A few points of interest, IMHO:
CPQ Price:
Note that CPQ has had little movement in the last few days. I could not see any reason until I looked at the options. Wow! There are over 4.5 million shares being held in $35 August calls. That's a lot - and whoever sold them really, really, really doesn't want CPQ over $35. On the other hand, if we can break $35 there is almost zero resistance above that price. Add to that the fact that everyone is waiting to see how Clinton handles Monday and you've got a real interesting week coming up.
Apple:
CPQ raised its ad budget to around $50 million this year. Apple is going to spend $100 million(!) between now and the end of the year to get the as much of the low end box market as possible for the iMac. Man, I wish CPQ had a on-your-toes ad dept and went after MAC head on. We would get extra ad notoriety just for taking them on. And there are all kinds of good things to go after. Here are some main points to hit:
Suppose you bought a iMAC. What problems would you encounter?
1) Suppose you like graphic arts. Sony and others have digital cameras out that take a standard 3.5" floppy so you can have unlimited pictures. Very popular. Buy one! Shoot um up! Now stick it in your iMAC - Ooopps - the iMAC does not have a floppy drive. Of course, if you have any old software updates on floppies or file transfers from PC that friends give you on a floppy - sorry - Apple decided to kill the floppy.
2) SCSI death: You decided to buy the iMAC and move the stuff you had on your old MAC's SCSI port to the IMAC. Ooops again - Apple decided to kill the SCSI interface. Everything is on the new bus structure. Apple feels you can just buy new equipment.
3) Cheap: Oh well, At least you saved money. Wrong again - $1,200 for the MAC vs complete machine with printer for $800 or so from CPQ and others. If you are willing to drop a little in speed - 233 to 166, CPQ is selling units down around $500
4) Software: Apple says there's a lot of new software. Sorry, but nobody wants to buy two copies of all the Adobe software. And MS office is not the same Apple vs PC. Try and buy a copy of MS Office with Access. It doesn't exist. There's lots of new software all right - all from Claris and Apple owns Claris.
CPQ ought to do a commercial demonstrating these and other points. We could hammer them to death in print and media. Apple's big ad budget makes this like a fall election campaign and we really ought to go after them because if a big lie is told often enough and with enough glitz, people will buy the wrong machine. CPQ could have a whole bunch of CPQ vs iMac comparisons. |
