With 4 million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units presold in their first 24 hours of availability, investors on Wall Street are increasingly optimistic about the success of Apple's next-generation handsets, with predictions for the upcoming holiday edging higher to 60 million sales in a single quarter.
With the inclusion of HomeKit and HealthKit in Apple's forthcoming iOS 8, as well as rumors of a new 'iPhone 6' mobile payment system, investment firm Piper Jaffray has increased its price target on the company's stock to $120.
It's expected that Apple will see its gross margins shrink at the end of 2014 as the company is expected to introduce a completely redesigned "iPhone 6," though one analyst sees margins trending upwards once again by the March 2015 quarter.
Though Apple's June quarter results were slightly below Wall Street expectations, investors expressed greater concern over the company's guidance for the current September quarter, but they were also pleased by improving gross margins, chalking up the results as a mixed bag.
The comprehension abilities of Apple's voice-driven personal assistant Siri continue to get better, but new testing shows that using Google Now for searching on Android has surpassed it in terms of accuracy when answering queries.
While many Apple observers expect the company to reveal solid year-over-year growth for its relatively quiet June quarter, much of the focus will be on new CFO Luca Maestri's guidance for the fall with updated iPhones and iPads on the horizon, the expected closing of the Beats acquisition, and the possibility of a so-called "iWatch."
Apple's new enterprise partnership with IBM will likely strengthen the position of the iPhone and iPad in the corporate world, but it probably won't move the needle much in terms of overall device sales, investment firm Piper Jaffray believes.
Even as Google counts some 1 billon monthly active users for Android worldwide, more than six out of every ten page views from a mobile device in the U.S. still come from an iPhone, an iPad, or an iPod touch, according to new browsing data released on Monday.
Apple's current iPhone lineup is showing strong staying power, with more than a third of prospective U.S. smartphone customers saying they plan to buy either an iPhone 5s or an iPhone 5c in the next three months, despite the fact that new models are expected to launch around September.
With no major new products launched in the just-concluded March quarter, analysts on Wall Street don't expect big things from Apple when the company reports its earnings on Wednesday, generally projecting for revenue to be about flat with the same period from a year ago.
Analyst Gene Munster, who has long held out hope for a more fully functional Apple TV and even a full television set from the company, believes that Wednesday's launch of the Amazon fireTV should serve as further motivation for Apple to make major moves in the television space.
The highlight of Apple's next quarterly earnings call later this month could be moderate increases to the company's share buyback program and dividend payouts to shareholders, many investors reportedly expect.
With Apple making slight adjustments to its iPhone and iPad lineups this week, the new, cheaper device offerings are projected by one analyst to have only a minor effect on the company's bottom line.
A new survey of prospective U.S. smartphone buyers has found that Apple's flagship iPhone 5s remains the most popular option for those making a purchase in the next few months, but the iPhone 5c is not expected to make waves.
This afternoon Apple will report earnings from the company's first fiscal quarter of 2014, and investors expect that the company will reveal record sales of its blockbuster iPhone and iPad product lines, with collective sales of both devices expected to top 80 million.
When Apple reports its holiday 2013 earnings in a few weeks, investors are likely to be focused on the future, analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray believes, as the upcoming launch of the iPhone on China Mobile takes center stage.
Shares of Apple stock surged more than 3 percent on Monday, after news broke that the company has reached a long-awaited deal to begin selling the iPhone in January through China Mobile, the world's largest wireless provider.
Domestic Mac sales were up 29 percent in the first two months of the current holiday quarter, benefitting from an iMac shortfall that plagued Apple during the same quarter a year ago.
Apple has improved its voice-driven personal assistant, Siri, with the iOS 7 update for iPhone and iPad, though Siri's chief competition, Google Now, has improved enough to be on par, new tests have concluded.
Apple appears to have completely caught up with consumer demand for its flagship iPhone 5s, with a new survey of the company's retail stores finding all models completely in stock at all locations.
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Neil Hughes
Sam Oliver
