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

To: big john who wrote (7554)	1/12/1998 5:36:00 PM
From: J R KARY	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213173

John you mean AAPL's 0.35 1Q98 (12/31/97) will be bettered - right ? Apple, in the quarter ending December, had brought in $45 million in earnings on revenues of $1.575 billion. The Red Herring Online sat down with Fred Anderson, Apple's chief financial officer, to go over the results and see what laid the groundwork for this bracing good news.... The Herring: I'm sure you probably asked Steve Jobs this same question when he asked you and your team to work overtime on the holidays: what was the thinking in getting the first quarter 1998 numbers ready for Macworld? Anderson: We all knew we were trying to work towards profitability this quarter. Steve said to me a couple months ago, "Gee, Fred, if we know we're going to be profitable, I'd sure like to be in a position to share that at the Macworld San Francisco keynote." And I said, "Well, Steve ... I'm not going to predict unless I know. So if you're serious about this, I'll schedule my entire team to work between Christmas and New Year's all the way up to your keynote speech. Even though we won't have all the analysis done, we'll know where we are." The Herring: The fourth quarter of 1996 was the last quarter where you reported a profit. Anderson: Yes, but the majority of that profit was a takeback on a restructuring charge -- It was something we had to do based on accounting rules, but it just wasn't driven by operations. The last good quality earnings quarter was the fourth quarter of 1995. The Herring: The first quarter has traditionally been a strong earnings quarter for Apple. Anderson: Yes, however, Apple's not as big in the consumer business as it was two or three years ago. Our strongest quarter is our quarter ended September, the education quarters. Please note CFO Anderson is quoted on specific questions but you can infer he is optimistic of earnings growth.

To: big john who wrote (7554)	1/12/1998 7:17:00 PM
From: P.M.Freedman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213173

I like your idea on AAPL merge SGI. The supercomputers of SGI are just perfect for using as ideal NC servers. It's the only way to deliver digital movies from door to door.

To: big john who wrote (7554)	1/13/1998 11:01:00 AM
From: X-Ray Man	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213173

Big John, you are way off regarding "What can they do" point 1. PPC is nothing like Alpha, because it has ancillary markets that drive it beyond desktop computing. MOT and IBM expect to make more $$$ in the embedded market than desktop, and IBM also uses the chips for the midline parallel processing technology. Alpha is an older technology, pushed to its limits, with only the workstation market. PPC is an evergrowing family of processors. In fact, I word argue INTL is in a tough spot, because Merced will only be manufactured like Alpha, as a high end chip, and INTL will be pushing two different family of chips for some time. Didn't work for MOT... Once PPC came out, 68xxx line died pretty quickly. SGI is history. They have knuckled under to MSFT and will eventually go the way of DEC.

To: big john who wrote (7554)	1/13/1998 7:25:00 PM
From: Doren	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213173

Big John, Trends working on Apple, reply: 1) there are several good sub $1000 Macs out there, and the trickle down effect and economics of the G3 chips will give apple a lead in that market unlike the 603 processor series (which is a pretty good machine itself). However this market could be lost to both Apple and Intel because of the computer on a chip efforts of ... the other chip vendors (forgot their names). 2) Education means exposure, (I'm at UCLA & it does work, most design students after comparing systems still buy Macs despite the hype about Apple folding etc.) 3) It is highly unlikely that IBM will abandon the PowerPC chip since IBM uses it in its RS-6000 and AS-400 systems, both of which make IBM money. Also IBM has vast experience in processor design and the PPC is way, way faster than Intel chips in FPU performance and about equal in interger performance. Additionally, there are rumours that Macs will be built using the Merced chip. Rumours that appear to be substantial. Considering the fact that Rhapsody already runs on Intel chips it seems very likely that apple will port Rhapsody to Merced, and they will probably port Allegro. This interest in Merced might have been a ploy by Apple management to apply pressure on IBM or it might just be a natural interest with multiple advantages. 4) MicroSoft will have the feds on its back forever. An irritating monkey, a constant diversion and rightly so. MicroSoft has played dirty with many honest people. Even MicroSoft admits it has hurt its bland image. 5) NeXT didn't fail because of inferiority, it failed because it couldn't compete against established giants Apple/Wintel/Unix. It is likely that NeXT is just what the doctor ordered for Apple. Established customer base (Apple), superior technology (NeXT and Apple), and Unix base (NeXT). Many of the talented people that have departed probably needed to depart. They have been replaced by new effort, dedication and completely new talent. What they can do: 1) see above and remember DEC had no Apple, also IBM is much larger than DEC with a huge customer base, and multiple other synergistic technologies (hard drive to name one). 2) I don't buy computers for looks, actually I wish the plugs were on the front, I wish stereos, and VCRs had their plugs on the front. Most people I know agree. How about all of you? 3) They are doing the right thing making all of that stuff optional. I don't need 10/100 ethernet, most people don't. Why add it to the base price. I like the fact that they have made it VERY easy to add cards and ram, that is the Apple way, and how it should be. 4) All Apple needs from SGI is SGI software ported to Rhapsody, which hopefully will be easy, since Irix and NeXT are Unix based. Read the December DV magazine which compares NT, Mac, and SGI systems in a very impartial manner. 5) Personally I think the eMates are they way to go. Successful beyond expectation. But if it is a Newton you must have I agree make it small. just my 6 bits (75› in old street lingo) Doren