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

To: rhet0ric who wrote (10847)	4/4/1998 5:09:00 PM
From: FR1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213177

"So can any of us put a finger on the source of (apparent) irrationality in the market's treatment of stock prices lately, and predict how it will affect AAPL?" Here's something to consider: Most people that invest realize that it is foolish to just bet on the business with the best earnings report. Otherwise everyone would bet on the pet rock - it had great numbers and nobody would buy YHOO. People are obviously betting on the future. They want a business they know is not going bankrupt and is a trend leader of some kind. Apple is beginning to fit this mold with their continuing stability and upcoming Rhapsody. This should draw some serious money. However, the big barrier to colossal Apple earnings is the platform barrier. Apple has to sell on the Intel side and allow people with existing Intel boxes to use their product. Rhapsody solves this problem as long as Apple takes the Intel version seriously and puts some muscle behind cross-platform deployment. There are two ways Apple can show they are serious: (1) Apple develops a Rahpsody-Intel interface that runs Win9x/NT apps. This is best because it gets maximum profit but it is a tough road because Billy will become the enemy, change the OS every other day, and put hard ad dollars behind sinking the deployment. (2) Apple talks MSFT into releasing a Rhapsody-Intel version that supports Win9x/NT apps. Huge volume, possibly replacing MSFT OS eventually, but not as much unit profit for Apple plus lots of politics on who is going to eat who. Apple hardware sales would be hurt putting Apple in a vulnerable position to MSFT but Apple would have MSFT by the balls because they own the OS people are moving to. What a great soap opera...