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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TheSlowLane who wrote (25670)	7/23/1999 2:54:00 AM
From: J R KARY	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 213186

AAPL has a "complex" partner relationship with both IBM and MSFT Your appraisal of IBM being "PowerPC" ambivalent towards supporting AAPL is understandable . The PowerPC is IBM's revenue lifeline for its high priced RS/6000 and AS/400 servers yet it must supply AAPL with them . AAPL sells PowerPCs in a low priced arena yet in the past both had similar model numbers (603 , 604) but that changed with the (750) G3. IBM's move to 64 bit PowerPCs may renew the pricing problem and IBM's repeated pledge to fit its servers first is indicative . IBM's R & D costs will be recovered selling its customers higher priced 64 bit PowerPCs . Hence my guess is IBM will supply AAPL with faster (server) G 3s , help MOT with its AAPL (workstation) G4s (128 bit but a 64 bit bus) then quietly provide AAPL with (slower) 64 bit G4s . The G4 , unless optimized , is only 30% faster than a G3 and IBM's SOI process improves the G3 30% . IBM seems ambivalent as a announcement could hurt AAPL's current G3 sales , but infers a update here: techweb.com IBM's support of AAPL is hampered by MSFT's AAPL partnership . IBM can't overly support AAPL now or it could be construed as a reward for AAPL testifying against MSFT . Even though MSFT has 90% of the desktop OS Gates is worried about IBM and stated it Jan '98: " In the interview published in the magazine's Jan. 19 issue, Gates pointed to rival IBM as the leader of the anti-Microsoft camp, which also includes Netscape Communications Corp., Oracle Corp., and Sun Microsystems Inc. " www5.zdnet.com The Motley Fool's Tom Gardner today observed SJ manages both parties , (and MOT) , well . Jim K.