“With handset makers, and just about everyone else, clamoring for a piece of Apple’s pie, the question arises: Could history repeat itself? Could Apple, whose shares are up 290 percent since the start of 2004, lose its shine much as happened in the late 1980s vs. Microsoft? Or are the new rivals actually providing a tailwind for Apple, at least for the next several months, if not longer? I think it’s the latter,” Bambi Francisco writes for CBS MarketWatch.
“More competition just elevates Apple’s brand to another seductive, unquantifiable, cool-factor level that consumers are willing to pay for. Apple’s the new status symbol of the generation. Kids may not care which brand of jeans they’re wearing these days, but it’s absolutely not cool if you don’t have an Apple,” Francisco writes. “Despite all the negative press that Carly Fiorina is getting these days, following her ouster as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, at least she did one thing right. She partnered with Apple to sell HP versions of the iPod, rather than try to compete. Even Motorola isn’t dumb enough to compete against Apple. On Monday, the handset maker unveiled the E1060, which will feature Apple’s iTunes music player. In fact, all Motorola handsets will feature Apple’s iTunes as the default music player.”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Motorola unveils ‘Apple iTunes phone’ – February 14, 2005
Hewlett-Packard ousts CEO Carly Fiorina, and what was with that ‘Apple iPod by HP’ deal anyway? – February 09, 2005
The iPod is not the Mac, so stop trying to compare them – August 13, 2004