Slash Lane
Advancing next Tuesday's earnings report from Apple, Caris & Company released an analysis Friday that predicts the iPod touch will grow toward 10 percent of the company's revenues.
"No longer just a music/video player, iPod Touch is increasingly a gaming device, etc., with video camera a likely addition in next (fall?) refresh," the Caris report reads. "We believe iPod Touch sales have been ramping all year, representing an estimated 18% of iPod units since Sep-07 launch."
Even though the iPod lineup is not expected to have grown in terms of sales this past quarter, analysts still have high hopes for AAPL stock. Both Caris and J.P. Morgan have raised their target prices for the publicly traded company and recommend that investors buy. Both firms anticipate the company will report tremendous growth in both iPhone and Mac sales.
J.P Morgan had initially set a target price for AAPL of $155, but upped that this week to $167.50. The stock closed Thursday at $147.52. The firm said input from "industry contacts" suggests 2.5 million Macs were sold in the quarter, along with 4.34 million iPhones.
The J.P. Morgan report views the iPod touch as Apple's netbook, of sorts. At least, the analysis says, until Apple officially enters the netbook market – something the firm expects the Mac maker to do.
"We think the iPod touch provides the portability, Internet browsing, and email features that are the hallmark of the netbook PC experience," the report states. "With the iPod touch, the main limitation is the small screen size relative to netbooks. While we continue to believe that Apple will introduce its own netbook-like device, in the interim, the iPod touch should help the company benefit from the latest computing trend related to the netbook."
Meanwhile, Caris has set a price point of $170 per share for AAPL. The company expects Apple to continue to grow through the September quarter, bolstered by the $99 iPhone 3G and price cuts in the MacBook lineup.
"We see Apple’s iPhone and Mac sustaining considerable headroom for growth via market share gains, with its iPhone/App Store shaking up the entire billion-unit cell phone industry," the Caris report reads.
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54 Comments
What stealth???
iPod Touch is the gadget that competes directly with PSP and thats no secret. With camera (and maybe something even more) being reportedly added to iPod Touch later this year, it will be the gadget which beats the GameBoys and PSPs.
The Touch deserves more credit than that - it more important than the AppleTV or the MBA ever will be in the Apple line up. Those are rarely ever mentioned or advertised anymore.
I see Touches all over NY these days- on the subways, streets, gyms.
Hey teckstud, A MacBook Pro has taken off from canada to me in india.
Going Mac from tomorrow onwards. And will never go back...
I keep quoting your signature now and then... :P
Hey teckstud, A MacBook Pro has taken off from canada to me in india.
Going Mac from tomorrow onwards. And will never go back...
I keep quoting your signature now and then... :P
Great- you are in for a fantastic ride going forward. Enjoy it! I've used Mac's over 10 years but am stuck in a PC world at work. The Mac is like nothing else. Peace.
Though iPod sales are predicted to be the weakest-performing segment of Apple's overall sales this quarter, the iPod touch is said to be the ace up the company's sleeve, thanks to the platform's compatibility with the App Store. ...
I think the giant elephant in the room that is rarely, or perhaps only off-handedly mentioned in regards iPod sales analysis, is that obviously every iPhone sold is also an iPod sold.
I've read dozens and dozens of supposedly learned articles since the iPhone came out talking about declining iPod sales. The author typically (not necessarily in this piece), wrings their hands in anxiety over this unprecedented turn of events where the iPod sales are either shrinking, or not growing at the rate they have in the past. One look at the actual numbers on the charts tells you exactly where those sales have migrated however.
The real story is that iPod sales haven't dropped very dramatically at all when you take into account the sales of iPhones. They really should have, but they haven't. It's really a story of phenomenal growth if you take the market as a whole, but it's often reported as "the sad case of shrinking iPod sales." I know this isn't rocket science, (or even news in some circles), but I find it a bit sad how the mainstream media so often reports this as a negative when it's the exact opposite.