June 07, 2007: 12:51 PM EST
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) - Apple Inc. shares continued their ongoing surge Thursday, rising to another all-time high as two industry analysts raised their price targets on the stock to $160 a share and forecast upbeat sales for the company's soon-to-be released iPhone.
Gene Munster, of Piper Jaffray, raised his target price on Apple's stock from $140 a share, saying that he believes Apple can sell 45 million iPhones in 2009. Apple is set to release the iPhone - which combines a mobile phone with an iPod - on June 29.
Munster holds an outperform rating on Apple's (AAPL) stock.
A similar move came from UBS analyst Ben Reitzes, who lifted his price target to $160 a share from $133. Reitzes estimates that Apple will sell almost 1 million iPhones in the second half of this year, and sales could reach 7.4 million units in 2008. Reitzes has a buy rating on Apple's stock.
The changes set a new upper limit on Wall Street's price targets for Apple, according to data from Thomson Financial. Current targets range as low as $100 with a median of $130.
Shares of Apple were trading up 1.9% at $126 by late morning. The stock set a new high of $127.61 earlier in the session.
Anticipation has grown around Apple as it set an exact release date for the iPhone this week. Also, the company is on the eve of holding its annual developers conference in San Francisco on June 11. Much of the conference is expected to center around showing off features of Leopard, Apple's upgrade to its Macintosh operating system.
Reitzes said Thursday that after evaluating revenue models for the iPhone and the Apple TV set-top box, he believes the company's free cash flow will increase beyond many forecasts.
The analyst said part of the reason for Apple's cash situation to improve comes from the deferred revenue Apple will share with AT&T Inc. (T) , its wireless network provider for the iPhone. IPhone customers will have to sign an initial two-year service agreement, and Reitzes says such a situation will result in Apple recording more than 85% of its iPhone sales as deferred revenue.
Because of how iPhone sales will likley be recognized in the coming years, "We believe that free cash flow and deferred revenue will become more important metrics in driving Apple's shares" through 2008, Reitzes said.
Piper Jaffray's Munster said that in evaluating the iPhone's potential, "it is critical to keep in mind that the iPhone will be a combo device, which will attract more than just a mobile phone customer." In addition to being an mobile phone and and iPod, the iPhone will come with a built-in digital camera and can also wireless access the Internet.
Currently, Apple plans on offering the iPhone in two models, a $499 version with 4 gigabytes of storage, and a $599 model the comes with 8GB of storage.
Munster forecasts that Apple will sell about 100 million iPods this year, and that it is not "unreasonable" to estimate that as many as 15% of those iPod users will look to replace their devices with an iPhone by 2009. Munster such replacements, along with new iPhone sales, could give Apple 7% of the U.S. mobile phone market and 2.8% of the world's handset market share in two years.
Still, Munster said there are risks at play with Apple right now, and among those is the company's decision to, at least initially, not operate the iPhone with third-generation wireless technology standards. The iPhone will run on AT& T's EDGE network, which is considered 2.5G, and can't stream music or video.
Additionally, Munster said the durability of the iPhone's touch screen, and potential user headaches with emailing or sending text messages on a touch screen could result in some negative views about the device.
A less bullish view on the company was aired by Bill Shope of J.P. Morgan earlier this week. In a note to clients Monday, Shope said the iPhone's high price will likely temper demand. In addition, potential iPod customers may hold off their purchases, waiting for the price of iPhones to drop.
"Given the difficult production ramp for the product, we expect availability to be fairly limited," wrote Shope, who rates the stock as neutral. " Nevertheless, as we move from 'the buzz factor' to true fundamentals, we continue to believe Apple's shares are priced for perfection."
Source: http://money.cnn.com/
New trial for teacher over cyberporn in classroom
June 8, 2007
WASHINGTON: A US judge has ordered a retrial of a schoolteacher found guilty of computer porn charges after a sustained campaign by internet specialists proclaiming her innocence.
WASHINGTON: A US judge has ordered a retrial of a schoolteacher found guilty of computer porn charges after a sustained campaign by internet specialists proclaiming her innocence.
Julie Amero, 40, was convicted in January of causing a series of sex advertisements to pop up on a classroom computer, which were seen by pupils in October 2004. She faces up to 40 years in jail.
But the defence filed a motion for a retrial, and at a sentencing hearing on Wednesday Judge Hillary Strackbein granted the application.
The prosecution at the trial in Connecticut had alleged Amero must have clicked on porn websites for the pop-ups to begin appearing. But after the trial 28 computer science academics in the state sought to prove that the rapid-fire sequence could have appeared automatically.
Sympathetic campaigners argue such pop-ups are one of the scourges of the internet and say she is the victim of a witchhunt.
The computer was sent to a state laboratory after the trial, and Judge Strackbein said its report might contradict evidence presented by the state computer expert, a police detective. "The jury may have relied, at least in part, on that faulty information."
The prosecution did not oppose the defence motion for a retrial. Neither the prosecution nor the jury appear to have been fully aware of the extent to which computers can be infiltrated, especially old ones that do not have firewall protection.
Outside the court Amero said: "A great weight has been lifted off my back."
Her lawyer, William Dow, commended the prosecutors for acting responsibly. "The lesson from this is all of us are subject to the whims of these computers."
Pupils, some of them as young as 12, told police that the computer had been left on for several hours and they had seen men and women engaged in oral sex.
Guardian News & Media
Microsoft Strikes Linux Patent Deal With LG Electronics
Under a deal with LG Electronics, Microsoft will forego any Linux-related patent claims and in return gain access to certain intellectual property produced by LGE.
By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
Jun 7, 2007 10:00 AM
In its second such agreement this week, Microsoft has struck a deal under which it will extend amnesty to a company that's using what the software maker claims is patented Microsoft intellectual property embedded in the open-source Linux computer operating system.
Under a deal with LG Electronics, disclosed late Wednesday, Microsoft will forego any Linux-related patent claims against the South Korean electronics manufacturer. In return, Microsoft will gain access to certain intellectual property produced by LGE.
Microsoft insists that the Linux kernel infringes on 42 Microsoft patents, and that other open-source software programs violate an additional 193. LGE uses Linux in a number of its consumer-electronics products, including smart phones.
In a statement, Jeong Hwan Lee, executive VP for intellectual property at LGE, said the intellectual property that his company is licensing to Microsoft concerns "patents directed to computer architecture utilized in game consoles and other products."
The deal also gives Microsoft access to technology used by LGE that's patented by MicroConnect Group.
Specific financial terms of the cross-licensing pact weren't disclosed, but Microsoft said the arrangement calls for it to make "net balancing" payments to LGE. That implies that the two companies have agreed that the technology to which Microsoft gains access is more valuable than the Microsoft technology claimed to be part of Linux.
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a cross-licensing agreement with Linux distributor Xandros. That pact also includes a provision under which Microsoft pledges not to pursue patent claims against Xandros arising from its distribution of Linux.
Last November, Microsoft reached a similar accord with Novell.
The deals are controversial. The Free Software Foundation, which governs open-source software licensing, denies Microsoft's contention that Linux and other open-source programs contain Microsoft intellectual property.
The FSF is in the midst of updating its open-source license in ways intended to make it more difficult for Microsoft to strike patent-protection deals with Linux distributors and users.
Among other things, the forthcoming third version of the General Public License, expected to be released this summer, is backdated to forbid Linux distributors from entering patent protection deals with commercial software developers as of March 28.
It would also force participants in prior agreements to extend patent protection to all Linux users. The FSF is hoping the latter provision will convince Microsoft to exit the Novell deal.
Ironically, LG Electronics is a member of a group called the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum. The group comprises a number of electronics manufacturers that embed Linux into their products. On its Web site, CELF says part of its mission is "to operate completely within the letter and the spirit of the open-source community."
The FSF and other open-source advocates are likely to question whether LGE's tie up with Microsoft is part of that mission.
Source: www.informationweek.com
By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
Jun 7, 2007 10:00 AM
In its second such agreement this week, Microsoft has struck a deal under which it will extend amnesty to a company that's using what the software maker claims is patented Microsoft intellectual property embedded in the open-source Linux computer operating system.
Under a deal with LG Electronics, disclosed late Wednesday, Microsoft will forego any Linux-related patent claims against the South Korean electronics manufacturer. In return, Microsoft will gain access to certain intellectual property produced by LGE.
Microsoft insists that the Linux kernel infringes on 42 Microsoft patents, and that other open-source software programs violate an additional 193. LGE uses Linux in a number of its consumer-electronics products, including smart phones.
In a statement, Jeong Hwan Lee, executive VP for intellectual property at LGE, said the intellectual property that his company is licensing to Microsoft concerns "patents directed to computer architecture utilized in game consoles and other products."
The deal also gives Microsoft access to technology used by LGE that's patented by MicroConnect Group.
Specific financial terms of the cross-licensing pact weren't disclosed, but Microsoft said the arrangement calls for it to make "net balancing" payments to LGE. That implies that the two companies have agreed that the technology to which Microsoft gains access is more valuable than the Microsoft technology claimed to be part of Linux.
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a cross-licensing agreement with Linux distributor Xandros. That pact also includes a provision under which Microsoft pledges not to pursue patent claims against Xandros arising from its distribution of Linux.
Last November, Microsoft reached a similar accord with Novell.
The deals are controversial. The Free Software Foundation, which governs open-source software licensing, denies Microsoft's contention that Linux and other open-source programs contain Microsoft intellectual property.
The FSF is in the midst of updating its open-source license in ways intended to make it more difficult for Microsoft to strike patent-protection deals with Linux distributors and users.
Among other things, the forthcoming third version of the General Public License, expected to be released this summer, is backdated to forbid Linux distributors from entering patent protection deals with commercial software developers as of March 28.
It would also force participants in prior agreements to extend patent protection to all Linux users. The FSF is hoping the latter provision will convince Microsoft to exit the Novell deal.
Ironically, LG Electronics is a member of a group called the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum. The group comprises a number of electronics manufacturers that embed Linux into their products. On its Web site, CELF says part of its mission is "to operate completely within the letter and the spirit of the open-source community."
The FSF and other open-source advocates are likely to question whether LGE's tie up with Microsoft is part of that mission.
Source: www.informationweek.com
NOKIA AEON
Jun 3, 2007
Nokia has unveiled its latest concept phone, designed to highlight the company's focus on products that allow users to more readily stamp their personality on their gadgets.
The concept phone, dubbed Aeon, combines two touch-sensitive panels mounted on a fuel-cell power pack. The handset's connectivity and electronics are built into the panels to allow them to be used independendently. When assembled, one panel would operate as the display, the other as the keypad. Since the buttons are entirely virtual, Aeon can flip instantly between a numeric pad for dialling, a text-entry pad for messaging, or a media-player controller.
It's a cute idea and one that ties in with Nokia's expectation that phones will become essentially "wearable" devices - if foresees users removing one of Aeon's display panels and mounting it on a watch-like strap or worn as a badge.More than a phone, Aeon might tap into local wireless networks to transmit data acquired from sensors such as devices that monitor the user's health signs - which is the kind of application the company has in mind for its Wibree personal-area network technology.
Source: A email from my Friend.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)