report Microsoft: Oppenheimer Ups Target to $36 on Win 8 Promise

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Microsoft: Oppenheimer Ups Target to $36 on Win 8 Promise

As Microsoft (MSFT) today formally announced its forthcoming Windows 8

operating system release is available for a preview download, Oppenheimer

& Co.?s Brad Reback sent a note to clients stating that Windows 8 is ?super

fast, super fluid? and contains ?no compromises.?

Reback, who has an Outperform rating on Microsoft, raised his price target

to $36 from $32 based on the strength of what he saw at the developer event

today at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. (AllThingsD?s Ina

Fried offered a great live blog of the event this morning.)

?Although MSFT disclosed few new features from its first developer preview,

we liked what we saw,? writes Reback. ?And its [Windows 8] ability to marry the

desktop experience, touch, the cloud and mobile with no compromise.?

And Reback is upbeat about the prospects for apps on the system:

MSFT also highlighted the early success it was having with developers creating

new metro-style apps for its Windows store. We believe MSFT?s more attractive

economics to developers combined with its increased transparency in the app

approval process will help drive robust growth in apps in coming years.

In a similar vein, Citigroup?s Walter Pritchard this afternoon reiterates a Buy rating

on Microsoft shares and a $35 price target, writing that fixes since the first demos

of Win 8 suggest the software will be more impressive to general users this time

around:

Microsoft highlighted over 100K improvements since the Developer Preview

released at BUILD (Sep. ?11). Improved mouse interaction with Metro interface

and the availability of ~100 apps in the Windows 8 app store should provide

general users a more accurate representation of the OS?s usability.

Pritchard writes that Win 8 will help Microsoft integrate various hardware platforms

with one software system:

The lines are clearly blurring between PC, tablets and handset and Windows 8 will

serve to expedite the process. All the code will be common between them [x86 and

ARM], as well as APIs. The plan is integrate hardware, software, and end uses into

an ecosystem that all communicates together (work, home, car, personal) with TVs,

game consoles and computing devices more tightly integrated.

Fin

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