Eager Upgraders Will Spike iPhone 4S Sales

More than 18 million iPhone 3GS users are expected to upgrade to the new iPhone 4S.
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News Byte

Priceline's Stock Soars to New High on Big-Time Analyst Upgrades

Priceline’s stock rocketed to a new 52-week high of $491.36 a share during trading today, before coming to rest at $483.99, down $3. The company, which has been flying high on international sales through its Booking.com subsidiary, got a boost from recent analyst upgrades. On Friday, Citigroup boosted its price target to $610 from $575, and on Thursday, Caris & Company raised its price target to $525, while Goldman Sachs raised its target to $525 as well, reports AmericanBankingNews.com. The travel Web site’s low stock price for the past 52 weeks was $173.32.

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Business Tech Spending Picks Up

After delaying technology purchases and upgrades during the downturn, businesses started spending strongly again in the fourth quarter, lifting profits at tech suppliers including EMC Corp., SAP AG, International Business Machines Corp., and Xerox Corp.

Memory Chips Are About to Get Cheaper

As demand for PCs has slowed, so has demand for the memory chips that go into them. Good news for everyone but the companies that make memory.

Microsoft Muscles Past Expectations

Wall Street had high hopes for Microsoft’s latest financials, and the company did not disappoint. Fueled by a strong PC upgrade cycle, it turned in a record fourth quarter. Net income rose to $4.5 billion, or 51 cents a share, from $3 billion, and revenue to $16.04 billion from $13.1 billion. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 46 cents a share on $15.2 billion in revenue.

I Got a Fever, and the Only Prescription Is…More iPhone!

Here’s an interesting bit of survey data from Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner, who found, like Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, a significant portion of iPhone 4 sales Thursday to be upgrade purchases by existing iPhone owners. The majority of people buying the iPhone 4 don’t particularly need it. But they’re buying it anyway.

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Netflix: Upgrade-Palooza!

Netflix shares are skyrocketing today, after the company late yesterday posted strong Q4 results, with better expected forward guidance. The upside surprise has triggered a mass re-rating of the stock by the Street, triggering at least five analyst upgrades, plus a host of other estimate and price target revisions.

If You Think AT&T Has Network Problems Now, Just You Wait

For AT&T, 2010 will be all about Android and Palm’s webOS. At least, that’s the impression one’s left with after the company’s event this morning at the Consumer Electronics Show, which featured a lot of talk about devices based on those operating systems and little mention of Apple’s iPhone, the device that has overstuffed the company’s wallet almost as obscenely as it has its network.
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AT&T 3G Improving–If You Can Get a Signal

So AT&T has finished upgrading its 3G footprint to HSPA 7.2, completing the first phase of an effort that will improve connection reliability and at some point later this year or in 2011, raise its maximum 3G data speed to 7.2 Mbps from 3.6 Mbps. Welcome news for long-suffering AT&T subscribers–but only those in cities where additional back-haul connections have been added to support those higher speeds.
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AT&T Earnings Expected to Be Better Than Expected

AT&T reports third-quarter earnings Thursday and by all accounts, they should be strong enough, thanks to the sheer size of the company’s footprint and, of course, its exclusive carrier rights to the iPhone.
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Yahoo Opens Up