“On the heels of its second best quarter ever and record Mac sales, Merrill Lynch has upgraded Apple stock from a ‘neutral’ to a ‘buy’ and raised its price target to $72–in part based on the company’s tacit acknowledgement of plans for an iPhone in Wednesday’s conference call,” MacNN reports.
MacNN reports, “Analyst Richard Farmer noted that Apple’s CFO Peter Oppenheimer made an indirect statement on Wednesday, alluding to an iPhone in its Q3 quarterly financial call.”
“‘Although the potential for iPod phone is not news, its financial impact is not in consensus estimates and the fact that management publicly alluded to it (albeit indirectly) on the conference call reinforces the possibility that its introduction could be near enough to influence consensus estimates within the next 12 months,’ Farmer said; however, the analyst does not believe Apple will release such a device until early in 2007,” MacNN reports.
MacNN reports, “‘We are very confident in our ability to compete in the marketplace. And we’re very excited about what we have in the product pipeline, and you know that I can’t comment on that,’ Oppenheimer said in response to an analyst who asked about the impact of Sony’s music phones and their success. ‘As regards cell phones, we don’t think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is. But over time, that is likely to change. And we’re not sitting around doing nothing.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Whopsie! Oppenheimer likely cringed at least inside as those words passed his lips yesterday. He had to know that Steve Jobs would be placing a call on his prototype iPhone as soon as the conference call ended. Looking back at our live conference call notes, we jotted, “Oppenheimer: Music phones aren’t ready to compete with iPod now, but that is likely to change in the future. Apple is ‘not sitting around doing nothing.'” Yup, that qualifies as “tacit acknowledgement of plans for an iPhone.”
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Apple Q3 2006 Conference Call notes – July 19, 2006
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Patent application shows iPod capable of live wireless video conferencing – June 13, 2006
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Report: Apple Computer may soon launch its own music ‘iPhone’ – March 31, 2006
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Morgan Stanley predicts Apple shares surge, Apple ‘iPhone’ in 2006 – December 16, 2005
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It may not mean that APple is actually building something themselves, it may merely refer to a partnership…
Yeah, right.
iPhone under the Christmas tree for everyone!!
“Whopsie! Oppenheimer likely cringed at least inside as those words passed his lips yesterday.”
Maybe, Maybe not. Most people have contracts for their cell service. Mine is up in 4 months. Knowing that an iPhone is in the pipeline, I’ll make sure not to sign a new annual contract until I see what Apple has to offer.
whaooooooooooooooo !! its true!
anyone want to buy a used V3 ?
I want an AppleBerry.
I’m not quite sure it is a tacit admission of an iPhone. Personally, I hope it isn’t. I don’t really want a merged iPod phone, at least not until they could power such a combined unit for at least 24 hours of use on a single charge.
When Oppenheimer said, ‘As regards cell phones, we don’t think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is. But over time, that is likely to change. And we’re not sitting around doing nothing.'” . . . it sounds like two separate thoughts. Music phones today aren’t great. We have the best music player, but it won’t always be the best, so we’re working to improve it. Now, that may or may not imply an iPhone, but I think the connection is more nebulous than the analysts, or MDN’s take, imply.
The question of “if” an iPhone was coming was not really there, only “when”. Given the convergence of phones, camera, PIM, etc., it is only a natural progression for Apple. The real question is “how” they will deploy it. Specifically, will they become a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO like Amp’d Mobile), will they be able to create a phone/agreement used by network carriers (Verizon, Cingular, etc.) and/or create a new partnership with the likes of RIM (BlackBerry).
All in all, I get terribly excited about a phone designed by Apple. One thing that REALLY irritates me is the terrible interface designs coming out of cell phone manufacturers. The worst experience is by far MS Mobile for the Smartphone segment. The BlackBerry/Treos are not too bad. I too have been holding off on my next phone purchase in hopes that Apple will release something I might actually enjoy using.
I use T-Mobile, but their phone selection sucks. I just buy unlocked phones. BenQ-Siemens makes a good full-featured phone WITHOUT a camera (S68).
So, if Apple comes out with a compelling iPhone, I’ll just do the same.
It’s a tacit acknowledgement of a commitment to innovation. Where the market is, Apple will be there.
Still waiting on my “Earth Final Conflict” Mobile. If it’s Apple branded all the better.
I will order 50 of iPhones immediately when those are made available.
Can´t wait to replace all our company old phones with fresh iPhones.
WWDC and Paris will be interesting this year.
I will order 50 of iPhones immediately when those are made available.
Can´t wait to replace all our company old phones with fresh iPhones.
WWDC and Paris will be interesting this year.
I am not in favor of merging the hard drive based iPod with a phone because I don’t think the battery life would be sufficient to be both full time music device and phone. However, a phone with 4-8 GB flash memory would probably be workable and have adequate storage space for music (I like to have enough space so that I have a decent selection and so that I don’t have to resync every 3 days) and decent battery life.
Although I carry my 60GB most of the time, there are situations where I do not want to carry it, but would like to have music. A nano/phone hybrid would be a nice solution if the price were right.
I wonder what the people who were shorting AAPL are doing today other than buying new underwear.
Maybe it wasn’t a slip????
Not that he is tons better than most other analysts, but Cramer was very publicly saying Apple makes it easy for their stock to get beat up because they almost never give any info of future products.
Just a thought…
MDN key work nothing as in nothing would make me happier than to see AAPL above $70 by tomorrow. It would put all those analyst idiots in save my ass spin mode.
Dr Mcr had part of the answer … shifting the goal posts. Phones that play music will be getting better … rapidly so. The iPod will continue to develop … maybe branching a bit as it goes. Can the iPod become a better “music player”? I don’t see a huge amount of tech they can play with.
The iPod can hold more music than 99% of people own
The nano can certainly grow, and will
The shuffle … will grow, more slowly
The above says nothing about “better music players”, not really. So they need to shift directions. Like they did when they added photos, and when they WILL add videos. But, this doesn’t make them better music players. Just better, more desirable, products.
What do phones need to catch up to the iPod? More song and battery capacity. They need to be bigger than a shuffle. Except the designs are going the other way … they are all getting smaller.
Has anyone looked at the Chocolate phone that Verizon is pushing? It is made by LG.
Looks like a modified iPod.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/chocolate/
macromancer,
the people who were shorting Apple are laughing all the way to the bank …. think about it!
I’d rather see a phone-in-an-iPod than an iPod-in-a-phone. Apple could keep the nano form factor and users could dial friends from their existing contacts list. It could have a slide-out keypad for dialling numbers not already in memory.
Adding a mike to the existing earbuds would top it off nicely.
“I want an AppleBerry.”
I’ve got a dingleberry for you!
yeh well APPLE CEO, CFO whatever O , they all know it is rumors that get their stock to go higher, so the more it takes for a new product to come out as rumors circulate the more people will buy the stock.
I can’t believe people are getting so worked up about this supposed “slip.”
The statement is directed at analysts who downgrade Apple’s stock because of a product announcement from another company. Apple is hard at work in their labs creating and refining products all the time. Many of these will never see the light of day.
Remember at WSJ’s D: All Things Digital conference two year’s ago, Steve Jobs said he was proud of all of Apple’s products, both those they had shipped and the things they decided not to ship. When pressed for an answer on an unshipped product, Steve himself replied, “an Apple PDA.”
Apple is working on several “insanely great” products at any given moment. Secrecy is one of their business strategies, no matter how large they get.
MW: “learned” as in “You would think the analysts would have learned by now that Apple Computer does not comment on unreleased products.”
Oh come on. that doesn’t mean Apple is making a stupid phone. I interpreted what he said as Apple is not sitting around means they will continue to make music devices that will compete with other technologies, i.e. cell phone music players.
I will loose all respect for Apple if they actually come out with their own cell phone.
Personally, I’m wondering about an iPod with a camera …
MDN word “somewhat”, as in I would have to somewhat revise my shopping schedule …
It needn’t mean anything as such, merely that Apple are looking at everything.
Charko wrote
“the people who were shorting Apple are laughing all the way to the bank …. think about it!”
Um, i am thinking about it. Short selling is basically a bet that the stock is going to go down. If it doesn’t you have to cover the margin.
“Short sellers assume the risk that they will be able to buy the stock at a more favorable price than the price at which they sold short.”
If they were shorting it at 50, then that makes 60 a NOT maore favorable price does it not? Someone shorting the stock would have hoped it would go down to 45 or 40. OOPS. Aint much laughing going on is there?
Short selling doesn’t refer to short term investors, like day traders. It’s a strategy for making money off stock you dont own, but with a huge risk if the stock goes up instead of down.