APPLE; Cook not going to HP
SEPTEMBER 28, 2010, 10:56 AM ET
Apple: Cook Not Going to HP
By Eric Savitz
Just another day in Palo Alto: Apple (AAPL) had a sharp gap down this morning, apparently as rumors circulated that Apple COO Tim Cook was going to be offered the top spot at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), which continues to seek a replacement for Mark Hurd and which is holding its analyst day today.
Not true, says Gleacher & Co.’s Brian Marshall, who follows Apple. He called me a short while ago to say he’d just run into Tim Cook in Palo Alto, had coffee, and asked him about the rumor.
“Tim Cook will not be going to HP, he loves Apple,” Marshall tells me Cook told him.
(Cook had his iPad on him this morning, Marshall noted; no indication of what app(s) he was running.)
As for Research in Motion’s (RIM) “Playbook” tablet, unveiled last night, Cook thinks the company will mostly have success among its installed base of BlackBerry customers. He projects 50 million tablet computers of various stripes being sold next year, and says that Apple will probably get consumers’ dollars “9 times out of 10.”
Despite a feature list that’s long for the Playbook — front-facing camera, Flash support — “which is the more productive device?” asks Marshall. He thinks the iPad is, as well as being the device consumers actually crave owning. And the next iPad will be coming in Q1 of next year, he argues, likely with a front-facing camera for FaceTime video conferencing.
Marshall thinks the jury’s still out on the 7-inch form factor of the Playbook, and says Apple could do something in that area, but he sees the company continuing to focus on the iPad’s current form factor.
Apple shares this morning have regained some ground, now down $3.83, or 1.3%, at $287.33.
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