1. May be an interesting stock play. But what are the implications of dropping the word "Computer" from the name?

When they started the switch to Intel I said to myself: Apple is exiting the computer business.

Now I'm sure of it (well, I was pretty sure already).

So how valuable is the Apple name as one more consumer electronic company? As one Slashdotter put it: The USA is becoming the third world of consumer electronics. We get the cream of the crop (or the leftovers depending on how you look at it) after the far east and Europe have already experimented with the true bleeding edge stuff.

Apple is giving up competition with Dell and Microsoft in favor of competing with Samsung and LG, Nokia, Sony, etc. Can investors stay excited about this for long?

I see this as a victory for Microsoft in a way, and Intel. They are in no hurry to brand their own cell phone, as long as in the long run they get some royalties for the finished product. IBM's laughing all the way to the back too, as their Apple business didn't account for much, but they are selling PowerPCs as fast as they can make them.

Comoditization is flattening the playing field like an atomic bomb at the moment. I hope the stock prices don't follow (well, too much anyway).

Posted at 3:07PM on Jan 9th 2007 by macbeach

2. Haha. I emailed the same exact graph to my friends during the keynote. I work in the wireless business and I was just complaining to a colleague the other day that there hasn't been any real innovation since the introduction of the cameraphone. But even that feature was never executed properly cross carrier.

This is exactly what the industry needs - a stiff kick in the ass.

I wish it was june so I could buy this today. It's only missing 3g.

pete

Posted at 9:13PM on Jan 9th 2007 by Pete

3. A` graph is worth a thousand words :-)

Posted at 3:07PM on Jan 10th 2007 by Geoff