Yahoo Inc.'s board of directors plans to reject Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited $44.6 billion acquisition offer, according to media reports.The decision, which was reported Saturday by The Wall Street Journal, came after a series of meetings over the past week, during which Yahoo's board decided the $31-a-share offer "massively undervalues" the Web behemoth. The Journal cited an unnamed person familiar with the deal. Similar reports appeared later in the New York Times and the Washington Post. A letter from the Yahoo board formally rejecting the acquisition offer is expected to be issued Monday, the Post reported in its Sunday editions. The board of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo (YHOO:Yahoo! IncNews, chart, profile, more Last: 29.20+0.16+0.55%
4:00pm 02/08/2008
Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolioAnalyst Create alertInsiderDiscussFinancials Sponsored by:YHOO 29.20, +0.16, +0.6%) also felt the $31-a-share price doesn't take into account the risk of entering into an agreement that could ultimately be voided by regulators, the Journal reported. The board believes Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft (MSFT:Microsoft CorporationNews, chart, profile, more Last: 28.56+0.44+1.56%
4:00pm 02/08/2008
Delayed quote dataAdd to portfolioAnalyst Create alertInsiderDiscussFinancials Sponsored by:MSFT 28.56, +0.44, +1.6%) is trying to take advantage of some recent weakness in Yahoo's share price in order to "steal" the company, the report said. The company insider quoted in the report believes Yahoo will likely not consider any offer less than $40 a share. According to the Post, many analysts believe Microsoft might be prepared to raise its bid to $35 a share. No other offers to acquire Yahoo have surfaced, the Times reported, citing people familiar with the situation. If cash-rich Microsoft were willing to pay the $40 price, it would mean increasing its original cash-and-stock bid by more than $12 billion. Yahoo's shares ended Friday's trading at $29.20, up 16 cents, roughly reflecting the value of the stock in light of the diminshed value of Microsoft's shares since the offer was announced on Feb. 1. Microsoft's shares added 44 cents to close at $28.56 on Friday. Yahoo has some "poison pill" provisions that could prevent any hostile takeover, and Microsoft would probably have to get rid of the company's current board to get past them, the Journal said. Yahoo's board appears to be betting that Microsoft doesn't want to "go hostile," the newpaper reported. The board also has kept its strategic options open, including reportedly considering outsourcing to archrival Google Inc.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Microsoft offer too low - Yahoo! wants billions more
Microsoft offer too low - Yahoo! wants billions moreEmail Print Normal font Large font AdvertisementFebruary 11, 2008 Page 1 of 2 YAHOO!, the world's second-most popular internet search engine, plans to reject Microsoft's $US44.6 billion ($49.8 billion) unsolicited takeover offer, a person familiar with the situation has said.
The board decided the price is too low, and is likely to reject it today, said the source, who declined to be identified because the discussions are not public. On February 1, Microsoft offered $US31 a share in cash and stock for Yahoo. The company wants at least $US40 a share, or $US12 billion more than Microsoft offered, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The chief executive of Yahoo!, Jerry Yang, who said last week that his company was examining its options, may consider a partnership with its bigger rival, Google, or ways to wrest a higher offer from Microsoft. Yahoo!'s failure to crack Google's dominance in search led to eight straight profit declines and cut the stock's value in half in the two years before the offer.
"Yahoo! still has one of the largest brands on the internet," Bill Tancer, general manager at the San Francisco researcher Hitwise, said in an interview before the report. "It confines Google to continue to grow their revenue from a single revenue stream, which is search."
A Yahoo! spokeswoman, Diana Wong, said the company did not comment on rumours or speculation. Frank Shaw and Bill Cox, spokesmen for Microsoft, did not immediately return calls.
Yahoo! is betting that Microsoft will not take hostile measures to win the bid, the Journal said, even though the software maker has indicated that is a possibility. A source said this week that Microsoft may seek to oust Yahoo! board members should they reject its offer.
Microsoft's chief executive, Steven Ballmer, said in a letter to Yahoo!'s board that was made public on February 1: "Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!'s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realise the value inherent in our proposal."
Yahoo! rose 16c to $US29.20 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading and Microsoft added 44c to $US28.56. The offer is 62 per cent more than Yahoo!'s stock price before the bid. The shares have climbed above the value of the cash-and-stock bid, showing shareholders expect a higher price. Microsoft plans to let investors choose cash or stock, ultimately at a ratio of about 50-50.
Microsoft shares have declined since the bid, lowering the value of the stock portion and pushing the total value of the deal to about $US29.08 a share. Microsoft may have to bid $US34 to $US37, said Heather Bellini of UBS AG, a top-ranked software analyst. Since the bid is half cash and half stock, Microsoft may fix the offer at $US31 before any increase, so the value does not decline with its shares, she said.
The board decided the price is too low, and is likely to reject it today, said the source, who declined to be identified because the discussions are not public. On February 1, Microsoft offered $US31 a share in cash and stock for Yahoo. The company wants at least $US40 a share, or $US12 billion more than Microsoft offered, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The chief executive of Yahoo!, Jerry Yang, who said last week that his company was examining its options, may consider a partnership with its bigger rival, Google, or ways to wrest a higher offer from Microsoft. Yahoo!'s failure to crack Google's dominance in search led to eight straight profit declines and cut the stock's value in half in the two years before the offer.
"Yahoo! still has one of the largest brands on the internet," Bill Tancer, general manager at the San Francisco researcher Hitwise, said in an interview before the report. "It confines Google to continue to grow their revenue from a single revenue stream, which is search."
A Yahoo! spokeswoman, Diana Wong, said the company did not comment on rumours or speculation. Frank Shaw and Bill Cox, spokesmen for Microsoft, did not immediately return calls.
Yahoo! is betting that Microsoft will not take hostile measures to win the bid, the Journal said, even though the software maker has indicated that is a possibility. A source said this week that Microsoft may seek to oust Yahoo! board members should they reject its offer.
Microsoft's chief executive, Steven Ballmer, said in a letter to Yahoo!'s board that was made public on February 1: "Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!'s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realise the value inherent in our proposal."
Yahoo! rose 16c to $US29.20 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading and Microsoft added 44c to $US28.56. The offer is 62 per cent more than Yahoo!'s stock price before the bid. The shares have climbed above the value of the cash-and-stock bid, showing shareholders expect a higher price. Microsoft plans to let investors choose cash or stock, ultimately at a ratio of about 50-50.
Microsoft shares have declined since the bid, lowering the value of the stock portion and pushing the total value of the deal to about $US29.08 a share. Microsoft may have to bid $US34 to $US37, said Heather Bellini of UBS AG, a top-ranked software analyst. Since the bid is half cash and half stock, Microsoft may fix the offer at $US31 before any increase, so the value does not decline with its shares, she said.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
IncrediMail shares jump; Google re-instates company as AdSense Online customer
IncrediMail shares jump; Google re-instates company as AdSense Online customer
Shares of IncrediMail Ltd. (NASDAQ:MAIL) rallied Tuesday on heavier than normal volume after the Tel Aviv, Israel-based Internet content and media company said Google has re-instated IncrediMail as an AdSense Online customer.The stock jumped 22% to $4.24 on volume of 85,000. The issue's 30-day average volume is 71,000.Early Monday, IncrediMail said it is cooperating with Google with the goal of resolving any remaining compliance issues. In 2006 and 2007, the company said its search revenue derived from the Google AdSense Online program made a 'significant contribution' to IncrediMail's results.Although recent events will have a negative impact on the company's first-quarter 2008 search-generated revenue, IncrediMail believes that search-generated revenue will continue to be a significant driver of its results.On Jan. 11, IncrediMail received notice from Google that it had decided to stop the Adsense partnership with IncrediMail and therefore was disabling ads to search result pages displayed through the company's account.Greg SaulnierCopyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
Shares of IncrediMail Ltd. (NASDAQ:MAIL) rallied Tuesday on heavier than normal volume after the Tel Aviv, Israel-based Internet content and media company said Google has re-instated IncrediMail as an AdSense Online customer.The stock jumped 22% to $4.24 on volume of 85,000. The issue's 30-day average volume is 71,000.Early Monday, IncrediMail said it is cooperating with Google with the goal of resolving any remaining compliance issues. In 2006 and 2007, the company said its search revenue derived from the Google AdSense Online program made a 'significant contribution' to IncrediMail's results.Although recent events will have a negative impact on the company's first-quarter 2008 search-generated revenue, IncrediMail believes that search-generated revenue will continue to be a significant driver of its results.On Jan. 11, IncrediMail received notice from Google that it had decided to stop the Adsense partnership with IncrediMail and therefore was disabling ads to search result pages displayed through the company's account.Greg SaulnierCopyright Thomson Financial News Limited 2007. All rights reserved.The copying, republication or redistribution of Thomson Financial News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Financial News.
Hedge funds to set up industry watchdog
Hedge funds to set up industry watchdog
Managers will be asked to contribute to Hedge Funds Standards Board, which would set and promote standards
UK-based hedge fund managers are to be asked to pay a fee to finance a new body to set and promote good standards, it was proposed today.
The new organisation, the Hedge Fund Standards Board, is the centrepiece of proposals from the Hedge Fund Working Group, which was set up by the industry last year to address political and investor concerns about the booming industry.
Sir Andrew Large, chairman of the working group, said that the new body would be a custodian of new standards, but emphasised that it would not be a regulator and would have no powers to sanction rogue firms.
Sir Andrew estimated that the new board would cost £500,000 a year to run and would be financed by a levy on UK hedge fund managers taking part. There would probably be a sliding scale, according to size.
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Related Links
Hedge funds make dash for the land
Rallying call to Rock’s small investors
Hedge funds set for losses in November
Christopher Fawcett, of the fund of hedge funds group Fauchier Partners and chairman of the Alternative Investment Management Association, was named a founder trustee of HFSB.
Other trustees would be drawn mainly from the hedge fund industry, said Sir Andrew, who has the backing of 14 of London's largest hedge fund management groups, including Lansdowne Partners, Man Group, Marshall Wace and Sloane Robinson.
Under the comply-or-explain regime, fund managers would either state they complied with the new standards or explain why not.
Among the standards are that fund managers adopt an independent process for valuing portfolios.
Sir Andrew said the original standards had been clarified and sharpened up since the group's interim report last October.
Hedge funds have come under fire from some politicians, especially on the Continent, for their sometimes aggressive approach to listed companies, their opaque and secretive processes and the perceived threat they pose to financial stability.
In some cases, they have been found guilty of insider dealing.
Managers will be asked to contribute to Hedge Funds Standards Board, which would set and promote standards
UK-based hedge fund managers are to be asked to pay a fee to finance a new body to set and promote good standards, it was proposed today.
The new organisation, the Hedge Fund Standards Board, is the centrepiece of proposals from the Hedge Fund Working Group, which was set up by the industry last year to address political and investor concerns about the booming industry.
Sir Andrew Large, chairman of the working group, said that the new body would be a custodian of new standards, but emphasised that it would not be a regulator and would have no powers to sanction rogue firms.
Sir Andrew estimated that the new board would cost £500,000 a year to run and would be financed by a levy on UK hedge fund managers taking part. There would probably be a sliding scale, according to size.
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}
Related Links
Hedge funds make dash for the land
Rallying call to Rock’s small investors
Hedge funds set for losses in November
Christopher Fawcett, of the fund of hedge funds group Fauchier Partners and chairman of the Alternative Investment Management Association, was named a founder trustee of HFSB.
Other trustees would be drawn mainly from the hedge fund industry, said Sir Andrew, who has the backing of 14 of London's largest hedge fund management groups, including Lansdowne Partners, Man Group, Marshall Wace and Sloane Robinson.
Under the comply-or-explain regime, fund managers would either state they complied with the new standards or explain why not.
Among the standards are that fund managers adopt an independent process for valuing portfolios.
Sir Andrew said the original standards had been clarified and sharpened up since the group's interim report last October.
Hedge funds have come under fire from some politicians, especially on the Continent, for their sometimes aggressive approach to listed companies, their opaque and secretive processes and the perceived threat they pose to financial stability.
In some cases, they have been found guilty of insider dealing.
Market Falls Catch Fund Managers On The Hop
Fund managers aren't having much fun right now.
If it wasn't bad enough having to watch renascent bears driving the bulls out of town, and all that means for management fees, some high flying portfolio planners are having to keep their heads well down to dodge their own investors' ire.
Hot on the heels of customer withdrawal freezes by large UK property funds, one quoted asset manager has just fired off a profit warning while another's profits have slowed sharply.
Scottish Equitable has announced that private investors in its £2bn property fund won't be able to access their cash for up to a year. And Scottish Widows has imposed a six month suspension on withdrawals from its own £2.5bn property funds.
New Star Asset Management (LSE: NSAM) has just lost a chunk of its stock market value after admitting that operating profit would be "significantly lower" in 2008.
And Rock investor RAB Capital (LSE: RAB) has revealed its lowest earnings growth since the company's flotation three years ago.
Falling Star
New Star, which has grown into Britain's sixth-largest manager of funds for individual investors, has ‘fessed up to recent client withdrawals of £500m and a 6.5% decline in assets under management to £23bn from £24.7bn six months ago.
Yet what must really have hurt for the asset manager is admitting that most of its UK and European funds have (here's that word again) "significantly underperformed their peers".
Apparently the portfolios were "badly positioned" for a combination of the credit crunch and soaring commodity prices. In other words, the managers held the wrong stocks.
The UK funds generally started undershooting before the first bout of money market mayhem, then failed to join the October rally. And though US fund performance was strong, the damage has been done. Having traded as high as 485p in July last year, the shares have crashed to around £1 each.
Though promising "whatever is necessary" to sort out problems with performance, the company is not keen on 2008. Expecting more client withdrawals and lower profits this year, it has slashed the dividend to 5p from the 9p mooted in April 2007.
Now this isn't Schadenfreude - I've made plenty of poor stock picks over the years - but when you're a well paid professional investor in a publicly quoted company, there aren't too many places to hide if things go awry.
It could take a long time to restore New Star to its former slot in the firmament.
And other portfolios have been suffering, too.
Hedge fund manager RAB Capital, Northern Rock's second largest shareholder, said that net income rose less than 2% last year after its main fund posted its worst-ever annual return.
Property Panic
But it was the news firstly from Scottish Equitable, and then from Scottish Widows, that has prompted the biggest panic amongst small investors.
The £2bn Scottish Equitable property fund is one of the UK's biggest commercial property ventures with 129,000 investors.
Yet the managers have had to put up the shutters by halting withdrawals for up to a year, admitting they no longer have enough cash reserves to meet investor demands following significant customer switching.
With the "buffer" fund down to 1% of total assets from the usual 10-15%, this action "protects" continuing investors as more property than normal needs to be sold, according to the company, with only a "small number" of investors is likely to be affected.
Though now Scottish Widows has joined in, announcing that both its Life Property Fund and its Pension Property Fund, which have a combined value of over £2.5bn, will now operate a 180-day delay period for redemptions, transfers and switches.
Again, the decision was made to "remain fair" to investors staying in the funds, as short-term liquidity has plummeted.
There have been earlier cases of fund managers being forced into property fund protection, as I wrote a month ago. And late last month, Friends Provident halted access to its £1.2bn fund.
But such action seriously erodes investor confidence, as commercial property endures one if its worst slides in decades. After all, if investors can't get their cash out of a fund when they want to, will they ever be prepared to put in back in again?
If it wasn't bad enough having to watch renascent bears driving the bulls out of town, and all that means for management fees, some high flying portfolio planners are having to keep their heads well down to dodge their own investors' ire.
Hot on the heels of customer withdrawal freezes by large UK property funds, one quoted asset manager has just fired off a profit warning while another's profits have slowed sharply.
Scottish Equitable has announced that private investors in its £2bn property fund won't be able to access their cash for up to a year. And Scottish Widows has imposed a six month suspension on withdrawals from its own £2.5bn property funds.
New Star Asset Management (LSE: NSAM) has just lost a chunk of its stock market value after admitting that operating profit would be "significantly lower" in 2008.
And Rock investor RAB Capital (LSE: RAB) has revealed its lowest earnings growth since the company's flotation three years ago.
Falling Star
New Star, which has grown into Britain's sixth-largest manager of funds for individual investors, has ‘fessed up to recent client withdrawals of £500m and a 6.5% decline in assets under management to £23bn from £24.7bn six months ago.
Yet what must really have hurt for the asset manager is admitting that most of its UK and European funds have (here's that word again) "significantly underperformed their peers".
Apparently the portfolios were "badly positioned" for a combination of the credit crunch and soaring commodity prices. In other words, the managers held the wrong stocks.
The UK funds generally started undershooting before the first bout of money market mayhem, then failed to join the October rally. And though US fund performance was strong, the damage has been done. Having traded as high as 485p in July last year, the shares have crashed to around £1 each.
Though promising "whatever is necessary" to sort out problems with performance, the company is not keen on 2008. Expecting more client withdrawals and lower profits this year, it has slashed the dividend to 5p from the 9p mooted in April 2007.
Now this isn't Schadenfreude - I've made plenty of poor stock picks over the years - but when you're a well paid professional investor in a publicly quoted company, there aren't too many places to hide if things go awry.
It could take a long time to restore New Star to its former slot in the firmament.
And other portfolios have been suffering, too.
Hedge fund manager RAB Capital, Northern Rock's second largest shareholder, said that net income rose less than 2% last year after its main fund posted its worst-ever annual return.
Property Panic
But it was the news firstly from Scottish Equitable, and then from Scottish Widows, that has prompted the biggest panic amongst small investors.
The £2bn Scottish Equitable property fund is one of the UK's biggest commercial property ventures with 129,000 investors.
Yet the managers have had to put up the shutters by halting withdrawals for up to a year, admitting they no longer have enough cash reserves to meet investor demands following significant customer switching.
With the "buffer" fund down to 1% of total assets from the usual 10-15%, this action "protects" continuing investors as more property than normal needs to be sold, according to the company, with only a "small number" of investors is likely to be affected.
Though now Scottish Widows has joined in, announcing that both its Life Property Fund and its Pension Property Fund, which have a combined value of over £2.5bn, will now operate a 180-day delay period for redemptions, transfers and switches.
Again, the decision was made to "remain fair" to investors staying in the funds, as short-term liquidity has plummeted.
There have been earlier cases of fund managers being forced into property fund protection, as I wrote a month ago. And late last month, Friends Provident halted access to its £1.2bn fund.
But such action seriously erodes investor confidence, as commercial property endures one if its worst slides in decades. After all, if investors can't get their cash out of a fund when they want to, will they ever be prepared to put in back in again?
The Mac That Fell To Earth
Steve Jobs should have tased her. When an enthusiastic fan who writes a sex column for a local newspaper came up to the Apple chief executive at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco last week and asked him to take a picture with her, Jobs declined.
And that's when the bloggers attacked. Jobs was condemned throughout the blogosphere for the brushoff. If Jobs had been cool, the undercurrent suggested, he would have given the writer, Violet Blue, a big hug. And maybe a free iPod.
In Pictures: How To Add Bling And Rollers To Your Apple Gear
Message to bloggers: Get a grip. Jobs is the chief executive of a computer company. It's his job to make great gadgets for his customers and make big heaps of money for his investors. He's not an exhibit in a petting zoo. The problem is that after 2007's bravura introduction of the iPhone, there is simply no way Jobs could top last year's performance. (See "Jobs Fails To Wow At Macworld.") The drop in Apple's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) shares served as a sobering note: By the end of Jan. 17, Apple shares had dropped more than 5% for the week.
While Apple didn't introduce anything revolutionary this year, some of the vendors gathered at MacWorld to sell Apple-related tchotchkes introduced some strange stuff. Take the Boom Bag. Like the iPhone, which combines a phone and a music player, the Boom Bag combines a suitcase with speakers. Boom Bags creator Mark Wright says the product is useful for people like sales reps and yoga instructors, who have to be able to give audio presentations or play music on the go. What Jobs did last year to phones, you could say Wright has done for rollable luggage.
Of course, many other products were things you've seen before, if you're an Apple fan. IPod speaker setups abounded: One of the more original was the Luna X2, a $119.95 alarm clock for sleepy-headed iPod owners. Then there were the companies selling iPod cases. There were waterproof cases and leather cases, cases for the MacBooks, and cases for the tiny, iPod shuffle. All the laptop backpack vendors gave parts of the show floor the feel of a Third World airport.
Or a cult. Occupying center state at the show was a massive black monolith emblazoned with the Apple logo. Every half-hour or so, a black-clad Apple employee would emerge from the massive, monolithic mother ship--kind of like a Steve Jobs Mini-Me--to indoctrinate a group of Apple fans on the intricacies of Apple's Time Machine backup software or other Mac marvels. Nearby showgoers stared at flat-screen televisions demonstrating the Apple TV's new capabilities. Some Apple fans even got hands-on time with the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the new MacBook Air.
And beyond that, the wilds of the vendor booths beckoned. And if you wandered far enough--through the booth hawking at least eight kinds of iPod speakers, out past the waterproof backpack vendors--you could find dissent. While Apple was hawking updates to its iPhone--which can only be had from AT&T (nyse: T - news - people )--a Verizon (nyse: VZ - news - people ) wireless rep was gamely handing out free wireless modems to any customers that cared to sign up.
Although the wonders of Apple's OS X Leopard were trumpeted throughout the heart of the show, away from Apple's booth exhibitors, including Parallels and VMWare, offered software that could help users sneak Windows onto their pristine Apple desktops.
Word gets around. Back by Apple central, one user paused while stroking one of dozens of MacBook Airs on a long table placed like an altar before the booth, and pointed out that the sleek laptop would make an awfully good Windows machine, once it was loaded with the right software. Heresy!
And that's when the bloggers attacked. Jobs was condemned throughout the blogosphere for the brushoff. If Jobs had been cool, the undercurrent suggested, he would have given the writer, Violet Blue, a big hug. And maybe a free iPod.
In Pictures: How To Add Bling And Rollers To Your Apple Gear
Message to bloggers: Get a grip. Jobs is the chief executive of a computer company. It's his job to make great gadgets for his customers and make big heaps of money for his investors. He's not an exhibit in a petting zoo. The problem is that after 2007's bravura introduction of the iPhone, there is simply no way Jobs could top last year's performance. (See "Jobs Fails To Wow At Macworld.") The drop in Apple's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) shares served as a sobering note: By the end of Jan. 17, Apple shares had dropped more than 5% for the week.
While Apple didn't introduce anything revolutionary this year, some of the vendors gathered at MacWorld to sell Apple-related tchotchkes introduced some strange stuff. Take the Boom Bag. Like the iPhone, which combines a phone and a music player, the Boom Bag combines a suitcase with speakers. Boom Bags creator Mark Wright says the product is useful for people like sales reps and yoga instructors, who have to be able to give audio presentations or play music on the go. What Jobs did last year to phones, you could say Wright has done for rollable luggage.
Of course, many other products were things you've seen before, if you're an Apple fan. IPod speaker setups abounded: One of the more original was the Luna X2, a $119.95 alarm clock for sleepy-headed iPod owners. Then there were the companies selling iPod cases. There were waterproof cases and leather cases, cases for the MacBooks, and cases for the tiny, iPod shuffle. All the laptop backpack vendors gave parts of the show floor the feel of a Third World airport.
Or a cult. Occupying center state at the show was a massive black monolith emblazoned with the Apple logo. Every half-hour or so, a black-clad Apple employee would emerge from the massive, monolithic mother ship--kind of like a Steve Jobs Mini-Me--to indoctrinate a group of Apple fans on the intricacies of Apple's Time Machine backup software or other Mac marvels. Nearby showgoers stared at flat-screen televisions demonstrating the Apple TV's new capabilities. Some Apple fans even got hands-on time with the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the new MacBook Air.
And beyond that, the wilds of the vendor booths beckoned. And if you wandered far enough--through the booth hawking at least eight kinds of iPod speakers, out past the waterproof backpack vendors--you could find dissent. While Apple was hawking updates to its iPhone--which can only be had from AT&T (nyse: T - news - people )--a Verizon (nyse: VZ - news - people ) wireless rep was gamely handing out free wireless modems to any customers that cared to sign up.
Although the wonders of Apple's OS X Leopard were trumpeted throughout the heart of the show, away from Apple's booth exhibitors, including Parallels and VMWare, offered software that could help users sneak Windows onto their pristine Apple desktops.
Word gets around. Back by Apple central, one user paused while stroking one of dozens of MacBook Airs on a long table placed like an altar before the booth, and pointed out that the sleek laptop would make an awfully good Windows machine, once it was loaded with the right software. Heresy!
Monday, January 21, 2008
MacBook Air: top 10 things to love about it
While my colleague Dan Warne opined about ten things wrong with the new MacBook Air I've been occupying myself thinking about what's good about it, and why it's a new, positive direction for Apple.
From a positioning perspective the MBA isn't really designed as a replacement for your current Mac but rather as a partner to it. If your main machine is a desktop then the MBA makes perfect sense. I agree that it's harder to justify a MBA if your main machine is already a portable but with technologies like Back to my Mac and .Mac syncing, Apple make it easier than any other PC manufacturer to run two or more machines in tandem.
So with this point in mind let's go.
1. 80GB iPod hard drive is big enough. 80GB's is ample for *most* people on a portable. This isn't going to be your primary machine so 80GB should be adequate for storing all the apps, and most of the media you need while you're on the road. If it's not, then keep your iTunes and iPhoto libraries on an external drive and move between machines. Would you consider a MBA with a 160GB drive? If the answer is yes then just wait a few months.
2. 2GB is more than most. Like the 80GB argument, 2GB is more than enough for most people to perform most tasks. You're not buying a MBA if you need to do HD video editing all day, so what else, except for virtulisation programs like Parallels do you need more Ram for? My bet is that 2GB is enough for 90% of the population - it's certainly adequate to watch a move, work on a spreadsheet and be running Mail and Safari at the same time. If you need to use Windows, install Boot Camp where 2GB is more than enough to run Vista as well
3. 64GB flash-memory SSD is expensive - If it's too expensive, don't buy it. Sure, Dell are only charging $1102 for the same drive SSD drive but this option isn't for those who are price sensitive. It's priced for early adopters to get into and expand the market so value buyers like you and me can access this technology sooner.
4. One USB port is enough for most things on the road. What's the right number of USB ports the MBA should have? 2, 3 or 4? Some people will never be satisfied - If one USB port isn't enough for you then you're not in the target market for this machine. At home I use a USB hub because not even my MacBook Pro has enough ports. While you're out on the road I'll bet you can manage fine with just one and if you need more invest in a $20 USB hub.
It's easy to dismiss the MacBook Air as under-powered, but when you hold one, you might just change your mind.
5. No wireless broadband: Apple manufacture for a global market and I don't think you'll ever see them build wireless broadband into a machine, mainly because there are too many competing standards in the US. Also I think built-in wireless broadband is an option for the corporate market - a market that Apple doesn't 'officially' play in. Think I'm wrong? How many people do you know who paid for their own laptop and chose a built-in wireless broadband option?
6. Processor that's powerful enough for most tasks: What sort of raw-processing power does a computer that checks email, surfs web pages and creates Word documents actually need. My bet is that the standard 1.6 Core2Duo is more than enough for anybody interested in a MBA.
7. No microphone port: Who cares? When was the last time you needed an external microphone anyway? This machine wasn't called 'MacBook Podcast studio' for a reason.
8. Non-replaceable battery: If you're buying one of these machines, you'll replace it before the battery dies. And if you do need a new battery, Apple will replace it for you without a service charge. Would you rather be able to change the battery yourself, or have a lighter machine?
9. Thin but not that thin: 'Steve Jobs says the MacBook Air is thinner at its thickest point than competing notebooks. But the Fujitsu Q2010 is only 19.9mm thick at its thickest point, and that's 0.5mm -- yes half a millimetre -- thicker. However, in the Lifebook, you get integrated HSDPA/3G/GPRS, an ExpressCard slot (34/54), SD card slot, two USB ports, inbuilt VGA out, Ethernet, Firewire, fingerprint sensor. I'd say that functionality is worth an extra half millimetre' - But you don't get OS X.
10. No built-in Ethernet port, no optical drive: Apple has always been a company known for making or breaking technologies. The original Bondi Blue iMac for example shipped sans floppy drive - the market reacted then as it's reacted now to the lack of optical drive, 'Give it back'! But seriously, when was the last time you needed an optical drive out on the road? If you need Ethernet buy the $39 adaptor and keep it in your bag. I did the same with the Apple USB modem, and in two years have used it once.
A better way to think about the MBA is as an engineering exercise for Apple to see how small they could make a laptop, and how the market responds to the compromises it introduces. In twelve months from now, the MacBook Air will probably have a 160GB drive as standard, and may ship with 4GB RAM for the same price. How much better does a machine with those specs sound?
Even if you can't justify the MacBook Air now, don't underestimate the design cues it introduces - my bet is that you'll see them filter down the line and end up in your next MacBook and MacBook Pro
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