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

To: phbolton who wrote (54467)	7/14/2006 11:46:39 AM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213184

macbooks sold out everywhere and I am not sure if this is something to rejoice about or be worried about. Theres obviously a huge amount of product moving.

To: phbolton who wrote (54467)	7/14/2006 12:51:47 PM
From: Doren	Respond to of 213184

I've been reading with interest about the Microsoft iPod. I don't know if I buy the mantra that iTunes is the secret weapon. It's perhaps part of the story. Another part is just that iPods look and feel like they are built better. I was looking at the competition at Fry's last night and it seemed that way to me. But it also seems to me that the true danger comes from the phone makers. Microsoft is inept. But the phone makers are NOT. They have a lot more experience miniaturizing controllers and screens into tiny devices in a very competitive innovative market. It seems to me that it will be easier for the phone companies to integrate music into their phones than it will be for Apple to integrate a phone and PHONE SYSTEMs into the iPods. I think they have the edge here. Technology has shrunk so much that phones will have enormous storage capacity soon. This means DESIGN is the key, and specifically the controllers (interface). Pure music players will be positively tiny. Just a controller and headphones. Or maybe that's the way the phones will go. Form factor (clever design) here is more important than anything else. I mean if your iPod is the size of a dime then the controller becomes the important part. What if you divorce the controller from the headphones? Then the problem for consumers is losing one part or damaging one part. I'm thinking Jobs knows all of this. He'll use the cachet of the iPod as long as he can but ultimately he knows he can't win this war. He may be thinking in terms of another type of device. I'm sure they've had many design team meetings to discuss the coming devices. Obviously the flash memory micro lap top has been discussed. Remember they had one of these before, eMate, so they have some experience. Maybe they are thinking along the lines of VIOP and a very tiny computer. Perhaps one with a fold out keyboard and a very tiny screen? It will be interesting to see. The problem of course is how small can you shrink a screen or keyboard or a controller. Controllers are easier to manage than screens as they can be folded. Can screens fold out? Of course there have been flexible keyboards etc but that's probably not the answer. It will be interesting to see where Apple leads us, if it does. Again the problem, especially when you have a swiss army knife device is the controller has to control all of the devices. I don't think the iPod will go away for that exact reason. Some people don't want to carry the entire office on a jog. So specialized devices are here to stay. The Nanos are pretty nice but like Sony's walkman they can't last forever as the market leader.