Apple’s raises bar with new holiday product lineup

“Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook is ready to tackle the holiday season with a full product array including new iPads. His challenge now is luring the hordes of buyers that analysts are projecting,” Tim Higgins reports for Bloomberg.

“The lineup is ratcheting up Wall Street’s projections that Apple is entering a high growth phase, which Cook will now have to meet. The CEO is also facing calls by activist investor Carl Icahn to increase Apple’s value. Investors will get a taste of how Cook’s latest gambits are performing next week, when Apple reports fiscal fourth-quarter results on Oct. 20,” Higgins reports. “‘It was an innovation question 12 months ago and he’s delivered on all of the promises he was making,’ Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, said of Cook. ‘Now it’s an execution game.'”

“Having updated devices on store shelves is key ahead of the year-end shopping season, which is typically Apple’s most lucrative quarter. Consumer spending on electronics in the U.S. is projected to increase 2.5 percent to $33.8 billion, the highest level since the Consumer Electronics Association began tracking it in 1994. The top items on technology wish lists, according to the association’s annual Holiday Purchase Pattern Study, are tablets.,” Higgins reports. “‘Those who have iPad 1s and 2s will probably be tempted to finally upgrade,’ Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies Inc., said of the new tablets. ‘Whether it’s a big hit or not, it’s hard to tell because right now tablets in general have slowed down.'”

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