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

To: OrionX who wrote (57820)	10/13/2006 10:43:24 AM
From: aaplfan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213177

Apple better do more than just add a new color to the iPod line if they want to stay ahead of the competition. Making a big stink out of a red iPod is as lame as it could every get. JMHO. Why? It's not like any of their competitors have anything more compelling right now. Granted, it doesn't provide any new reasons to buy from a feature standpoint (it has the same specs as the other 4GBs) but it gives Apple good mainstream publicity and positions them as a 'company that cares' for the holiday season. Seems like a win to me for the price of a 5% donation to charity (rather than discounting to increase sales) and it's not like they haven't done this sort of thing before. Btw, I've got a customer waiting for an XServe but I can't price it. What's holding this product up? XServes were announced at WWDC to be shipping (I believe) in October so it should be in the next couple/few weeks. They've probably got some backlog to work through with existing corporate customers before it shows up for sale online.

To: OrionX who wrote (57820)	10/13/2006 11:07:53 AM
From: inaflash	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 213177

Apple better do more than just add a new color to the iPod line if they want to stay ahead of the competition. Making a big stink out of a red iPod is as lame as it could every get. JMHO. Btw, I've got a customer waiting for an XServe but I can't price it. What's holding this product up? It's called marketing, and Apple/Jobs is very good at that. They're following the auto industry (not the best current example) when the model T came out in only black. As much as you or I don't think colors matter, they really do. It's a low cost, high return "feature", as long as it doesn't get out of hand. Don't know what's going on with Xserve, but it's a stepchild right now. Historically enterprise hasn't embraced Apple and Apple isn't going out of it's way to please them right now. Despite this, they're making a very compelling and competitive product in the space and people are noticing. What's going is fairly low-key and that's probably good to keep expectations low. Apple doesn't want to unrealistically raise expectations, and if demand picks up, they will have to scale up, but without clear future direction. If there is a big flop, users don't want to get hung for sticking their necks out. So what I see is a proving period for Xserve. When established services have been working well for 5 years, the next Xserve (or more) will be much easier to procure. How long has your client been interested in Xserve? Is this a first or is s/he an established customer? What about the interest/involvement of your other customers? Comparison to interest and usage in other servers would be helpful to put things in context.

To: OrionX who wrote (57820)	10/13/2006 11:32:36 AM
From: vc21	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213177

The end all be all will be when you can buy songs/movie on iTunes directly from your iPod. It's coming in '07, perhaps even by MacWorld. That's the ultimate killer app that'll make hardware and music sales EXPLODE.

To: OrionX who wrote (57820)	10/13/2006 2:16:43 PM
From: Cogito	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213177

>>Apple better do more than just add a new color to the iPod line if they want to stay ahead of the competition. Making a big stink out of a red iPod is as lame as it could every get. JMHO.<< Orion - The red iPod is not an attempt to stay ahead of the competition. The "big stink" in this case is being made about the tie-in to Product Red, an initiative begun by Bono and Bobby Shriver to help combat AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in poor countries. 10% of the sales price of each red iPod will be donated to the Global Fund. en.wikipedia.org - Allen

To: OrionX who wrote (57820)	10/13/2006 5:16:05 PM
From: marc ultra	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 213177

<<Apple better do more than just add a new color to the iPod line if they want to stay ahead of the competition. Making a big stink out of a red iPod is as lame as it could every get.>> I think a lot of people are missing how big this may be. Oprah is the biggest marketing machine not only on TV but well beyond. When she shows up wearing something and mentioning it on her show it's almost a lock for exploding sales. It's sorta like the way every book she mentioned on her book club caused instant best seller status. I don't watch her show but a lot of wall street types do just to monitor these things. What intrigues me about this is I don't know her precise demographics but I'd think it includes a massive group of women who are somewhat older than you'd normally think of being iPod users and when you throw in the do-gooder aspect of the red iPod and the addition of Bono lovers, this may be a huge hit for AAPL by doing nothing more than having a distinct color and a spectacular marketing angle.

To: OrionX who wrote (57820)	10/16/2006 4:37:36 PM
From: inaflash	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213177

While you wait, here's another review: Apple's Xserve Xeon: Built to fall apart weblog.infoworld.com Apple's Xserve Xeon falls apart with the slightest touch, and I like that. I don't mean that it's fragile. ... Xserve Xeon is, as all commercial servers should be, built to be user-serviceable. You can buy packaged spare parts kits and get AppleCare walkthroughs of parts replacement. If you have multiple Xserve Xeons, you can scavenge and swap parts, just as God intended.