Gene Munster

Apple gains 4% ahead of CES and a smart watch

Ed Sutherland ∙ January 2, 2013

If you are just shaking off the holiday headaches, just think of Apple. After taking a drubbing from Wall Street analysts worried about everything from the fiscal cliff to too few (or too many) sales of iDevices, the iPhone maker woke up this morning to its stock actually up. After rising 4 percent in early morning trading, AAPL shares remain positive. Why the better performance, after being jostled around like a visitor to Time Square on New Year's Eve? Apparently, it has to do with next week's CES and talk that Apple could create an iWatch...

Analysts cut AAPL target price average to $740

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated March 19, 2019

All of the concerns voiced about the impending leap off the 'fiscal cliff' and its associated increase in capital gains taxes on stock sales have sent Wall Street into a tizzy. The end result: knocking Apple's target share price down to $740. Nearly a dozen analysts have cut their target price for Apple stock amid talk that the iPhone maker has a dodgy future, what with supply questions hanging over the executives at One Infinity Loop. Despite all the rain clouds, the $740 per share target price reduction is about $225 more than Friday's opening on Wall Street...

Siri’s reliance on Google cut in half since iOS 6

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 10, 2018

Siri, what happened to Google? The voice-activated personal assistant (which debuted alongside the iPhone 4S last October) and the Internet giant aren't as close as before. Apple's digital secretary is fast becoming a stranger to Google as one Apple watcher says Siri's reliance on Google has been cut in half since iOS 6.

While 60 percent of Siri queries sent iPhone owners using iOS 5 to Google data, iOS 6 reduced the percentage to 30 percent. Apparently, Google Maps took the heaviest hit as Apple Maps became the destination for 24 percent of Siri's answers, up from zero percent in iOS 5. Siri - now competing with Google's own voice assistant - is also a wee bit more accurate...

Another survey says more than half want an iPhone 5 for Christmas

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

After getting off to a shaky start, more than half of consumers shopping for a smartphone plan to buy an iPhone 5, according to a new Wall Street survey. Likewise, Twitter chatter indicates a growing number of Internet users hope to find Apple's new handset under the Christmas tree.

Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster told investors Thursday that 53.3 percent of a group polled Wednesday said they plan to purchase the iPhone 5 over the next month. That number is just slightly below the 54.9 percent found in mid-October, following the new smartphone's launch...

Analyst projects higher iPhone sales, cannibalized iPad purchases

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

As we enter the last weeks of December, Wall Street analysts are adjusting their forecasts for Apple and its keystone products, the iPhone and iPad.

Sterne Agee's Shaw Wu Wednesday told investors increased supplies of the iPhone 5 likely means more sales, while tablet buyers are shifting toward the iPad mini, resulting in slightly fewer sales overall.

After talks with supply chain sources, Wu expects Apple to sell this quarter 47.5 million of the new handsets, up from his earlier projected 47.3 million units. As for iPads, the analyst trimmed his sales forecast to 23.5 million, down from 25 million. In both cases, supply was the critical factor...

Apple ‘more in tune’ with TVs than set-top box biz

Ed Sutherland ∙ December 7, 2012

Wall Street investors are among those intensely interested in Apple CEO Tim Cook's remark that the iPad maker has "intense interest" in doing something about television. One observer believes Apple wants its logo on the king of the hill, top of the heap when it comes to consumer electronics: the television set. The company has never been one to work around the edges of an industry.

That's why a Wells Fargo Securities analyst expects Apple to forgo a predicted set-top box and instead go for a full-blown Apple TV, calling it the "centerpiece of the living room"...

Gene Munster talks Apple TV and more at Ignition conference

Cody Lee ∙ November 28, 2012

Reports that an Apple TV product is in the works have resurfaced a number of times over the past few years. Analysts continue to believe that Apple has something bigger planned for the living room than its current $99 hobby.

Perhaps nobody believes this more than Piper Jaffray's senior Apple analyst Gene Munster. And he was recently seen at Business Insider's IGNITION conference in New York talking about Apple's plans for the TV and more...

Analyst: no Black Friday iPad mini discounts means huge demand exists

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

While Black Friday discounts abound at Apple and around the web, one product where deals are absent is Apple's iPad mini. The reason: people want to buy the smaller iPad deal or no deal, one analyst opines. According to Wells Fargo's Maynard Um, "early checks suggest demand continues to be robust with strong store traffic through the week and early Friday". That ship times remain two weeks for both the Wi-Fi and Cellular models points to the iPad mini becoming a must-have holiday item (kids agree)...

Analyst calls for a cheap iPhone in two years

Christian Zibreg ∙ November 23, 2012

Piper Jaffray's resident Apple analyst Gene Munster - you know, one of the iTV fame - is back at it predicting Apple's gonna launch an inexpensive iPhone model in two years time. Recognizing Apple's tiny market share in emerging markets like Russia, India, Brazil and China (collectively referred to as BRIC territories), he's calling for an unsubsidized, sub-$200 iPhone around 2014. Currently, Apple's handset is a high-end play, with older models selling at reduced price points.

As carriers pay big bucks to subsidy its high cost, users typically must sign on a dotted line. But not everyone is willing to accept contractual commitment in exchange for an iPhone. Meanwhile, competitors are successfully exploiting Apple's price weaknesses, churning out Android cheapos that have pushed the platform in places like China to as much as an astounding 90 percent smartphone share...

iPhone 5 easier to find in stores, analysts say

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated April 18, 2016

There is at least a 7-in-10 chance that you can now find an iPhone 5 on store shelves, according to one analyst Wednesday. The once-elusive smartphone may soon be available for same-day purchase from Apple Stores, the Wall Street observer told investors. The report by Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster (I know, don't start) follows news that iPhone 5 units ordered through Apple's website have a two-week shipping delay, down from as much as three weeks. His comments echo those by fellow Apple watcher Shawn Wu of Sterne Agee, who described the wider availability of the iPhone 5 as "much improved"...

Munster: Apple to kick off 2013 with iTV (and other wild predictions)

Ed Sutherland ∙ November 20, 2012

Like the left-over turkey that just won't disappear from the fridge, talk of a full-blown, Apple-branded HD television set - the mythical iTV - lingers on in the minds of Wall Street seers. The product could carry a price of $1,500 and $2,000 and be introduced in time for Christmas 2013, one analyst forecast Tuesday. The shiny television product launch would highlight a long list of new products for Apple fans of all stripes.

Although Apple's goal of offering à la carte TV programming is viewed as "unlikely," some of the features made popular on the iPhone and iPad could be headed to a big-screen TV set spanning between 42 and 55 inches, according to perhaps the most vocal iTV proponent out there, Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray...

Apple catching up to iPhone 5 demand at US Apple Stores

Ed Sutherland ∙ November 9, 2012

After Foxconn admitted to falling behind iPhone 5 orders, it seems that supply of Apple's popular handset is finally catching up with demand. That's the word from one veteran Apple watcher who told investors Friday that inventory of the smartphone at Apple's brick-and-mortar stores are at their highest level yet. For the first time, availability of iPhone 5 models for AT&T, Verizon and Sprint customers topped 20 percent.

The iPhone 5 version for Sprint remains the most available, with 84 percent of Apple Stores reporting inventory for that model. The AT&T version followed with 54 percent and Verizon with 24 percent, according to a Wall Street survey conducted by Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster...