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

To: slacker711 who wrote (58334)	11/6/2006 9:12:58 PM
From: NAG1	Respond to of 213177

Slacker, The articles you linked to are definitely more positive than the ones that I have seen, especially on the comments side of things. The interesting thing is that, like you said, many are not going to buy a Zune this holiday season. If they buy a Zune at all, they won't buy until a gen 2 makes an appearance. I don't know if the wifi feature as it is presently implemented has much allure for most people. It could be a big drawing card in the future. But many of the comments said that they also wanted to see what the iPod eventually came out with in this area. And we know that Apple will not stand still in this area. I still think that no matter what people write about the Zune, the big thing is how it works with the software once people get it home. By bringing people to Seattle to trial the Zune is a nice piece of work by MSFT but, unless they trialed the Zune on their own computers and it worked as advertised, I would hold off on any feelings about what or how it will do. So I think the software is the key. If Zune comes closer to a true plug and play device then I think it has a good chance to do well. Because of MSFT's issues here, if they don't do a good job with this, there are some that feel that the consumer may not give them a second chance. The other thing that may be a problem for MSFT is that they have nothing in the lower end for mp3 players right now to compete with the shuffle. There will probably be several million of the new shuffle sold. I was talking to a sales person at macmall earlier tonite and he said the shuffle is selling well. He said that one order he took was for 500 shuffles for a promotion. And once people buy into the Apple iTunes system, it may be harder for them to try to transition to other closed systems like the Zune. I think if MSFT wanted to make sure that they could go after potential switchers, they will need to have something in place that makes it easy or beneficial to the end user to do so. In talking with the macmall person, he also said the macbooks are still doing well but the thing that is selling very well right now is the macbookpro. He was feeling that the difference in screen size might be driving that right now. He also said that the 20 and 24 inch iMacs were also the best sellers among the iMacs and that they were selling well. So overall, my opinion is that Apple is in the middle of an earth shattering quarter. I think the iPod will have another great quarter as well. I think the Zune is still a question mark in my mind. It all depends on how it behaves when end users get it in their hands and try to link it up with their computers. That will be the tale of the tape in my mind. If they sell less than a quarter million of them, I think they will need to think about really revamping the whole program. If they sell over a half million, I think that is a good number and if they sell over a million, I think that would be a great number. One last thing on the Zune. Much might depend on the Zune marketplace. The marketplace has an advantage since it already has several million users because of the xbox. But the issue is will music buyers buy into this? I have not heard many be as positive about this. I have also not heard many saying that they like the subscription model. Nuff said. Good luck out there. Neal

To: slacker711 who wrote (58334)	11/7/2006 7:56:56 AM
From: slacker711	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 213177

Microsoft's home entertainment strategy is starting to take form.... biz.yahoo.com XBox 360 Movie Downloads: At $4, They'd Compete With Store Rentals Tuesday November 7, 7:21 am ET Davis Freeberg submits: Last week, somebody tipped Engadget off to a blog post describing an upcoming “rumored” HDTV download service for the Xbox 360. The post was quickly pulled by the relatively obscure blogger, but it now appears that there may have been quite a bit of truth in what was said. In an important development for Microsoft’s digital strategy, they announced today that they will be supporting downloadable movies to the Xbox 360. ADVERTISEMENT “I think as you look at the media landscape and the gaming community and the potential for digital convergence, Xbox users become a great potential audience for movie content,” said Thomas Lesinski, president of Paramount Pictures digital entertainment. “This provides us with the opportunity for (video on demand) in a box. The key takeaway in this is there are lots of rabid gamers in this community, and we know they’re fully involved in movie consumption. And given the way these consumers multitask, the convergence of movies and Xbox is really a natural.” This is a big step for Microsoft because it takes their Xbox 360 beyond just being a gaming machine, and transforms it into a digital media hub. Already Microsoft has allowed streaming HDTV to the Xbox 360, but only if you have a Media Center. Thanks to a recent update they now also support streaming .wmv movies from Windows XP as well, but this move marks a step into new territory for the company. The service won’t come without a few restrictions. First and foremost, you have to have a premium Xbox 360 with the internal hard drive built in to be eligible for the downloads. This is likely due to piracy concerns by the studios, but it also means that the basic Xbox 360 I bought from eBay scalpers last year won’t work with the service. Microsoft also hasn’t announced pricing yet, although if the Engadget rumor is right, it should come in at $4 per movie which would compete directly with the pricing for in store movie rentals. The content will also be a bit skimpy early on, which will come as no surprise to anyone who has tried any of the movie downloading services over the last few years. Initially, Microsoft will be sticking with the titles that are most likely to be popular with the gamer community, but if this turns out to be successful, you can bet that the studios will open this up to a more mainstream audience. Microsoft’s move will likely be seen as a preemptive attack on Sony's (NYSE: SNE - News) upcoming PS3, but the service will likely create a much bigger headache for Steve Jobs, who has preannounced, but has yet to release Apple’s own iDongle video strategy. With Microsoft’s ability to support HDTV downloads and having the ability to play video games on the system, it’s going to make it all that much harder for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL - News) to convince people to fork over $300 dollars in order to have the privilege of being able to pay for VOD films. By adding the service as an extra feature instead of a primary feature, it may limit the appeal of the service to the gamer community, but in the long run Microsoft stands to gain a much larger overall footprint into the digital home. While I can’t say that this move wasn’t expected, nor will it radically change Microsoft’s digital troubles overnight, it’s still a smart and logical move to make on the eve of the PS3 and iTV release.