Apple, SanDisk shares hit new highs

Shares of Apple Computer, Inc. (AAPL) rose $1.92, or 2.58%, to close at $76.30 in NASDAQ trading today to hit a new all-time high on volume of 25,086,676 shares. In After Hours trading, Apple tacked on another $0.09 to $76.39 at the time of this report.

SanDisk Corporation (SNDK) shares hit a new 52-week high of $73.95, up $4.92 or 7.13%, “after the company wowed analysts with a slate of new gadgets including new USB drives and MP3 audio players,” The Associated Press reports. “JPMorgan analyst Paul Coster, who has an “Overweight” rating on the stock, said the company’s new MP3 players position it firmly as the No. 2 player in the MP3 market, and speculated that the new models could help the company steal market share, presumably from the likes of Apple Computer Inc., whose iPods have long dominated the space.”

Full article here.
SanDisk has about 29 percent of the worldwide flash player market, while Apple has about 49 percent, according to NPD Group. Apple holds approximately 75 percent market share of the overall worldwide player market (hard drive based units included) as of September 2005. Some company has to be the established distant number two to Apple. It’s looking more and more like SanDisk will be the company. Keep trying to make good players, SanDisk, and push Apple (originality would be appreciated, iPod knockoffs won’t cut it). That’ll give us even better iPods at even better prices! Competition is good.

Please note that SanDisk players are incompatible with, and will not (directly) play music, videos, or TV shows purchased from Apple’s iTunes Music Store. iTunes Music Store holds approximately 80% of the legal digital online music market and is the #7 music retailer in the U.S. (Q3 05), up from #14 (Q3 04), ahead of Tower Records, Sam Goody, and Borders, according to NPD. (November 21, 2005)

Apple is due to report results of their holiday quarter on January 18th.

Advertisements:
Get Free Shipping on Top-Rated iPod and Mac Accessories
The New iPod with Video. The ultimate music & video experience on the go. From $299. Free shipping.
Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.00.
The New iMac G5. Built-in camera and remote control. From $1299. Free shipping.
Apple USB Modem. Easily connect to the Internet using your dial-up service. $49.00.

Related articles:
SanDisk debuts 6GB flash-based Apple ‘iPod nano killer’ – January 05, 2006

16 Comments

  1. “apple had its funn.. now its time for the others”

    Apple worked their butts off to get what they have today. The “others” can have their fun when they EARN it.

  2. look… using windows is really no diffrent than using a mac while intoxicated… have you seen the new iRiver U10 check it out! sweet
    you rock the stinkin face plate to navigate the thing.. it’s kickin
    ‘http://news.com.com/2300-1041_3-6021348-4.html

  3. jib,

    yea i did check out that piece of crap iRiver looks like something from the ’70s.
    maybe they should design a better site next time too, poor navigation, just like their players.

    whats the name again…..iPisser?????

  4. Jib,

    Are you sure your name isn’t Gollum, chasing after that preciousss iRiver U10, shouting out nonsense along the way? The only thing that looks interesting is the screen, but the controls are a complete design disaster and the size of the memory makes you wonder why they need such a big screen in the first place. It is not like you can take that many photos or video’s with you. Also, they appear to have dumped their marketing department and instead decided to rely on some Apple-inspired (stolen) marketing clip. And also, who wants to be part of some wannabe, inconsistent music experience, as delivered by Microsoft. I don’t mind some competition, it keeps Apple sharp and delivers better products to us. However, I suspect that the rest of the playing field isn’t going to play fair and design and market a solution made by themselves. Instead they are probably going to bunch together, stealing and scamming their way into the pockets of consumers, lead by that two-headed Ogre named Balmer-Gates. Everyone is whining that Apple is hampering competition by not lisencing FairPlay. However I have yet to see any of the MP3-player manufacturers offer a solution that delivers something new in terms of design of the player (not copied from Apple), offer an usefull music store that efficiently delivers content (not that “solution” of Microsoft) or offer someting interesting or a new feature (all the other players seem to follow Apple’s lead, from playing and downloading music in an efficient way, to photos and now video. Including some ancient technologies like radio or voice recording and then calling your player “more advanced” is laughable. Apple could add those featues without much trouble if there was enough demand for it.)

  5. jib: Mum called you to dinner 10 minutes ago. Be a good little chap will you.

    If the Sandisk MP3 is as good as it looks it’ll mean the other also rans should start giving their products away…

    It’ll have little effect on iPod sales.

  6. In all fairness MDN, if one did not get the portable music player of choice this past holiday season and got a sandisk player instead, could you not burn a redbook cd of music purchased at iTMS and rerip to mp3 to play on said player?

  7. jib:

    I looked at the site with the u10.

    I’m not impressed. If you have to rock the entire screen, how easy would it be to use with one hand?

    One of my favorite things about my iPods is that I don’t have to be able to see what I’m doing with them. I don’t need to look at them, I don’t need light, heck I don’t even need them right-side-up. With their size and shape (and the click wheel) I can use them one-handed in the car, in the dark, and never take my hand off the steering wheel or my eyes off the road.

    Also, the click wheel is nowhere near the screen on my iPods, so I can use it without having to worry about prints. I don’t see the use of a big screen if you constantly have to wipe it on your shirt to see anything clearly.

    Maybe, if you have something against iPods, you could check out the SanDisk thing. I didn’t like it, but others here seemed to think it looked nice. Or, if you’re a shill for iRiver, I’ll understand (just don’t be so obvious next time).

    ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />

    ~M

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.