What does Apple’s iPad mean for AAPL investors?
Eric Rosenbaum reports for TheStreet.com, “Many Apple watchers had anticipated that the new tablet device would debut with a price tag of $999. Apple surprised the market with Steve Jobs stealing a page from Ron Popeil’s infomercial playbook and offering the iPad at the low-low price of $499.”
“Maybe some of the negative reaction to the iPad has to do with the price: there is a fine line between over-pricing and pricing at a point where U.S. consumers assume the device can’t be all that great if it’s too easily within reach of their wallets,” Rosenbaum wonders. “Maybe the fact that 10% of the U.S. population is still unemployed has just made it an inopportune time to introduce a new toy — though the success of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader would suggest that finding an audience for the right product will not be a problem.”
MacDailyNews Take: What success? Amazon has offered no proof of success beyond saying vaguely “Kindle is a success.” (Please see related articles below.)
Rosenbaum continues, “Thus, we ask the tech-savvy reader of the TheStreet, will investors be had if they bet on the success of the iPad?”
Full article, with an opportunity to vote in their online poll at the article’s end, here.
MacDailyNews Take: The answer to our headline is: Right. Apple’s pricing is mighty enticing from the base model on up to the top-of-the-line and the rates they’ve secured from AT&T are excellent as well.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
I suppose there’s no analyst cred in saying, the iPad is going to be a success. Too common. So all these prognosticators have to search for a new angle. Not the straight angle.
“Maybe some of the negative reaction to the iPad has to do with the price: there is a fine line between over-pricing and pricing at a point where U.S. consumers assume the device can’t be all that great if it’s too easily within reach of their wallets,”
Rosenbaum has to get IDIOT of the year for this kind of warped logic
No idea as there is no UK pricing yet but with all thing we will probably end up paying more.
Apple’s Mac will fail because they’re priced too far out of reach of most peoples’ wallets.
Apple’s iPad will fail because they’re priced too close within reach of most peoples’ wallets.
Come on, which is it?
It may be half the rumored price, but it does have only half the rumored features. $499 isn’t that impressive considering it is 16Gb only
‘ there is a fine line between over-pricing and pricing at a point where U.S. consumers assume the device can’t be all that great if it’s too easily within reach of their wallets’
This line sure makes Americans look incredibly stupid. I would be pissed after reading it if I lived in the US.
Buster:
Pissed that writers like this even qualify to graduate from elementary school let alone have jobs writing to the public
@Breeze
Spot on
For Such a small E-reader Market Kindle has a strangle hold on this area guys. For it not to be considered a success is retarded. AMAZON is NOT an ELECTRONICS CORPORATION:) For them to go out and make electronics and sell “millions” of kindles is pretty damn good. The other things you guys don’t take into account is when you go through the airport, everyone who reads has a kindle and they are talking positively about it. You can throw all your articles at me as you want about the kindle not being a success but people are spreading the word about it being a good product then those articles won’t persuade anyone, especially when the IPAD isn’t out. KINDLE IS A GOOD PRODUCT and if anything that amazon store will help sell i pads so why do you guys continue to try to kill AMAZON like they are GOOGLE?
Iwas reacting to the “macdailynews take” not the bloggers take:)
Andy B:
Nobody’s trying to kill Amazon, just better their little Kindle, which shouldn’t be hard for a company that specializes in the ultimate hardware and software products.
Amazon, hasn’t really been leveling with anyone and actually being very deceptive when it comes to either numbers of Kindle sold or fair pricing of their books ( they actually subsidized their Kindle by giving away books at cost, thereby denying authors and publishers their profits).
Anyway, the iPad will speak for itself.
I’d like to know if future software updates are included in the prices announced, like in case of iPhone, or not, like in case of iPod Touch. It’s not critical, but I’d like to know, and haven’t heard anything.
anybody? thanks!
No one will buy it because it’s too cheap.
This is what were left with for criticism?
There’s lot to like…and until I see it first hand, i will hold back anything I “don’t like”.
But I will say this, not having a web cam…would be on the dislike side.
The price is high right now to limit demand. In a year and a half it will be 299, the impulse buy, families owning more than price that I am sure Apple would like to sell it at.
The profit is in iTunes sales, not the hardware FCOL!!!! Priced for early adoption is the only feasible strategy!
correction.
The price is high right now to limit demand. In a year and a half it will be 299, the impulse buy, families owning more than one price that I am sure Apple would like to sell it at.
CitizenX, you aren’t making sense. How do families “own more than one price”?
This whole anti-iPad thing has been a tremendous boost for my own flagging ego.
These incredibly well-paid experts and corporate bosses have revealed themselves to be so totally childish, illogical, and lacking in imagination, I am beginning to feel like a relative genius.
World domination will be MINE!
I think the problem with the IPAD is that it is closer to the Itouch than it is to the macbook. What it will really end up being is a big hard drive companion to the Iphone. You will text/do video/take pics/even word process on the phone and then you will use the ipad to transfer the information to it and do the more labor intensive jobs. The Iphone can do everything the IPAD can do albeit less powerfully.
And if you cant do it on the Iphone…i am sure there is a rumor on this site that alleges the iphone will be able to do it in the next update.
So will people pay for that or will they wait for the next more powerful iphone update…especially when this site says people read books on the iphone(which is overrated).
do you keep linking to TheStreet? Its writers have repeatedly shown to be complete retards
Roughly 90% of voters feel that iPad is iGood. The other 10% mostly consist of pundits who panned the iPad after its introduction.
@lukeskymac
“$499 isn’t that impressive considering it is 16Gb only”
Please tell me about a similar product that is less money.
I am in favor of the IPAD by the way but i think people were expecting it to be more of a computer with all the videos of more complicated touch screen OS’s on the web.
Look at all these MACTARDS praising over this worthless toy. After all these years of rumor about this product I’m not impressed with the overall design and functionality of this inferior toy.
http://www.bing.com When it comes to decisions that matter, Bing & Decide
You or a coworker break a laptop screen ever? That can be the most expensive part to replace.
A current MacBook 13″ LCD screen part cost is $200 and that is not a state of the art IPS screen or have multi touch embedded in it.
I just love how the analysts tell us what Apple’s cost is before the thing even ships. They have no clue what is in it.
299 is a price point where a family would own more than one.
Typing while multitasking is a bitch.
not if you are just playing music in the background
AT&T;Commercial: Your on a conference call and you buddy asks you if you go his email…you go on your iphone…press the button…and go on the internet and get the email….(tagline) Can your phone and your network do that…
no but your bigger badder IPAD Cant multitask either:)
Just saying i wish the IPAD was stronger with a better stronger OS and then i would buy one. I am a videographer so i Have FCP and Motion. So i am used to stronger computers and the ipad cant cut it for me.
I once did some consulting work for Ron Popeil’s oil and gas Company.
The guy was into everything.
The 3g pricing is wrong which makes me glad I won’t be getting one. The storage capacity is dissapointing too. If this thing streams my iTunes library I will probably get the 32Gig or maybe the 16.
I’m hoping they are still working on features cause what we have been shown so far looks like a beta. Either way I can’t wait to get my hands on one and dig into the settings. This thing really needs to tether with the iPhone 3g also. No way I’m paying 130 bucks so I can pay again for a data plan. No way.
They need to throw apple product owners a bone with this thing. I want integration with iPhone iTunes MobileMe and appletv. If apple does that I will see the ipad as a must have.
You have to be f’ing kidding me. Apple’s price is too high….. Now, it is too low. It doesn’t matter what Apple does. This idiots will spin it as a bad thing. All they have been doing is whining and whining about Apple not having something to compete with netbooks. Whatever?!?
no it wasnt the price that sparked a sell off (and the fact that the market also did as a whole)… It was the perceived features that were missing…
The many complaints:
1. Camera
2. USB connection
The price did in fact surprise me…
My call options took a hit of course… So, in a sense the “buy on hype, sell on news” Proved true once more.
Barring a marketwide rally, the buyers of AAPL will be back when the actual numbers of iPad are in… But if the market as a whole is getting back to Bearish… Well, in that case there really is no sense in buying AAPL…
FXP, SRS, SDS, and even DUG are doing well short term. And SHOULD do well long term as well. We just don’t know if this Bear rally is quite done.
Too high. I can’t even listen to Pandora on it while surfing the Web.
All an investor like me needs to know is that Apple looked at all the criticisms about high prices and low market share and said ‘Hey, we can do quality at a reasonable (not low) price. And if they want to deride us on market share, let’s show the world that we can GO LARGE without selling a POS that’s not in our DNA.
I’m happy. Market share by device will skyrocket.
11,259,473 iPads sold worldwide in 2010. 6 in my family alone. 3M in December 2010 alone.
25,000,000 + in 2011.
At a minimum gross margin of say $200+ per unit, and those levels of sales volumes, why would I not be happy?