02/15/2005, 7:10am, EST
Tuesday, February 15th
AAPL target raised based on possible Sony partnership
"We speculate that an Apple/Sony partnership could take the following forms: (1) an iTunes-like iMovies Store online using the H.264 codec and streaming Sony and Pixar content, (2) a high-performance Apple workstation using Cell for video editing, and (3) a network-centric TV with computing for handling the next-generation of entertainment feeds."
The report indicated that such a partnership was not based on explicit knowledge of Apple future plans but represented "logical conjecture", as Apple tries to expand and evolove its digital lifestyle strategy. "Such offerings, however, would put Apple at the heart of the HD and digital consumer revolution and provide grist for further earnings increases and stock price appreciation."
Milunovich's new price target of $102 is supported by a two-stage discounted earnings model that assumes post-F2006 earnings per share growth of 33% for five years followed by sustained EPS growth of 5% per year, according to the report. The analyst also noted that the stock would have increasing real option value embedded in the stock as the company leverages iPod success into new product lines.
Yesterday, UBS also raised its 12-month price target on Apple stock, citing the upside of Apple's software business and Piper Jaffray maintained an "outperform" rating on Apple.
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Sony could provide their entire movie library to a iTunes like movie download service.
Apple could work with Sony to develop high end HD video hardware and software.
Just some ideas :0)
(feel free to fix & delete this comment)
I do not see a partnership between the two at all, Sony is trying to compete with Apple.
There could be something in the works with Sony (hence the Pres @ MacWorld) but I can't see it being something as fundamental to one side as PS3. Apple and Sony compete in the pro video editing market too, so I can't see them co-branding products there either.
Maybe something using Cell but much more likely an iMovie store. You couldn't do that without Sony being on board.
Maybe if they offered the movie only for $4-5 it would work, but can you see Sony/Universal/WB etc going with $5 a movie download with free burning to disc. I don't! And how can such a small price pay for the bandwidth this thing would consume. They may invent some sort of metering technology but if I've got a 4Mb/sec pipe and I'm only getting a small fraction of that, I'm not going to be happy considering how huge the file is. If you halve the speed on a smallish file and it take 2 min instead of 1 to d/l, no one cares, but when we're taking hundreds of MB, maybe even a few GB per file, then you've got to deliver at very high speeds.
Frankly, I don't think the internet (especially ISPs) could cope with sudden massive bandwidth use from a consumer movie store with such amazing popularity as it will undoubtedly have. I hope that I'm wrong though!
I'd wait for some real results before moving ahead too much.
with that said, you should of bought apple a long time ago, so it doesn't hurt now, to do nothing but wait.