Way to make waves: Apple analyst puts $1,001 out there
Publicity stunt or deeply held conviction? Brian White, the once oft-quoted technology stock commentator who moved to Topeka Capital from Ticonderoga, is stoking fiery debate with his declaration of a $1,001 target price for Apple’s stock.
White, a mainstay on financial media outlets, justifies that four-digit sum by calling attention to Apple’s penetration into new markets (with the oft-rumored and apparently imminent Apple TV), its expanding footprint in China, and its unstoppable brand power, among other things.
One can only wait and see. Many observers years ago voiced derision at $500 to $600 targets. Then, in 2011, Apple stock nearly doubled. Today, the median price target on its shares stands at just a whisker below $700, Thomson Reuters data shows.
Regardless of White’s motives, the fact remains that, at $618.63 as of Monday’s close, Apple shares have come farther and faster than many other corporations in recent history; it is already the largest.
And by some estimates, it’s within shooting distance of the highest market capitalisation ever achieved by a U.S. company — none other than arch-rival Microsoft in December 1999, when it attained a value of over $614 billion.
In a report entitled “Apple fever has room to run”, White writes: “Driven by an ever expanding portfolio of innovative products, a growing integrated digital grid, unmatched aesthetics and a brand that is able to touch the soul of consumers of all backgrounds, Apple fever is spreading like a wildfire around the world and we see no end in sight to this trend.”
Starry-eyed dream or hard financial prognostication? You decide.
from Paul Smalera:
The recession killed journalism – and saved it
Over the last few years, thanks to the global economic crisis – encapsulating everything from the 2008 housing crash to today’s ongoing euro zone sovereign-debt debacle – much ink has been spilled about the reshaping of the world’s economy, especially about the domestic job market.
Actually, scratch part of that last sentence, because less ink has been spilled, at least according to the results of a recent report by LinkedIn. The media business has been in overdrive, especially during this 2012 election season, but it’s now pushing pixels, not paper.
According to the data studied by LinkedIn, the professional social network, the newspaper industry experienced a 28.4 percent shrink rate between 2007 and 2011. The death of newspapers is not exactly a new phenomenon, so I’ll spare you yet another detailed recap of the print and economic climate that led to this broadsheet apocalypse.
But contrast newspapers’ huge drop with the gain experienced in the second-fastest-growing industry, according to the same LinkedIn data: online publishing. New-media companies posted a staggering 24.3 percent gain, coming in only behind the “Internet” overall. Look at the chart below and compare the green online publishing dot with the red newspaper dot.
In other words, reports of the media’s death are premature, at best. But more important, it’s unfair for any old-media advocate to say that the revenue model for media (or any industry moving toward digital) is broken. Yes, the companies and publications that power media look quite different than they used to, but these news organizations are still reporting the news.
And that truism is at the crux of why newspapers are in a bad spot. They have been trapped in a terrible mindset that they are in the business of selling newspapers. The leap from paper to digital may be vast, but to newspaper publishers, it seemed like vaulting to a different business entirely, one they were loathe to get into. No matter what kind of lip service newspapers paid to the digital transformation, the most prominent paywall model out there, that of the New York Times, still protects print subscriptions with a tiered digital pricing strategy – one so annoying that it motivated its former digital design director to complain publicly about the entire signup process.
Come on now, who are we kidding here? The people that sit on the media boards today are the same people sitting on the oil and pharmaceutical boards. They are the same people who organize political fund raisers.
Instead of investigative reporting we get pathetic drivel such as this entire article. ‘Journalism’ died because journalism died. The author of this article does nothing but hammer the point home.
‘Hunger Games’ feeds fan cravings with 2nd box office win
Filmgoers brought big appetites for “The Hunger Games” to box offices over the weekend as the blockbuster movie added $95.9 million in global ticket sales and pushed the worldwide total since its record-setting debut to $365 million.
The Lions Gate Entertainment <LGF.N> movie about teenagers forced into a deadly survival match ranked No. 1 for the second straight weekend on domestic charts. Ticket sales in the United States and Canada reached an estimated $61.1 million from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates.
At international theaters, “Hunger Games” pulled in $34.8 million over the weekend. The massive worldwide total since the movie’s release 10 days ago reached $364.9 million.
The film dropped 60 percent domestically from its huge opening a week ago. The drop is consistent with the performances of other big film franchises such as “Twilight” and “Harry Potter,” said David Spitz, executive vice president of domestic distribution for Lions Gate Entertainment <LGF.N>.
“That shows the staying power of the film. Word of mouth is clearly taking hold,” Spitz said.
The movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence as heroine Katniss Everdeen, opened last weekend with $152.5 million, the third-highest domestic debut and biggest for a non-sequel.
The second-weekend domestic tally ranked seventh-highest among all movies, according to website Box Office Mojo.
Filmgoers to eat up more ‘Hunger Games’
A tally like that would land the movie about teens forced to fight to the death among the top second-weekend performers of all time. “Hunger Games” would rank seventh on that list if it hits $60 million, according to website Box Office Mojo. The record for second-weekend ticket sales belongs, unsurprisingly, to 2009′s “Avatar.” That movie took in $75.6 million during its second weekend and went on to become the highest-grossing film ever.
“Hunger Games” opened with a stunning $152.5 million last weekend, the third-highest film opening in history and biggest debut for a non-sequel. By this Sunday, the book adaptation’s 10-day domestic haul may top $250 million, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office division of Hollywood.com.
For the masses who have already seen “Hunger Games,” two new films are reaching the big screen. Action movie “Wrath of the Titans” starring Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, battles for the fan-boy audience. The movie is a 3D sequel to 2010 Olympian epic “Clash of the Titans.” Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros., the studio behind the film, projects domestic weekend sales of about $40 million.
For families, an updated “Snow White” story called “Mirror Mirror” stars Julia Roberts as the evil queen in a comedy-and-adventure twist on the classic fairy tale. Distributor Relativity Media projects the movie’s domestic receipts will reach the low-$20 million range.
Photo Credit: Lions Gate/Murray Close
Tech’s forbidden touch
“You can look, but you can’t touch” – great advice in most museums, and every strip club. But it makes no sense when it comes to our computers. We are getting very touchy-feely with our smartphones and tablets, and this is how it should be. Even BlackBerry and Amazon’s Kindle, which launched with hardware keyboards to differentiate it from the competition, have abandoned them.
It’s no accident. We touch instinctively. We are born touching everything, and only learn where the boundaries are later in life. Our handheld devices are reconnecting us with the primary technique we used to learn about the world we had just entered. The metaphor extends. Now it’s the mobile computers that we use to learn about the world around us, and we control them with our fingers, by touching a screen. How do you place a price on that?
Many are trying, thanks to software patents. Patents have become a bane to the very essence of innovation. They are arsenals, ostensibly meant to defend but more often used to offend. Yahoo’s lawsuit against Facebook over 10 patents further proves that weaponizing software patents is the last gasp of a dying business.
Which brings me to the news that Twitter is trying to patent one of the most instinctive gestures on the iPhone, what they call User Interface Mechanics. Anyone who has used a Twitter client on their phone knows to refresh the page: You “pull” it down and release. Others use this as well, like Google’s Gmail mobile site.
But as Techcrunch noticed, this functionality isn’t built into every core app on the iPhone (like the Mail app), and the reason is probably because it’s potential lawsuit bait.
It’s not a sure thing that Twitter’s application will be approved, or that Twitter would enforce it. The most important computer interface device – the mouse – was patented by visionary Douglas Engelbart in 1970, and everything worked out all right.
The high costs of the cloud
How great is it that high-definition video is now portable? Thanks to cloud computing, superfast 4G networks and tablets with high-resolution screens, we can watch thousands of movies and TV shows in lush, beautiful clarity wherever we go.
In a way, that is pretty great, as the millions of people who have bought the new iPad with retina display and LTE connections have already seen. But in another way, it’s going to quickly become not so great: As hi-def video – or rather, the data bandwidth to deliver it – becomes a commodity for more people, that commodity will start to become much more expensive. Not just for consumers, but for the companies that will increasingly need more wireless spectrum and wired infrastructure to handle the surge in data demand.
Call it the curse of the cloud. The proliferation of online video services and portable devices to watch them on have added congestion to data networks even as wireless carriers impose fees on its biggest data users. According to Bytemobile, video accounted for half of all mobile data traffic in February, up from 40 percent only a year earlier.
And that was before the arrival of the new iPad, which has four times as many pixels as the iPad 2. More pixels can enhance hi-def video but requires more data. Demand for wireless data will rise even higher once more LTE smartphones – including, most likely, the iPhone 5 expected this year – start streaming video and other high-bandwidth content on them. If carriers are overwhelmed by the demand, as AT&T was with its notoriously unreliable 3G networks, wireless service will grow more spotty over time. But we’ll be paying more for it.
We’re already seeing some of this happening with the LTE iPads. Just ask the guy who used his brand new iPad to watch NCAA games while attending NCAA games, blowing through his 2GB allotment in less than two days. Or the USA Today columnist who says he did the same just by downloading apps. Meanwhile, complaints were surfacing on message boards that AT&T’s LTE networks were dragging in some urban areas as people played with their new iPads.
It won’t be just iPads and the next generation of iPhones taxing wireless networks. Apple is the first to offer an LTE tablet to the masses, but LTE Android tablets will follow, as will more LTE phones powered by Android, which runs on 51 percent of the world’s smartphones. Verizon, AT&T and Sprint have been building out their 4G networks for years, but Verizon recently warned that despite that effort, demand will outstrip LTE capacity as early as next year.
Can’t find a socket to charge your phone? IDT’s got a solution.
(Updates with cost details)
Ted Tewksbury wants to get rid your iPhone cable.
The chief executive of San Jose, California-based Integrated Device Technology is pushing a set of microchips he hopes will eventually render “contactless charging” — charging your smartphone by simply placing it on a specific spot — commonplace and eventually make phone-charging cables a thing of the past.
On a recent visit to IDT’s offices, Tewksbury showed me the chips he’s just started selling. They’re IDT”s twist on existing technology, using inductive coupling, which has yet to reach critical mass.
The idea is, instead of plugging your smartphone into the wall when its battery runs low, you toss it onto a wireless charging surface that could be built into your desk, a cup holder in your car, or even the armrest of an airplane seat. And there it would juice up.
If Tewksbury has his way, that sort of inbuilt design will become de rigeur in cars, homes, airports and elsewhere, so people may not even notice when their devices are charging. Competing ”wireless” charging products on the market now require the user to tote around a charging pad that itself must be plugged into a socket, making them less-than-truly mobile and defeating the purpose of going “wireless”.
IDT hopes to grab a slice of a small but potentially sizeable market for wireless smartphone charging chips that he reckons could reach $800 million by 2014.
VC Bessemer discovers Internets, mulls duck mascot
An Onion-style take on the standard press release from Bessemer. Don’t be fooled by their Luddite posturing– these guys have invested in plenty of high-tech companies, including Skype and LinkedIn.
OLD VC FIRM FINALLY UPDATES OLD WEB SITE Asks People Not to Visit Until They’re Sure It Works
Bessemer Venture Partners today admitted that they knew they had an awkward and out-of-date website. “It was like the 70’s shag carpet you bring to a marriage straight from your dorm room” said Bob Goodman. “At first your spouse doesn’t object too much because of the sentimental attachment, but after a while it starts to smell and she starts referring to it as ‘that thing’. That was our Web site…so we drew straws and the loser had to oversee a rebuild.”
The loser, David Cowan, conceded, “While I didn’t exactly welcome the challenge, in a partnership somebody has to do it.” Cowan solicited bids from web developers and chose a proposal from a pair of local middle school students, because “We support education, I guess?…and it was free.” Cowan then fobbed as much of the work as possible off onto analysts, administrative staff, and candidates for positions at Bessemer Venture Partners (under the guise that website design was a regular employment test at BVP). Jeremy Levine commented: “I lost at least two great associate candidates to David’s web site “test” so I’m particularly glad this thing is finally getting launched.”
There was some debate among the partners as to whether they should launch it now or run more user tests and performance upgrades. The firm’s Chief Operating Officer Ed Colloton said, “We often advise our startups to just get products out there fast for market feedback, but with a venture firm’s web site, users seems to expect a certain level of quality and accuracy.” Rob Stavis disagreed: “I’ve never expected quality or accuracy from our website.”
Byron Deeter commented, “It’s as done as it’ll get, let’s just get it out there already.”
Not everyone agreed with the decision to update the site. “We’re an old firm, what’s wrong with an old site?” asked Chris Gabrieli. While Felda Hardymon agreed the old web site should be discontinued, he wasn’t on board with replacing it. “The internets are a fad. What we need is a costumed mascot on Sand Hill Road with a sign pointing to our office. Maybe a duck.”
Eventbrite gets into the dongle business
Eventbrite, the ticketing and events start-up run by Kevin and Julia Hartz, unveiled its own dongle on Tuesday, following tech companies such as eBay Inc’s PayPal and Jack Dorsey’s Square Inc.
PayPal launched a blue triangular card reader, or dongle, last week to help small merchants accept credit and debit card payments through iPhones. The company said on Tuesday that about 24,000 merchants ordered the gadget in the first 24 hours after launch.
Square has a square shaped dongle that has been a big hit with small business owners, many of whom previously could not accept cards.
Eventbrite’s dongle is orange – in keeping with its corporate colors – and plugs into Apple iPads. Event organizers will be able to use the dongle, in conjunction with Eventbrite’s At the Door iPad app, to process card payments for tickets to events of all sizes and types, merchandise, VIP packages and other stuff, the company said.
Eventbrite is selling the credit card reader at a new online store, Brite Store. One card reader costs $10, but Eventbrite will put a $10 credit in organizers’ Eventbrite accounts automatically.
This is Eventbrite’s first proprietary piece of hardware. That may be a costly move, but it could help the company attract more event organizers and keep the ones it already works with.
Comic ’21 Jump Street’ leads box office
A comic spin on 1980s television hit “21 Jump Street” nabbed the No. 1 slot on North American movie box office charts over the weekend, beating forecasts and knocking two-time winner “The Lorax” to second place.
“Jump Street” locked up an estimated $35.0 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates compiled by Reuters. The performance prompted distributor Sony to order a sequel.
The movie stars Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as bumbling young cops who go undercover to bust a high-school drug ring. The TV show was a more serious teen drama that launched the career of Johnny Depp, who appeared in a cameo in the new film.
Critics liked the makeover, with 87 percent giving the movie a thumbs-up in reviews collected on the Rotten Tomatoes website. Audiences graded the film a “B” on average in polling by survey firm CinemaScore.
Going into the weekend, Sony had projected sales around $25 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters for “Jump Street.” Sony’s Columbia Pictures and MGM produced the film for about $42 million.
Advance screenings and an Internet marketing campaign helped build buzz ahead of the movie’s debut, said Rory Bruer, president of worldwide distribution for Sony Pictures.
“I think we were very successful in getting an opening like this with tremendous word-of-mouth,” said Bruer, who confirmed the studio planned a sequel.
