AmTech: Widescreen iPod with Bluetooth headphones in the pipeline
Apple Computer may release a new widescreen iPod with Bluetooth capabilities as early as its next fiscal quarter, analysts for American Technology Research said this week.
In a research note sent to clients early Tuesday morning, analyst Shaw Wu said his latest proprietary checks reveal that the new iMac Core Duo remains Apple's hottest selling PC.
Meanwhile, demand for the company's MacBook Pro professional notebooks continues to greatly outstrip supply, according to the analyst. However, he views recent improvements to the notebook's lead times to be a positive.
"The most interesting development is that Apple has notified its distributors that its high-end 60GB vPod is "at risk" until the end of April, meaning it could be discontinued and/or replaced," Wu wrote. "Timing is not certain to us, but we believe a new widescreen vPod with Bluetooth headphones could be ready as early as the June quarter."
The analyst also said his checks show sales of Apple's latest Intel Mac, the Mac mini, to be "lukewarm, similar to the PowerPC versions it replaced." Wu said that despite the added features in the Intel version, there appears to be some hesitation among potential buyers due the price increase that accompanied the Intel Mac minis.
Looking at Apple's music space, Wu said checks show the iPod nano to be experiencing the greatest seasonal decline of all Apple's iPod models, with the exception of "decent sales" of the new low-end $149 1GB model. "We believe Apple may need to increase storage capacities and/or cut prices to re-generate interest," he said. "Declining prices in NAND flash and additional capacity coming on board should help Apple facilitate these moves."
American Technology Research made no changes to its March quarter estimates of $4.43 billion in revenue and 43 cents in earnings-per-share.
"We continue to believe that consensus revenue and iPod unit forecasts may be unrealistically high," the firm said.
American Technology Research maintains a Buy rating on Apple shares with a price target of $101.
In a research note sent to clients early Tuesday morning, analyst Shaw Wu said his latest proprietary checks reveal that the new iMac Core Duo remains Apple's hottest selling PC.
Meanwhile, demand for the company's MacBook Pro professional notebooks continues to greatly outstrip supply, according to the analyst. However, he views recent improvements to the notebook's lead times to be a positive.
"The most interesting development is that Apple has notified its distributors that its high-end 60GB vPod is "at risk" until the end of April, meaning it could be discontinued and/or replaced," Wu wrote. "Timing is not certain to us, but we believe a new widescreen vPod with Bluetooth headphones could be ready as early as the June quarter."
The analyst also said his checks show sales of Apple's latest Intel Mac, the Mac mini, to be "lukewarm, similar to the PowerPC versions it replaced." Wu said that despite the added features in the Intel version, there appears to be some hesitation among potential buyers due the price increase that accompanied the Intel Mac minis.
Looking at Apple's music space, Wu said checks show the iPod nano to be experiencing the greatest seasonal decline of all Apple's iPod models, with the exception of "decent sales" of the new low-end $149 1GB model. "We believe Apple may need to increase storage capacities and/or cut prices to re-generate interest," he said. "Declining prices in NAND flash and additional capacity coming on board should help Apple facilitate these moves."
American Technology Research made no changes to its March quarter estimates of $4.43 billion in revenue and 43 cents in earnings-per-share.
"We continue to believe that consensus revenue and iPod unit forecasts may be unrealistically high," the firm said.
American Technology Research maintains a Buy rating on Apple shares with a price target of $101.
Comments
Remember: rumors are not Apple promises
Originally posted by nagromme
If a video iPod doesn't appear ever--or appears in June instead of April--then I await the cries and sobs of what a terrible company Apple is, and how they lied when they promised a video iPod April 1
Remember: rumors are not Apple promises
I wish we could convince the stupid knee-jerk-reaction stock-buying public that rumors and totally unreasonable analyst expectations are not Apple promises! Every time some nutty expectation is not met that has little to do with anything Apple's overall financial, the stock takes another hit. It's down $20 since December. Apple stock has been good to for me overall, but it seems to be so more emotionally-driven than any other stock I've ever owned, which I don't like...
- JonYo
Originally posted by nagromme
If a video iPod doesn't appear ever--or appears in June instead of April--then I await the cries and sobs of what a terrible company Apple is, and how they lied when they promised a video iPod April 1
Remember: rumors are not Apple promises
I take that you were angry when posting this message. Apple is not a terrible company, far from it.. They're a great company that have managed to do the unimaginable to bring it back to it's feet and pioneering in the same industry at the same time.. Don't want to bring a negative point to prove you wrong but take a look at Micro$oft promises (Windows Vista) and you'll se that they'll didn't just pushed back for more than 2 years but also won't add much of the anticipated features that they promised to begin with. That is just one example of what a "terrible' company is, if there is such thing!
I read postings here almos everyday and I'm amazed of how much negativity towards Apple from it's own so called "Macaddicts". No wonder why Apple doesn't take off like it should have.. Not because of Micro$oft or their own mistakes... It's simply because of it's own costumers.. I apologize for generalizing but I'm sure that true Apple users can be objective and at the same time critical of Apple, but not in a negative way but more in a construtive one..
This is what Apple needs from it's "core base"..!
Originally posted by Zenga
I take that you were angry when posting this message. Apple is not a terrible company, far from it.. They're a great company that have managed to do the unimaginable to bring it back to it's feet and pioneering in the same industry at the same time.. Don't want to bring a negative point to prove you wrong but take a look at Micro$oft promises (Windows Vista) and you'll se that they'll didn't just pushed back for more than 2 years but also won't add much of the anticipated features that they promised to begin with. That is just one example of what a "terrible' company is, if there is such thing!
I read postings here almos everyday and I'm amazed of how much negativity towards Apple from it's own so called "Macaddicts". No wonder why Apple doesn't take off like it should have.. Not because of Micro$oft or their own mistakes... It's simply because of it's own costumers.. I apologize for generalizing but I'm sure that true Apple users can be objective and at the same time critical of Apple, but not in a negative way but more in a construtive one..
This is what Apple needs from it's "core base"..!
I think you're totally misunderstanding thae post from nagromme. He's annoyed with the public opinion and/or press that puts unfair blame on Apple for not living up to "promises" that Apple never made, but are assumed because of rumors and unreasonable analyst expectations. He's not annoyed with Apple in his statement.
If I am recalling my iPod sales charts correctly, the last few years have been characterized by huge jumps in demand during the Christmas buying season, followed by declines that nevertheless leave sales figures much higher in terms of year over year. Kind of a stair step with the "tread" part of the stair sloping down slightly, but the "riser" taking sales ever hight.
Anybody know if the decline mentioned in the article follows this pattern? That is, are "slumping Nano sales" just an artifact of the post-holiday adjustment but still higher than last year?
If so, does Apple really need to "do something" to "stimulate interest" in the Nano, outside of its usual upgrade cycle?
And if I'm right about all of this, why are analysts so freaking worthless?
Originally posted by Zenga
I read postings here almos everyday and I'm amazed of how much negativity towards Apple from it's own so called "Macaddicts".
Aren't we technically "AppleInsiderers" in this forum?
Bluetooth for the audio would kill battery life.
Widescreen + Bluetooth wouldn't make it through a movie!!
Originally posted by macintel4me
Widescreen video would kill battery life.
Bluetooth for the audio would kill battery life.
Widescreen + Bluetooth wouldn't make it through a movie!!
2 separate problems.
Bluetooth uses power... so yeah if you were streaming video via Bluetooth it'd eat up battery.
Video requires constant hard-disk power-ups (since the iPod only has 32MB of cache). That uses the battery fast.
So... put the 2 together... and you have the current power problem, or a replacement power problem (since it may use bluetooth but then it doesn't need to power up the hard disk). Or add a 3rd option - a 400MB flash-based cache, so that whether it's bluetooth or from the hard disk, it can load it up into flash and then power-down the hard disk or bluetooth.