Apple Computer (AAPL) rose in pre-market action after Merrill Lynch lifted its price target on the stock to $102 from $85. Apple hit a high of $86.56 and is currently trading around $86.26 in pre-market trading.
“Merrill Lynch raised its 12-month target price on Apple Computer to $102 from $85 per share on the possible announcement of a partnership with Sony. The broker told clients it thinks that Apple could introduce products based on the Cell processor made by IBM, Sony and Toshiba. According to Merrill, the partnership could take the form of an iTunes-like iMovies store online, a high-performance Apple workstation using Cell for video editing, or a network-centric television with computing for handling the next generation of entertainment feeds. Such offerings, which the broker said were based on conjectures, ‘would put Apple at the heart of the high-definition and digital consumer revolution and provide grist for further earnings increases and stock price appreciation,'” Aude Lagorce reports for CBS MarketWatch.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If Apple goes with Cell and Cell turns out to really be what it’s claimed to be, then the teetering Wintel hegemony (Windows+Intel or AMD) is about to take a very, very serious hit. Is Steve Jobs about to knock the status quo upside down once again?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Is Microsoft dying? – February 11, 2005
Intel has no answer to the ‘Cell’ processor; will Apple use it in Macs? – February 09, 2005
Will Apple use the ‘Cell’ processor in Macs? – February 09, 2005
Will Apple take advantage of powerful new ‘Cell’ microprocessors? – February 07, 2005
Bluebeetle just cleared it up for me. It’s what I thought.
Thanks!
What I’d like to see is a Mac with the Cell chip, and the ability to run PS3 games. One beautiful part of the multi-core cell is that it can run multiple OSes at once — like perhaps MacOS X and PS3.
Then, Macs would have the best of both worlds!
Game console makers make their money on game licensing, not on the boxes themselves, so it would be a boost to Sony — more market for their games which means better licensing fees which means more profitable platform.
Ladybugs are red with black spots. They tickle my nose.
Steve was not part of the decision to move to PowerPC years ago. There have been serious performance issues in the past that I’m sure he hasn’t been to pleased with. I definately see him going with something totally awesome like the Cell.
Magic word: south -as in where MS is going.
I’m afraid this may seem a stupid question: Is the Cell a 64bit processor?
Pat – amen brother. Up 553% since then.
Magic work “blue”, as in: I’m definitely not blue today!
Dave H:
I’m working from Nasdaq’s own figures (@ http://www.nasdaq.com, as opposed to the Konfaabulator stock widget), which claim the following as at 12:30pm ET
SNE: 926,426,000 shares @ 38.15
AAPL: 402,058,000 @ 88.10
So AAPL is now $78M ahead, although I think it has been wider in the last few hours.
Apple using the Cell processor is exciting yes, but everyone here should read the product spec sheet on the new processor, as its quite large compared to the current 9770x in the G5 towers. They will have to shrink it down a bit more, I also believe I read that the chip in its current form uses 180 W compared to 85W that the current G5s do. As usual someone should check my facts, but I all for the downfall of Wintel.
i’m very bullish on apple, but all this cell talk is just smoke and mirrors. there’s some great technical articles about the cell at arstechnica.com and i have seen NOTHING to suggest that apple would be able to utilize it without a MASSIVE overwrite of all their code. i don’t think aapl is overvalued based on how well things are going for the company, but if people are buying in because they want to see “osx on cell” that’s very dangerous speculation based on a weak understanding of what the cell is and isn’t. right now everything we know about the cell is just pure pr hype. you’d think analysts at a large firm like merrill would take 20 minutes to read a few technical articles about the cell before pumping aapl stock based on pure hype.
Relax! P/E ratio for AAPL going forward was 34 when it was hovering at $80. It’s been within a few points of 35 for several months now going at least as far back as when the stock price was $25. When the forward looking P/E ratio gets to 40 or 45 it’s time to worry. I didn’t buy in at $13. I missed the boat and didn’t get in until the stock price was already at $14.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> I got advice to short the stock at $25, $35, $55 and several other points. Glad I didn’t. If you listen to the brokers you’re in the same territory as consulting your barber, throwing darts, or reading sheep entrails. Brokers mostly work from history. What really drives the market hasn’t happened yet. You need to be able to see just a short distance into the future, and with Apple that’s not really too difficult.
Here’s to the mini cell.
As far as software goes, isn’t Cell supposed to be able to run different OS’s simultaneously? (A still unfulfilled promise from the original PowerPC, BTW) Why doesn’t Apple do it like during the 68K-to-PPC switch: code a “box” to run all the current stuff in, with native-mode software to be added over time?
If nothing else, tell Steve that it’s IMPOSSIBLE, that Apple doesn’t have the talent & there’s no way it can be done. That should do the trick.
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What’s the timeline for Merrill’s speculation — 2 to 3 years?