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Posted
Oct 09 2008, 09:50 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Looks like Apple is finally revamping its laptop line. The company is holding an event next Tuesday for reporters, and sent out invitations today saying, "The spotlight turns to notebooks." That means we could see new laptops within the week. Apple executives have already said margins will fall over the next year, but wouldn't say why. Today brings a rumor that seems certainly plausible in light of what the company has mysteriously hinted at. The Inquisitr says some Apple retailers have received price lists for the new line of laptops, and that includes one model with an $800 price tag. It would be Apple's first sub-$1,000 laptop, and it makes all the sense in the world. Consumers were already moving to the sub-$1,000 category even before the economy blew up in our faces.
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Posted
Oct 07 2008, 10:23 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with now-CEO Steve Jobs, says that analysts were correct in downgrading the company last week. The downgrades caused Apple to plummet to a 52-week low, and wiped out millions of dollars from the company's market value. (Apple is down 5% today to $92.87).
It's extraordinary that a company founder would agree publicly with the downgrades, although Wozniak has been gone from Apple for decades. He goes a step further, saying in an interview with the Telegraph that the entire computer industry should have a "bit of a slowdown." New Web and social networking companies are overvalued, he said, which may lead to a minor version of the dot-com crash that hit the markets earlier this decade.
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Posted
Sep 29 2008, 01:21 PM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
It's gotta be tough to be an investor in Research in Motion these days. The stock price has plummeted 58% in just over three months, and today it dropped nearly 13% to $61.73. Get used to it: these shares will be depressed for a while. RIMM was on fire for a long time, and with good reason. Its BlackBerry is a must for business users, particularly those in the financial sectors, and as the company began courting consumers it seemed like there was no end to its growth. But these days, all hell has broken loose in the financial sectors. Businesses in general are pulling back on spending, and a BlackBerry falls largely into that non-essential category for many companies. It's an even tougher road on the consumer side,
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Posted
Sep 26 2008, 11:29 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Shares of Research in Motion plunged 28% today to $70.35 after the BlackBerry maker gave a third-quarter outlook that disappointed investors. News of depressed margins next quarter, and perhaps beyond that, was a surprise to many. And now, along with the rush to dump the stock, analysts are racheting down their expectations for the company. RIMM is making a land grab in the consumer market, hoping to extend its smartphone domination beyond business users. And it faces intense competition from Apple's attractively-priced iPhone and Google's entry in the business. So RIMM is making a small gamble, sacrificing margin and profit for a bigger market share. It costs more money than ever to make high-end smartphones, but pricing is so competitive now that margins are going to take a hit.
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Posted
Sep 23 2008, 09:53 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Google jumped into the phone business today with G1, its new smartphone that will be available in October for $179. The phone is a direct attack on Apple's iPhone and the BlackBerry line. Will it kill the iPhone? No.
The phone is a huge bet for the company. Google knows that mobile is the next big jumping off point for the Internet as people move from simple text messaging to Web surfing, checking e-mail, listening to music and watching videos. Google wants to be the point man for all of that, controlling the software and making more than a few ad bucks along the way. So Google made software, called Android, for mobile systems. The software can work with just about any phone, and several makers are coming out with Google phones in the next few years. HTC made the first Google phone, the G1 announced today. Google shares are up less than 1% to $432.30.
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Posted
Sep 09 2008, 11:17 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
When it comes to portable gaming devices, Nintendo is king. The company has sold 80 million DS systems, and its legacy with the GameBoy line dates back nearly 20 years. Nintendo owns this category, hands down.
Yet that isn't stopping Apple, which boldly stated today that it has "the best portable device for playing games." Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch can play tons of games, including sports, racing and other action titles. And the graphics look pretty good, certainly equal to, if not better than, what you get on Nintendo's players. Apple unveiled new iPods and an iPhone update today.
Can Apple really expect to go after the Nintendo empire? As much as Apple wants to believe otherwise, the iPhone is not a gaming device. It's a phone first, and secondly a platform for applications, including games. And no one is buying the iPod Touch primarily as a game player.
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Posted
Aug 21 2008, 10:22 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
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
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
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
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
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
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
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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