UBS bullish on Apple's Mac distribution expansion

[AppleInsider]

Investment Research firm UBS said Monday it believes Apple's expanding relationship with major US consumer electronics retailers is likely to branch out further, producing positive long term effects on Mac sales.

Analyst Ben Reitzes, who maintains a Buy rating and $124 price target on shares of the Cupertino-based Mac maker, informed clients in a research note of Best Buy's decision to expand its Mac pilot from 58 stores currently to approximately 200 by this fall.

"During Apple's earnings call in [January], management stated that it was evaluating the results of its relationship with Best Buy and deciding how to proceed with the relationship," he wrote. "We believe the Best Buy expansion is a positive for Mac sales long term."

Reitzes said recent checks indicate that Mac sales "held up well" during Apple's fiscal second quarter of 2007, ended March, and could be poised for acceleration alongside the successive launches of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and Adobe's Creative Suite 3 bundles later this spring.

The analyst estimates Mac unit shipments grew 34 percent year-over-year during the quarter to 1.5 million units. His models for the full fiscal years of 2007 and 2008 call for Mac units to grow 27 percent and 25 percent to 6.7 million units and 8.4 million units, respectively.

"We are also optimistic about additional new Mac products and Apple's potential to expand relationships with Best Buy and Circuit City even further," he added.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[EruIthildur]

"We are also optimistic about additional new Mac products and Apple's potential to expand relationships with Best Buy and Circuit City even further," he added.

So they should be...

The iPod is so iconic, I think the iTV will be too. The iMac certainly has potential to reach that height, and the iPhone is already becoming.

[Restalot]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Reitzes said recent checks indicate that Mac sales "held up well" ...

His models for the full fiscal years of 2007 and 2008 call for Mac units to grow 27 percent and 25 percent to 6.7 million units and 8.4 million units, respectively.

What is really amazing to me is that his models have the ability to take really obsure source data (i.e. held up well) and can predect 2 years on this data. I wonder what the next two years would like like if after Apple's next invester call Steve says:

1. Sales were "better than expected"
2. Sales were "ahead of plan"
3. "Steve Balmer leaves Microsoft"

Business planning is really in the 21st century now.

[suhail]

Originally Posted by EruIthildur

So they should be...

The iPod is so iconic, I think the iTV will be too…

Apple better post more movies soon or else their Apple TV will turn into a major flop… I was able to justify buying only ONE movie from their insignificant movie-list!!

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by suhail

Apple better post more movies soon or else their Apple TV will turn into a major flop… I was able to justify buying only ONE movie from their insignificant movie-list!!

Have you tried using it to subscribe to any video podcasts?

[i-holic]

i'm a big fan of AI - but i have one ? for the writers. do you guys realize how often you use the phrase "Cupertino-based..." in your stories? it gets kinda old.

[Slewis]

Originally Posted by i-holic

i'm a big fan of AI - but i have one ? for the writers. do you guys realize how often you use the phrase "Cupertino-based..." in your stories? it gets kinda old.

Keywords for being picked up in Search Engines. It worked, I discovered AI almost a year ago in my daily Apple Google News searches.

Sebastian

[digitalclips]

Originally Posted by suhail

Apple better post more movies soon or else their Apple TV will turn into a major flop… I was able to justify buying only ONE movie from their insignificant movie-list!!

I won't buy any until they are 720p but I love my Apple TV anyway

Meanwhile, I wish there was a way to extract 1080i HD material from my Verizon FiOS HD DVR ... I'd kill to keep the Planet Earth Episodes a while longer and in 720p at least. Anyone cracked this yet?

[digitalclips]

Originally Posted by EruIthildur

So they should be...

The iPod is so iconic, I think the iTV will be too. The iMac certainly has potential to reach that height, and the iPhone is already becoming.

The snag with these stores is, as many have said in other threads... the staff!

When we Mac types pop in remember, while there, it's our duty to mess with any PC nerd's heads who, whilst serving in Mac departments, say anything negative

[suhail]

Originally Posted by SpamSandwich

Have you tried using it to subscribe to any video podcasts?

I tried one videocast, but watching it on my 37" amplified the artifacts and made it look worse.

[Bageljoey]

Originally Posted by suhail

Apple better post more movies soon or else their Apple TV will turn into a major flop… I was able to justify buying only ONE movie from their insignificant movie-list!!

which one?

[AISI]

Originally Posted by Restalot

What is really amazing to me is that his models have the ability to take really obsure source data (i.e. held up well) and can predect 2 years on this data.

That's not how I read it, only short term forecasts (1.5 million units this quarter) depend on recent channel checks, obviously. Long term forecasts (Mac units growth in FY07 and 08) depend on the fact that Apple is expanding its Mac retail distribution channels, etc.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by i-holic

i'm a big fan of AI - but i have one ? for the writers. do you guys realize how often you use the phrase "Cupertino-based..." in your stories? it gets kinda old.

And then when they don't, some guy comments on that as well.

What should they do?

[jawporta]

Apple better hire emplyees for Best Buy, the Best Buy in NYC, 3 blocks from the Apple Store told me not to buy an iMac because it didn't run Office.

[suhail]

Originally Posted by Bageljoey

which one?

O Brother Where Art Thou

[SpamSandwich]

Originally Posted by jawporta

Apple better hire emplyees for Best Buy, the Best Buy in NYC, 3 blocks from the Apple Store told me not to buy an iMac because it didn't run Office.

I hope you beat him to death with his own pocket protector.