Arguing that the market is underestimating demand for iPhones over the next two calendar years, investment bank Morgan Stanley on Tuesday upgraded shares of Apple to Overweight from Equal-weight, saying success of the touchscreen handset should offset any growth risks in the company's core Mac and iPod businesses.
Apple saw its share of global smartphone market more than double on a year-over-year basis during the first quarter of the year but still has much work to do before catching BlackBerry maker Research in Motion and market leader Nokia.
Sales of Apple's iPod touch, once discounted as a pricey niche product, have more than doubled over the past 12 months to rates nearly in line with the iPhone, fueled by an explosion of attractive gaming titles on the App Store that are boosting overall multi-touch device shipments into Nintendo DS territory.
Apple on Wednesday announced a mixed second quarter, providing its best-ever earnings and iPhone sales for a March quarter but relatively weak Mac numbers. It just concluded a financial conference call with analysts and members of the media. Several notes of interest from the call follow:
AT&T said Wednesday that although first quarter profits slipped 9 percent, its wireless data revenues grew nearly 40 percent as it was able to achieve its third consecutive quarter of double-digit postpaid net subscriber additions on the back of 1.6 million new iPhone 3G activations.
Apple retail stores are looking to move away from Windows Mobile-based handheld checkout devices in favor of iPod touches with custom accessory add-ons, with a transition expected to follow the release of iPhone 3.0 later this year.
A little-known equity research firm is out with a new report this week which could potentially shed some color on recent discoveries in Apple's iPhone 3.0 beta software that suggest two architecturally unique iPhones may be in the cards for this spring.
After running through a series of ad campaigns designed to make Windows look cool, then victimized, then simply inescapably ubiquitous, Microsoft is now hoping to attack Apple in new ads that portray Macs as unaffordable compared to generic PCs.
Apple maintained the third place position in global unit sales of smartphones, but was passed up by Microsoft's Windows Mobile to become the fourth largest smartphone vendor in terms of operating system platforms as it continues to lead the industry in year over year growth.
As Apple's 9-month young App Store redefines the smartphone industry and spawns copycats, actual app sales are approaching a frequency that could see the digital shop become a billion-dollar business before year's end.
A report on mobile applications sales ranked Apple's iPhone App Store "miles ahead of the competition" as the leading software marketplace, based on timeliness to market, the ability to attract developers, and the "number, variety and appeal of applications available."
A report intending to portray the iPhone as "hated" in the Japanese market turns out to have been built upon fake quotations from industry writers and observers who were misrepresented by remarks attributed to them that they never made. Their actual comments on the iPhone's prospects in Japan are far more interesting.
Despite the red ink flowing from retailers and PC makers, Apple is expected to ride out its second fiscal quarter ending in March with respectable numbers nearly in line with its performance last year.
While reports have suggested that Apple may attend next year's CES to "sit amongst its competition" in consumer electronics, the company has elected not to attend the GSMA Mobile World Congress being held in Barcelona this week. That hasn't stopped the iPhone from dominating talk at the mobile conference.
PC sales are in free fall as the weak demand for Windows desktops and full-size notebooks in a poorly performing global economy is being compounded by an influx of low cost netbooks, which are gobbling up the remains of profitability in the PC industry.
While Wall Street analysts are generally reacting favorably to Apple's strong first quarter results, a select few broke from the pack with one very positive reaction and one rather negative, along with two predictions that the iPhone line will see some new additions in 2009.
Apple is holding a conference call to discuss the results of its first fiscal quarter for 2009, a record quarter for earnings and revenues despite a much harsher world economy. Notes for its performance during the quarter and for the call follow.
A 4GB version of the iPhone once rumored to play a major role at Wal-Mart discount chains was a no-show in 2008, though one Wall Street analyst now says there's evidence the device may turn up this year.
While previewing Apple's fiscal first quarter earnings due next week, investment bank Citigroup reduced its estimates on the electronics maker and said a sharp reduction in iPhone shipments could signal a refresh as early as April.
Research In Motion painted a rosy outlook for its fiscal fourth quarter on Thursday, offering a positive read-through for rival smartphone maker Apple.
After a symbolic victory over Research in Motion, Apple may have its fortunes reversed as the BlackBerry maker has almost exactly matched iPhone 3G summer sales during the fall.
Shares of Apple slipped about 4 percent Monday after investment bank Goldman Sachs removed the company from its buy list for the first time in more than two years, citing concerns over consumer spending and a belief that Macworld Expo will not see the company embark on a major new product initiative.
A new report warns that halving the iPhone's price this summer still wasn't enough to truly grow sales -- and that recent metrics may show an actual shrink in sales during the early fall.
Giving the gift of iPhone this holiday season requires that customers purchase a gift card from Apple rather than the handset itself, a process that may understate the company's December quarter shipments as a result.
Faced with the perfect storm of a bleak market and a boom in ultra-budget portables, Apple is believed by some to be readying its own take on the netbook for the first half of 2009.
