Steve Jobs says Apple must 'think big' with $40 billion in cash

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  • Reply 121 of 323
    Manned space flight! - Compete with or buy Virgin Galactic. Build a giant cube space hotel.



    Gene sequencing - Revolutionize health care (something Steve is intimately familiar with) by making gene sequencing cheap enough for the upper-middle class.



    Redefine display technology. Develop paint on displays - blackboard sized touch screens.



    - Jasen.
  • Reply 122 of 323
    Apple could give me 1 million dollars and nothing would change in the 40B cash.

    I would be a very happy man.



    Kidding..
  • Reply 123 of 323
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by slapppy View Post


    Build Apple Electric Cars. They will look like the original Venture One, has a range of 400+ miles. Go top speed of 180MPH, Charges in 15 minutes or less, has removable power modules available at all existing gas stations for those long trips. Built in iPhone/iPod Touch Dashboard Module Integration for that seamless built in look. Sell these all at 11K and if your a Windows users, your cost would be 80K.



    http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007...enture-one.php



    Yeah but you know someone here would complain that it didn't have a camera and a blu-ray player.
  • Reply 124 of 323
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by too999 View Post


    Apple could give me 1 million dollars and nothing would change in the 40B cash.

    I would be a very happy man.



    Kidding..



    I'm now working on my second million...the first one was too hard!
  • Reply 125 of 323
    mark2005mark2005 Posts: 1,158member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macshark View Post


    Ideas for Apple acquisitions:



    1. Buy Netflix. Netflix is worth less than $3.5B and is a profitable company. This is the way to turn AppleTV from a hobby to an industry leading product.



    2. Get into content distribution business by buying one or more content distribution companies.



    3. Buy Adobe, though Adobe is nearly worth $18B and has a very high P/E ratio. This would settle any problems with flash and mobile MacOS devices once and for all. Apple ends up with a set of duplicate products on the CS side, but that can be fixed over time...



    4. Buy Palm to consolidate the smart phone market. Palm is worth pocket change ($1B)



    5. Buy Disney? Or another large media corporation like Liberty?



    1. Netflix type service may be in Apple's future, but I think they can build this themselves. I don't think that Netflix has patents that can prevent a similar service.



    2. Apple's own digital sales can't support a 24/7 full-use and innovating-leading edge CD service. And providing this type of enterprise service to other companies isn't what Apple is about. It's better that Apple pays other competing companies whose core competency is in CD and focused on innovating in that space.



    3. Apple doesn't want flash or pdf (or the attached enterprise businesses), and it already has a competitive media development suite. It may want a few talented employees but not the 1000s who've grown up in that "lazy" culture.



    4. Palm is going to die on its own. Apple hasn't even bothered to sue over multi-touch. If Apple removes Palm, someone else will just create the same type of OS if it was warranted.



    5. Owning Disney (or one content company) would make it harder to get content from all the other content production companies, which it would need for its core hardware products. Owning a content company has certainly made Sony conflicted, and has hampered its electronics business.
  • Reply 126 of 323
    Holy crap, they're going to invade Poland.
  • Reply 127 of 323
    mark2005mark2005 Posts: 1,158member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by reliason View Post


    Apple could buy a high end audio/TV/etc manufacturer [to produce Apple TVs, literally TVs] but Apple has steadfastly avoided owning the manufacturing assets, preferring contract manufacturers.



    No, apple is developing an Engineering competency to bring iOS to other products - TVs being an obvious starting point. Why buy a company when you can just leverage your culture and design ethos.



    So you know Cook said yesterday that Apple wasn't interested in the TV business. Are you betting that this was pure Apple misdirection?
  • Reply 128 of 323
    mark2005mark2005 Posts: 1,158member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Woohoo! View Post


    I was thinking about that, but the glory of Netflix is it's neutrality. Steve Jobs is Disney's largest shareholder and creates a lot of content, which conflicts with other content creators.



    If Apple bought Netflix, I'm sure the other content creators would pull their content.



    Apple shouldn't buy Netflix but your reasoning is warped. If what you say is true, then why haven't those other content creators pulled their content from the iTunes Store?
  • Reply 129 of 323
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mark2005 View Post


    So you know Cook said yesterday that Apple wasn't interested in the TV business. Are you betting that this was pure Apple misdirection?



    That was my thought. I'm expecting a completely new AppleTV from HW, to OS, to services, and hopefully an SDK within a year.
  • Reply 130 of 323
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mark2005 View Post


    Apple has taken ten years to get here. Other companies are trying to do the same in 1-3 years, so they will fail. It's leveraged one product after another starting with the iMac and Ti Powerbook, OS X, Apple Retail Stores, iTunes, iPod, iTunes Store, etc., and built up its experience, expertise, ecosystem, supply chain. As Jobs has quoted Gretzky, Apple skated to where the puck was going - mobile consumer devices. It dropped hints (opening stores, investing in Flash RAM, acquiring multi-touch, unibody enclosures) but most people still didn't see where it was going.



    What a competitor needs to do is forecast where the puck will be 5-7 years from now; see what other markets/products will converge into mobile devices, and start building up the needed pieces in those places where Apple and other competitors are not, or where it can have a small but profitable business. That's what Apple did during 2000-2007, it built up media content sales, retail stores, OS/SDK tech, mobile gadget design/production through these other efforts before getting into phones/tablets/App stores.



    I think Google with ads/search, OSes, maps, and web apps, Nokia with maps and supply chain, and Microsoft with Xbox and Office/enterprise are Apple's biggest threats if they can figure out where the puck is going. They all have sheer size that will give them time to withstand many assaults, and the ability to just buy any technology/service they need. Right now, it seems Google has an idea, Nokia possibly but it's fairly quiet, and Microsoft not so much (at least by what can be seen).



    Good analysis. Agree with much of what you're saying.
  • Reply 131 of 323
    brucepbrucep Posts: 2,823member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by macshark View Post


    ideas for apple acquisitions:



    1. Buy netflix. Netflix is worth less than $3.5b and is a profitable company. This is the way to turn appletv from a hobby to an industry leading product.



    2. Get into content distribution business by buying one or more content distribution companies.



    3. Buy adobe, though adobe is nearly worth $18b and has a very high p/e ratio. This would settle any problems with flash and mobile macos devices once and for all. Apple ends up with a set of duplicate products on the cs side, but that can be fixed over time...



    4. Buy palm to consolidate the smart phone market. Palm is worth pocket change ($1b)



    5. Buy disney? Or another large media corporation like liberty?



    buy ea
  • Reply 132 of 323
    brucepbrucep Posts: 2,823member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wraithofwonder View Post


    Holy crap, they're going to invade Poland.



    best post this week
  • Reply 133 of 323
    brucepbrucep Posts: 2,823member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by oxygenhose View Post


    Absolute fantasy.



    Why would they buy a failing consumer electronics company when Apple is already a highly successful consumer electronics company, better advertising, retail presence with all major vendors, and a very good history of being able to quickly scale manufacturing to their needs?



    "Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the U.S. educational system . . . "



    I'd save the education comparisons.



    buy sirius radio and E A
  • Reply 134 of 323
    mark2005mark2005 Posts: 1,158member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gazoobee View Post


    This is closer to what I think will happen.

    Apple will buy Amazon or create something similar with online retailing.



    But Apple's expansion of online retailing will be limited to digital goods, for which they already have a foundation in the iTunes Store. E-books, e-textbooks, e-magazines, e-periodicals, and e-newspapers are just the next steps. Apple is not interested in the rest of Amazon's physical goods business.



    Another major avenue for its cash horde is in physical retail stores for selling all its gadgets. Apple has pretty much covered the US and the UK (a little less) with stores. It's fairly into it in Canada, Australia, and Japan. It's got lots of room to expand in Europe and it just announced it's expanding to 25 stores in China. And it's still working through resellers everywhere else.



    And going with Jobs' "think big", there's still a long way to go with evolving iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad (and I should add AppleTV). As the CPUs can do more and batteries allow them to last longer, more and more of the stuff that people want to do will get added into these products.
  • Reply 135 of 323
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    That was my thought. I'm expecting a completely new AppleTV from HW, to OS, to services, and hopefully an SDK within a year.





    I agree, also. Apple is great at sleight of hand, they don't hint at or telegraph anything. Steve learned his lesson when he loaned their early Mac systems to B. Gates....that's when that snake stole the "look and feel".





    Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice......



    Not Steve.
  • Reply 136 of 323
    successsuccess Posts: 1,040member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    That is a good point. Europe has 50 countries the US has 50 states, yet the US is considerably larger. It's not unreasonable to expect an American not to know much of the world when they drive all day and still not be out of their state, while there are only a few places in Europe can do that without crossing multiple countries.



    That's ridiculous. Canada is the second largest nation in the world behind Russia. You can ask most people about world geography and elicit a correct answer. The US public education system is notorious and unfortunately there may be truth to the conspiracy that it is purposely being dismantled by the powers that be in order to keep the citizens out of the loop and disinformed.
  • Reply 137 of 323
    mark2005mark2005 Posts: 1,158member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    That was my thought. I'm expecting a completely new AppleTV from HW, to OS, to services, and hopefully an SDK within a year.



    Do you think the next AppleTV will actually include a TV, I mean, a display and tuner? If Apple was going to jump into displays, then 2008-2009 was the perfect time, as everyone was transitioning to digital HDTVs. But they let it pass.



    I think Apple is thinking big about the home entertainment device but it's not clear yet how to get around the content-cable TV-DVD complex. Netflix, Redbox, Hulu, Boxee, Vudu, Apple, torrents and the like are chipping away but a piece to cause the complex to crumble hasn't yet been revealed.



    The cable companies have the inside track, and it's interesting to see what they're trying. I have FIOS and my daughter just tried out the Twitter widget that Verizon has been advertising. It took her forever to type a tweet; from her response after, I don't think she'll be trying that again much in the future.
  • Reply 138 of 323
    If I had that kind of cash and brand equity, I would:



    - Buy/Invest in projectionist companies/tech. This can be rolled into the Appletv either as an addition to the device or an accessory. The box has a cam that can beam 720p video from itunes library to wall, or a isight-sized cam that can be stuck on a wall that can do the same.



    - Buy/Invest in LogMeIn.com or something similar to bring true back-to-my-mac expreience to bridge the gap between work PC and home mac



    - Buy/Invest in satellite internet. Many agree that this service is slower and kinda sucks. Why not make connectivity easier and faster? Maybe try an Amazon model where buying/downloading something is "free" and a month-to-month data plan.



    - Invest even more into chip manufacturing for smaller, more powerful and more energy efficient hardware.
  • Reply 139 of 323
    drowdrow Posts: 126member
    awesome. glad to be a stockholder.
  • Reply 140 of 323
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by success View Post


    That's ridiculous. Canada is the second largest nation in the world behind Russia. You can ask most people about world geography and elicit a correct answer. The US public education system is notorious and unfortunately there may be truth to the conspiracy that it is purposely being dismantled by the powers that be in order to keep the citizens out of the loop and disinformed.



    What do those countries have to do with a Europe and the US' comparison with the whole of Canada and Russia. For example, most of Canada is situated near a US border for a reason. If youeliminate the empty midwest you get a fairly decent comparison of area and density, though Europe has a much denser, but all that just reinforces my previous point about how it's typically easier for Europeans to experience other cultures more frequently and more thoroughly than Americans. That doesn't even get into the social, economic, and political issues that keep the heavily focused on the US, for better or for worse.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mark2005 View Post


    Do you think the next AppleTV will actually include a TV, I mean, a display and tuner? If Apple was going to jump into displays, then 2008-2009 was the perfect time, as everyone was transitioning to digital HDTVs. But they let it pass.



    I think Apple is thinking big about the home entertainment device but it's not clear yet how to get around the content-cable TV-DVD complex. Netflix, Redbox, Hulu, Boxee, Vudu, Apple, torrents and the like are chipping away but a piece to cause the complex to crumble hasn't yet been revealed.



    The cable companies have the inside track, and it's interesting to see what they're trying. I have FIOS and my daughter just tried out the Twitter widget that Verizon has been advertising. It took her forever to type a tweet; from her response after, I don't think she'll be trying that again much in the future.



    I never though the TV idea was sound. What sizes do they choose? What about small ones for bedroom or guest rooms or RVs or whatever? Even an inch too big or small could make a buyer go with a different HDTV in a pre-built cabinet. That isn't even going into the type of TV tech used, like LCD or Plasma, or the fact that the margins tend to be thin.



    Hooking up an appliance via HDMI is simple. The best I think Apple could do is to get a partner to have a special setup that the AppleTV connects to with a special button on the remote for the AppleTV and a much more seamless switch without the rigmarole of going through each input method until you find the right one. HP tried something like that but it didn't seem to take off and I don't know if they still have that option for their TVs.



    Vimeo is now pushing internet TVs with a lot of social aspects to them. I have a feeling they will be poor options, but you never know. They really need to something good soon or else they could loose that market for a long time since the living room isn't something people tend to upgrade often. Isn't in about 6 years between TVs on average?
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