Josh OngBarclays analyst analyst Ben Reitzes said Friday that when it comes to the corporate world, the iPad is "running far ahead of its tablet competition and its their game to lose," Barrons reports. Reitzes' report stems from a conference call with a research Forrester Research analyst.
According to Reitzes, Apple hasn't established an enterprise salesforce, but the iPad maker is "listening to enterprise customers." The report noted that Forrester's research indicates that corporate users are "buying devices and bringing them into work" in increasing numbers.
Apple is the "winner in the consumerization of IT," said Reitzes. Forrester sees room for tablets to co-exist with smartphones and laptops, but does see some cannibalization from devices like the iPad in that it can "delay laptop replacements."
Reitzes sees Apple ending the calendar year with sales of 33.7 million iPads, a more than 70 percent share of the 47 million tablets he predicts will sell in 2011. He has an Overweight rating on Apple stock, with a $450 price target.
The analysts' estimates are roughly in line with those of his colleagues. For example, Caris & Co. analyst Robert Cihra sees Apple selling 36 million iPads this year.
The growth of the iPad could continue to accelerate as corporate adoption of the device picks up. A recent report from enterprise mobile services vendor Good Technology revealed a 64 percent increase in the iPad's share of all device activations among the more than 2,000 companies its tracks.
Apple announced during its earnings call for the first quarter of fiscal 2011 that over 80 percent of the Fortune 100 are already deploying or piloting the iPad. Sales of the iPad last quarter reached 7.3 million, bringing in $4.6 billion in revenue for the Cupertino, Calif., company.
In October of last year, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the iPad was "being grabbed out of our hands," despite the fact that the company had yet to push the iPad "real hard in business."
"We've got a tiger by the tail here, and this is a new model of computing which we've already got tens of millions of people trained on with the iPhone, and that lends itself to lots of different aspects of life, both personal and business," he said.
The iPad is expected to see another sales boost this spring when Apple will presumably release the second-generation of its successful tablet device. The iPad 2 is expected to be faster, lighter and sport a FaceTime-ready camera. Rumors surfaced this week that the iPad maker could also be planning a second update for the fall of this year, possibly adding a retina display or pro features.
William Gallagher
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Andrew O'Hara
Christine McKee
107 Comments
It'll be interesting to see if Apple sells 33 million iPads that the stock will go all the way up to $450. Apple will probably have to double iPhone sales numbers to assure that figure. Apple is going to really have to impress Wall Street to keep shares moving up. I hope Apple can continue to sell its notebook line and that will help quite a bit. Apple can't afford to miss any numbers as high as expectations are. The iPad seems to have a price advantage over both the Xoom and TouchPad, so maybe Apple won't have as much competition as some analysts say it will.
It's a shame the practicality isn't there as far as openness is concerned. I use my ipad to read the news and make the odd note here and there, but anything further than remote access apps, it's too locked down to be overly useful. Once competing tablets are released, the ecosystem as a whole will push forward and hopefully the ipad will get more useful.
The whole enterprise adoption thing is really because there is nothing else in the market at the moment. With practically only one choice in tablets available, its obvious the ipad would be on top. Once honeycomb hits it's game on.
It's a shame the practicality isn't there as far as openness is concerned. I use my ipad to read the news and make the odd note here and there, but anything further than remote access apps, it's too locked down to be overly useful. Once competing tablets are released, the ecosystem as a whole will push forward and hopefully the ipad will get more useful.
The whole enterprise adoption thing is really because there is nothing else in the market at the moment. With practically only one choice in tablets available, its obvious the ipad would be on top. Once honeycomb hits it's game on.
Give an example of what you want the iPad to be able to do then
Give an example of what you want the iPad to be able to do then
Yeah, I'm not understanding what point he is trying to make, either. It seems the iPad can do a lot of stuff as it is. I don't see how being an OSS system would help, and I used Linux for years, so it's not like I'm anti-F/OSS.
Regardless of what one might see on the various message boards, a lot of people actually do appreciate the fact that someone (in this case, Apple) is making sure that apps are safe, and that they actually do work as advertised, and that they don't just take tons of info from you without asking.
[...]
Barclays analyst analyst Ben Reitzes said Friday that when it comes to the corporate world, the iPad is "running far ahead of its tablet competition and its their game to lose," Barrons reports. Reitzes' report stems from a conference call with a research Forrester Research analyst.
[...]
This guy's twice an analyst... He Can't Be Wrong!