Analyst

AAPL tanks below $500 on ‘weaker than expected’ iPhone 5 demand rumor

AAPL fell briefly below $500 this morning following The Wall Street Journal and the Nikkei newswire reports of the iPhone 5 part orders halved amid what's being claimed a 'weaker-than-expected' global demand for the handset. Specifically, shares briefly sank to $497 in pre-market trading Monday as investors reacted to the news.

It's the first time since February 2012 that AAPL tanked below $500 a share. AAPL lost nearly 26 percent since a September 2012 all-time high of $705.07 a share. In the last three months alone, the Apple stock lost seventeen percent of its value. Rival Samsung seized its opportunity, having released this morning official numbers proving flourishing sales of its Galaxy S smartphone series, which surpassed the accumulated sales record of 100 million units (from the supply side) since its launch in May 2010...

PC marketshare to drop to 65% in 2013 as tablets take over

The days when PCs ruled the computer market are quickly coming to a close. The familiar battle between PCs and Macs is quickly morphing into an iOS versus Android landscape. As consumers opt for tablets over PCs, shipments of Wintel devices will drop to 65 percent in 2013 amid double-digit tablet growth.

After PC shipments fell 10 percent during the holiday fourth quarter of 2010, the 2013 PC marketshare will drop to 65 percent, down from 72 percent last year, according to researchers at Canalys. The reason: PCs - be they desktops, notebooks, or netbooks - are no longer needed for common computing tasks, such as reading e-mail and browsing the web...

iPad 5, iPad mini 2 due in March, says analyst

Despite Apple's absence from this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the company has remained in the headlines. Yesterday, we reported that Apple is evaluating Retina screens for the next iPad mini, with Foxconn’s subsidiary Shenzhen Century Science & Technology allegedly having sent its high-resolution panels based on One Glass Solution to Apple for testing. This indicates that Apple is slowly but surely aligning its supply chain partners ahead of upcoming iPad refreshes. Today, one analyst notes that some evidence now points to the official launch for the iPad 5 and iPad mini 2 in March...

AT&T’s ‘best-ever’ smartphone sales hint at 8M iPhones in Q4 2012

What can be divined from AT&T's announcement of record smartphone sales during the holiday quarter? According to one Apple watcher, the fact that the Dallas-based carrier sold ten million Apple, Android and Windows smartphones likely means the bulk - more than eight million - were iPhones. According to Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, during the holiday quarter of 2011, the wireless company sold 9.4 million smartphones, 7.6 million of which were Apple's handset. Because of that trend, Munster is forecasting 8.1 million iPhones were sold during the fourth quarter of 2012...

Facebook mobile user stats: 192M on Android, 147M on iPhone

A few months ago, we passed along a report that Facebook was urging its employees to swap out their iPhones for Android devices. It knows Google's mobile OS has continued to be an afterthought to iOS, and it's looking to change that.

Well according to some newly-released data, that's probably a smart move. Enders analyst Benedict Evans has just published Facebook's mobile app user stats, and, as of November last year, Android users vastly outnumber those on iOS...

Apple probably sold 50 million ‘boring’ iPhones during the holiday quarter

What should we expect to hear from Apple when it announces quarterly earnings later this month? One Wall Street observer Thursday forecasts a huge December quarter of 50 million iPhones and 24 million iPads sold. Although the company could report iPhone sales 86 percent higher than the previous quarter, an aggressive roll-out of the iPhone 5 may prompt Apple to reduce production by mid-year.

According to analyst Rob Cihra of Evercore Partners, the December quarter will reveal 86 percent growth of iPhone sales, compared to the previous three-month period. What's more, the iPad mini will sell ten million of the 24 million Apple tablets moved during the holiday period, up 71 percent over the September quarter...

China Mobile needs the iPhone now more than ever

With a whopping 1.1 billion mobile phone users at the end of November 2012, China is the biggest telecom market in the world by subscriber base. And with about 703 million subscribers, state-owned China Mobile remains the world's largest wireless carrier.

Unfortunately, it's also the country's sole holdout when it comes to the iPhone.

China Mobile and Apple have been in iPhone talks for years now, but neither caved in yet. Apple in particular is unwilling to share a portion of App Store sales in China with the carrier. But seeing its 3G subscriber base eroding as a result of not having the iconic smartphone, China Mobile could be starting to need the iPhone more as it finds itself in a position of softening of its tough stance on doing business with Apple...

Apple gains 4% ahead of CES and a smart watch

If you are just shaking off the holiday headaches, just think of Apple. After taking a drubbing from Wall Street analysts worried about everything from the fiscal cliff to too few (or too many) sales of iDevices, the iPhone maker woke up this morning to its stock actually up. After rising 4 percent in early morning trading, AAPL shares remain positive. Why the better performance, after being jostled around like a visitor to Time Square on New Year's Eve? Apparently, it has to do with next week's CES and talk that Apple could create an iWatch...

If you trust analysts, the iPhone 5S will come in multiple colors and two display sizes

We're just two days into 2013, but there's no hiding from the next wave of Apple rumors. Yesterday brought as a non-news of an unknown developer spotting traces of iOS 7 and the next iPhone in logs - as if Apple hasn't been working on the iPhone 5S/6 and iOS 7 since before iOS 6 was released.

Wednesday morning, an analyst boldly predicted that the iPhone 5S, a specs bump, will launch by June with multiple color options and - wait 'till you hear this - two different display sizes. I should have been an analyst!

Analysts cut AAPL target price average to $740

All of the concerns voiced about the impending leap off the 'fiscal cliff' and its associated increase in capital gains taxes on stock sales have sent Wall Street into a tizzy. The end result: knocking Apple's target share price down to $740. Nearly a dozen analysts have cut their target price for Apple stock amid talk that the iPhone maker has a dodgy future, what with supply questions hanging over the executives at One Infinity Loop. Despite all the rain clouds, the $740 per share target price reduction is about $225 more than Friday's opening on Wall Street...

Analyst: Apple needs ITV to stay alive – but the iPad is a ‘rocket’

Some days, you almost wish the Mayan Calendar believers were right and today was the end of the world. Executives at Apple headquarters have likely been popping antacids like Christmas candy as wave after wave of pessimism washes through Wall Street.

Now comes word Apple is destined to be a has-been unless it cranks out an iTV - or cheapo smartphone. The depression-laded missive of the day arrived last Thursday from Toni Sacconaghi, analyst with Bernstein Research. In a note to bewildered investors, he alternated between calling the iPad "an absolute juggernaut" worth $32 billion in annual revenue and forecasting Apple will languish in single-digit growth by 2015...

Analyst: iPhone 5 order cut no cause for alarm

Quit your worrying. In short, that's what one analyst Wednesday is telling nervous observers concerned over a report that Apple reduced orders for the iPhone 5 during the March quarter.

Instead, the reduction in orders could signal a more efficient supply stream and greater profit for investors.

As we reported earlier this week, Citi's Glen Yeung kicked off the hand-wringing by downgrading Apple stock to 'Neutral' from 'Buy', citing increased competition and the lower iPhone 5 orders. Other Wall Street analysts piled on, cutting their price targets for shares of the iPhone maker. Now J P Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz is the latest to say the reduced orders may not mean lower demand for the new Apple handset...