A new clearer, brighter screen. A new faster processor. And new communications — WiFi + 4G/LTE. And that may be the clincher to move the iPad squarely into the corporate market. Skip buying a new laptop, anyone working for a corporation will now want the lighter, classier iPad, the device with ten hours of battery life (not two hours), with email, and all the bells and whistles of normal corporate software, plus hugely fast wireless communications. It’ll be the new corporate “laptop” of choice.
4G/LTE in the new iPad is can be 15 times as fast as today’s common 3G. It’s much faster than 90% of wired Internet in homes and much faster than WiFi in places like Starbucks and in hotels. With hefty speed comes a major widening of what you can suddenly do. And your gadget — your new iPad — suddenly becomes a whole lot more useful. That’s why everyone in corporations will want to carry one.
In short, the significance of yesterday announcement was not the new features — but the new, huge corporate market.
And that’s why I’m holding all my Apple stock — and buying more if it pulls back.
Apple made three new product announcements yesterday.
+ The new iPad.(It also comes in black.)
For the announcement, lick here.
+ Apple Completes iLife for iOS With introduction of iPhoto for the iPad and Major Updates to iMovie and GarageBand. You can now edit photos on your iPad. Click here.
+ Apple Brings 1080p High Definition to New Apple TV. Keeps price the same at $99. Click here.
All this is not good for Hewlett-Packard or Dell, but could be really good for IBM, Oracle and Salesforce. They’ll sell the corporate apps to run on the iPad.
AGNC does new offering. They’re selling 62 million shares at slightly below the latest price of $30.25. AGNC’s price will, as a result, fall. Making this offering is a positive sign. It means management thinks there remain good opportunities in the mortgage REIT business it operates in. My temptation is to watch the stock and buy some more on a decent drop — if there is one.
Spring break in Mexico. It’s dangerous down there. Really dangerous. If your kids must travel to Mexico, here are just-released General Safety Tips from Stratfor:
+ Do not drive at night.
+ Use only pre-arranged transportation between the airport and the resort or hotel.
+ If at a resort, plan on staying there; refrain from going into town, particularly at night.
+ If you do go into town (or anywhere off the resort property), do not accept a ride from unknown persons, do not go into suspicious-looking or run-down bars, do not wander away from brightly lit public places and do not wander on the beach at night.
+ Stop at all roadblocks.
+ Do not bring anything with you that you are not willing to have taken from you.
+ If confronted by an armed individual who demands the possessions on your person, give them up.
+ Do not bring ATM cards linked to your bank account. (Among other things, an ATM card can facilitate an express kidnapping.)
+ Do not get irresponsibly intoxicated.
+ Do not accept a drink from a stranger.
+ Do not make yourself a tempting target by wearing expensive clothing or jewelry.
+ Do not venture out alone. But being part of a group does not guarantee safety.
This is my latest best backpack. It’s called the North Face Surge.
It’s handsome. Its has many large compartments, including a separate padded one for a laptop. It has many zippered compartments of various sizes. I’m using it for business, for travel and for tennis. It will happily hold two tennis racquets and two cans of balls, or one can and a bottle of water. The thing holds an amazing amount of stuff. I especially like the fact that it has a sternum strap and a waist strap. They make the bag very comfortable to carry. You could happily use it for day hiking.
You can buy it in black for $87.99 (click here) or at Zappos in my favorite zinc-grey (as shown above) for $115. Click here.
Intractable Afghan Graft Hampering U.S. Strategy. Despite years of urging and oversight by American advisers, President Hamid Karzai’s government has yet to prosecute a high-level corruption case in Afghanistan. To read today’s New York Times article, click here.
Meantime in today’s Wall Street Journal, “KABUL-The U.S. is investigating allegations that some officials in the Afghan Air Force, which was established largely with American funds, have been using aircraft to ferry narcotics and illegal weapons around the country.” Click here.
Makes you wonder what fools we’ve been played for. Karzai is an impressive thief.
Favorite recent New Yorker cartoons.
My partner and dear friend Gerry Friesen sent me this photo. He said it made him laugh. Me too.
Harry Newton who revels in the smell of orange blossom presently exploding in California’s Coachella Valley. What a gorgeous place — for a few months of the year, before it climbs over 100.
Wall Street is a product machine. It creates what it can sell you. It has NO interest in the future of what it sold you. That was the title of yesterday’s column. Some readers liked it. Some hated it. The comments are really worth reading. Click here.
Harry – AGNC did a secondary offering huh? I guess those bad guys on Wall St arent so bad after all. Here they helped a company raise money by selling more stock to investors so they could engage in activity that you as a shareholder will benefit from.
I have my doubts about Tim Cooke. Why did he call the new iPad “the New iPad” when the whole world calls it the iPad 3? He doesn't have the marketing skills…
He clearly doesn't have Steve's marketing skills. But there are a lot of great marketing people inside Apple.
Here is another perspective: You or I may be familiar with “iPad,” “iPad2,” and “iPad3.” But about the future? More importantly, what about the new, potential customer who does not know anything about the details of these devices called “tablets,” and then walks into an Apple store and asks “What is all this talk I hear about tablets?” The store employee would say “You want the 'new iPad.' It is the latest technology.” Many people are immediately turned off when they hear numbers. Looking to the future; ten years from now: the iPad 15 ? the iPad 16 ? Windows 25 ?
That was a nice try, but does that mean the next version is the “Newer iPad”, and the one after the that the “Newest iPad” and the one after that??? You see where this is going. Let's admit that Apple fucked up.
Harry, can you use an iPad to update your daily column? If so then I will believe it can be moved “squarely into the corporate market”. – Jeff
Yes, of course.
When Harry is this bullish on Apple, it might be the time to take half my position off, hahaha
The fact that Apple's market cap is nearly as big as Microsoft, Intel and Cisco COMBINED worries me. The fact that there is so much Apple hype these days makes Apple look like a bubble. And they'll require more and more hype to keep that bubble inflated. We all know what eventually happens to bubbles.
For now Apple is riding on strong momentum. But their genius is gone. After the new iPad excitement wears off, what's Apple going to do for an encore?
Apple TV for starters.
Apple TV won't be successful. People will not dump their wifi equipped Samsung TVs to buy an even more expensive Apple TV. TVs have long cycle, not like 2-3 years for computing devices. Don't count on this, Harry. BTW, you never wear a hat, it must always be off for me, hahahaha
I totally agree with you. When all the advisors say it's going to $740, it's time to take some off the table. iPad 3 isn't that great. They need a revolutionary product, not another evolutionary one. Why not Appleize all automobile nav/radio/cd/bluetooth interfaces. They are all a nightmare!
If you can make money from doing the opposite of what I recommend, my hat's off to you.