“Having maintained an Overweight or Outperform rating on Apple shares since 2004 and now departing Piper Jaffray to co-found a venture capital firm, Munster issues a farewell briefing on the company with moderate tone,” Eric McCaffrey reports for Seeking Alpha.
“Spotlighting the company’s transition from PC to mobile, he considers not much to change for the company should similar successful evolution not take place regarding its services segment,” McCaffrey reports. “‘We don’t know what the right answer is, but feel confident the management team will figure out the best forward path to optimize the Services story,’ [Munster writes].”
McCaffrey reports, “Though a final note as member of Piper Jaffray, Munster’s new venture will continue to offer research on major technology companies and startups within its purview.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Gene Munster is a top-notch Apple analyst. Good luck in your new endeavor, Gene!
Good luck on your future endeavors Gene. You were one who always stood tall in a crowd of questionable characters.
And here I thought we’d get one last heave with the “Apple TV” thing…
Maybe at his new gig.
Never got his prediction of an Apple branded TV. Too bad, I would have bought one a few years ago for sure.
I bet he’s going to buy some AAPL now that there are no conflicts of interest.
…and just on the cusp of Apple reinventing the cathode ray tube television
While other “analysts” were earning their paycheque by googling and making stuff up out of thin air, Gene was sending people to count customers walking out of Apple stores with white Apple shopping bags — in other words, actual data gathering and research.
Gene has his fair share of misses, but more often than not, his assessment of the company and its prospects were right or very close.
Most readers here will remember him for his persistently optimistic expectation of a branded Apple TV set (which has yet to materialise).
Gene’s track record was poor. Being a cheerleader isn’t praiseworthy — except amongst the fact free fanboy crowd. Enjoy your vaporware integrated Apple TV, Gene.
Oh that’s right, it was Roku that had the courage to offer users the option of set top streaming boxes as well as integrated smart televisions. Apple couldn’t really crack it, could they?
I think you are wrong. Gene’s track record was generally better than most other analysts. He certainly wasn’t the best (those were the non-professional, enthusiast amateur analysts that kept nailing it quarter after quarter), but his projections were a reflection of proper legwork, rather than rather pure bullshit. And no, he wasn’t always a cheerleader, although it was rather difficult not sounding like one when quarter after quarter, Apple kept busting records (and expectations).
Considering that you got that first part wrong, I’m inclined to be skeptical about the second part of your message (about Roku), even if it might actually be based on sound info (I just don’t have the time to verify).
One thing that nobody does here enough is take the time to get the facts. Especially when the facts disagree with the stories that you have internalized based on unrelated past experiences.
Muster has been so wrong on so many things, and he finally fessed up last year that his Apple TV pipe dream was a bunch of smoke:
https://9to5mac.com/2015/05/19/munster-apple-television-retraction/
So let’s turn to Apple TV, the hobby that Apple just couldn’t get right.
30 seconds on http://www.roku.com will tell you how good they are, and how many nice choices you have.
3 models of 4K streaming players, plus 3 more 1080p players and streaming sticks for less performance oriented customers.
Many different smart TVs — not the extreme high end, but some really good options for mainstream customers who don’t want wires snaking everywhere.
best of all, the Roku TV Finder on their website shows how intuitive and efficient an interface should be. Pick your resolution, pick your size range, and you will be presented with several options and links to the stores where you can purchase it. Simple. A banner at the top of the Roku site tells you that if you order by 12/18, then it will arrive in time for xmas. Simple and helpful! In comparison, Apple spends pages upon pages extolling how amazing Siri should be and how fantastic it is that you can download apps — then when you go to buy you discover it cots more, the trite guide to explain whether to buy the 32GB or 64GB model is useless, and only with significant searching will you find the tiny black and white page of tech specs where Apple buries at the bottom the fact that it only supports 1080p resolution. Intuitive? Helpful? Hardly.
Roku offers what Gene Munster dreamed Apple could do, but didn’t.
I admire your effort to argue your point (regarding Roku) and I’m sure you are right on that one, since it has been argued quite often here that AppleTV hasn’t been anything like your usual Apple product, and there aren’t any signals to indicate it will get any better anytime soon. Many here continue to hold their breaths.
On the question of Gene Munster, yes, he continued to expect that TV made by Apple for years. But on the question of numbers and performance, I still stand by my statement that he was indeed better than most other professional analysts. I hate repeating myself, but it does seem that most people here remember him for that persistent TV set expectation. He was, however, about the most studious, comprehensive, and accurate follower of AAPL.
I’m not really sure many people here are interested that much in Roku (or Sling, or Chromecast, or Fire TV Stick…). MDN (Mac Daily News) tends to attract people who are fans of Apple hardware and software. Other stuff? Not that much…