As is often the case with Apple products, feelings towards the new iPad mini were mixed following the Cupertino company’s special event in San Jose on Tuesday. Many were wowed by its good looks and tiny form factor, which still manages to run regular iPad apps just fine. While others were confused over its $329 price tag.
We had expected Apple to price the iPad mini along the same lines as cheap Android tablets, such as the Google Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire, which sell for $200. We didn’t quite expect Apple to go quite that low, but we felt around $250 would be just about right.
Instead, Apple chose to ignore what its competitors were doing. You might say that this is a big mistake, and that the iPad mini doesn’t stand a chance against its 7-inch rivals. But many analysts feel the iPad mini will do just fine at $329.
The iPhone 5 has been a sell-out since it went on sale on September 21, and it’s still incredibly difficult to get hold of in some markets even a month later. With five million units sold, it’s the fastest-selling iPhone to date, so it’s no surprise one analyst is predicting that iPhone sales could be even better than originally expected.
The iPhone 5’s intricate design is leading to supply shortages.
When Apple began selling the iPhone 5 on September 21, it quickly became the fastest-selling iPhone to date, with five million units sold in the first three days. However, sales have started to slow down since then, and they’ve begun falling short of analyst expectations.
It’s not that customers aren’t buying it, or that the iPhone 5 isn’t successful. The reason it’s not meeting expectations is because Apple’s manufacturing partner, Foxconn, simply can’t make it fast enough. Its design is so complicated that it’s the most difficult device Foxconn has ever built.
Customers queue for the iPhone 5 at IFC Mall in Hong Kong.
If you think the iPhone 5 is hard to get hold of where you live, spare a thought for those in Hong Kong, where the device is in such short supply, users must play the “Apple Store lottery” to be in with any chance of getting their hands on one. According to one analyst, locals have more chance of winning the real lottery than picking up the Cupertino company’s latest smartphone the day after they order.
You might have heard that Apple is set to unveil a new iPhone tomorrow. Wall Street certainly has, and analysts have been predicting how many units Apple will sell out of the gate. Anticipation for the iPhone 5 is ridiculously high, and Apple is expected to shatter the records it set with the 4S last year.
While estimates vary, the general consensus is that Apple will sell between 8-10 million iPhone 5s in September, which would be huge for Apple’s last fiscal 2012 quarter.
Expect huge queues and a lengthy wait for the iPhone 5.
We know the iPhone 5 is going to be huge for Apple. With its rumored 4-inch display, a new dock connector, LTE connectivity, and more, it will be the most significant iPhone upgrade since the device made its debut back in 2007. It’s going to be so big that one analyst believes Apple will sell a staggering 10 million new iPhones in the week after its launch.
You’re probably going to see a lot of stories like this in the coming weeks. Apple stock opened at a record $680 a share this morning, on the first day of trading following the Cupertino company’s massive victory over Samsung on Friday. This surpasses its previous record of $674.88 a share, which was hit last Tuesday, August 21, and it pushes Apple’s market capitalization to a new high of $637 billion.
Set top box with software, integrated HDTV, or both? One analyst thinks the former.
In an investor note today, Barclays investment analyst Ben Reitzes comes down squarely on the side of many others who believe a set top box is the way Apple has “cracked” the TV scene, rather than with an integrated television set created by Apple hardware designers. His opinion is that Apple is more likely to create a TV product that focuses on the software and not the hardware.
“We believe consumers would welcome such a product from Apple,” wrote Rietzes, “as well given that many younger customers seem to be watching content on demand on smaller screens (iPads, laptops) in private places – and only Apple seems to be the company that can redirect that content back to the big screen.”
Last week, analyst Andy Zaky revealed that investors are scrambling to plough their money into Apple before the company releases its iPhone 5, and that its stock price will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. And unsurprisingly, Zaky was right. Apple stock hit an all-time high of $636.64 last Friday, but that’s nothing compared to today’s price of $660.73, which makes Apple the most valuable publicly-traded stock of all time.
Apple stock hit an all-time high of $636.64 per share on Thursday, and today that price continues to rise. The last time Apple jumped above $630 a share was back in April, right before its share price began a six-week decline that knocked $115 off the price — and $100 billion off Apple’s market cap — when it ended on May 18.
It’s unlikely we’ll see a repeat of that now, however. According to one analyst, investors are so keen to plough their money into Apple before the iPhone 5 sends share prices rocketing that there’s no sign of those prices dropping anytime soon.
