There’s no doubt that Apple has a definite interest in virtual reality. Tim Cook said on the most recent earnings call that “it’s really cool and has some interesting applications,” and he didn’t see it as a niche product. That’s as big a clue as Apple ever gives about its degree of interest in a product area.
UI concept for VR iPhone case Pinć from Cordon Labs
Apple has recently hired a lead engineer from Microsoft’s HoloLens team, leading to more speculation that it could be working on its own augmented reality project behind the scenes.
Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster first spotted the change of positions for Nick Thompson, who was reportedly previously leading audio hardware engineering efforts for Microsoft’s Hololens augmented reality project:
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Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, who has confidently predicted the imminent arrival of a fully-fledged Apple television year after year, has finally admitted he was just making wild guesses mistaken in his analysis.
Faced with the WSJ‘s report that Apple had considered launching its own TV set but had dropped its plans a full year ago, Munster has issued a note entitled Facing The Reality of No Apple Television, reports Business Insider.
“Given how adamant we have been about the reality of an Apple television, it’s hard to accept the reality of no Apple television,” says Munster in his note. “Our latest thinking prior to this story was that Apple would launch a television in 2016. Based on this report, we no longer expect a television to launch indefinitely.”
We’ve been tracking Munster’s predictions that Apple would launch a television set either “this year” or “within a year” since early 2011, with repeats later that year, early 2012, late 2012, early 2013, a bit later in 2013 and – slightly more cautiously – late 2014. I’ve probably missed a few.
Spotted: Analyst guessing Apple Watch pricing.
Analyst Gene Muster, from Piper Jaffray, has today posted a report with his predictions about Apple Watch pricing. Munster believes that Apple will improve overall margins through the sale of bands. This makes a lot of sense, especially considering Apple Retail SVP Angela Ahrendts is calling out ‘accessories’ as a key area for retail in the coming months.
A biweekly survey of 60 U.S. Apple Stores says that availability of the iPhone 5s has reached 90 percent of all iPhones in stock, almost triple the 31 percent figure measured just a fortnight ago, reports CNET.
Apple’s online store lists a ship time of three to five business days for the iPhone 5S, down from two to three weeks earlier this month. Munster said he believes that supply of the 5S will meet demand in early December, mimicking the same route taking by the iPhone 5.
However, the figures come from Gene Munster, an analyst not always a reliable source when it comes to predictions, and not everyone agrees.
[tweet https://twitter.com/llsethj/status/378343208377663488]
Time will tell, but if you’re planning to buy one as a holiday gift, sooner rather than later remains advisable. Even more so for the Retina iPad Mini.
As always, the best deals for iPhones and other Apple and Apple-related products for the shopping season will be on 9to5mac’s product pages and 9to5Toys.
Image: tested.com
One of the big question marks around the iPhone 5C – the rumored name for the mid-market plastic iPhone – is how Apple will prevent the lower-cost phone cannibalizing sales of the iPhone 5 and 5S.
One possibility is to limit sales of the 5C to emerging markets. Apple could make it available in India and China, where price is a much bigger barrier to iPhone acquisition, and withhold it from North America and Europe. That would make a great deal of sense, but is extremely unlikely and an approach Apple has ever taken before.
Analyst Gene Munster has another theory, though one just as unlikely: that the 5C will omit a key feature of present-generation iPhones: Siri.
Additionally, we believe that Apple may exclude some software features, such as Siri, which we note was not an option on the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 upon launch …
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Piper Jaffray Apple analyst Gene Munster is out today with an updated outlook for the company, warning that Apple will not have any major product announcements until June and likely miss its June guidance with lower-than-expected iPhone and Mac sales.
In other words, the Retina iPad mini he predicted would launch in March—not happening. Instead, Munster said Apple could announce an incremental upgrade to iPad or iTunes in April and wouldn’t have a major product announcement until the iPhone 5S lands in late June. He also told Bloomberg this morning (video above) that a cheaper iPhone would be announced in September through a deal with China Mobile and ship in September or October.
Gene still prays for an Apple HDTV this year, telling Bloomberg this morning there is “no question whether it’s a set-top box versus a TV, it’s an actual TV.” He hopes Apple will announce its full-fledged television set by the end of the year.
Gene also thought Apple’s iWatch won’t make an appearance until 2014, while also noting that wearable technology has an opportunity to cannibalize the phone market within 5 to 10 years.
Samsung officially unveiled its flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone last night at a theatrical, Broadway-style presentation in New York, and analysts are quick to jump in today with opinions on what it means for Apple. AAPL is having a decent morning hitting a high of 442.50 and opinions from analysts seem to be split down the middle regarding whether the S4 has what it takes to cut into Apple’s market share.
Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray doesn’t seem too impressed with the S4 upgrade but noted Samsung’s new S Band is “a quick first pass for Samsung on wearable technology ahead of Apple’s watch. Munster added that he expects Apple to launch its smart watch product by 2014 (via Barron’s):
The Galaxy S4 appears to be largely an incremental update to the S3 including a slightly larger screen (4% larger on diagonal), better camera and processor, and updated software, but largely the same body style and casing. We believe some of the software features are unique, including the tilt to scroll, video pausing based on facial recognition, and hand gesture based interactions, but view these software improvements as minor compared with what Siri was to the iPhone 4S or even Google Now to Android.
Jefferies analyst Peter Misek thought the S4 will be “incrementally negative for Apple” but doesn’t view the S4 upgrade as “revolutionary” (via Zdnet):
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Speaking with Bloomberg today about Apple’s upcoming earnings call, Piper Jaffray’s Apple analyst Gene Munster said his most recent checks with suppliers in Asia and industry sources indicate Apple is moving to release a full-fledged television this year with a new remote. This is of course not the first time the analyst has predicted Apple will release an HDTV—rather than an updated set-top box—in 2013…
Munster is expecting the Apple TV set to be one of three catalysts to help investors get behind Apple stock again in 2013. The other two are a Retina iPad mini in March and a low-cost iPhone later in the year. With the Apple TV information supposedly coming from supply chain sources in Asia, we’d expect Munster to have some more concrete specs instead of the same non-specific hearsay we’ve heard before. Note: Munster has predicted an Apple HDTV since 2011. Here’s what he had to say on Bloomberg (around the 9:40 mark):
The core of the debate is an improved set-top box… a hockey puck that attaches to your TV, or an actual television. Based on our work, in part, with talking to suppliers in asia, to talking with people in the industry, we think its an actual television. Specifically, the basic thing it fixes is the remote control problem… We think fixing that is going to be an important part of it. And the second piece down the road is content, content on demand. That’s essentially what apple television is.
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is out with a note today comparing foot traffic and sales per hour at Apple and Microsoft retail stores for Black Friday (via Fortune). Munster’s team apparently spent eight hours outside of the Mall of America Apple Store in Minneapolis to provide us with some good stats on how well Apple Stores did compared to the Microsoft Store at the same location. Munster found customers purchased 17.2 items per hour at the Apple Store, compared to just 3.5 products per hour at the Microsoft store. However, he also reported all but two of the Microsoft store purchases were Xbox titles.
During their eight hours at the Apple Store (and two hours at the Microsoft store), Munster’s team reported an average of 11 iPads per hour—compared to zero Microsoft Surface sales. Unfortunately, the chart above doesn’t track iPhones sales.
The positive take away was store traffic was up 31% y/y, likely driven by shoppers wanting to see the new iPad Mini. The negatives were that the most popular iPad Mini (16G) is in limited supply and Mac sales (~12% of revenue) continue to appear to be impacted by the iPad and a slowdown ahead of the new iMac.
Apple recently changed shipping times for iPhone 5 from “2-3 weeks” to two weeks for orders from its website, indicating the company is starting to iron out production delays and catch up to demand. Today, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster noted checks of 100 App Stores show supplies of iPhone 5 are increasing through Apple’s retail stores, as well (via Fortune). According to Munster’s checks, iPhone 5 is currently available in 92 percent of Apple Stores for Sprint, 82 percent for AT&T, and 72 percent for Verizon:
AT&T and Verizon have shown dramatic improvements in availability, while Sprint has maintained consistent availability. Last night, our checks indicated that Sprint phones were in stock at 92% of Apple Stores, AT&T was available at 82% of stores and Verizon at 72% of stores. Additionally, we note that wait times for online phone orders dropped to two weeks as of today.
Munster said he believes “within the next two weeks that customers will be able to purchase iPhone 5s at Apple Stores same day,” which is obviously great news for Apple and consumers leading into the holidays.
[tweet https://twitter.com/genemunster/status/270901641828524034]
In recent months, several reports from Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and most recently Jefferies seem to indicate Apple is in talks with cable companies for a new Apple TV-related service. It depends on whom you ask as to whether that service would center on a next-generation Apple TV set-top box or mark Apple’s introduction of the much-rumored Apple HDTV. There are still a couple analysts betting on an Apple TV set in the near future. Peter Misek of Jefferies is one. Misek estimated sales of 4.9 million units in CY13, and Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster is once again adding to the rumors today…
Munster, who has many times in the past predicted a full-fledged Apple HDTV, reported in a note to clients today that Apple will launch a TV set in time for the 2013 holiday season (via Business Insider). Not to be confused with a possible refreshed TV set-top box, Munster believes Apple will release an HDTV somewhere between 42-inches and 55-inches and priced between $1,500 and $2,000.
Perhaps more interesting than the Apple TV rumor is Munster’s claims that Apple is set to launch a new radio service in March of 2013—possibly alongside a Retina iPad mini. As for the rest of Munster’s 2013 roadmap for Apple: in June 2013, he is predicting previews of iOS 7, OS X, and new Retina MacBook Airs.
Munster’s other not-so surprising predictions from the note:
Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster, the same Munster who predicted 10 million iPhone 5 sales (and all the HDTV predictions), is out with the firm’s semi-annual survey of device ownership among teens. AllThingsD has the survey results of 7,700 U.S. teens included, showing a 34 percent increase in iPhone ownership and a lot of interest in a $300 iPad mini:
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As noted by Phillip Elmer-DeWitt at Fortune, Apple analyst Gene Munster published a note to clients today that contained the results of a Siri vs. Google search 1600-question showdown.
While it is not exactly a test of how well the companies’ various voice services stack up against one another (since Google Search queries were typed-in and not spoken), but it is a good indication of just how viable Siri is as an everyday mobile search product and alternative to Google. In the test, both Google and Siri were asked 800 questions in a quiet location. Another 800 questions were asked among the loud street traffic in Minneapolis. The results, according to Fortune:
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Yesterday, we reported that Qualcomm announced it was having “trouble meeting demand” for its next-generation chips that would likely find their way into an LTE-enabled iPhone 5. While the announcement was a clear indication that Apple’s rumored October release window was much more likely than talk of a June unveiling at WWDC, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster agreed and said the new device will be the mother of all hardware upgrades:
“We think one of the big features of iPhone 5 is going to be LTE… when iPhone 4S came out it was obviously the same form factor… this is going to be a big hardware upgrade… this is going to be the year of the hardware… the mother of all upgrades “
Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster has surveyed kids for a many years on their electronics usage. This spring, he polled 5,600 students, and half the group was male, while the other half was female. A surprising 34 percent of high school respondents said they owned an iPhone and 40 percent said they planned to get one in the next six months:
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This is surprising, because comScore released its own Mobile phone breakdown today that claimed only 13.5-percent of ages 13 and up owned Apple phones:
Included in that 13.5-percent are supposedly those 34 percent of high school kids, meaning the adult population would have to be even lower than 13.5-percent, which also means high school kids are three times as likely to own an iPhone as their parents if the numbers are right.
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Pictured above: An Apple television concept render by Guilherme Schasiepen.
Piper Jaffray’s resident Apple analyst Gene Munster stands out as arguably the most outspoken proponent of an Apple-branded HDTV television set otherwise known as the mythical iTV. With all eyes now on Apple’s iPad 3 unveiling next Wednesday, the pundits are also keeping their fingers crossed for a much-needed Apple TV refresh with 1080p video output and a faster processor, especially now that Apple TVs are increasingly disappearing from shelves.
Piggy-backing on the forthcoming product unveiling hype, Munster shed more light on what he believes a full-blown television set adorned by the shiny Apple logo should be like during yesterday’s interview with Bloomberg Radio’s Tom Keene and Ken Pruitt. Munster is betting Apple will introduce the rumored product some time this year and is expecting fall availability. You will want to buy it, because:
It’s going to live up to some of the building hype. It will be the biggest thing in consumer electronics since the smartphone.
From a design standpoint, the iTV “will look different” than your regular television: “Imagine just a sheet of glass – no edges or bevels.” The analyst re-iterated his previous observations, including strong focus on content consumption (presumably delivered through iTunes/iCloud) and Siri voice control…
Apple television mockup by Guilherme M. Schasiepen
Piper Jaffray’s resident Apple analyst Gene Munster is arguably the most vocal proponent of an integrated high-definition television set from Apple, the mythical iTV. His old predictions were picked up by the press lately thanks to that vague Apple HD TV hint in Walter Isaacson’s authorized Steve Jobs biography, gaining more credence with both Sony and Samsung dissing the idea as old news.
Now, last we heard from Munster was in November of last year when he predicted an Apple television set within a year, costing double a comparable set. In a note to clients issued Tuesday, the analyst warned that his original timing “remains uncertain” but underscored he is still targeting “a late 2012 launch.”
More interesting is Munster’s claim that a “major TV component supplier” told him last month Apple was inquiring about “various capabilities of their television display components,” which sounds a lot like this skeptical New York Times report from October 2011. However, “Without a revamped TV content solution, we do not think Apple enters the TV market,” Munster wrote. Remaking the user interface is easy, but getting Hollywood on board will be tricky, as the Wall Street Journal warned in December.
With that in mind, Munster offers three content scenarios for the Apple television, as quoted by Fortune’s Philip Elmer-Dewitt…