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2007-01-10T175232Z_01_N10288...
IMO the camera was just not functional, otherwise he would have demonstrated that too. He glossed right over it.
That would be sweet
Odd that Steve didn't demo the camera function of the phone, maybe not functional yet...
I must just be the I-270 corridor I travel every day then.
Won't they have to unlock the phone eventually?
I am a Verizon customer living on the east coast, Cingular service sucks here.
I'll order 3 and I've sold at least 2 others on it.
Heading back up now, must be talking about the phone
Reuters just confirmed the Paramount deal with AAPL
Jobs: iTunes sells 2 billionth song
Confused me too.
Belinda, you are speculating?
iTV speculation/question:
I have some shows and movies that I have downloaded on iTunes and they look really good on my video iPod. When I watch them on my computer, and size them to the screen, they are grainy due to the resolution/pixelation. Will the iTV somehow enhance the resoltion so that these small files are not just blown up pixels on my 52" screen? Or is that even possible?
Must have been a sell since we ended red today, heh?