aapl
Latest
Rumor: Apple iPad to be delayed?
Over at Fortune, Philip Elmer-Dewitt relays speculation that the iPad might be delayed. Citing a Monday report by Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek, he writes that a manufacturing bottleneck may be affecting iPad production. According to the report, Apple production could be as low as 30% of its target goal (300K units versus its target of a million) and concludes that Apple might delay the iPad launch for a month due to the "...limited number of units available in March." During Apple's January event, CEO Steve Jobs promised the new iPad device would hit shelves within 60 days, with a 3G-enabled unit to follow approximately 30 days later. To date, Apple has yet to offer a firm release date and it is not yet taking pre-orders just a few weeks before the device is due. Manufacturing delays now joins FCC approvals as a speculative reason for why Apple has not yet announced dates or pre-orders. So far, this speculation has done precisely nothing to affect Apple stock prices. AAPL is up 4.15 at last check, holding at 208.77.Thanks, BrettUpdate An Apple PR rep told Wired that "iPad will be available in late March."
No Apple stock split...for now.
Thursday, Briefings.com, CNBC and a passel of other market analysts predicted that a 4 for 1 stock split would be announced at the Apple Shareholder Meeting. This rumor moved the market, but there are conflicting opinions to why. First, for the uninitiated, a stock split is a zero sum game. One interpretation is that a firm considers its stock too highly priced for the average consumer and decides to split. For example, let's say that Apple is trading for $200 and you have one share. If a 4 for 1 stock split takes place, you will wind up 4 shares, instead of 1, but each share will be valued at $50. Did you gain or lose any money? No. It's all on paper. However, to those not familiar with the Buttonwood tree, and that's a lot of us, it sounds like 'quick buy Apple and you'll be getting 4 times as much'. The case for this sort of stupidity is well made by Barrons. Stock splits are nothing new to AAPL. They've split 2 for 1 three time in the past, in June 1987, June 2000 and February 2005. There are two general schools of thought on the reason behind stock splits, and they are total opposites. The first theory is that a company will split a stock if it is in trouble to allow lower dollar investors to buy their shares at half the price and thus incur less risk. The other school of thought is that a good company realizes their stock is just too expensive for the small trader who has some cash on the sidelines. It is meant to give the small guy an easier way to buy some stock without needing to commit the $200 for a share. Both sides have their points and, to an extent, both points are based on smoke and mirrors since they do not effect the worth of the company or the aggregate value of the stock by one penny.
iPad: Investors shouldn't think short-term
No doubt about it, Apple stock has been on a wild ride since yesterday's iPad announcement. Investors were hoping Apple would deliver big, and while many Wall Street analysts believe they hit a home run – thanks in large part to not just the technology, but the price point of the device – the stock took a large dip today. On news of the iPad, AAPL closed at $207.88 yesterday. Today the stock lost over 4% to close at 199.29. Why? Well, most of the time there's a huge sell off after Apple announces something new. A majority of the sell off is because people generally price the stock according to the rumor. It's the old "buy on the rumor, sell on the news" mentality. I've already stated in the past that I believe AAPL is headed past $300, and their latest earnings certainly seem to be pointing in that direction. But how does the iPad fit into all of this? Frank Cioffi Founder and editor of Apple Investor News has written an interesting editorial for The Huffington Post about what the iPad should mean to investors. Cioffi (who's long on AAPL) admits that while he's a huge Mac fan, he probably won't be buying the iPad because he's not sure how it would give him anything he doesn't currently have in his iPods, iPhone, or Mac laptops. He goes on to recognize that if one veteran Apple fan doesn't see the iPad as providing something his other Apple devices don't, it can't bode well for the short-term outlook for the iPad, which many investors are expecting to be an iPhone-like megahit. But then he brings up a critical point: the iPad is a slow-growth device. Apple has just reinvented portable entertainment and mobile computing. No, it's not "magical," as Apple claims, but it is an elegant form factor that will engage niche industries to create apps for their businesses. It will likely become a hit with educators... just as Apple started the decade with the iPod, which grew slowly into an iconic device, I predict the iPad, after initially underwhelming investors, will also grow over time and indeed create a new device category. But it will take time... Apple is planning for the long haul. This company has moved beyond an e-reader and created an e-entertainment device. Cioffi also points out one thing investors should be even more ecstatic about than the Apple tablet – Steve Jobs' weight. He's looking like he gained some (not a lot, but some) and IMHO is looking much better than last we saw him. But what say you? Are we going to be seeing dissapointing iPad Q3 numbers? Will the iPad eventually become the next "must have" tech gear like the iPod and iPhone? Tell us in the comments! Disclaimer: This author owns shares in AAPL. Opinions in this post are those of the author only and should not be considered as investment advice.
All of the news from today's iPad announcement
What a day it's been. The tablet is finally out. That's right, the tablet we've been waiting years for is real and will be on sale soon, only it's called the iPad, and it's pretty similar to the iPhone. Just in case you missed something today, here's everything we've learned about the magical and revolutionary device, all lined up in one easy-to-browse list. Just think, in 60 days, you'll be able to flip through these posts with your finger. On a 9.7" IPS screen, I mean. Liveblog and major news Apple Event Metaliveblog Apple announces the iPad AAPL goes on a rollercoaster ride See tweets live during the event on @tuawlive iPad pricing starts at $499, available in 60/90 days Hardware Apple's official iPad video, specs page Apple making its own chips, starting with the A4 iPad will ship with 802.11n Wi-Fi, 3G optional Apple announces keyboard dock for iPad Five iPad accessories available at launch What's missing from the iPad Software All iPhone apps will run on the iPad Apple announces iBooks, an e-reader for iPad Apple shows off new versions of iWork apps for iPad iPhone OS 3.2 SDK released, supports iPad but covered by NDA
AAPL goes on a roller-coaster ride
The above image from SingularityDsgn graphically shows the wild roller-coaster ride that Apple's stock has been on today. It traded at roughly 1.5% below Tuesday's closing price heading into today's iPad announcement, but started climbing during the iBooks announcement. AAPL's stock took a major leap when pricing information was released, and is currently trading around 209.69, up about 1.75% (please note that these numbers fluctuate frequently). Lots of jumping is about right for any Apple event, though the big jump when price was announced is somewhat surprising. AAPL actually tends to drop after an event, as there are so many rumors flying around ahead of time that investors are easily underwhelmed. But it looks like especially the pricing news won their approval today. As always, this is not official stock information, and you shouldn't make any buy or sell decisions based on what you read here.
Apple shares jump on news of Jan. 27 event
The news that Apple is going to announce something on January 27th has the stock market in a tizzy. At one point this morning, Apple shares were up to $214.16, up $8.23 or about 4.0%. Apple set a 52-week high with a share price of $215.59 on January 5, 2010, up 275.6% over the 52-week low set on January 20, 2009. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, by comparison, was up only .95% shortly after 1 PM ET today, and the NASDAQ index was up about 1.17%. It should be noted that Apple share prices traditionally fall after an announcement, but it will be fascinating to see if AAPL is able to hit a new high prior to the January 27th event. [via MacDailyNews]
Tim Cook gets $12.3M for watching Apple while Jobs was out
Apple COO Tim Cook has received $12.3 million in Apple stock for stepping in as CEO during Steve Jobs absence earlier this year. Considering its been a rough couple of years for the economy and many CEOs still got large salaries for doing very little, it's nice to see Cook being rewarded for, you know, actually doing something and producing results. In 2007 and 2008 Cook earned stock awards worth $7 million and $6 million, respectively. This year for Tim closes with a $12.3 million stock award plus a $100,00 salary raise (up to $800,000 from $700,000) and a fat cash bonus of $800,000. Total compensation for 2009? $14 million. Steve Jobs took his usual $1 salary and a $1 bonus. But don't worry, he's doing just fine with his 5.5 million shares of Apple (AAPL) stock, which closed Monday at another all-time high of $211.61 a share (that makes Steve's shares worth a cool $1,163,855,000).
Apple's 'iSlate' and other rumors that have given its stock a holiday boost
The Apple tablet rumors are at a fever pitch, yet again. Depending on what you've read, it's all but confirmed that the company's got a January 26th event scheduled at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in San Francisco, CA. All this, of course, with nary a word or comment from Cupertino HQ, and without the context that this trend has come and gone ad nauseam, both with the tablet and before with the years of lead-up to the iPhone. Here's the latest bit: MacRumors has dug up information about a Delaware-based company, Slate Computing, LLC, that was founded in November 2006 and owns the trademark "iSlate," the signatory of said trademark being Apple's Senior Trademark Specialist Regina Porter. Given that Apple owns "iSlate" trademark in Europe and that it's allegedly pulled similar stunts with a "fake" company and the iPhone trademark, sure, we could buy into this being just a dummy corporation... but does it really confirm an impending tablet that'll be called the "iSlate?" Not at all. We wouldn't be surprised if Apple has done this for numerous other trademarks, either to give itself more options or to prevent others from trying to manufacture products under those names. (Slate Computing, LLC also happens to own the "Magic Slate" trademark, just so you know.) Also bought up in 2006? The domain iSlate.com, which again according to MacRumors (with help form Mark Gurman of AppleRejectedMe.com) was apparently and briefly shown to be owned by Apple at some point during 2007. Food for thought, but trust us, you don't want to confuse hearsay for concrete fact. Which brings us to December 24th, where we see a statistically significant uptick in Apple's stock value. Seeing as the fiscals were released back in late October along with the last refresh of hardware (Mac Pro specs notwithstanding), it seems everyone decided to spend their holiday bonuses on some Apple shares. Now, we're not claiming to be professionals here by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems a lot of the activity here can be attributed to the recent flux of rumors. Jason Schwarz of The Street has an interesting take on it, which if you've got 15 minutes to kill should be worth your time to browse through.
It's a Merry Christmas for AAPL shareholders, stock at all-time high
On December 14th, I posted an opinion piece sharing my thoughts that AAPL stock would hit $300 a share in a year (for which I received quite a lot of critical feedback). Two days later, on December 16th, Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty issued a report stating she believes there is a 25% chance that AAPL will be between $325 and $435 in the next twelve months (she also believes it could fall to $150 if Google's Android takes off and Apple drops the ball). Huberty based her bullish outlook on the scenario that iPhone sales are on pace to capture 10-15% of the handset market by 2012 – and this doesn't even include soaring Mac sales or the impending iSlate. Well, the stock isn't at $325 yet, but on December 24th, AAPL did close at an all-time high of $209.04. Not bad considering on December 8th, the stock was down almost 8% on its previous high of $208 on November 16th. Christmas Eve's 3.4% one-day gain was driven primarily by the news that Apple has booked the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for an event on January 26th. So, where does the stock go from here? Traditionally, there is an early-January slide for AAPL that coincides with the "buy on rumor, sell on news" MacWorld Expo event, but since MacWorld is going to be Apple-free from now on, who knows if that will happen this year. And even if the early January slide hits AAPL, the company has so much going for it besides the rumored iSlate, I'm beginning to think my $300 target is rather conservative. But that's the future. For now the $209 share price is a nice Christmas gift. Disclaimer: This author owns shares in AAPL. Opinions in this post are those of the author only and should not be considered as investment advice.
Let's talk AAPL and the future
It's been a roller coaster ride over the past two years for Apple (AAPL) stock. In December 2007 it hit a then-peak of $199.83 a share. Just two months later AAPL sunk to $125. Three months after that it had recovered to the $180s, but by November 2008, AAPL had plummeted to $82 a share. Since then, the stock has recovered and hit an all-time closing high of $207 on November 17, 2009. As of today it's sitting pretty in the $190s -- though some think the drop from the $200s to $190s is suspicious. I argue with people all the time why Apple didn't deserve its dips and plummets over the last two years: The company is sitting flush with $23.5 billion $35 billion in the bank, in cash (about the same as the total market value of another major US computer maker, named for its CEO and founder, who 12 years ago famously suggested shutting down Apple and giving the money back to shareholders). It has zero debt. It is one of the most respected companies on the planet and has the world's greatest CEO. But more importantly than the cash and its status, I believe AAPL is a great buy because it has such small market share in all the categories it operates in save one...
AAPL hits all-time high
Steve Jobs' Disney stocks aren't the only thing making him rich -- AAPL has hit an all time high, according to MacRumors, thanks to the big announcements earlier this week, both on the online store and during the conference call. Before opening this morning, it was at 204.72, but the high yesterday was a whopping 208.71, the best the company's ever seen, beating the previous high of 199.83, set in December of 2007. And it's been a heck of a year: the stock was trading in the mid 80s this past January, though that may have been more of a sign of the economy at large than Apple's fortunes specifically. Boy, it would have been nice to buy back then, wouldn't it have? $5,000 of Apple's shares in January would be worth $13,000 yesterday. Just goes to show you can't keep a good fruit down. You can track all the AAPL financial news on our sister sites Blogging Stocks and Daily Finance.
MobileMe media sync detailed in Apple patent application
What do you know? It looks like Apple's filed yet another patent application. The company's newest is named (in the short, pithy way that patents are named) Synchronization of Media State Across Multiple Devices. Combining the ubiquity of MobileMe with the media syncing that goes down when you dock your iPod or iPhone, the application suggests that soon you might find all your Engadget Show episodes automagically picking up where you left 'em when you switch devices -- without any lag time or any pesky cables. As Macworld points out, also included in the paperwork is distance tracking functionality -- just the thing for automating sync operations when two devices come within range (it's unclear whether this will be done via Bluetooth or WiFi). Perhaps this news isn't exciting to the couch potatoes among us (you know, because they never leave the couch) but all you TV addicts "on the go" must be psyched.[Via Macworld]
Apple set to release third quarter 2009 earnings report on Tuesday
It's been a nice year for Apple so far. Stock prices have been steadily rising since January, outpacing a middling technology market. Apple is poised to reach a stock price it hasn't seen since August, 2008. And this particular quarter has seen a lot of Apple news and activity: the new iPhone 3GS was released this quarter with an associated 1 million device sales in the first weekend alone, the MacBook line received a refresh and a price cut, and Apple reported that application downloads on iTunes reached the 1.5 billion mark. Plus, let's not forget that Steve-O (ostensibly) returned to work in June.Apple appears to have weathered the Palm Pre assault with considerable fortitude, and the iPhone in all its iterations now commands more than 10% of the smartphone market. So what are experts predicting for Apple tomorrow? For starters, above-average revenue. Among well-regarded Wall Street analysts (take that for what it's worth) the top estimate is by Mark Moskovitz of J.P. Morgan, predicting 8.49B in revenue, with earnings per share (EPS) of $1.23. Lowest is Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray, who is predicting "only" 8B in revenue. But all revenue estimates are above the guidance numbers released by Apple itself, which put revenue at 7.9B. The Thomson Financial consensus (an average of all predicted reports) puts revenue at 8.18B. Everybody is in agreement that Apple's gross margins, which were 36.4% last quarter, are the envy of the market. Trading is brisk today, and stock prices are rising in expectation of tomorrow's positive announcement. Apple's announcement will occur at 5pm EST Tuesday. Check back for TUAW's report. It will be very interesting to see how well Apple does.
Apple rumored not to renew contract with NVIDIA for graphics chips
The relationship between Apple and NVIDIA, the manufacturer of the graphics chips in most Macs for quite some time now, appears to be souring at an exponential rate. Electronista reports that negotiations between the two companies to continue their business relationship are not going well, with Apple accusing NVIDIA of being arrogant. According to a source with access to NVIDIA, Apple is on track to cut NVIDIA off as a graphics chip provider for the next 3-4 years.If the two companies cannot reach an agreement, NVIDIA would continue to provide chips for models that currently use NVIDIA, but Apple would be likely to drop NVIDIA chipsets in updates to their product line, particularly in iMacs and MacBooks currently based on Intel's Nehalem architecture. A significant factor in the disagreement is the way NVIDIA handled the graphics failures of MacBook Pros carrying the GeForce 8600M video chipset, which had a tendency to overheat and eventually stop working. Apple had to extend the warranty on MBP models graphics chips sold from June 2007 to October 2008 to three years (the Apple support page on this issue can be found here).The relationship between Intel and NVIDIA hasn't exactly helped, either. Both businesses filed opposing lawsuits over NVIDIA's license to make mainboard chipsets with their own internal memory controllers. If Intel wins, NVIDIA could not make another chipset like its GeForce 9400M model that supports Core i7 processors, and would oust NVIDIA from Macs by exclusion. Neither Apple nor NVIDIA have publicly spoken on the matter so far. Apple does have a history of severing relationships almost without warning, as they dropped ATI (now AMD) from Power Mac G4s after the company revealed Apple's plans ahead of a Macworld keynote address. However, if Apple does indeed drop NVIDIA, they may have to return to AMD in order to maintain their current graphics standard.
Apple iPhone 3G S gets FCC clearance like clockwork
We have a hard time believing that the FCC's documentation system is efficient and well-coordinated enough to actually reveal documents at the exact date and time that filers want them to -- so who knows, maybe the feds are in bed with Apple on keeping its most prized launches under lock and key until just the right moment. We kid, we kid -- maybe -- but at any rate, you can now peruse hundreds of pages of specific absorption rate plots for GSM, UMTS / HSDPA, WiFi, and Bluetooth in both 16 and 32GB flavors of the iPhone 3G S. It's not likely going to tell you anything you didn't already know or care about, especially since there aren't any external photos or user's manuals accessible yet -- but if you get really, amazingly bored this evening, it might be worth a look-see.Read - iPhone 3G S 16GBRead - iPhone 3G S 32GB
iPhone OS 3.0 gold release in pictures
It won't be available en masse until the 17th of the month, but the gold build of iPhone OS 3.0 is now available to developers -- a promising sign that apps taking advantage of a wide variety of 3.0's new features (push notifications, in-app payments, and the like) will be available by the time it's released to the general public. We've been toying around with the latest cut here and have noticed a few small changes from beta 5; nothing groundbreaking, but notable nonetheless. Most importantly, iTunes is now offering movie, TV and music video downloads directly from the phone, which has caused the bottom navigation bar to be rearranged a bit. We also noticed that the App Store's nav bar was rearranged a bit to accommodate a "More" button where you'll find Top 25 and Redeem links. The Store screen in Settings now shows a nicely-formatted account information screen -- nice, we suppose -- but unfortunately, MMS configurability is still missing, so it's unclear whether AT&T will need to push an update once it flips the switch. Dive into the gallery for a closer look.
Apple WWDC 2009: the good, the bad, and the ugly
Sure, Apple didn't really shock anyone with the announcement of the iPhone 3G S this morning at WWDC, but there was no shortage of news at the Moscone Center -- we also got new MacBooks, final Snow Leopard details, and a release date for iPhone OS 3.0. On the other hand, it wasn't all good news either: AT&T's iPhone upgrade pricing and service levels leave a lot to be desired, and Apple's unfortunate penchant for sealed-in batteries has finally hit the 15-inch MacBook Pro. Apple's posted its stream of the keynote if you want to relive things in real-time, but here's a quick rewind in case you missed anything:The good Current iPhone owners will get iPhone OS 3.0 for free, although some features like video recording and voice control are limited to the iPhone 3G S. It's not perfect, but we don't really complain about free. Snow Leopard upgrades will cost just $29, instead of the usual $129. The original 8GB iPhone 3G is now only $99 for new AT&T subscribers. That's definitely going to make some waves in the smartphone market. We'd have loved to see some external design improvements and maybe some more surprising features that weren't rumored, but overall the iPhone 3G S is definitely in the "good" column -- it's a solid set of improvements to an already very good platform. MacBook Air and MacBook Pro (including the new 13-inch Pro) specs have increased while prices have come down, and glory be, FireWire is back on everything but the Air. The bad As usual, iPod touch owners are going to get dinged $9.95 for the iPhone OS 3.0 upgrade. Hey Apple -- maybe switch these guys over to subscription accounting as well? Let's face it, "iPhone 3G S" is a pretty clunky name. Sure, it's nice that the MacBook Pros now have an SD card slot, but losing ExpressCard hurts. And why not a multicard reader? Pro DSLRs still use CF. The ugly Sure, new customers and qualified upgraders are getting some sweet pricing on iPhone hardware, but AT&T's basically flipping existing customers the bird -- they'll have to pay anywhere from $399 to a whopping $699 to get an iPhone 3G S. You'd think they'd have looked at how many people went from a first-gen iPhone to a 3G and realized those same people would want a 3G S, but apparently not. On top of that insult, AT&T isn't supporting all of iPhone OS 3.0's features out the gate: MMS is coming "later this summer," and tethering has been promised but there's no timeline and no pricing information. Thanks, AT&T. Sure, it's grand that the 15-inch MacBook Pro's battery now lasts for up to seven hours on a charge and won't lose capacity for five years, but a non-swappable battery on a workhorse professional machine just doesn't cut it for us. So all in all we'd say that the good outweighs the bad, although AT&T really disappointed here. Of course, that's just scratching the surface -- check out the rest of our coverage after the break and let us know what you think!
White MacBook last MacBook standing
Apple wasn't totally clear about this earlier, but it turns out all the unibody MacBook models are now MacBook Pros -- the only remaining "MacBook" is the white plastic number. That's definitely a big change from Cupertino's usual rigidly-maintained product matrix -- we'd say that the lower-end Pros with GeForce 9400M integrated graphics definitely blur the line between consumer and professional machines. Still, it's not hard to tell one from the other on the outside, at least: MacBooks are plastic and MacBook Pros are aluminum. We all straight?
Video: iPhone 3GS gets a guided tour
Sure, you think you've learned all there is to know about Apple's new iPhone 3G S, but have you had its every feature explained and demonstrated for you by an unrealistically calm, factory-fresh ApplePerson over the course of 14 minutes in one of the company's trademark guided tours? Trust us, it's like taking a bubble bath in technology. Hit the read link for video.
AT&T: we'll offer tethering on the iPhone
It's been known since day one that iPhone OS 3.0 would support data tethering, and Apple took the opportunity at WWDC today to drive the point home by saying that it'd be launching the service with 22 carrier partners in 44 countries. Of course, it's easy to have assumed that AT&T wouldn't be one of those partners, but we've been told today by a company spokesman that it will be offering tethering on the device -- it just doesn't have any announcements to make at this time. Whether that means availability will be delayed (perhaps until the 7.2Mbps upgrade is built out) or they're just trying to hammer out pricing, we don't know, but it's a promising sign.
