Apple could exceed sales figures for the iPhone

Was this really unexpected......?

At Macworld in January, Steve Jobs set Apple's goals at a one percent market share for the iPhone's first year. Analyst Shebly Seyrafi, however, thinks that despite the incredible amount of hype the company is pumping into its latest gadget, it's still underestimating the iPhone's performance. Syrafi estimates Apple will overshoot its goal by about 7 million units.

Apple is hoping to sell 10 million iPhone units in fiscal 2008, but Caris & Co. analyst Shebly Seyrafi thinks the company's estimates may be too low by about 7 million.

Seyrafi is estimating that Apple could sell as many as 17 million iPhones in 2008, and then jump up to 25 million units in fiscal 2009, according to Barron's.
Nearly Double
During his keynote presentation at Macworld Expo in January 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs stated his company was targeting one percent of the smart phone market in the iPhone's first year.

That would account for the 10 million unit figure Apple has targeted, but Seyrafi's projections put the iPhone over the one percent target by a healthy margin.

Seyrafi also expects Apple may sell 11.9 million iPods in the June 2007 quarter based on checks of the hard disk market.

About a third of those sales will be for Apple's video capable iPod, indicating a strong market for the portable media player.
Optimistic Outlook

Seyrafi is raising his target price for Apple stock from US$110 to $115.

He is also bumping up his fiscal 2007 earnings-per-share estimate from $3.43 to $3.52.

For fiscal 2008, he is now predicting a 3.73 EPS, up from $3.54, and $4.42 in 2009, up from $4.21.

On Tuesday, Apple stock was trading at $103.89, down 0.03 (0.03 percent).

Source

AT&T prepares for iPhone explosion

Staff leave cancelled as US mobile firm prepares for Apple iPhone to take over the mobile market

Jonny Evans

AT&T expects massive sales of Apple's iPhone when it ships in the US, while Orange, Vodafone and other European operators scuffle for distribution rights in the UK.

The latest reports indicate sales teams at AT&T are being warned that they will get no time off during the first few weeks of release of Apple's iPhone through the US mobile operator's service.

A first spotted by iLounge, an internal email purporting to be from AT&T warns employees that no holiday time will be agreed between 15 June and 15 July, and urges employees who have already made holiday plans to cancel them.

Additional reports claim the iPhone display units will be 7-feet tall, 3-feet wide and require both an internet connection and a power source to run.

The memo refers to the iPhone launch month as, "likely to be the biggest selling period we have seen in a few years."

The third survey to anticipate iPhone sales in recent weeks confirms AT&T's expectations for sales of Apple's $499 or $599 internet appliance mobile iPhone.

The Changewave Alliance survey believes the device will set a sales record and notes a cooling of demand for mobile phones from Nokia and Motorola as users cease upgrading their devices as they prepare to pounce on the iPhone.

“As more and more consumers switch to the iPhone, we are going to see a huge migration from mobile phone manufacturers like Motorola to the hipper, cooler iPhone,” said Tobin Smith, founder of ChangeWave Research and editor of ChangeWave Investing.

Apple plans to launch the device in Europe this year, with recent reporst claiming Vodafone and Orange to be most likely to secure the UK iPhone distribution deal.

Source

Apple may sell 17 million units in 2008

17 million units in 2008, 25 million in 2009 for the iPhone....

Shebly Seyrafi, an analyst with Caris & Co., this morning raised his price target for Apple (AAPL) to $115 from $110, asserting that iPod sales in the June quarter should be up from the March quarter. Seyrafi says he now sees iPod units in the quarter growing to 11.9 million units from 10.5 million in Q1; his previous forecast called for a decline to 10 million units.

Seyrafi says his checks come from the hard-disk market, which means strong demand for the video iPod, which he says is between a quarter and a third of total iPod shipments.

Seyrafi notes that there continues to be speculation that Apple will switch some video iPods to NAND flash later this year.

Meanwhile, Seyrafi says Apple’s recent warning that gross margins will decline from 35% in the first quarter to 32% in the second quarter due to more stable NAND pricing could be conservative. He notes that NAND pricing “has been more aggressive in the past few weeks.”

He also sees upside for the iPhone, and suggests that his already startling numbers could be too low. Seyrafi expects 17 million units in fiscal 2008 and 25 million in fiscal 2009 - remember that Apple CEO Steve Jobs had predicted getting to 1% global market share, or about 10 million phones, in the first year.

Seyrafi raised EPS estimates to $3.52 from $3.43 for the September 2007 fiscal year; to $3.73 from $3.54 for ‘08, and to $4.42 from $4.21 for ‘09.

Apple shares, which jumped $3.11 yesterday on very little news, this morning was down fractionally in early trading.

Source

Apple could be onto a good thing with the iPhone

Source
Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 2:30 pm

A recent Piper Jaffray study reports that 84% of the students surveyed knew about the iPhone and that 25% said that they would purchase one at the standard retail price of $500. Apple could be onto a really good thing with the iPhone.

Analysts have been predicting that iPhone sales for 2007 would be around 660,000 units, with some 4 million units being shipped in 2008, but if this recent survey is anything to go by, these figures could be very conservative.

However, there is a difference between saying that you'll buy something for $500 and actually buying it. Also, there are a lot of unknowns surrounding the iPhone. Sure, it looks good and no doubt will exude that Apple "cool," but I'm interested in things like battery life and usability. Teens make a lot of use of SMS test messaging and I'm still not sold on the ergonomics of a hard touchscreen for fast text input. "Sexy" wears off with cell phones real fast, but it wears off incredibly quickly if the phone can't handle the basics well.

I don't believe that the price will put people off, especially the young. Handsets such as the Motorola RAZR cost about $500 when new and they sold. If the iPhone is as good as Steve Jobs says it is, then there's no doubt that there are phones on the market that cost more and do less.

Personally, no matter how good it is, I'd hold off until at least the next version. Hopefully by then Apple will have ironed out the kinks.