Tech Sector 11/27

AMD
Nov 20th - 21.44
Nov 24th - 21.54

News:
- AMD congratulated Nintendo on the successful release of it’s new console because it is producing the graphics chip for the game company.

- Intel is expected to get 45nm chips on the market by the second half of 2007 vs AMD’s projected 2008 release. The smaller the chip, the less power it consumes and the more potential for speed.

MSFT
Nov 20th – 29.89
Nov 24th – 29.76

News:
- Microsoft’s Zune is being left far behind in online sales, bizjournals.com reported that on Amazon’s top sellers, it is being outsold by some Ipod accessories.

- I’ve heard from multiple online sources that the 360 is selling well in light of the poor PS3 availability.

DELL
Nov 20th – 24.00
Nov 24th – 27.33

News:
- The big news was last Wednesday when Dell posted highly successful earnings. A 17% gross margin and $.30 a share earnings easily beat analysts expectations. The stock was up 9% on Nov 22^nd.

Technology Sector 20th Nov

AMD
Nov 13th - 21.20
Nov 17th - 21.45

News:
- Nothing major, Opti Inc filed a patent infringement lawsuit that AMD has not commented on as of yet.

MSFT
Nov 13th – 29.35
Nov 17th – 29.40

News:
- Credit Suisse raised its rating on MSFT from Neutral to Outperform. They stated that they believe the stock has the potential to appreciate up to 20%, at least partially due to strength in the digital entertainment division.

- PS3, Wii almost instantly sold out on their respective release dates. PS3 demand is still incredibly strong (ebay prices have not dipped too much), Wii supply seems to be much more plentiful than PS3 (ebay prices have dropped fairly close to retail).

DELL
Nov 13th – 25.49
Nov 17th – 25.02

News:
- Dell is announcing preliminary results tomorrow. It delayed earnings reports last week, resulting in a slight drop in share price.

- HP announced results, they did very well (strong growth in earnings and revenue).

Short report today – still working on a damn Shakespeare paper.

Tech Sector 11/13

AMD
Nov 6th - 21.39
Nov 10th - 21.07

News:
- Intel just announced that they have created a prototype carbon nanotube interconnect. This is important because as chips become smaller and consume more power, the electrons are beginning to make contact with individual copper atoms in the transistors. This is incredibly inefficient and will lead to stability and production problems in the future. AMD is also working on a cure for this problem.
- Dell just announced that they are going to be using Intel's new quad core chips in their servers. AMD is playing catch up, but they claim their chips will be faster when they are released next year. This is due to the fact that the four chip cores will be on the same piece of silicon, versus Intel's sandwiched dual core design.

MSFT
Nov 6th - 28.84
Nov 10th - 29.24

News:
- The reason we are not seeing any cheap PCs with Linux on them in stores today is rather simple. Dell and HP are engaged in a price war, and neither can afford to purchase fewer Window's licenses as this allows Microsoft to legally charge more per license. Therefore, every PC Dell and HP sells has Windows on it rather than the open source Linux.
- PS3 and Wii are released this week. 100,000 PS3s were sold on launch day in Japan.
- The Microsoft Zune player is released tomorrow. Analysts believe that MSFT was almost forced to enter into the market, as increasing Ipod sales are spurring purchases of Apple computers; lost sales of Windows.
- Nov 30 is the release of Vista and Office 2007 for businesses (100s of licenses). In an effort to make smaller businesses able to compete with the larger companies, CompUSA are going to sell small business licenses beginning on the same date. Regular consumers are going to have to wait for the regular January 30th release.


DELL
Nov 6th - 24.47
Nov 10th - 24.89

News:
- Dell added AMD chips to it's line up last Tuesday. At the moment the chips are limited to mid range business desktops, but they will be pushed into other areas as production expands.
- Dell was up 60 cents today (Monday) due to an analyst upgrade from Deutsche Bank, they expect the stock to hit $28.00 within 12 months.

Technology Sector 6th Nov

AMD
Oct 30th - 21.32
Nov 3rd - 20.88
News:
- NVidia snapped up PortalPlayer, a specialty chip maker that gains 92% of its revenue from the Ipod. This move is being regarded as a defensive measure in response to AMD's purchase of ATI.
- Merrill Lynch downgraded Intel to "neutral" from "buy" last Thursday. Merrill estimates that AMD's production will increase by 35% next year while Intel's will only grow by about 13%. Looks good for AMD's future!

MSFT
Oct 30th - 28.53
Nov 3rd - 28.73
News:
- Microsoft just released a new mapping software designed to go head-to-head with Google Earth. Interestingly they are mapping cities in full 3d versus the flat overhead satellite views seen in Google Earth.
- MSFT just announced that they will be entering the competitive VOIP market next year. Due to the fact that Microsoft absolutely dominates the workplace with Office and Windows, I think they could quickly establish themselves as contenders in this market. Obviously the VOIP technology is going to be incorporated across MSFT's entire software line.
- Office 2007 is completed and is ready to be shipped to businesses on November 30th. I've seen and played with the suite, and unlike previous small updates, this new package is a beast. Perhaps the best part of the new edition is that many of the advanced features have been made much more easier to use and find. This is going to open up all of the features that many of us know and love to even the most computer illiterate.
- Keep an eye out for the PS3 and Wii -- both are going to be released next week.

DELL
Oct 30th - 23.37
Nov 3rd - 24.24
News:
- It doesn't look like the holiday season is going to be as joyous for Dell or HP this year. Everyone is predicting that holiday sales are going to be rather bleak, mainly due to Microsoft's putting off of Vista's release until next year (for consumers -- for businesses it will be released on Nov 30th). Dell is offering a coupon system where any pc purchased with XP Pro or Media Center Edition will be get free Vista next year, however, most analysts do not think this is going to stop people from waiting.