What will Apple and Jobs pull from it's hat at MacWorld 2002?
Posted by me101 on 02 January 2002 - 14:12 · no comments & 413 views
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On Tuesday, the front page of Apple's Web site boasted, "Six days to Macworld San Francisco. Count the days. Count the minutes. Count on being blown away." A day earlier, the site read, "This one is big. Even by our standards," according to Mac enthusiast sites. The site, with 5 days to go now says "Beyond the rumor sites. Way beyond."
Speculation for next week's show in San Francisco has centered on whether CEO Steve Jobs might use his keynote speech to introduce a flat-paneled successor to the three-year-old iMac, which analysts say is due for an upgrade. Apple has already placed orders for components that could be used in a desktop computer with an LCD monitor, according to Wall Street brokerage Morgan Stanley.
Such a product has reportedly been under development for some time, but there are indications Apple may finally be ready to release such a device. An Apple representative could not be reached Tuesday, but the company routinely declines to comment on unannounced products.
As another indication that an iMac upgrade is imminent, Apple's online store now lists a seven-day shipping time on all current models. That means the units would not ship prior to Jobs' Macworld presentation.
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, will deliver the opening keynote in the heart of San Francisco on Monday, January 7, 2002 at 9:00 am.
"Contract prices need to be readjusted again to narrow gaps with spot prices," a Samsung executive told Reuters. He declined to specify how large an increase Samsung might make.
Samsung and Hynix both raised contract prices for DRAM chips, used for memory in personal computers, twice late last year.
Their top clients include Intel, IBM and Dell Computer.
Shares surge
Their shares soared on Wednesday's news of further rises.
Hynix finished up 15 percent, the shares' daily limit, at 2,780 won. Samsung closed up 10.4 percent at 308,000 won, leading the benchmark stock market index up 4.5 percent.
Taiwan's memory chipmakers also jumped on the news, with Powerchip Semiconductor surging the daily seven percent upward limit and rival Mosel Vitelic adding 4.7 percent.
Spot prices for DRAM have mounted a recovery in recent weeks after a year-long slide that erased 90 percent of their value and made the cost of production more expensive than selling prices.
The slump was blamed on excessive supply and an abrupt slowdown in global demand for PCs.
Analysts said prices were still short of production costs and that a full recovery was not expected until the third quarter at the earliest.
"Chipmakers are still selling products below costs," said Jon Woo-jong, an analyst at SK Securities. "They need to sell them at a minimum of $3.2 on average to cover costs."
Spot prices for standard 128 MB 16x8 DRAM chips were quoted at $2.68 on average on Wednesday by DRAMexchange (www.dramexchange.com), an industry Web site. That was up more than four percent from Monday.
Narrowing the field
A global move to consolidate the sector, as seen in the Micron-Hynix talks, could help facilitate a recovery, analysts said. Hynix expects an alliance with Micron to take shape this month, including the possible sale of DRAM production facilities to the U.S. company.
"We'll decide whether to sign an agreement in January," Hynix President Park Chong-sup said in an e-mail to employees released on Wednesday.
Hynix has said it might sell operations making the most common types of DRAM chips to Micron. Micron has already moved to grab a bigger chunk of the sector, agreeing in December to buy a U.S. chip plant from Japan's Toshiba.
The decision came after a planned DRAM tie-up between Infineon Technologies and Toshiba fell through.
Infineon Chief Executive Ulrich Schumacher said afterwards the German firm had opened talks with Taiwanese makers Nanya Technologies, Mosel Vitelic and Winbond Electronics regarding possible tie-ups.