“Shareholders of Apple Computer Inc. haven’t had much to complain about lately. While many other tech companies’ shares are stagnant, Apple’s stock price is almost double what it was a year ago. Earnings are at record highs. And while its share of the personal computer market is still a measly 5 percent or so, its lead in the consumer digital entertainment arena is growing quickly,” Bob Keefe reports for Cox News Service. “So as Steve Jobs kicked off Apple’s annual shareholder meeting here Thursday, he told the several hundred attendees that he hoped the doubling of the company’s market capitalization in the past year put ‘a smile on their faces.’ And then Jobs gave shareholders a few hints as to why they might continue to be bullish on the company in the near future.”
“He hinted that the company may soon introduce a comprehensive home entertainment device that would combine the features of a PC with television, audio systems and other components. And, he said, some of the products on the drawing board at Apple could be the best the company ever invented and ‘among the best I’ve ever seen in my life.’ He declined to give specifics,” Keefe reports. “Later, when a shareholder suggested that Apple should introduce a more full-featured PC and software for home entertainment — similar to what rivals have done using Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Media Center platform — Jobs indicated he should stay tuned. ‘We hear you loud and clear,’ he said coyly. Asked for more comment, he demurred. ‘I don’t comment on anything we haven’t announced yet,’ Jobs said.”
“In the most recent survey of Wall Street analysts by financial information firm Thomson/First Call, 17 said they rated the stock as a ‘buy or strong buy,’ eight rated it a ‘hold’ and none rated it a sell,” Keefe reports. “As it celebrates its 30th birthday, Apple is getting more attention and is in a better position than it has been in for a very long time, thanks to the enormous success of its iPod and iTunes digital music business. Its moves earlier this year to switch to Intel computer chips and recent decision to let its PCs run Windows software through a program it calls ‘Boot Camp’ are aimed at revitalizing its computer business as well.”
Keefe reports, “Jobs added he was pleasantly surprised at how well Apple’s highly touted switch to Intel chips is going, and predicted it could help the company gain PC market share… Jobs said he expected sales to get a boost from a major advertising campaign the company is launching next week. But he added that Apple isn’t planning any big pushes into the market for business PC users, which some analysts and shareholders have suggested it should do now that it uses Intel chips and has machines that run Windows – the standards in business computing. ‘We seem to have more success in other places,’ he said.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’re quite interested to see for which product(s) this major advertising campaign is designed to sell and also just how “major” it ends up being; forgive us for our skepticism, we’ve had hopes for a real television campaign for Macintosh raised and dashed for years.
[UPDATE: 10:14am EDT: Fixed typo “Appel” to “Apple” in headline.]
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Related article:
Steve Jobs: no interest in being Disney exec, plans to spend more time at Apple – April 27, 2006
Notes from Apple shareholders’ meeting: ‘exciting’ TV ad campaign to launch next week – April 27, 2006
Apple, as in Apple’s CEOs apparel is usually a black turtleneck and jeans (refering to the typo (which will probably fixed shortly)
I hope the ads don’t show a computer crashing through a house, or some maroon flailing around in silhouette with white strings hanging from his/her head.
Yea, the stock boy at the local grocery store, who happens to be the 2nd cousin of his girlfriend’s uncle’s step-nephew as a mail room worker at Apple, stated with convicvtion that Apple is coming out with something new!
My jaw dropped when I heard those beautiful words!
I’ve seen the new ad.. It’s quite cool really.
It goes like this
“The Intel Mac, Now, using Bootcamp, it can dutifully perfom all the dull little tasks you throw at it
Switch now.. Go on!”
Please please please we want a 42inch Plasma that comes with OS X!!!
I remember the last time Apple introduced a new product using an advertisement! Wait, no, that was just a delusion caused by the brain damage I recieved the last time I fell off of the house and landed on my head.
What’s the difference between a media centre Mac and an existing Mac with Front Row? (Besides the PVR, which goes against Apple’s pay-per-download model).
MDN’s dream Apple advertising campaign:
Picture of a Mac.
Jack Bauer voiceover: “Buy a Mac you PC owning Morons!”
Zoom in on the screen, followed by 30 minutes of repeated pressing F9, F10, F11, F12.
The diff is the DVR, which Jobs has seemed to indicate they have no plans to produce.
Thank God that the good news stopped being that Macs can finally run windows. What can it mean when the best news on innovation is the Apple is switching to INTEL inside, that Macs can finally run Windows ? I can foresee a day in the distant future when Macs will also be able to access MSNBC and Paltalk.
ron… shut up and go count penny’s until you reach $500 million…
What about just releasing one version of OS X for business. Pull iLife and many of the consumer aspects out of it and license it to big business as an install option for Dell’s. Call it OS X Bearcat or something to evoke a strong work type name. Offer it as licensed only for OEM and sell only to Dell and HP for workstations. Then capitalize on the same ploy Windows used, “I use Bearcat at work, so for my home I will get a Tiger or Leopard machine.” Just a quick thought.
Eric. I don’t need any more than I have.
It’s very bad manners to tell anyone to shut up. Or it used to be.
Is there some kind of sexual tension between ron and eric? Guys, get a room already!
G o Spank the monkey
Eric, the plural of “penny” is “pennies”.
G spank, real men don’t need to get a room, they do it right there on the kitchen table and charge admission to the voyeurs.
Apple: “We’re going to produce a home based media center and computer that can run all of your software and play music, DVDs and video games wirelessly throughout your house for under $2,000 to start.
PC Troll: MACs are overpriced. I built my own computer that can do all of that and more for $50.
MW: sales
the “more sophisticated and better educated” computer users, ladies and gentlemen.
heh. anyhow, i hope some cool stuff is coming.
mw: clearly. as in, “clearly, not all mac users are more sophisticated than their windows-using counterparts”
An ongoing, live poll on AVS Forum (http://www.avsforum.com/), a popular Web site offering home theater news and discussion forums, may signal an increase in Mac OS X and Linux market share at the expense of Windows. Currently, in the main “Home Theater Computers” forum, one poll asks members to answer the question: “What OS drives your HTPC?” As of April 24, 2006, the tally in the Home Theater PC survey was as follows:
Windows: 80.82%
Mac OS X: 13.42%
Linux :8.49%
Other: 0.55%
The results to date (the poll is still active) reveal that some 21.91% of AVS members use Linux or Mac-based home theater computers. The poll question was created on April 13 and represents a very small data set (fewer than 350 respondents). The poll total does not add up to 100% because some respondents may own multiple home theater systems that are connected to personal computers.
The Mac results have fluctuated between about 5 and 13.65%, but the results already may indicate a recent Apple success — increasing market share in at least one vertical market. In fact, before January 2005, Macs were not even on many radar screens as a home theater component. Now (15 months later), the Mac mini is becoming popular with a growing number of home theater enthusiasts. The mini, a new version of OS X with iTunes video downloading, the Front Row interface, and the Apple Remote Control have helped Apple launch a fledgling home theater computer business since the the original Mac mini introduced was on January 11, 2005, and the revised Intel-based mini (on January 10, 2006). Windows XP Media Center Edition introduced was introduced on October 12, 2004.
AVS Forum (AV Science Forum) is a free, discussion group Web site that offers a range of member-contributed information about home theater technology. Since June of 2005, it has offered a Mac subforum; a Linux subforum also is available. Only AVS Forum members can vote, but site registration is quick and simple.
Dieter: Would you like to touch my monkey?
Guest: I would be honored to.
Dieter: Touch him! Love him! Liebe meine abschmenkee!
[Guest shakes hands with Dieter’s pet monkey]
Dieter: Now I am as happy as a little girl.
Guest: That’s no pet monkey! That’s Monkey Boy Ballmer!!
Dieter: Now I am as happy as a little boy who wants his duff spanked! Spank me! Spank the monkey!
Guest: <Recoils in horror>
Hey, Turdman! This LostBrain parody is old but I thought you would like it:
Internal Microsoft Communication:
Employees: This is Microsoft’s planned list of recommendations to penalize our supposed “monopolistic practices.” Please look over and make sure you will be appropriately punished. We will be sending this to the Federal Justice Department (a.k.a. “The Big Meanies”) in one week, after which time coffee and cake will be served.
1. Microsoft proposes splitting the company into two groups – one running the operations of Windows OS, Explorer, Office, etc.. The other company will consist of a group of sweaty goons with the sole responsibility of putting a beating on Steve Jobs.
2. Steve Ballmer will promise to wear a toupee in public.
3. Microsoft will remove Netscape Navigator from each of our computers; thereby punishing our own staff by only allowing them to use Internet Explorer.
4. All Microsoft Software released after July 19, 2001 will be fully Y2K compliant.
5. Microsoft will offer Linus Torvalds a job as the company mailroom manager.
6. Microsoft will release the code for all of our software to programmers who sign a special agreement. The terms of the agreement are as follows:
* Programmers receiving the code must have 8 of their 10 fingers removed at the first joint.
* Programmers receiving the code must have their vocal cords surgically removed.
* Programmers must agree to a binding nondisclosure contract by wiggling their two remaining fingers in unison.
7. Netscape programmers will no longer be referred to as “weenies” by Microsoft programmers. Henceforth, Netscape programmers will collectively be called “The Miami Relatives.”
8. Bill Gates will personally install and troubleshoot Win2000 on Judge Thomas Pennefeld Jackson’s computer.
9. Linus Torvalds will no longer receive baskets full of dead rats in the mail every Friday.
10. After dividing into its separate entities, Microsoft will be able to reform into one gigantic robot—but only if the fate of the galaxy is threatened by evil.
11. All Janet Reno dartboards will be removed from Microsoft packaging.
12. Microsoft will finally reveal that the “NT” in Microsoft Windows NT stands for “Nice Tits.”
13. Microsoft feels that the accounting staff has hogged the Coke machine on the third floor Mezzanine. And for this, we truly do apologize. From here on out, each accountant will be electrically zapped whenever they get thirsty.
14. Microsoft would like to be punished by Shiandra, dominatrix of the night. We request she use her shackles and branding iron.
One final note:
Microsoft would like to take this time to blame all of our misdeeds on our unprofitable online magazine, Slate.com. In fact, the whole idea for “unfair business practices” started with them.
Please do whatever you wish with their corpses.
Apple has just passed Dell in market valuation – Again!
Of course, your posts always makes me chuckle…
As a side note,
Lodi dodi,
We likes to party.
We don’t cause trouble; we don’t bother nobody…
This one goes out to all my borther Mac Crypts! Peace!
Ron, I couldn’t agree more.