Tom B

How to Value Amazon?

AMZN presents a very convenient, easy buying "portal" for all kinds of stuff. I love the company. I hate the stock-- 78 P/E-- NO thank you! And they should drop the Kindle. I like the idea of E-books, but their device is pretty lame compared to the competition-- and overpriced.

How to Value Amazon?

Salient point, but I can't see Red State Walmart-ians lobbying for NEW TAXES; I mean those guys are basically Government-haters.


On Oct 26 07:26 PM 2contango wrote:

> Amazon's primary competitive advantage is that is doesn't charge
> sales tax. If it becomes too successful, tax-charging competitors
> like WalMart and local businesses will press legislators to even
> the playing field by enacting some type of online sales tax. Cash-strapped
> governments won't be too hard to convince.

Why Amazon Isn't Worried About iPhone's Kindle

Apple's not worried 'bout the Kindling, either. Black and white, last I checked. For reading books about "Leave it to Beaver".

E-Reader Wars Heating Up: Apple May Have Edge with Younger Generations

So, the Kindle let's you watch movie; listen to music; play games; make phone calls-- as well as read books?

Nope? What a limited device.

E-Reader Wars Heating Up: Apple May Have Edge with Younger Generations

So, the Kindle let's you watch movie; listen to music; play games; make phone calls-- as well as read books?

Nope? What a limited device.

Google: How One Wedding Video Shows YouTube's Potential

It wasn't that good....better than a lot of stuff you see on TV, I suppose, but pretty vulgar.

12 Reasons Why Amazon Should Buy Twitter

There are so many bad ideas in this article I don't know where to start. But I'll try:
1) Who CARES who buys Twitter; it's such a teenage fad thing I'll give 10:1 it'll be MSFT who pulls the trigger. They have a real nose for how to move in the wrong direction (witness their attempt on Yahoo last year; a deal that would have crippled both companies). Recommendation "4 U"? OMG! What kind of @#$ loser wants to see that! IMHO, ROTFL!
2) Why do people care about AMZN? I like buying books and CD's through them. They do E-commerce VERY well. But what else do they have? A lame, lame, crippled E-book reader. A 3.4% profit margin. Yet they magically command a 52 P/E, where Apple, a company with a truly USEFUL pocket reading device has a 24 P/E And a REALLY low spot on the growth curve (Apple has about 3% of the global computer market; thus, is likely to grow about 30 fold over the next 5-10 years unless Windows 8 is MUCH, MUCH better than Windows 7 is supposed to be, on release, OR Ubuntu gets a lot of new support from hardware vendors all of a sudden). Are these anal-ists all on drugs?

Kindle 2: Still Expensive

Black and White. How quaint. Will it play my MP3's? Seriously, for a LOWER price you could get an iPod Touch, in full living color.

Is Netflix the Next Apple?

AAPL's problems with movies so far stem primarily from the fact that the content OWNER's (particulalrly NBC) are pigheaded, inept idiots. I think AAPL WILL get traction before movie downloading becomes more than a blip on the radar; Apple has the best distribution system. You know XBox won't win; the hardware is unsuitable. AMZN will be a player. But, I agree Netflix is a bit ahead right now. If Netflix starts moving zillions of movies, though, there's no reason Apple can't just buy them, so they have NO durable advantage that I can see.


On Jan 19 09:48 AM stockdoc06 wrote:

> Movies are different than music and AAPL does not have nearly the
advantage
> they had in music. AAPL's music rise was driven by a highly
desirable
> playback device and DRM that forced you to use iTunes to buy
music
> for your iPod. With the movement to eliminate DRM music will be
purchased
> as a commodity through iTunes, Amazon, WalMart, etc where
artists
> will once again be able to control price and demand their terms
be
> met, though the iPod device still seems to be the preferred playback
device
> for now.
>
> Despite the ability to play movies on a 2" iPod screen, the
preferred
> playback device for movies is a TV, a business APPL knows
nothing
> about, has no advantage, and it would foolish to try to enter
the
> TV business unless they come up with 3D without the glasses. The
interface
> may eventually be the TV itself (as LG, I believe, just
announced)
> but there are also established 3rd party players already
(Xbox,
> playstation, Tivo, Nintendo, Apple, etc) where no one has a
clear
> advantage. Netflix has been working to establish relationships
with
> as many of these as possible to capture as many TV's as possible.
So
> rather than Xbox negotiating with Paramount Studios for distribution
rights,
> Netflix does the negotiating and distributes throughout their
platform.
> Time will tell if Netlfix manages the relationships well
enough
> to make a little for themselves but disuade the 3rd parties from
going
> it alone without the Netflix toll road, but I think they will
learn
> from Apple's mistake of dictating to artists and consumers how
the
> relationship will work.

Tech Sector: 10 Predictions for the 'Net in '09

I'd like Google to buy Flickr; I use Yahoo E-mail for historic reasons, but the company is poorly managed. The best you can say about Yahoo is that they were smart enough to evade Ballmer's chubby embrace.

MSFT may bid for Facebook-- they've already invested in it.

Apple COULD buy Netflix and kill a competitor, but they prefer to strangle their opponents slowly, through technological superiority (as AAPL slowly buries Adobe and MSFT). I think we'll see a stronger AppleTV this year. I DON'T see Hulu or XBox movie rentals ever becoming dominant players.

GS to buy ETrade? Hmmm. Maybe.

Microsoft vs. the Cloud

"MSFT is a shell game, collecting on a hand-cuffed stream of income "Exactly correct. Look at MSFT's margins vs. the PC Box maker's margins.


On Dec 02 10:37 AM PK de C'ville wrote:

> "Microsoft just came in and picked up the desktop piece despite what
some
> bad European Union and U.S. Department of Justice politics-based
legal
> findings say."
>
> Huh? The biggest monopolistic move in the last 20 years and this
> is your comment?
>
> And they're still paying for their brutal anti-competitive moves.
>
>
> MSFT is a shell game, collecting on a hand-cuffed stream of income
> that their 'partners' are trying to escape from.

Microsoft vs. the Cloud

OK, so who's dumb enough to put business or personal data in a MSFT "cloud"? This is a technically 3rd rate company with a horrendous record on computer security; worst in the industry.

Also, VMWare has nothing to fear from Ballmer's bumblers.

But, I agree with some of your points. The generational issue is real-- kids put more stuff in general on the web. And, yes, MSFT got a huge headstart on the desktop because DOS preceded the far-superior Mac by a number of years.

Is Apple More Undervalued Than Other Tech Sector Stocks?

Great article. The paradigm people have about Apple is that they serve a "niche market". They'll still be saying that when the "niche' = 100%.

12 Promising Tech Stocks - Barron's

I agree on AAPL and GOOG; these are "no-brainers". AAPL is the leader in its field, by a wide margin, technology-wise; Google has no competitors.

AMZN is too expensive for my blood, with respect to P/E.

HPQ has a weakening business model.

Amazon, Rhapsody Gain in Digital Music Market ; iTunes Still Top Dog

Some of the off-brand services have the fatal flaw that they don't work in conjunction with Apple iPods. Amazon's service DOES, which gives it an edge vs the "also-rans", but there's no "lock-in". If I need a tune and AMZN has it but iTunes doesn't-- fine; I can use AMZN. But the next time I want music, more than likely, I can go right back to iTunes.