“Gene Munster, Senior Research Analyst at Piper Jaffray, says there are five things to watch with Apple in 2014,” Lawrence Lewitinn reports for CNBC’s and Yahoo’s Talking Numbers.
Gene Munster: Five things to expect from Apple in 2014
1. iPhone sales can grow 10% year-over-year, in line with high-end smartphones in 2014
2. iPhone sales with China Mobile in the March 2014 quarter should add 5% to Wall Street’s 2014 Apple revenue estimates
3. Expect a larger-screen iPhone in the fall
4. Expect the drop in the average iPhone sales price to be less than it was in 2013
5. Look for Apple’s gross margins to stabilize in 2014
Each of the five points above detailed in the full article, also with video, here.
MacDailyNews Take: But, Gene, what about the TV?!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Bill” for the heads up.]
They will come out with it now that he is not expecting. iCal me.
*Expect Muenster to keep spouting crap in an attempt to appear relevant…
Apparently Gene is no better at analysis than his brother Herman.
1) iPad Pro
2) Larger curved screen iPhone
3) Apple 4X High Depth TV with built in iTV and a new way to control it using gestures.
4) iWatch
5) Something that no one has guessed yet.
iWatch, the perfect gift for Sasquatch.
6 : anal ists …….
Gene Muenster, because he thinks he’s the big cheese?
I really wish he would keep his trap shut. He knows next-to-nothing about Apple’s future plans. Where does he get off becoming Apple’s self-appointed spokesperson? All I need to know from him in certainty is whether Apple’s share price is going up or down at the end of this quarter.
Should Apple come out with a wearable device (iWatch or iPiece) or their own iTV if they haven’t figured out a way to disrupt or evolutionize that segment? Perhaps that’s why they haven’t. Everyone assumes that there will have to be another gamechanger, but what if we’re too far away from the necessary tech for Apple to accomplish that in the next 5 years. Having taught the world to innovate, now that everyone’s focused on it, can even Apple stay ahead?
Microsoft has the Kinect, Sony has something, gesture controls are becoming more common, everyone has touch screens, the world has caught up to the tablets (only iOS and the ecosystem really keep the iPad on top). Google has the Gear and the Glass – often panned, but no one really mentions what they would like them to do differently. The media companies are afraid to give Apple the keys to the kingdom because of what happened with music DRM.
Now we have larger phones, curved phones and lower prices to look forward to. Yay. I’d love to be surprised, but I’m feeling cautiously pessimistic about what Apple can do next.
And finally, that’s pretty okay with me. I love my Apple products, don’t currently expect to change to some other company, and look forward to what I like just getting better over the next few years.
I am not sure why are people here all so worked up about analysts. I have a feeling the most common reason is their lack of understanding about what analysts are expected to do.
There are large and wealthy investors out there, who have neither the time, nor the desire, to do their own investing research. They then pay people to do this research for them and to essentially try and predict what will happen, so that they can make their investment decisions based on these predictions. Analysts’ job is essentially to read the tea leaves (when all else fails). Gene Munster has been known as an Apple fan, and among the other analysts, he used to be fairly optimistic about AAPL and Apple. Since the death of Jobs, his predictions have become somewhat erratic (not sure if that’s just coincidence…). However, he still tries to do this in a legitimate way, by sending people out to Apple stores, counting purchases exiting the stores, deriving some actual numbers and extrapolating from them (while other analysts just project based on prior trends and adjust based on current rumours).
Analysts are paid a lot of money because they have a very ungrateful job: nobody ever praises them when they nail it, but everyone will heap stones when they miss the mark. And with companies like Apple, it is practically impossible for them to do their jobs, when there is absolutely zero information from the company to base their predictions on, so they just have to go guessing.
Pro nostro vitio. Your impassioned defence of analysts has the rest of us sobbing at our own calumny, and resolving to be more understanding and lead better lives and consume more vegetables
The part about vegetables is certainly commendable.
My message may have sounded a bit too defensive, considering who I was purportedly defending (people who are likely laughing all the way to the bank at the vitriol spilled about them by anonymous forum posters on an obscure web site). My point was more that of an annoyance at ignorant people who demand that “analysts should be sent to Guantanamo”, or something of similar nature.
…or not.
Shocking that Munster actually makes some sense.
That being said, #4 begets #1, so the list isn’t really 5 things to look for.
Soooo glad Munster finally got it through his thick skull that Apple can’t offer a profitable TV set of any kind without having extensive distribution partnerships in place. Existing TV manufacturers already offer complete internet integration, no external set-top-box needed. Apple offers negligible added value. If the current Apple TV interface is preferred by users, they’ll buy into Apple’s “hobby” now. Nobody would buy an Apple-branded TV with the price markup that Apple typically wants — not when the current Apple TV is only $100..
First half of 2014…
iPad Pro (with Touch ID)
iPhone 5cx (4.7″ screen)
A surprise product
Solid litho printer w/ Apple Design Store.