Mike,
Apple is clearly at a crossroad right now. An incredible, but positive, upheaval has occured at Apple in recent months. At least, this is the public perception. You're supposed to be somewhat confused. By the time the "business model" becomes clear to all, the stock will be at another plateau.
The facts are that Apple and the MacOS platform are producing leading edge, best of class hardware in both laptops and desktops. For the last year, they have been on schedule with all their announcements.
People that track Rhapsody say it's ahead of schedule. The first facts regarding this should be imminent, as the developers release is expected very soon.
Steve Jobs has succeeded in a coup. He's releasing information in a timely and well thought out manner. He had no business talking about Rhapsody at MacWorld. Everything that needed to be said, WAS said at the developer's conference. And it would have just stolen the limelight from OS 8, which is doing incredibly well. The big story was the MicroSoft deal and the board, which made the cover of NewsWeek and Time and restored confidence in a lot of people's minds.
There's nothing wrong with Jobs keeping everyone guessing, as long as he resolves the issues that are important, in a timely manner, with the answers (or surprises) that people want to hear. Buying stock before such announcements have made many on this thread, a lot of money lately.
And regarding Rhapsody development, it was the Mac OS developement that was in danger in the last year. Rhapsody has had large teams of Next/Apple programers working solid. Amelio and Hancock (after Jobs got into the fray) decided to put a large team back on the Mac OS and OS 8 was their first result.
This is a Silicon Valley drama unfolding here. If you can't take the uncertainty, then lay back and buy APPL in a year as an income stock.
Regards,
Scott |
