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"The secret of success is to know something nobody else knows." - Aristotle Onassis (1906-1975)

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Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Get a bite of Apple (MAC) with Windows XP. Sweeet!

Market Share. Its been about time I guess, Apple needs that market share almost more now than ever before. Its survival and growth is pretty much chalked out by its deadly iPod product lines which seems to be in the 'growth stage' of its product cycle since introduction. But would that suffice in this day of bitter competition. I would assume not. Apple's share of the PC market has been dwindling around a measly 2.5% in the last few years.

Apple's got to do something! & so it does in 2 strategic steps. Early this quarter, Steve Jobs announced a shift of Mac's from its traditional Power PC hardware to Intel based processors. In less than a couple of months Jobs asserted the fact that, Windows could be installed on the Mac as a parallel OS by the use of a software called 'boot camp' (available on Apple website). That is some piece of news for Macintosh droolers who avoid the fancy hardware owing to unavailability of all softwares compatible with the Mac. Shares climbed 10%, also strengthening Apple's chances of boosting its sales and revitalizing its PC market. This could be the chance for those who have dreamt of owning a Macintosh to actually contemplate buying one (even though it maybe a little pricey, its justified!).


Attaching Windows & its proprietary OSX together on the Macintosh, certainly works in attracting Businesses which remain to be extremely important accounts. Businesses tend to favor stability, security and software compatibility. While Macs master the first two components, it involved serious software compatibility issues. Well with the Windows residing on it, that problem seems to be solved too!

Its an all win situation. Microsoft gets hold of more customers and so does Apple. But Apple must be careful as to not cannibalize the Mac-Os and its much awaited release of the OS-Leapord. Considering Apple's current earnings, products and prospects it remains to be a strong 'buy'. Meanwhile rumors are afloat about a radical internal redesign of the iPod nano. So watch out for some iPod-gizmos this Fall.

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In a nutshell. Q3 earnings report Google is still on the rise, quelling analysts fears of growth glooms. Shares skyrocketed to the mid $400's, currently trading at $428.42 (as of April 25). Yet again, eBay, Yahoo, Microsoft & others pursue very diligently to break the 'Google home run'.

Microsoft beefs up plans towards 'webifying products' when it recently appointed the highly respected Ray Ozzie (creater of Lotus Notes & Founder, Groove Networks).

Social Networking boom. MySpace, Facebook, Orkut & Linkedin. Facebook rejected a recent offer of $750 million, expecting $2 billion for the college networking site as reported by BusinessWeek.

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