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Technology Stocks : WDC/Sandisk Corporation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Pam who wrote (30865)	1/5/2006 4:06:58 PM
From: inaflash	Respond to of 60323

Sony already has flash based mp3 players but their models have not met much success. Expect Sony to revamp their product line soon. They have something in mind, else what will they do with all that flash that they are planning to buy from Samsung? No point buying Creative. What do they get by buying them?? Sony has MP3 players?!? :) They're really having a tough time for such a big legacy. It's not in Sony/Samsung style to buy out firms, but Creative is an R&D division on sale for less than $1 billion right now, not to mention their business lines with over $1 billion in sales. For Sony, it would jump start their MP3 business, and Sony Zen has a nice sound to it. Samsung is a good company that makes good products that hasn't really gotten the respect they deserve. Their success or lack there of in the retail end may be purposeful, but I'm having trouble thinking of an instance where Samsung is number 1 in any area, but they sure do have a large presense in many electronic arenas (HDTV/LCD, flash, DRAM, chips, etc.). Perhaps this is because they do not want to directly compete too much with all their OEM customers. Their main advantage in a buyout would be to reduce the competition and sell a more recognizable brand. In some ways, Sandisk shares the same branding problem. Both Sandisk and Samsung are better known in other arenas, and not yet specifically in music. I looked into buying Creative, but their lack of profitability combined with lower MP3 expectations, and speculative nature as a takeover target made me decide against putting anything down. Their 7% gain today from the Skype product announcement may be a first sign that the sale is coming to an end.

To: Pam who wrote (30865)	1/5/2006 6:20:30 PM
From: inaflash	Respond to of 60323

Shuffle is also less than 1 year old, but it will be killed soon. The 1GB shuffle is due for an update, the question is whether the "Shuffle" name will remain. If they get rid of that, it may be one of the shortest models ever in Apple's history. I think it's good for one more iteration before the scuffle the name. I would have thought they would want a bigger difference between shuffle/nano, and the 1GB versus 2GB gap was good, but now that Sensa has 2GB models in both spaces, it's making life tough on the Shuffle. Even a "1GB nano" might have trouble squeezed in the $150 space. Yes, Sandisk introduced them but they were not the first one to introduce a card which has a built-in USB interface. It was introduced by another company (I forget their name) from asia. I won't start any rumors about Sandisk stealing something else here...:-)