[The Godfather]

Do you expect a good valuation of your APPL shares?

I see three factors that could push this plane up.
1. Price/Performance of the first Intel Macs. I won't make any bets on this, because I am THAT conservative. However, there's a chance that the new Macs will attract a critical amount of Windows users.
2. Windows boot. A big must for engineers/scientists/professionals. Personally, I have big hopes in this (for my own benefit actually).
2. Agressive marketing campaign. Many won't agree with me, but the Dell-type commercials are more appealing than the subtle/cliquey batch of Apple commercials.

Are you waiting until the CPU switch, or are you investing now?

[MrForgetable]

just letting you know, i think the symbol for apple computer is AAPL.

[miacomet]

Seems like Apple stock is pretty high right now. I say the Intel advantage is already built into the apple price.

[rickey939]

Originally Posted by MrForgetable

just letting you know, i think the symbol for apple computer is AAPL.

Correct.®

[Kerrigan]

Proud of you.® MoS ;-)

[rickey939]

Originally Posted by Kerrigan

Proud of you.® MoS ;-)

Yes! That was awesome...

Thank you.

[mrtew]

How is becoming just like all the other crappy computers out there going to boost Aapl's stock price? I think the iPod is what is driving the price up!

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by mrtew

How is becoming just like all the other crappy computers out there going to boost Aapl's stock price? I think the iPod is what is driving the price up!

But the similarity begins AND ENDS with the Intel chip. The rest of the package will be purely Macintosh. i.e. no cookie cutter motherboards/chipsets in them!

[I was David B.]

Originally Posted by The Godfather

Do you expect a good valuation of your APPL shares?

2. Windows boot. A big must for engineers/scientists/professionals.

This is rubbish.
I am a scientist (physics) and neither me nor any of my colleagues uses windows. Science is unix/linux only since ever and macs with OS X is the best that could ever happen to scientists.

I asked this question several times: How professional can you call an operating system that does not come with a backup strategie or needs an it department to organize backups? Compare windows with macs simple disk utility/ccc possibilities. Windows lacks a solution since 25 years.

But I agree that more private users might switch. Companies will not because they simply look at the hardware price. If you want to use windows it is useless to buy a mac. Dual boot sucks. But the stock might rise after the switch because analysts and investors don't understand the real reasons.

The reason for apples high value is the iPod and the itunes music store, not the mac. The intel switch has no effect here but might give reasons for a short rise only because of hype or expectations. Apple gets a stronger partner. Analysts admire that.

So my strategy is. Buy now or keep your shares.

[The Godfather]

Are you saying that all your scientific hardware and software is OSX compatible? If so, I am impressed at your luck. Most of the time, 95% of the tools for engineers and professionals (and perhaps science) are Windows only, and neglecting to use them would be... unprofessional.
Why limit your arsenal? Dual boot sucks, but no Windows sucks even more.
(I am just advocating the need of both platforms for the trades mentioned above)

[kingjules]

agreed. the impact of the Intel switch is not in action yet. we all know that with 6 millions ipod sold and 500,000,000 songs and more sold in iTunes drives the price higher. the good results shown last month if you look closely is because of these high sales.
my view is that the rise will come, as I was David B. , said after the switch and then the share will go either up or down when analyst will look at the first results

[I was David B.]

Originally Posted by The Godfather

Are you saying that all your scientific hardware and software is OSX compatible?

No, not everything we use is OS X compatible.
But most things are not windows compatible either. In physics I 've seen people using windows only for paper writing. But even this is not the best choice because most journals use tex templates.

Basically most scientific software for physics runs on unix or linux. A lot is being recompiled for OS X. In my day to day work I can do everything with my powerbook. If not, I need linux and not windows.

For physics I would guess a unix platform plus M$ office does it all. If you really want, you don't need windows. For engineers it might be different. Autocad for example is not mac compatible. IC design programs are also only available for windows.

But thats not what I wanted to say. I think if you make a os choice you will stick to this choice. That means if you need windows it is pointless to buy expensive apple hardware. If you need linux the same is true. So I guess people who work with osx will remain the only ones who buy macs. Except maybe a few who like to experiment but want to be sure that they are free to run windows if osx does not do it for them.

But apple should be very careful to make sure that os x does not run on cheap boxes or their stock will drown like a lead duck.

[anim8ing]

Honestly, if Apple hits 65.00 a share, i'm selling. I can't see it going a lot higher than where it's at right now. That said, I bought it over 10 years ago at about 5.00 a share, and the split was very good to me