TMO Reports - Analyst: 'We Anticipate Solid Sales' of the Mac Pro

by , 12:55 PM EDT, August 8th, 2006

American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu on Tuesday offered his thoughts on Apple's Monday announcements, saying of the new Mac Pro: "[It's] actually a good value. We anticipate solid sales. It compares favorably to AAPL's previous US$3,299 price point for a PowerPC G5 based quad-core Mac. In our analysis, it is also very competitive with high-end PCs and workstations that cost $3000-6000.

"We anticipate this product to sell fairly well in its key markets including professional (film and video, music and audio, science and technical computing, design and print, and photography) and high-end consumers, who have patiently waited for a high-end Intel (INTC, $17.32, Buy/D. Freedman) Mac. We estimate this lucrative segment makes up 15-20% of its Mac business."

Like other analysts, Mr. Wu acknowledged that the "lack of other news may be slightly disappointing," but he urged investors to look at the prospects for Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard." He wrote: "We believe with Windows Vista likely further delayed due to stability issues with its latest Beta 2 version and its 'look and feel' and feature set essentially a 'clone' of AAPL's currently shipping Mac OS X Tiger, AAPL is choosing to spend more time adding features unique to Leopard. In terms of iPod + iTunes, we are not surprised that no announcements were made and we continue to anticipate a separate event in the late September-October timeframe."

The analyst maintained his "Buy" rating on the stock, with a $75 price target. At 12:53 PM EST on Tuesday, Apple's shares were selling for $66.55, down 0.98% for the day.

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