10/15/2007, 11:00am, EDT
Monday, October 15th
Apple shines, subnotebook in 4-6 months?
Apple is once again set to beat Wall Street expectations when it reports its financial results on October 22nd, according to several research firms, and is closer than ever to unveiling an ultra portable subnotebook that could incorporate the multi-touch technology found in its iPhone and iPod touch. At least three industry analysts are predicting a better-than-expected quarter for Apple resulting from as many as 1.2 million iPhone sales, shares of cellular service revenue from AT&T, and climbing Mac shipments. Lehman Brothers today raised its price target on Apple shares to $190 from $160 based on expectations of strong fiscal fourth-quarter results, and late last week Morgan Stanley raised its price target on Apple's stock to $180 from $150 while noting a potential surge to as high as $225 from the company's operating leverage alongside the potential launch of an ultra portable subnotebook.
Senior analyst Gene Munster of research firm Piper Jaffray also believes the company is preparing to introduce a new smaller laptop that uses the iPhone's multi-touch technology, a move he says would serve as a strategic extension for Apple's current technology base.
"We believe the likelihood of Apple launching an ultraportable Mac in the next 4-6 months is high. The move could take place in the form of [a] smaller laptop and/or a tablet device using the iPhone's multi-touch technology," Munster said. "Although we do not have firm evidence, either product would be a strategic extension of Apple's current technology base."
The analyst says the new notebook could come in the form of an extension of Apple's MacBook family of laptops, incorporating a full keyboard with a small screen of 10 to 11-inches.
"We believe such an offering would be a logical addition to the Mac platform. A new laptop with a smaller form factor than the current 13-inch MacBooks would help Apple continue its share gains in the portable category, especially in Asia where UMPCs are more popular relative to other markets."
Apple tablet device in works?
Munster also suspects Apple is busy focusing its development efforts on a multi-touch tablet device only slightly larger than the iPhone. Such a device would likely include most of the features and capabilities of the iPhone, as well as broad functionality above and beyond what the company's cellular handset is currently capable of. New features of a potential tablet would likely include data storage and the ability to save files, as well as document editing features.
"We believe Apple's multi-touch technology is slightly ahead of competitors using touch based input technology, and as such we expect Apple to leverage its multi-touch technology in future products."
Coming quarters
Many industry experts agree that Apple's future remains bright in the coming quarters, pointing to the imminent release of Mac OS X Leopard as a driving force for sales which in turn would increase the Cupertino-based company's desktop computer market share.
Apple has repeatedly bucked tech sales trends, increasing its own Mac sales despite falling overall computer shipments. The launch of an Apple-branded subnotebook and/or tablet device would likely help the company continue its positive growth trend.
[Morgan Stanley report courtesy of AppleInsider, Lehman Brothers note courtesy of the Associated Press]
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Why push that Apple is coming out with one?? Is MaCNN trying to make Apple look bad if they do not come out with one?
Just a question. en
Regarding the ultra-portable - it's not just MacNN pushing for that, but apparently plenty of analysts. Most likely, this is the usual pattern of someone, somewhere speculating and musing about it, and everyone picking it up and reporting it as fact (remember the iPhone nano 'fact' from that idiots, Kevin Chang, in Taiwan?
That being said, Apple *could* legitimize the tablet market with a small (10-12") tablet Mac - most tablet implementations suck (hence the small sales numbers) yet multi-touch, on a small form-factor MacBook type device would make sense, and with Apple's soft keyboard, it could be a true tablet, devoid of any physical keyboard - and an instant mega-hit in Japan.
Consider, the MacBook keyboards, now Apple's USB keyboards, and especially the bluetooth, small keyboard. Apple is already training us to adapt to the screen-based keyboards, in terms of aesthetics :-)
I could see something with a swiveling touchscreen concealing a proper keyboard underneath, but foregoing a real keyboard entirely? Highly unlikely.
(snicker)
And i'm still holding on because i to believe in a soaring Apple and Google, both company's are now worth more than Microsoft. Apple has the potential to become the biggest player in the portable computer world surpassing the Microsoft dominance who totally blew that segment.
The consumer market will be portable and undoubtedly Apple will be a big player, i just hope they learned from past blunders and don't repeat them.
A "ground up" approach could do better be asking what tasks REALLY require tablet like mobility and which do not - one size fits all is a losing proposition.
That said, I wouldn't expect the same device that works well as a small/mobile/touch-oriented system to work well for large/sit-down/type applications without some means of shifting modes. It must morph from one to another easily.
This is so elementary, and the Tablet PC is so bad, I am sure Apple is thinking hard. Looking forward to see.
As a long time Psion 5a user, I know about nice small keyboards. A ultra portable mac would need to have real keys to consider it. Having said that, the iphone in landscape mode if you start slowly and then speed up is actually very much better than i first thought having picked it up for five minutes. the predictive stuff works really well. It's the only predictive qwerty keyboad to my knowledge, and it works much better than predictive numeric phone keypads because each key/button doesn't serve up multiple letters.
by the way I'm not sure an 11 inch keyboard Mac will sell. I do think a tablet, skype enabled Mac would. Though not sure Apple can set the price right.
Take it slow Apple. Don't get seduced into thinking you're not immortal.