08/09/2006, 10:55am, EDT

Wednesday, August 9th

Apple keynote a slight disappointment

Two more analysts agree that Apple's announcements during the company's keynote speech at the WWDC brought no big surprises, resulting in slight disappointment. "We believe the product announcements were in line to slightly less impactful versus market expectations," wrote Richard Farmer, a research analyst with Merrill Lynch in a research note obtained by MacNN. "New high end desktops with Intel processors were widely expected." American Technology Research senior analyst Shaw Wu agreed: "We believe there may be slight investor disappointment that Leopard will not ship until spring 2007 and that Apple did not make more announcements like speedbumps to Core 2 Duo processors on existing Intel Macs." Wu noted, however, that Apple's decision to delay Leopard's release may well be related to Microsoft's attempts to clone Mac OS X for its new Vista operating system. Shaw Wu maintained a "buy" rating and a $75 price target on Apple shares.

"We believe with Windows Vista likely further delayed due to stability issues with its latest Beta 2 version and its 'look and feel' and feature set essentially a 'clone' of Apple's currently shipping Mac OS X Tiger, Apple is choosing to spend more time adding features unique to Leopard," Wu said.

The analyst was not surprised to learn that no Apple announcements were made about its iPod portable media player or iTunes Music Store, but expects a separate event in late September-October.

Mac Pro seen as good value

Wu believes that the new Mac Pro is a fairly good value despite its high $2,499 price tag, offering competition to other high-end PCs and workstations priced between $3,000-6,000.

"We anticipate this product to sell fairly well in its key markets including professional (film and video, music and audio, science and technical computing, design and print, and photography) and high-end consumers, who have patiently waited for a high-end Intel Mac," the analyst said. "We estimate this lucrative segment makes up 15-20 percent of its Mac business."

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delay?

08/09, 11:09am, EDT

This is the danger of believing stupid rumors. Now one analyst believed Leopard is "delayed" when in fact, there was never an announced ship date. Not only that, because Apple didn't speedbump other Macs, introduce an iPhone, etc. analysts are reporting a "slight disappointment."

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somewhat agree...

08/09, 11:15am, EDT

because:

- Only a partial feature list of Leopard ... and from the people I talk to , nothing that you just can't live without. Time Machine cool, but I already back up my files regularily and this is something that would have to be 'setup' ... not something every user will have done.

- new Mac Pro (cool internal layouts, etc.) but no realization of rumors to upgrade CPU's in iMacs, etc. ... Mac Mini with upgraded processor to iMacs would make it more palatable at it's price range

- no new iPod ... it should really dwarf into a product that developers add widgets, games, etc, etc. to. What a better place to announce a new multimedia iPod than at the conference.

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Black age...

08/09, 11:15am, EDT

We're living in a black age of irrational thinking, behavior and expectations, everything from wide-spread belief in non-existent weapons of mass destruction to belief that fanciful product rumors should drive market evaluations. Given this situation, and the effect it has on the market, Apple should seriously consider whether it's secrecy policies are in the company's best interests.

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expectations

08/09, 11:46am, EDT

I disagree with trevc in that I am very glad there was no iPod announcement at a conference for Mac software developers. This way attention is focused where it should be: on computers and the Mac OS.

New iPods will come as Apple gets ready for the holiday shopping season. There will be a separate event, no doubt, that will get plenty of attention on its own.

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Expectations too high

08/09, 11:58am, EDT

We Mac folk have developed too high an expectation of Stevenotes. Come on - 10.5 demo'd with some nice new features, two major hardware upgrades, etc. There are some GREAT GREAT GREAT new API's under the hood in 10.5 that will generate amazing apps. These were good announcements. I'm sure we'll have upgrades to other hardware and iPods before calendar Q4 for the holiday season - this wasn't the right timing, either for this show or for Apple's marketing.

7-10 months from OS announcement to shipping is amazing. Windows Vista is five years and counting. Any shorter and developers wouldn't have time to update their apps accordingly. I think the timing is fine.

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sick and tired....

08/09, 12:00pm, EDT

...of people saying this was a let down. this was a WWDC and it followed the *exact* pattern of all previous WWDCs. there are rarely if ever any major consumer announcements made at WWDC. look at the past hardware announcements for the last 8 years of WWDC

2006 - pro mac, xserve 2005 - nothing 2004 - cinema displays (20", 23", 30") 2003 - g5, isight 2002 - nothing 2001 - cinema displays (15" 17", 22") 2000 -nothing (this is pre-shipping OS X days) 1999 - g4 desktop, g3 laptop 1998 - nothing

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Analysts are hypocrites

08/09, 12:00pm, EDT

Weren't analysts complaining a few months ago that Apple's secrecy with new products causes them more harm then good? They were, and now look at them. They are complaining because there weren't and secrets or surprise announcments at the WWDC.

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No consumer stuff at WWDC

08/09, 12:51pm, EDT

WWDC is for developers. Apple never announces iPod or other consumer products at WWDC; the announcements are of interest to developers: new OS features & new Macs. The Mac Pro was a very significant announcement. It complets the Intel transition and fills out Apple's product line.

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analysts are dumb

08/09, 1:16pm, EDT

and need to get a grip. We were lucky there was ANY product delivered at WWDC. Its a *developer* conference that happens to have a fun keynote. It could be a non-event if it weren't for Steve. Apple will roll the new 'toys' later on when they can apply focus to them and not the programming base. Plus I am so sick of 'the market' responding to non-information, rumors, earnings that were 'less than expected', listening to quote 'analysts and other stupidity.

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Agreed

08/09, 1:16pm, EDT

I agree. I'm really getting tired of people saying this keynote was a disappointment. I can almost understand it coming from some of the rabid Apple fans, who seem to think Apple must create something mindblowing every week to keep them excited, but I would expect just a tad more rational thinkng from analysts. But then again, who am I kidding, these days any shmo can call themselves an analyst.

Did these so-called "analysts" even stop to consider that Apple just completed the Intel transition to their entire product line in about 8 months?!? That's pretty significant in my book! And this, with very few if any major hiccups. What company can do a complete architecture change like this these days except for Apple!? But this is the price Apple pays for being so cool. Unless Steve unleashes something that blows people clear out of their underwear and makes them drool like a rabid dog, it's considered a "boring" keynote. Yes, expectations are set way too high for these kinds of things. Totally ridiculous.

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