As we await Apple’s Tuesday notebook announcement, one analyst says offering a sub-$1,000 notebook could increase Apple’s potential revenue by up to 69 percent.
If Apple unveils a $900 laptop, the move would increase Apple’s potential revenue by 50 percent, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a Monday note to investors.
If rumors are true and the Cupertino, Calif. company rolls out an $800 laptop, the news could boost Apple revenue by 69 percent.
“The spotlight turns to notebooks.” So goes the just-released invite from Apple to an Oct. 14 media event. The e-mail to media appears to lend credence to a bevy of reports that Cupertino is set to launch a low-cost notebook computer.
Earlier this morning, a number of tech news sites, lead by the Inquisitir, reported an $800 laptop is among a price list that was released to Apple retailers.
The rumors were also backed up by a series of leaked photos published by a Taiwan website. Among the photos was a 13-inch aluminum Apple laptop.
Analysts have speculated Apple may “refresh” its hardware with a sub-$1,000 Mac. Long known for its pricey hardware, Apple has seen its sales impacted by the sluggish economy.
Apple products are so good-looking, they act as an integral as part of the interior design of your home.
That seems to be the idea, at least, behind a photo spread in October’s Casa Amica, monthly design supplement to Italian daily Corriere della Sera.
The Italians call it a “tecno minimal” look (click on photo for larger view), where your iPod Touch is the perfect complement to the gres coffee cups. You, minimalist homeowner, sip espresso while ogling an aluminum and marble Doimo kitchen from the screen. Or browse for a new kitchen with your iMac, perhaps this one with a slightly institutional feel, probably distracted by the lovely Philippe Starck glasses for Driade on your counter top.
Not so sure I buy the concept, but love the white ceramic espresso maker.
Spotted any Apple products in magazines, ads or movies? Let me know.
Apple has once again won the “cool factor” with teen iPhone owners now nearly triple ( 8 percent versus 3 percent) compared to a year ago. The Piper Jaffray survey also revealed 22 percent of teens say they plan to buy the Apple handset – up from just 9 percent in 2007.
Other good news for Apple: 84 percent of MP3 players purchased by teens were iPods. Microsoft’s Zune came in a distant second, capturing just 3 percent of the teen marketshare.
Apple’s iTunes music download service now has 93 percent of the market. That’s up from 79 percent uncovered a year ago.
Apple’s fourth quarter results later this month may be one of the most widely-awaited events since the Vice Presidential debates.
After the stock whipsawed on analyst downgrades then health rumors surrounding CEO Steve Jobs, investment analysts now suggest Apple must either report strong sales or announce new products.
If Apple does not report healthy sales of Macs during the September quarter, “the importance of the new Mac increases substantially,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told Cult of Mac Tuesday.
The Apple Blogotubes are a-buzz with boffo Interblag bloviating at a rumor from 9to5mac.com that Apple’s rumored “Brick” product was actually a nickname for a new manufacturing process that will use “lasers and jets of water to carve the MacBooks out of a brick of aluminum.” More, it’s a “game-changer;” “totally revolutionary;” “Apple’s biggest innovation in a decade.”
…Yeah, maybe not.
As Adam Richardson, an industrial designer at consultancy frog design and CNet blogger, points out, lasers and waterjets have been used in manufacturing for ages — by Apple.
The glowing LED that appears behind a “solid” front face of the MacBooks is apparently achieved with laser-cutting to thin out and partially perforate the wall in that one area.
Richardson also speculates that the existing iPod Shuffle is manufactured using a similar process, and even the MacBook Air has some telltale signs that it draws on really interesting and unusual manufacturing techniques. But would Apple actually carve an entire laptop out of one block of aluminum? And would it save any money?
On such a small product this is do-able. On a large product like a laptop this would typically result in a massive amount of waste (so kiss your green credentials goodbye). And the notion that this is somehow cheaper than stamping thin sheets or molding plastic is completely wrong – it’s much more expensive.
Yeah… no.
I’ve been talking with other industrial designers about this issue, and they all agree that the reasoning behind the current Brick rumor doesn’t add up. One friend of mine guessed it would add up to $50 in manufacturing costs and might not be any stronger or lighter than more traditional manufacturing approaches.
Does Apple have a game-changing laptop in the wings that will reinvent the MacBook and MacBook Pro design language? For their sake, they’d better. Will it be milled from a single block of aluminum? Not in this lifetime.
Nearly a third of iPhone users switched carriers in order to buy the Apple touch-screen phone, researchers said Monday. The news comes as the iPhone leads smartphone sales between July and August.
Some thirty percent of U.S. smartphone buyers switched carriers to AT&T in order to purchase an iPhone in that period, market research firm NPD Group announced.
That compares to the 24 percent industry average for smartphone buyers.
When Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces fiscal fourth quarter iPhone sales later this month, a few industry analysts could be red-faced. An effort by iPhone owners points to Apple selling more than the 5 million a consensus of experts had predicted for the three-month period that ended Sept. 30.
In addition, the data could lend support to Jobs’ claim 10 million iPhones would be sold in 2008.
Barclays Capital Friday cut its target price for Apple shares, citing the “obvious economic weakness.”
“We believe it is prudent to cut our estimates given checks indicate a more pronounced slowdown within the PC supply chain and increased pressure on consumer spending,” wrote analyst Ben Reitzes.
The analyst firm cut Apple’s stock price to $135 from $180 but retained an “Overweight” rating for the Cupertino, Calif. company.
The Android-based G1 handset now shares with the iPhone the status of a goal-setter for mobile phones, researcher Gartner said Thursday.
“You won’t beat Apple in the short term, but being worse than both Apple and Android is likely to end in disaster,” Gartner analysts Roberta Cozza and Carolina Milanesi write.
The two said the Android-based G1 will probably ship between 600,000 to 700,000 devices this year and comprise 10 percent of smartphone sales by 2011.
The iPhone’s entrance onto the handset scene was a “big favor” to the handset industry, pushing companies to change in the face of Cupertino, Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo said Thursday.
The comments came as the handset giant launches its 5800 XpressMusic, a touch-screen handset with the Comes With Music service. Like the iPhone, the 5800 offers a 3G network interface, GPS and Wi-Fi.
Nokia’s comments appear to reflect the view of others. “I don’t think a handset maker out there doesn’t believe that,” Kevin Burden, ABI Research’s director of mobile devices, told Cult of Mac.
Apple’s share of the operating system market hit 8.2 percent in September, research firm Net Applications announced Wednesday. The numbers mark the first time the Apple OS has risen above 8 percent.
The new numbers reflect a 0.45-point advance from August’s 7.86 percent market share. In June, OS X approached the 8-percent mark, reaching 7.94 percent.
Mac OS X broke the 7 percent barrier in December 2007, moving to 7.31 percent from 6.8 percent a month earlier.
September’s increase is credited to the surge in Apple sales during the back-to-school period. In September 2007, the Mac OS X market share jumped 0.45 points, mirroring the same growth in September 2008.
Although Microsoft Windows remains above 90 percent of operating systems, that dominant lead slipped slightly in September, falling 0.4 points to 90.3 percent.
Apple Inc. announced Wednesday it will release its fiscal fourth quarter report Oct. 21, possibly ending speculation how the economic downturn hurt the Cupertino, Calif. company.
Earlier this week, Apple shares dived 18 percent following downgrades by several investment houses, including Morgan Stanley. The stock recovered a day later after Goldman Sachs and Citi retained “Buy” ratings for Apple, suggesting investors went overboard in their reactions.
Analysts said Apple likely did not repeat its third-quarter figures which saw a record $7.46 billion profit, outpacing Wall Street expectations. More than 11 million iPods and 717,000 iPhones were sold during the period.
Net Applications added another metric to the increasing evidence that Apple is closing the gap with Windows – this time online.
Macs online grew by more than 5 percent to 8.28 percent in September, compared to August, a survey of operating systems used to connect to Web sites found.
Windows, although comprising more than 90 percent of online connections, actually fell by 0.47 percent to 90.23 percent of online operating systems last month, according to Net Applications.
IPhones leapt from 0.30 in August to 0.32 percent in September, a 6.67 percent jump.
In related news, an iPhone Satisfaction Survey by the Technologizer Web site found 91 percent of participants adore their Apple device with the majority having owned the handset for 2-3 months. E-mail, the Web and SMS topped the list of most-used iPhone applications.
Graph from Technologizer
Did investors react too quickly to analyst comments which sent Apple shares tumbling 18 percent Monday? Add Piper Jaffray to the list of analyst firms now calling for calm.
“We recognize investors do not see light at the end of the tunnel as market fears appear to be outweighing fundamental analysis” Piper’s Apple analyst Gene Munster wrote Tuesday.
Those fears – not including the Dow plummeting 777 points – were spurred by a spate of downgrades of Apple stock as analysts said slowing consumer sales could derail the Cupertino, Calif. company.
Analysts went too far with their fears Apple could be caught in the downward spiral of consumer spending. Tuesday analysts say the 18 percent fear-driven drop in Apple shares may have been ‘overdone.’
Apple shares were up 3 percent to $108 early Tuesday after Monday losing $22.98 and closing at $105.26 on Nasdaq.
Goldman Sachs analyst David Bailey said Monday’s pullback “more than captures the concerns over Mac growth in a weakening spending environment.”
What should we expect to hear from Apple Tuesday when it releases its fiscal fourth quarter numbers? Analysts offered Cult of Mac a preview of sorts, providing what they think CEO Steve Jobs will say tomorrow.
The overriding theme will be how Apple confronts the economic downturn which seems to be striking at the heart of the company’s consumer-oriented buyers.
When it rains, it pours. Apple shares took a battering Monday as two more financial analysts downgraded the company amid mounting worries how spending cuts will hurt the Cupertino, Calif. company.
Morgan Stanley analyst Kathryn Hubert slashed her target price for Apple stock to $115 from $178, sending shares down 14 percent to $110 by noon.
Hubert also downgraded the company to “equal-weight from “overweight.”
Another analyst Monday joined the growing chorus voicing caution about how the economic downturn may finally be catching up with Apple.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Mie Abramsky downgraded Apple shares to “sector perform,” shaken by last week’s numbers indicating consumers were holding off purchasing Mac laptop and desktop computers.
Abramsky also trimmed his target price for Apple shares to $140 from $200 and cut his fourth quarter expectations. The analyst said Monday Apple is likely to report earning $32.8 billion, slightly off of $33 billion previously projected. The RBC analyst also lowered his prediction for 2009 to $40 billion from $42.5 billion once expected.
Nitrozac is an artist and co-founder of GeekCulture, a high-tech humor web site, thriving online community and, according to the artist, purveyor of fine propeller beanies. She says she’s always wanted to take contemporary technology subjects and render them in old style media, and has been offering her acrylic and oil paintings on canvas by auction since December 2007. “I love working with digital images on my Mac, but there is something extremely satisfying about creating with paint and a canvas,” she adds, and describes her paintings as “based on my work at the The Joy of Tech. The subject matter will usually be geeky and techy; the people, places, and things that make up geek culture.”
Her latest work is titled, “The Introduction,” a painting of Steve Jobs unveiling the MacBook Air at Macworld 2008, shown above. Click through in the gallery below to see some of her past work.
On Sept. 20, Apple opened its North County store in Escondido, a San Diego suburb. Reader Scott Bernard writes in to let us know that the event had a very special guest: a quite convincing “PC” impersonator who posed for pictures with the gathered Mac faithful as he distributed “Mac Unfair to PC” leaflets.
Not everyone got the joke. Notes Scott:
We couldn’t hear much of what he was saying, because there was one of those actual CRAZY Apple people in line behind us, yelling in the direction of PC. Crazy guy had NO IDEA that PC was an actor, and he was apparently completely unfamiliar with the “I’m a Mac” ads. Scraped from my week old memory:
Crazy guy: “W- w- w- Windows SUCKS!”
*everyone in line ignores crazy guy, who we thought was just trying (and failing) to be funny*
Crazy guy: “WINDOWS SUCKS!!!”
*we start wondering if this guy is crazy, because he actually sounds angry now*
Crazy guy: “In 1997, Jeffrey Dell said he would shut down Apple, and, and…”
*now we all KNOW he is crazy, especially since it was MICHAEL Dell who he is apparently trying to refer to*
Crazy guy: “Jeffrey Dell said-!”
PC: *walks over to Crazy guy* “Sir, sir, it’s OKAY. I’m playing a CHARACTER. I’m really a Mac guy. It’s OKAY.”
As Scott notes, he doesn’t have the exchange on video, largely because the iPhone has no video recording capability. You hear that, Apple? Think of what you’re denying your base!
Apple also recently opened a shop in nearby Carlsbad, but PC didn’t make the trip. Apparently, lovers of sensible ties and cheap hucksterism prefer Escondido. Click through for a shot of the North County T-Shirt and another pic of PC on duty.
An apparent shift by iPhone 3G buyers to lower-priced 8GB models reportedly prompted Apple to trim by 4 million the number of handsets it will build for the rest of 2008. Cupertino will order 14 million to 15 million phones instead of 18 million analysts first projected.
Pacific Crest’s Apple analyst said Friday “supply-chain checks” found since mid-September Apple is not meaningfully resupplying AT&T stores that have sold down their inventory of 8GB iPhone 3Gs.
Just days before Apple is to present its fourth quarter numbers, another analyst is trimming its revenue estimates. BMO Capital’s Keith Bachman said Thursday “the weak economy has started to take a toll on Apple’s system’s business.”
Bachman lowered the target price for Apple shares to $180 from $190.
Read more about the target cut and how other analyst appear to agree after this jump.
Apple reaffirmed its intent to control what programs may legitimately run on its iPhone this week when the company revoked ad hoc distribution authority from a developer whose application it previously barred from distribution through the iTunes AppStore.
Last week, when Podcaster received official notice from Apple that the AppStore would not be carrying its application because the company had determined it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes, the developer decided to use Apple’s ad hoc distribution method to get the program into the hands of users who were willing to make a $10 ‘donation’ for the privilege of becoming beta-testers.
Tuesday, Apple revoked Almerica’s access to creating ad hoc licenses for the podcast downloading tool, prompting howls of protest from developers and consumers, many of whom have been skeptical of Apple’s intentions and critical of its business practices involving the AppStore from the very beginning.
Follow me after the jump to learn more about what’s behind the dispute and why Apple could be standing on shaky legal ground.
Aside from Christmas, the back-to-school market is one of the most profitable times for computer makers. Apple’s MacBook has virtually disappeared from Amazon’s top-selling notebook list during the period, according to ThinkEquity analyst Vijay Rakesh.
Instead, ‘netbooks,’ those ultra-small PCs from Asus, Acer and Dell, now dominate the list. This is an abrupt change from the past, where Apple had been a mainstay.
“While Mac desktops and 3G phone sales have been doing well, the notebook market could be impacted in the peak back-to-school season,” Rakesh wrote in Wednesday.