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Posted
Aug 21 2008, 10:22 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Microsoft has been pretty quiet while Apple waged war with its "I'm a Mac" ads. Now it's firing back by paying Jerry Seinfeld $10 million to star in its own ads. But is Seinfeld the right pitch man?
Microsoft would look silly if it tried to provide a young, hip counterattack to Apple's young, hip Mac guy (the actor Justin Long). But, as Silicon Alley Insider points out, being cool has never been part of Microsoft's success formula. Seinfeld appeals mainly to old fogies, says SAI. (Bill Gates is also appearing in the commercials.) Perhaps old fogies are the target audience here?
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Posted
Aug 18 2008, 10:48 AM
by
Kim Peterson
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On Friday, I wrote about a blog posting saying Apple shares are undervalued. Apple's stock price is unchanged today at $175.74. Today we'll head over to the other side of the coin, and analyze financial advisor Mark Krieger's comments that Apple is overvalued by 10-20%. Writing on the Seeking Alpha Web site, Krieger uses the following points to make his case. (I'll add my reaction to each one):
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Posted
Aug 11 2008, 09:42 AM
by
Kim Peterson
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Apple iPhone (and iPod Touch) users downloaded 60 million programs from the company's online store in the first month, said CEO Steve Jobs in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. That's a meaningless figure, however, since most of those programs were free. The number to note is this: Apple sold $30 million in programs that month. The store's on pace to get $360 million a year in revenue, and Jobs said sales will crest $500 million soon. It won't be a huge profit center for the company, though. The developers who made the programs get a 70% cut, and much of Apple's 30% covers the costs of running the store. Apple shares are up nearly 3% today to $174.51.
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Posted
Aug 06 2008, 10:07 AM
by
Kim Peterson
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Former Jupiter analyst Joe Wilcox notes that the average selling price for a Windows-based notebook is $700. But for Mac laptops, it jumps to $1,515. And on the desktop side, Mac desktops cost more than they did two years ago, and they're running at about $1,000 above Windows PCs. Wilcox says that Apple can't maintain these margins and expect to gain market share. "Prices must go down and configurations bulk up," he writes. "The math is simply undeniable."
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Posted
Aug 05 2008, 09:53 AM
by
Kim Peterson
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Gartner just gave Research in Motion a nice gift. The research firm wrote a nine-page report saying that Apple's iPhone isn't secure enough to run many of the customized programs used by big businesses. Perhaps that's why RIM shares are up more than 3% today. But Apple shares are up 3% as well. The newest iPhone can run up high international roaming charges, and its battery might not hold up for even one full day of e-mailing, said the report, according to Computerworld. Another issue is that the phone can't encrypt data on its own. Third-party software vendors need to write an encryption program, but they're having problems doing so, the report said.
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Posted
Jul 17 2008, 10:50 AM
by
Kim Peterson
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If you want to sell TV shows and movies online, you've got to keep it simple. Make it easy. Apple knows this. So does Netflix, which is expanding its subscription service online. But Amazon straight-out failed in this area with its clunky Unbox download service. So it went back to the drawing board and has a new effort out today. The new store, called Amazon Video on Demand, has 40,000 movies and TV shows and ups the ante in the online video business with two significant breakthroughs. First, Amazon has partnered with Sony Electronics to get the store directly into the TV -- Sony Bravia TVs, specifically. Second, Amazon holds the videos you buy on its end, and you can watch them by logging in to Amazon from different computers or devices. Amazon shares are up less than 1% to $72.13. Here are more details about the service, which Amazon chose to announce in today's New York Times.
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Posted
Jul 14 2008, 09:42 AM
by
Kim Peterson
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Apple sold 1 million of its new 3G iPhones over the weekend -- an impressive achievement given the glitches, server issues and other frustrations that accompanied the launch. The company's shares are up more than 1% today to $175.06.
The number may be a bit misleading, as Fortune points out. Apple retail stores mark a phone as sold when it leaves the store in a customer's hands. But phones going to partners like AT&T and other wireless carriers get classified as sold when they're shipped from the factory. So a phone could be on a boat somewhere and already look like it's sold on the books.
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Posted
Jul 11 2008, 09:36 AM
by
Kim Peterson
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Uh-oh. Apple's rollout of its highly-anticipated 3G iPhone is hitting some snags this morning. Looks like the "unknown error" message came out of its slumber in the seventh circle of hell and decided to wreak havoc on iPhone and iPod Touch owners. Here's the wording that they see when trying to sync the device in iTunes: "We could not complete your iTunes store request. An unknown error occurred (-9838)." I hate those number codes in error messages, because I know they mean something but have no idea what it is. Apple shares are down 2% to $172.66 this morning.
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Posted
Jul 08 2008, 04:11 AM
by
Kim Peterson
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Apple's new 3G iPhones go on sale Friday, which means that after months of little to no revenue from phone sales, Apple will finally be milking the iPhone cash cow once again. We could be seeing a billion-dollar weekend for the company. Still, while Apple is primed for a massive launch day -- 22 countries will participate -- I expect a bit of chaos will reign, at least in the U.S. The problem is that iPhone buyers will have to buy and activate their phones in either an Apple or an AT&T retail store (AT&T is the iPhone's exclusive carrier partner in the U.S.). That's a strategy intended to prevent people from unlocking the phones and reselling them. If you've activated a cell phone in a store recently, you know it can be a huge pain. It takes 10 minutes at least to get through the paperwork, the credit check and the back-and-forth yadda yadda before you walk out the door. Even if AT&T makes the iPhone activations as pain-free as possible, I foresee lines of disgruntled shoppers who are tired of waiting.
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Posted
Jun 17 2008, 09:52 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
 This may be the summer of the iPhone, but you wouldn't know it from looking at shares of Research in Motion, which makes BlackBerry smartphones. Take a look at RIM's three-month chart (pictured). The stock has soared 36%, even though Apple and its upcoming 3G iPhone have been hogging all the attention.
Expect the stock to continue to rise in anticipation of RIM's first-quarter earnings report next Wednesday. Analysts and Jim Cramer are gaga over the stock, recommending that you buy now before the price goes higher. Shares were up more than 1% to $142.74 at 11 a.m. PST.
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