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To: slacker711 who wrote (28145)	5/4/2005 8:23:55 AM
From: slacker711	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 60323

First on TMO - Apple Exec: Shuffle Grabs 58% of Flash Player Market; What Cell Phone Threat? macobserver.com by Brad Gibson, 6:45 AM EDT, May 4th, 2005 On the market less than six months, Apple's iPod shuffle has grabbed a 58% share of the flash-based digital media player market, up from 43% in February, company chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer has told Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich in a recent interview. In a report to clients released Wednesday and obtained by The Mac Observer, Mr. Oppenheimer said the Apple executive told him preliminary March results from research marketing firm NPD showed the shuffle's market share rose from 43% in February to 58% in March, what Mr. Milunovich characterized as "a stunning figure." Mr. Oppenheimer reportedly said Apple was "supply-constrained in March and will be interested to see the April (sales) data." Mr. Milunovich said he was told by the exec that "Apple isn't feeling competitive heat yet" in the digital media device market from the likes of Creative, Sony, iRiver and others. The Apple CFO reportedly told Mr. Milunovich NPD numbers also showed Apple with a 90% market share in hard disk-based players -- such as its iPod and iPod mini -- while its iTunes music store market share was above 70% in March. In Japan, Apple's said it controls 40% of the market with its iPod player, but gave no evidence as to where their numbers came from. Representatives of NPD were not immediately available to confirm the numbers from Mr. Oppenheimer. As for Apple's numbers of market share for online music sales, Apple is calculating it's own market share number based on its knowledge of downloads from its iTMS and subtracting from the total number of online music service downloads reported weekly by Nielsen/SoundScan. Cell phone threat minimal, exec says Mr. Oppenheimer said Apple "doesn't appear concerned" about the future threat from cellular phones that play music. "(Apple) management argued that iPod will remain the best way to manage and listen to music with MP3 capability in handsets more complementary than a replacement," Mr. Milunovich wrote. "The negatives of music on a handset include a worse user interface and limited battery life," he said he was told. Mr. Oppenheimer said he "doesn't foresee problems working with (cellular) carriers," to employ iPod features in mobile phones. The Wall Street analyst said he expects "wireless and video capability" in iPods before the Christmas buying season, but gave no indication if Mr. Oppenheimer hinted of such a product or not. "Our guess is that iPod will run short video clips," he wrote. Apple's long time policy has been to not discuss un-announced products.

To: slacker711 who wrote (28145)	5/6/2005 1:26:57 AM
From: etchmeister	Respond to of 60323

Possible pressure from DRAM makers might ease Taiwan Market Afternoon Commentary 2005/05/05 Improving Sentiment on Several Fronts Lifts TAIEX * TAIEX gained 2.13% to 5927.50 on NT$90.65bn (US$2.9bn) * Electronics +2.62% on 74% of trading; Financials +1.50% on 9% * TAISDAQ gained 2.54% to 113.58 on NT$14.5bn (US$465mn) * Brokerage gianed 3.7%; electronics gained 2.9% * FINI net bought NT$10.64bn * Domestic investment trusts net sold NT$0.94bn * Domestic proprietary traders net bought NT$1.36bn taiwanresearch.com Taiwan Market Afternoon Commentary, May 5, 2005 TAIEX staged an impressive rally thanks to improving cross-strait sentiment, robust US market performances overnight and solid earnings reports. TAIEX closed 123.82 points higher, the largest increase this year, to close at 5927.5. Trading volume (NT$90bn) was active relative to recent levels, the highest in about 2 months. Corning, a US based company, announced that the glass that goes into making TFT-LCD panels will be in shortage for all of 2006. This news apparently gave the TFT-LCD sector a lift as all of the 5 major Taiwanese panel makers posted gains. Among all sectors: Foundry +3.3%, IC Design +3.2%, IC Testing and Packaging +4.2%, WLAN +2.1%, MB +3.3%, LCD +4.4%, LED +5.7%, CD-R +4.1%, Passive Components +4.3%, Cement +1.5%, Petrochemical +1.5%, Steel +1.8%, Rubber +2.0%, Automobile +0.5%, Transportation +2.7%, Paper & Pulp +2.3%, Construction +1.8%, Food +1.4%, Textile +0.9%, China Plays +2.2%, Asset Plays +2.1% Component Shortage led to TFT-LCD¡¦s good day Corning announced that there would be a shortage of glass that goes into making TFT-LCD panels starting in 2H05. Corning is the major supplier of sixth generation TFT-LCD glass for global TFT-LCD makers. This news may mean help ease the oversupply situation of TFT-LCD panels. As investors' sentiment takes a turn for the positive, they bought up shares of TFT-LCD makers. CPT (2475 TT, NT$14.05, +6%) was the major mover of the sector. In related news, Dell reportedly will purchase an unspecified amount of 14.1 and 15.4 panels from CPT. The combination of these news stories may have been the reason why CPT¡¦s shares had such a strong showing today. DRAMs in heavy demand Powerchip Semiconductor (5346 TT, NT$, +6%) reported Apr revenues of NT$3.5 billion, which was a 9% increase from last month. That news, coupled with the sudden turn in sentiment, sent the DRAM sector up in today's trading session. Nanya Tech (2408 TT, NT$21.9, +7%) and Winbond Electronics (2344 TT, NT$9.89, +7%) locked at limit-up from mid-session. Promos (5387 TT, NT$12.3, +7%) also touched its 7% up-limit price briefly before retreating. One note of interest is that both Nanya Tech and Promos are expected to report lower April revenues than in March as ASP is still low as demand is weak. However, the market today shook off all possible negative news and sent the shares up. LED shined brightest in today's sea of stars LED was the strongest performing sector today on TAIEX. Overall, the whole sector was up over 5%. With the LED industry set to enter its traditional strong season, companies like Unity Opto (2499 TT, NT$37.45, +3.2%) and I-Chiun Precision (2486 TT, NT$14.1, +4.4%) reported record earnings for the month of April. Epistar (2448 TT, NT$48.65, +7%) is expected to report April earnings of NT$270mn, the second highest in its history. The sector, buoyed by the good news and out look, had three names, Epistar, Everlight (2393 TT, NT$42.55, +7%) and Formosa Epitaxy (3061 TT, NT$23.4, +7%) go up the 7% limit.