Apple May Announce Intel-Based Macs, New IPod Shuffle

January 6th, 2006, 03:32 Posted By: wraggster

Piper Jaffray research analyst Gene Munster maintained an "outperform" rating and $80 price target on Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) ahead of Macworld 2006 and announced his expectations for the conference, which will be held in San Francisco next week.

On Tuesday morning, Steve Jobs will speak at the Macworld keynote and announce a number of new and upgraded Apple products.

New announcements at the keynote could include a revamped iPod shuffle with a slightly different form factor and a small screen, Munster said.

Evidence of this is the fact that Apple.com indicates that 1gigabyte iPod shuffles are sold out and supply will not be replenished until mid-January. "We believe this is a sign that a new shuffle is coming at Macworld; otherwise Apple would likely have refilled the channel," the analyst noted in research note today.

Munster also believes there is a good chance that we will see "some form" of consumer focused Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) based Mac at Macworld, likely as an iBook or Mac mini. Apple has indicated that Intel-based Macs will become available in mid-2006.

The research analyst said he "would be surprised" if Apple does not announce new video content offerings to be added to the existing offerings available at iTunes, such as new TV shows and, potentially, feature films.

In addition, Munster believes it is possible that Apple will introduce some form of new consumer electronics device, continuing on the "trend towards being more of an entertainment/media technology company, not just a computer company."

http://www.forbes.com/markets/2006/0...markets06.html

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