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

To: Scott Crumley who wrote (10227)	3/27/1998 12:25:00 AM
From: soup	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 213177

>From what you're saying, Apple would be relying all sectors except graphics/sound/video for this quarters revenues. Do you think the G3 excitement has stirred up enough interest in these other areas to post an earnings surprise?< Scott, Hell if I know. But if it turns out that this quarter's revenues are driven by higher than expected levels of G3 buying, it wouldn't surprise me. Let's look at what's obvious. 1) The current AAPL ads are mass-market common-denominator entertainments which punch up one aspect (processor speed) designed to get the general public to buy the hottest new toy. (Which is fine because the high-end buyer doesn't need this kind of marketing.) 2) AAPL's choice of COMP-USA as it's lone national distributor is also geared to encourage mass-market buying. Real high-end buyers don't shop at COMP-USA. (Or at least wont admit to it.) 3) As I've said, the current G3 lineup is a low-cost, high-margin consumer level product. That the machine only has three RAM slots are because 95+% of computer buyers will never need any more. My perspective on the high-end buyer is that some may have been holding off on upgrading for fear of the company's well being. Now that they have more confidence in the company, they fell better about investing in the product.* Hence the continued demand for discontinued-but-upgradeable 604e machines. It's remarkable that these discontinued items command comparable or higher prices than the G3s. I can't remember when that's happened before and it has to be helping AAPL's bottom line. soup *On the other hand, serious buyers are less concerned with the company than getting the tools they needed to accomplish the work they need to do. I mentioned that I had some buyers purchase the last two Newton 2100s I could find. The buyers knew the product was discontinued (and were hoping in vain the price would drop.) Yet they were willing to pay $50 over list because they decided this was the best tool for the job.