iPod touch seen as small but stealthy asset in Apple lineup
Though iPod sales are predicted to be the weakest-performing segment of Apple's overall sales this quarter, the iPod touch is said to be the ace up the company's sleeve, thanks to the platform's compatibility with the App Store.
Advancing next Tuesday's earnings report from Apple, Caris & Company released an analysis Friday that predicts the iPod touch will grow toward 10 percent of the company's revenues.
"No longer just a music/video player, iPod Touch is increasingly a gaming device, etc., with video camera a likely addition in next (fall?) refresh," the Caris report reads. "We believe iPod Touch sales have been ramping all year, representing an estimated 18% of iPod units since Sep-07 launch."
Even though the iPod lineup is not expected to have grown in terms of sales this past quarter, analysts still have high hopes for AAPL stock. Both Caris and J.P. Morgan have raised their target prices for the publicly traded company and recommend that investors buy. Both firms anticipate the company will report tremendous growth in both iPhone and Mac sales.
J.P Morgan had initially set a target price for AAPL of $155, but upped that this week to $167.50. The stock closed Thursday at $147.52. The firm said input from "industry contacts" suggests 2.5 million Macs were sold in the quarter, along with 4.34 million iPhones.
The J.P. Morgan report views the iPod touch as Apple's netbook, of sorts. At least, the analysis says, until Apple officially enters the netbook market ? something the firm expects the Mac maker to do.
"We think the iPod touch provides the portability, Internet browsing, and email features that are the hallmark of the netbook PC experience," the report states. "With the iPod touch, the main limitation is the small screen size relative to netbooks. While we continue to believe that Apple will introduce its own netbook-like device, in the interim, the iPod touch should help the company benefit from the latest computing trend related to the netbook."
Meanwhile, Caris has set a price point of $170 per share for AAPL. The company expects Apple to continue to grow through the September quarter, bolstered by the $99 iPhone 3G and price cuts in the MacBook lineup.
"We see Apple?s iPhone and Mac sustaining considerable headroom for growth via market share gains, with its iPhone/App Store shaking up the entire billion-unit cell phone industry," the Caris report reads.
Advancing next Tuesday's earnings report from Apple, Caris & Company released an analysis Friday that predicts the iPod touch will grow toward 10 percent of the company's revenues.
"No longer just a music/video player, iPod Touch is increasingly a gaming device, etc., with video camera a likely addition in next (fall?) refresh," the Caris report reads. "We believe iPod Touch sales have been ramping all year, representing an estimated 18% of iPod units since Sep-07 launch."
Even though the iPod lineup is not expected to have grown in terms of sales this past quarter, analysts still have high hopes for AAPL stock. Both Caris and J.P. Morgan have raised their target prices for the publicly traded company and recommend that investors buy. Both firms anticipate the company will report tremendous growth in both iPhone and Mac sales.
J.P Morgan had initially set a target price for AAPL of $155, but upped that this week to $167.50. The stock closed Thursday at $147.52. The firm said input from "industry contacts" suggests 2.5 million Macs were sold in the quarter, along with 4.34 million iPhones.
The J.P. Morgan report views the iPod touch as Apple's netbook, of sorts. At least, the analysis says, until Apple officially enters the netbook market ? something the firm expects the Mac maker to do.
"We think the iPod touch provides the portability, Internet browsing, and email features that are the hallmark of the netbook PC experience," the report states. "With the iPod touch, the main limitation is the small screen size relative to netbooks. While we continue to believe that Apple will introduce its own netbook-like device, in the interim, the iPod touch should help the company benefit from the latest computing trend related to the netbook."
Meanwhile, Caris has set a price point of $170 per share for AAPL. The company expects Apple to continue to grow through the September quarter, bolstered by the $99 iPhone 3G and price cuts in the MacBook lineup.
"We see Apple?s iPhone and Mac sustaining considerable headroom for growth via market share gains, with its iPhone/App Store shaking up the entire billion-unit cell phone industry," the Caris report reads.
Comments
iPod Touch is the gadget that competes directly with PSP and thats no secret. With camera (and maybe something even more) being reportedly added to iPod Touch later this year, it will be the gadget which beats the GameBoys and PSPs.
I see Touches all over NY these days- on the subways, streets, gyms.
A MacBook Pro has taken off from canada to me in india.
Going Mac from tomorrow onwards. And will never go back...
I keep quoting your signature now and then... :P
Hey teckstud,
A MacBook Pro has taken off from canada to me in india.
Going Mac from tomorrow onwards. And will never go back...
I keep quoting your signature now and then... :P
Great- you are in for a fantastic ride going forward. Enjoy it! I've used Mac's over 10 years but am stuck in a PC world at work. The Mac is like nothing else. Peace.
Though iPod sales are predicted to be the weakest-performing segment of Apple's overall sales this quarter, the iPod touch is said to be the ace up the company's sleeve, thanks to the platform's compatibility with the App Store. ...
I think the giant elephant in the room that is rarely, or perhaps only off-handedly mentioned in regards iPod sales analysis, is that obviously every iPhone sold is also an iPod sold.
I've read dozens and dozens of supposedly learned articles since the iPhone came out talking about declining iPod sales. The author typically (not necessarily in this piece), wrings their hands in anxiety over this unprecedented turn of events where the iPod sales are either shrinking, or not growing at the rate they have in the past. One look at the actual numbers on the charts tells you exactly where those sales have migrated however.
The real story is that iPod sales haven't dropped very dramatically at all when you take into account the sales of iPhones. They really should have, but they haven't. It's really a story of phenomenal growth if you take the market as a whole, but it's often reported as "the sad case of shrinking iPod sales." I know this isn't rocket science, (or even news in some circles), but I find it a bit sad how the mainstream media so often reports this as a negative when it's the exact opposite.
Great- you are in for a fantastic ride going forward. Enjoy it! I've used Mac's over 10 years but am stuck in a PC world at work. The Mac is like nothing else. Peace.
Who are you, and what have you done with techstud?
I've used Mac's over 10 years but am stuck in a PC world at work.
LoL... "Stuck with PC at work"... I am an iphone developer. Mac at work, Mac at home..
At this point only the crazy packrats buy HD based iPods. Nano/shuffle on low end and touch/iPhone on high end
To some extent your low end high end division still holds, but I think there is also a size and functionality division as well. To the extent they really are two different device families. For example, my wife has a nano and 3GS, and to her they are not redundant devices or high/low end. The nano is a small, relatively durable, simple and convenient music player/Nike + device. The iPhone is a pocket computer that also makes phone calls and plays music. In fact, I think calling the iPhone either a phone or an iPod misses the reality of the device completely. Same for calling the Touch an iPod. Yes it can play music through iTunes, but so can my laptop and desktop PC's, and no one would call those iPods. The nano and shuffle are iPods, toch and iphone something completely different.
Who are you, and what have you done with techstud?
He only hates the iPhone/AT&T. As far as I can tell he has always liked the Mac.
"with its iPhone/App Store shaking up the entire billion-unit cell phone industry," the Caris report reads.
Shaking up an entire billion-unit industry... would we expect anything less from Apple?!
Personally though I have a hard time with the idea that Touch will get a camera in the next rev. Some people actually choose it over iPhone for the lack of that camera. Just like some choose for lack of a contract. I know I debated for months before going the iPhone route. There will be more Touch devices obviously but I'm just hoping that a model similarly configured to todays Touch stays around.
Now if the do offer up a camera I'm hoping it is not based on a tiny cell phone chip. I'd rather have a 4 or 5 mega pixel sensor out of an point and shoot with the corresponding optics. A camera based Touch truly needs to be an alternative device. Yes I realize that means a bigger device to contain the optics, but this does not imply a hugely larger device either.
Speaking of larger devices I hope Apple realizes there is need for a larger Touch, what many of us call Newton 2. It still needs to be easy to carry and pocketable (large pocket) but needs a much larger screen to support video, e-book reading and the web better. Of course this would make for an ideal portable game player and as such needs hardware to support that.
The thing is I can see a whole family of Touch devices being sucessful with out cell tech being built into them. Ideally one or more though will have that option as we do today. It will be interesting to see where Apples "different direction" takes them. I can see a Family of Touch devices at least as large as the entire line up of iPod devices is today. This isn't stealth at all if you look at what Apple has had on the market. Rather it is a rapidly maturing concept, that is a expression of what handheld computing can be.
Dave
He only hates the iPhone/AT&T. As far as I can tell he has always liked the Mac.
Now he **loves** his iPhone, and actually tolerates ATT.
I bought some more AAPL when I learnt that (and the stock is up about $15 since the announcement).
At this point only the crazy packrats buy HD based iPods. Nano/shuffle on low end and touch/iPhone on high end
A 32 GB touch would maybe hold all of my music & video, but the extra space is nice to have so when you sync photos you can automatically include the originals and have an automatic backup of your entire photo library (one of the few truly irreplaceable types of files you have). An HD-based iPod also makes a nice little emergency boot drive, which I just used recently when the drive in my mini crashed. And an encrypted disk image on the iPod makes a great place to backup important documents. So if there's a break-in, fire, or flood while I'm out and my computer is lost, a copy of my most important stuff is with me. But the touch has no "enable disk use" option, so none of this is possible.
I can also use Apple's radio remote to listen to FM on my 5th gen iPod. And their camera connector allows me to copy photos off my camera's memory card for backup should I lose or damage the memory card before I get home. So I no longer need to take my laptop on vacation with me. You can even view the photos on the iPod's screen to show to your friends and family before you've ever loaded them onto a computer.
So it's not just the "packrats" with 100s of GB of music that appreciate the HD iPods. They are actually quite capable for a lot of other things, but Apple never advertised those capabilities. I've had 3 friends go out and buy the radio remote after they saw mine. They just never knew it could do all that.
A 32 GB touch would maybe hold all of my music & video, but the extra space is nice to have so when you sync photos you can automatically include the originals and have an automatic backup of your entire photo library (one of the few truly irreplaceable types of files you have). An HD-based iPod also makes a nice little emergency boot drive, which I just used recently when the drive in my mini crashed. And an encrypted disk image on the iPod makes a great place to backup important documents. So if there's a break-in, fire, or flood while I'm out and my computer is lost, a copy of my most important stuff is with me. But the touch has no "enable disk use" option, so none of this is possible.
I can also use Apple's radio remote to listen to FM on my 5th gen iPod. And their camera connector allows me to copy photos off my camera's memory card for backup should I lose or damage the memory card before I get home. So I no longer need to take my laptop on vacation with me. You can even view the photos on the iPod's screen to show to your friends and family before you've ever loaded them onto a computer.
So it's not just the "packrats" with 100s of GB of music that appreciate the HD iPods. They are actually quite capable for a lot of other things, but Apple never advertised those capabilities. I've had 3 friends go out and buy the radio remote after they saw mine. They just never knew it could do all that.
All good points. And, the Touch is too refined for a car.
LoL... "Stuck with PC at work"... I am an iphone developer. Mac at work, Mac at home..
If only I could be so lucky. I work in the financial world, which for the most part is the friggin' PC world.
Now he **loves** his iPhone, and actually tolerates ATT.
I bought some more AAPL when I learnt that (and the stock is up about $15 since the announcement).
Hey - where's my cut?
Hey - where's my cut?
Oh, I view it as just compensation.........