Apple and Sony Cell chip alliance predicted

[hey69]

Apple may use the new Cell processor, according to Merrill Lynch.

Analysts from the firm this morning raised their 12-month estimates on Apple to $102 per share (from $85). They did so because the analysts think Apple may announce a partnership with Sony, and may begin shipping products based on the Sony, IBM, Toshiba-developed Cell processor.

CBS MarketWatch reports Merrill's prediction that such a partnership could be an iTunes-type movie store, a high-performance Apple/Sony video editing workstation or even a network ready TV.

If it happened, such a move would "put Apple at the heart of the HD and digital consumer revolution", the analysts said.

Rumours of a strengthened relationship with Sony have been rife since the surprise appearance of that company's president Kunitake Ando with Apple CEO Steve Jobs during the latter's Macworld San Francisco keynote speech.

Ostensibly there to help stress Jobs' keynote focus on High Definition video, Ando raised laughter when he noted that Jobs likes Sony products, but not all Sony products in a reference to iTunes and Sony Connect.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is understood to have proposed an alliance with Sony regarding iTunes - an alliance Sony then spurned.

Apple's Jobs has always expressed respect for Sony as a company.

source: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/new...tw&dateid=38398.2164667593-832262873&

 

[Qroach]

Interesting, but this really isn't connected to the consoles... other than it could invovles sony. Probably not the best forum for this topic.

 

[McFly]

I predicted this as well ... but guess I don't count.

Fredi

 

[hey69]

yes Qroach i know, but i don't know.. sounded consolish enough for me ..somebody can move it if not correctish

 

[cthellis42]

So will the PS soon stand for PippinStation?

 

[Tsmit42]

I hope Apple don't get exclusive cell distribution of the desktop area, because they love to overprice products.

 

[London Geezer]

I hope Apple don't get exclusive cell distribution of the desktop area, because they love to overprice products.

Well then u'd have Sony's premium for being a Sony product and Apple's weird overpricing system because "it's cool to have an Apple thing!".

 

[kyetech]

So will the PS soon stand for PippinStation?

in a word..... no

 

[Sonic]

Ok, thread moved.

 

[Sage]

WOOHOO! I'm getting richer every day from my apple holdings! made over $500 in the last two days and it's gonna split on friday! Oh, AAPL, how I love thee (even though I've never owned a single damned one of your products...).

 

[Gerry]

WOOHOO! I'm getting richer every day from my apple holdings! made over $500 in the last two days and it's gonna split on friday! Oh, AAPL, how I love thee (even though I've never owned a single damned one of your products...).

How does a share split make you any richer?

 

[Sage]

How does a share split make you any richer?

it doesnt directly make me richer. it just means I will now own twice as many shares. of course, the price of them will drop as well. but, the reason companies have share splits is because usually once the shares split the price goes up faster than before the split. also, usually once the company trading on the new basis each share is worth more than half of what it was before the split. to put it simply, splits = investors wet dreams.

 

[Fox5]

I don't think Apple would use it, cell doesn't seem general purpose enough, surely a G5 would give better performance in most situations. Plus apple would have to write a new operating system, I don't see if happening unless IBM is dropping the G5 or apple is unhappy with IBM.

 

[Brimstone]

I don't think Apple would use it, cell doesn't seem general purpose enough, surely a G5 would give better performance in most situations. Plus apple would have to write a new operating system, I don't see if happening unless IBM is dropping the G5 or apple is unhappy with IBM.

I assume Apple would "contribute" to the open source CELL OS which would be a big software win for the "CELL World" alliance. The partnership with nVidia is a big software victory on the graphic side of things and Apple would only build upon making the overall software infastructure more robust.

 

[wco81]

This seems like a case of an analyst reading rumor sites and web forums where people have been discussing the Cell for the past week or two.

The analysts were clearly reading the sites about what became the Mac Mini and the iPod Shuffle before the New Year and actually used rumors and speculation in recommending the stock and calculating their estimates. One guy expected X amount of flash iPods to be sold in a given period of time.

Strikes me as bizzare to do equity research based on rumors and speculation. People have talked about a video download service and various Apple convergence products on forums like this.

Anyways, it seemed the consensus was that the Cell wouldn't be especially advantageous for desktop computing. It's not even clear what it would do in an HDTV set. Decode and encode HD video? Maybe, but there should be dedicated chips for decoding at least which will be cheap enough to put in set-tops.

Even if Apple and Sony agreed, you would think Apple wouldn't be able to get enough Cell chips within the first year of the PS3's launch. Then they'd have to write software for it. So how does this figure into a revised 12-month stock price target?

 

[Sage]

let me explain how "analysts" who are trying to get people to invest in a company work.... they skew and contort every possible piece of data in any way that they can in order to inflate the numbers to as high as possible. then, they take it to their boss and their boss says "that's not high enough! I want xyz number!" and so then the analyst has to go back and come up with enough BS to confuse people so much that they give up and just accept xyz number when it's given to them.

 

[3dcgi]

Is performance really the reason why more people don't buy Macs now? I doubt it, in which case I doubt Cell will help them significantly increase their volumes.

 

[Sage]

who ever said AAPL would use cell for their PC's?

 

[Gerry]

it doesnt directly make me richer. it just means I will now own twice as many shares. of course, the price of them will drop as well. but, the reason companies have share splits is because usually once the shares split the price goes up faster than before the split. also, usually once the company trading on the new basis each share is worth more than half of what it was before the split. to put it simply, splits = investors wet dreams.

Companies do not have share splits in order to make the price of shares rise faster (certainly not directly). They have share splits to keep their share price in what they consider an optimal range; to make the shares more accessible to as many investors as possible.

Having said that it is normal for the share price to hold a slight premium (over the 50% you'd expect) simply because of the positive signals that a share split sends out i.e. the company/our share price is doing so well we've had to half the price of our shares. "Investors wet dreams" is over-playing it to be honest.

 

[_xxx_]

Anyways, it seemed the consensus was that the Cell wouldn't be especially advantageous for desktop computing.

And what makes you think so? If the OS is optimised for it, it could as well be damn fast. Or they might add some HW which will make it happen.

It would as well be very easy to sell as the competition to Windows and for having Apple's and Sony's names on it. Also, we all know how much Sony hates MS so I actually think it might even be more than a rumor.