“Apple Computer’s stock gained Monday, getting a lift to a new 52-week high from upbeat comments by a UBS analyst on the computer maker’s new lower priced Mac Mini computer and iPod Shuffle digital music player products. Shares of the Cupertino, Calif.-based maker of sleek tech gear climbed $3.42, or over 4 percent, to close at $84.63,” Michael Paige reports for CBS MarketWatch.
Paige reports, “Following a recent round of visits and polls of Apple’s retail stores and other retailers, UBS analyst Benjamin Reitzes said ‘Apple’s momentum continues -even into its seasonally slow second quarter and is getting set to build again throughout this calendar year with new products and retail expansion. Our checks indicate that the company is seeing a very solid reception for the new Mac Mini and iPod Shuffle, as well as strong sales of new PowerBooks,’ Reitzes said. He also continues to expect Apple will launch a new, higher-capacity version of its hugely popular iPod Mini and said he wouldn’t be surprised to see ‘a whole new generation of iPods later this calendar year.’ Retail traffic appears to be ‘extraordinary’ for Apple, with its retail outlets seeing up to a million visitors per week, the analyst said. To be sure, new products are selling out soon after shipments hit retail stores and many outlets have waiting lists for the Mac Mini. ‘While Dell and HP may be seeing consumer weakness of late, it does not appear that Apple is feeling any of this pressure,’ Reitzes asserted.”
“Reitzes raised his fiscal second-quarter earnings estimate to 45 cents a share, up from 41 cents previously, based on a 67 percent year-over-year gain in sales to $3.19 billion. For the entire year, the analyst increased his earnings expectation to $2.15 per share from an earlier estimate of $1.95 a share. He lifted his 2005 sales estimate to $13.7 billion, or a 65 percent rise from the prior year, from a prior estimate of $12.8 billion,” Paige reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s Q2 ’05 Quarterly Earnings Call is scheduled for April 13, 2005 and all eyes in the personal computer, consumer electronics, and the wider tech industry in general will be on Cupertino that day. 2005 is shaping up to be a seminal year for Apple and the company’s 2nd quarter results will give an important indication as to the strength of Apple’s Macintosh platform’s resurgence.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
UBS raises Apple target price from $85 to $99 on Mac mini, iPod shuffle information – February 14, 2005
First post, yay! W..What was the question?
While this news is tantalizing….
I would think the bigger news will be if / when Apple decides to use the Cell Processor in its lineup…
I can see the deathknell tolling for Intel and the Evil Empire beginning !!
Anyone got a countdown ticker running ?
The Mini hype is so huge I’m thinking of buying one just to have one. Never turn it on or anything, you know.
Just have one…
FREE UNLIMITED MUSIC FROM NAPSTER
http://blog.kordix.com/marv/archives/000400.html
Tell all your PC friends!
“Retail traffic appears to be ‘extraordinary’ for Apple, with its retail outlets seeing up to a million visitors per week, the analyst said.”
Hell yeah, retail traffic is high. I visited the SOHO store while in NY last summer, right after the release of the 4G iPod, and the traffic was un-friggin’-believable. People weren’t just window shopping either; many had armfuls of stuff. They were queued-up 20-30 deep at each register, and NOT complaining. I’ve worked in retail before, and have never seen anything like it. I can’t imagine what traffic is like in the stores with the release of the Mac mini and the iPod shuffle; it must be CRAZY busy.
Maybe ‘Jack A’ could give us an idea of store traffic at one of the stores in Japan…
MaWo is ‘plan’, as in: Apple must have a plan to kick some serious retail a$$.
Nice to see MDN’s and its forums users’ predictions coming true.
$100 (or$50) coming soon too!
In oder for Apple to take full advantage of the new Cell processor, they would need to re-write some of the code in OS X (maybe a complete re-write?… don’t know).
It’ll be some time before they’ll come out with it. But I hope they’ll get to use it first! Afterall, if any company is quick and nimble enough to keep up with the changing pace of technology, it’s Apple!
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I’m not sure that I believe that Cell will ever be used as a “complex” host CPU within a “real” Macintosh.
However, I do believe that it will get used as a flexible “media engine” in almost the same way that the Moto 56K DSP could be used in an older Apple product line (I think it was the Centris AV models).
Cell appears to be almost perfectly placed to take certain linear media tasks from the main CPU: a simple example would be ripping CDs in iTunes and could lead to “lossy” AAC encoding happening at rates which get close to the physical maximum of the CD drive, perhaps 35x to 40x.
Another example would be both the encoding of multiple streams of high-def digital video: imagine being able to encode either the live or recorded output of several 1080p cameras whilst your PowerMac just chugs along.
Or how about running several real-time audio effects on tracks within a Logic performance.
In the scientific community, Cell may also be able to run certain simulation type tasks for computational fluid dynamics, seismology, natural resources amongst others.
I live i Cincinnati and I could not believe the traffic in the AppleStore here after Christmas. Having been a manager in retail we were always dead in January and February, hoever Apple this weekend was packed and most people were buying. I swear it was like Christmas had not ended. The lines for the register were to the door and it is February! Congrats Apple that is very nice turn around!
I’m getting a Mac mini as soon as they land here in Liverpool (I want a 1.42Ghz with BT & AE)
The only models that are here at the moment are bottom end ones…
I was hanging around the local Apple store in Oregon (at Washington Square). There were lots of people in the store. I was impressed….at first.
Then I started checking out the people.
Most seemed like people visiting a Ferrari dealer. Wow! Cool! Neat. Look at the price sticker! Gulp! Drift quickly out the door with maybe we drive to Fryes in Wilsonvilled and check out the peecees. (They have Apples there, too.)
Lots of people talking to Apple people.
Lots of teenies playing with the laptops chatting with each other via iSight.
Lots of traffic.
But in the 30 minutes I was there (yes, I was bored and had nothing better to do as I was waiting for my wife to leave Nordstroms so we could go to the food court to get the 3-course Happy Panda meal) I never saw one person buy one thing.
Not one purchase.
Then as we spent another hour or so in the mall, I started looking for Apple shopping bags. I saw Sears, Meir & Frank, Penny, Mother Goose, etc, etc, but never saw a single Apple shopping bag. Nor someone walking out with an Apple computer box.
Guess I was there at the wrong time.
Lots of traffic for sure at the Apple store, but I didn´t see any sales.
And I noticed how the Apple people were curiously trying to direct people away from the Apple mini mac to the iMac or higher priced product.
The Apple retail stores completely suck. They can’t even compare to CompUSA or the computer section of Best Buy. I was in the Apple store here in Bumfuck Shitsville with my Mom because she was thinking about replacing her eMachine (despite my desperate pleading not to) and noticed that they don’t even have the Geek Squad® or any top-notch Napster® products. I couldn’t even find any PC software! Totally lame.
Well, guys, gotta go. The school bus is waiting outside.
How is it that MacDailyNews is the only website I visit that has Pop-up windows in Safari (1.2.4)?
Don’t use Safari, you dolt. Internet Explorer is far better.
fandango, I was in the Apple Store Ginza a few weeks ago and it was pretty crowded but then it is crowded everywhere in Tokyo
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I am not sure if they are having quite the traffic over here that they are having in some U.S. store but it is steady and sales seem to have been good. There was only one mini on display in the whole store (right in the middle of the first floor and fastened down so you could not pick it up
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They are still selling out of shuffles within the day every day that they get a shipment in, as far as I know. At least I have been by twice and my Mother in law has been by twice and they have been sold out every time so far so no shuffle for me yet.
Traditionally Japan follows US trends with a bit of a delay so I think this year may end up being the equivalent of the last year in the US as far as overall sales go. You can never be sure though since Japanese also tend to do things all together so if they reach the catalyst point they could end up surpassing the US in a flash. A really big factor was Tokyo University switching all to Macs last spring. That carries a lot of weight in Japan.
I am probably gonna hit the Apple store later this week and will let you know how it is.
Holy crap, I missed the bus. Well, looks like I can chat all day. Aren’t you all so happy?
I’m sorry I can’t help you with your “Safari” problem, but my Mom’s eMachine doesn’t have that app installed. Internet Explorer® works great. I have a hack installed that blocks the pop-ups. It’s totally cool.
You Mac zealots crack me up. You talk about how great your toys are and how awesome the Apple software is, but your browser can’t even block pop-ups! How lame is that?
Oh and by surpassing the US I meant in market share gains, not overall sales of course.
Shopper,
The numbers don’t like. There are much better numbers for the Apple store than most stores of this kind. We’re making massive profits, and there are people buying.
Oregon isn’t so healthy economically. Schools are in the toilet. Two State Police protect the whole coastline. There are more lawyers per square feet in Salem than anywhere else in the country except D.C. Healthcare isn’t working. Rationing of necessary medical treatments is rampant. In that climate, I can imagine the Oregon store isn’t doing as well as most.
But the communes and hippie girls are great.
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Oh, and NoM$PlayerforYou!
Napster sucks little baby bird eggs.
NoMacForYou missed the bus again? Your school district is sending out its truant officer.
“The Apple retail stores completely suck. They can’t even compare to CompUSA or the computer section of Best Buy.”
Indeed not. RMFAO. I really hope that post was in jest.
Three things:
1. We don’t need the Geek Squad to keep our systems running.
2. “Top-notch Napster” is an oxymoron.
3. Best Buy is the world’s worst place to buy anything electronic (worse than even Wal-Mart). I honestly don’t see how they sell anything besides CD’s. I’d rather mail order from Gateway.
I have a friend who bought a new Toshiba from Best Buy. Worse mistake he ever made. It has had continuous problems since the purchase. Best Buy has not been able to fix it. Best Buy´s solution was to take the computer in for repairs twice and return it without having done a thing. Finally, after some research, my friend discovered they had installed generic memory which wasn´t supported in the machine. After asking Best Buy to replace the memory, he was told they couldn´t get the appropriate memory module. But they would be happy to replace the memory with another generic module after he paid for it. Yeah, they really are worse than anything I´ve ever seen. Thank the goddess for Apple´s example of good retail.