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
/e dumps off his dual 2.5 quicklike
All of you that bought in at $13, rejoice!
I’m getting nervous– so much speculation!
the PowerBook Cell is mine!
Time to short AAPL. Way too much speculation is going into the stock price now. Earnings won’t catch up for many, many years – even if Apple executes on all of the potential that has been cited over the last several days.
What the hell does that mean? My home-ec class last semester didn’t mention anything about “shorting” a stock. Can you explain?
Oops. Gotta run! I’m late for home room!
Wow. The mind boggles. Wish I woulda bought more AAPL but am glad at least I am in on it if only in a very small way.
“broker” – you’re talking outta your arse (as most brokers do) – If Apple executes on all the potential outlined over the last few days, the stock will be UNDERvalued at $100.
There is still a halthy amount of scepticism about AAPL in the financial community,so there’s plenty of upside left. as most market players are still not committed to the stock’s growth story. Only when everyone has piled in is it time to run for the exits and sell.
There’s so much potential upside and positive newsflow for this company that suggesting you go short (ie. sell shares of Apple you don’t have at a high price by “borrowing them” from a broker and repurchasing shares to replace them at a lower price, this pocketing the difference) is like suggesting that you try to hold the tide back by building a sandcastle. Don’t fight the market; make it work for you. Ride the boat in, and get off when you reach the shore.
The Cell chip has just passed successful development. For it to be implemented anytime soon in Apples lineup is unlikely. Another thing is the cost of such a machine. Will it be affordable. The only thing pointing to this may be that the chip is intended for the PS3, and Sony would not price themselves out of the market. So It just may be a possibility, but then again the G5 has not EOLed yet.
If Apple goes with the Cell chip, it means BUYING ALL NEW SOFTWARE ALL OVER AGAIN.
That was the biggest hurdle of getting clients to move to OS X. No one wanted to spend thousands of dollars per workstation, just to move to a new OS. A new processor at LEAST means re-compiling everything for that processor and probably means a lot more conversion work. This will mean some kludge method of simulating the PPC environment on a Cell while waiting for Cell versions of apps, and spending lots of money to “upgrade” to apps that aren’t really upgraded, just made “Cellular.”
Is it me or has MDN figured out how to get pop under ads past Safari’s block pop ups? I closed my Safari window and the ugliest animated pink Brad Pitt thing started dancing around on my screen. I hate pink.
Good point, ph8te ….
Makes me wonder,..if .. the Cell were used in the next gen PowerMacs … would these be the G-6s ?
theloniusMac..
Try going under the Safari menu…and clicking “Reset Safari” …
see if that helps..
1) Merrill Lynch is getting dangerously close to selling smoke with this one. Wonder if there are Merrill Lynch folks sitting around with Apple stock they want to make a bit cash out on. Way, way too speculative…
2) Call me stupid, but the Cell is a super-gussied up PowerPC processor. Software would have to be re-written to take full advantage of it, but is the Cell so different from the existing PowerPC instructions that it would require all new software?
Apple is doomed!
“If Apple goes with the Cell chip, it means BUYING ALL NEW SOFTWARE ALL OVER AGAIN”.
Not quite, as these cell chips are based on POWER5, which is PPC.
They are supposed to go into the next XBOX, the developers for the X-box were given G5s for their SDKs so it must run OK.
Here is a good review.
http://www.realworldtech.com/page.cfm?ArticleID=RWT021005084318
Relax it’s a PPC
G…
This One’s for you !!
Apple have now passed Sony’s market cap by $100m. The next target has to be $60bn, at which point Apple is worth more than HP.
Then of course, onwards to overtake MSFT.
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I hate Merrill Lynch, crooks.
Go Apple though. lol
Sadly, Dave H is a little premature – although the writing is now on the wall and has been underlined for extra emphasis.
As of 3:08 GMT/10:08 ET, the gap is now a mere $276 million dollars which sounds a lot until you realise it’s only 0.788%. This quarter will – for the time being at least – mark an end to the “Sony to buy Apple” rumours that have been so popular for such a long time.
In other interesting news, we are probably just days away from Apple claiming to have passed the 300 million download mark from iTMS (personally, I’m backing a date around the 20th February – although it could take as long as the 28th) and – on 28/04 – Apple will, along with all right-minded people, celebrate what is only the 2nd anniversary of the iTMS possibly being between 400 million and 500 million tracks at the time.
Enjoy it whilst it lasts…
The cell, if used by apple would be in a new genre of products. Maybe eventually in mainstream Mac computers. Then of course, the mac mini trend may obviate the need for traditional mainstream pc’s. There are definitely some new trends developing.
I’m wiping my ass with cash. F Social Security, buy Apple stock.
MCCFR
Am I not reading this right? As of 3:32pm GMT, SNE having dropped 11c since opening, are showing market cap of $35.11bn, and AAPL are showing $35.55bn.
$440m and counting. Sony, thanks for coming.
theloniusMac:
About the software for the Cell. Are you sure we would have to get new software for the Cell chip? It was my understanding that the Cell chip was based on the IBM Power 5 architecture. I think it’s way pre-mature to know what happens at this point. I would not be surprised if the Cell was used for application specific models, servers for example. Or it may just be used as a GPU only. I recall at one time nVidia was in talks to create a GPU for Apple but never heard anything of it after that.
It’s too premature.
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?