7 www.taipanonline.com APRIL 2005 which are expected to save US$150 million a year.       I’m hesitant to put a price target on Maytag
because so much depends on execution. If things
go as well as they could, Maytag will be a US$50
stock in two years. And from current levels around US$16, that’s a pretty nice gain. Plus, Maytag pays
a 4.8% dividend.       Maytag is a strong buy under US$16 with a
two-year price target of US$40. And with the right
covered call strategy, you could own the stock for
free in 18 months.  Somewhere inside me is a tech- no-geek I am able to successfully
ignore most of the time.       There are times, however, when
he wins out and my attention is
drawn to investigating the latest
and greatest gadgets. My work
with WaveStrength’sTrending East
often affords me this opportunity,
as many of the latest tech develop-
ments arrive daily on our shores from Asia.       It comes as no surprise that the US telecom
industry isn’t taking this trend lying down.       I came across an article in a recent issue of
Newsweek saying that Motorola’s  CEO Ed Zander
(whom many may know as the former president of
Sun Mircosystems) is committed to positioning the
company for new levels of industry dominance.       “We got this company out of [the] hospital and
got it jogging,” says Zander, “now we want to get it
running.”       An apt metaphor. Motorola is still riding the
momentum created by its 2004 success, the most
profitable year to date. You can’t help but feel the
success is deserved. The mobile world owes a lot
to Motorola, which built the first mobile networks in
the 1980’s and for some time produced half of all
mobile phones worldwide.       It is worth noting that Motorola has gained its
recent victory, at least in part, by taking a risk we’ve
already seen in Asia. Selling in a “giveaway” market As Market Report readers may remember, a few months back I mentioned China Unicom’s tentative
plan to release a mobile phone retailing for around 8,800 yuan (US$1,060) to a skeptical home market.       Last year, Motorola introduced the Razr V3
mobile phone, which featured an aluminum frame,
antenna hidden in the mouthpiece, and a US$349
price tag. As was the case in China, industry insid-
ers questioned whether such a pricey device would
sell in a domestic market that often gives away
cheaper alternatives.       In time Cingular stepped up, agreeing to sell the
Razr after Zander literally street-tested the product
to gauge reaction. They proceeded to sell over a
million units. From “Razr” to “Rokr” With higher-end phones such as this expected to become Motorola’s stake in the industry, what they
have on deck might truly launch them into orbit.       Motorola was expected to announce the Rokr, a
mobile phone that would operate Apple’s iTunes
(the music software that allows iPods to do what
they do), on March 10. Interestingly, the announce-
ment they made instead was that the phones are
not quite ready for sale, but the hype over them is
well underway.       In fact, the company let slip that these phones
will not only run Apple’s software, but will also
allow direct downloading of music (no computer
necessary), a probable first for the mobile
industry.       How mobile service providers will factor into
this whole arrangement is still uncertain. Perhaps
they will want sell music to customers directly
instead of allowing companies like Apple to have
all the fun. But Motorola faces an alliance between
Nokia and Microsoft, which also seem to be in pur-
suit of capturing this same industry frontier. Regardless, I think it’s safe to say these phones Next… Motorola battles the East Sometimes, old dogs teach themselves new tricks Michael Wiles