03/05/2008, 10:10am, EST
Wednesday, March 5th
Piper: Apple meeting drops hints at strategy
Yesterday's shareholder meeting for Apple may have produced "nothing material," according to analysts from Piper Jaffray, but it did provide small pieces of information about Apple's products and strategy. It was for example unknown if the company's goal to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008 meant a total since the product's inception, or simply within the calendar year; it is now confirmed that Apple wants to add 10 million to the 3.7 million sold in 2007. Piper is currently projecting sales that exceed Apple estimates, at 12.9 million iPhones during 2008.
It also expected that while the company's plans for an iPhone launch in Asia are vague, particularly in regards to China and India, Apple will make good on its promise to release the iPhone somewhere in the continent during 2008. Japan is considered the most likely candidate, but an obstacle is that leading carrier NTT DoCoMo uses W-CDMA, instead of the GSM/EDGE technology found on current iPhones.
Finally, for investors in particular, Apple has acknowledged that there are no plans for share buybacks in the future, nor any dividend payments, as at many other companies. Piper notes however that this is in keeping with Apple's general shareholder policy, so it should not affect most stakeholders.
Filed under: iPhone, Investor, Apple
Other story tags: China, NTT DoCoMo, India, W-CDMA
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And I certainly don't blame them for not doing dividends or buybacks. The moment you give away dividends, people don't see you as a growth company, but an equity company (like Pepsi, GM, etc).
And buybacks do nothing but show all you care about is the stock price. Some have said its a show that you have faith in your company. Bah! Most would see it as an attempt (desparate attempt?) to boost the stock price.
If analysts and large stockholders really wanted to see Apple do something to show they had faith in the stock, they'd call for a split.
"At Apple's (AAPL) annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday, Chief Executive Steve Jobs said the company remains comfortable with its previously stated iPhone sales goal of 10 million units globally by the end of 2008 -- some 18 months after the product was first launched in North America."
I don't buy that argument. Companies stock price doesn't fluctuate because it is low or high. Hell, Google is a master of fluctuation, and its in the $400s. While other companies sell in the $50s and rarely move.
A CDMA iPhone could be offered in Japan, Korea, and the US (Verizon, Sprint).
Might be much easier to hit those numbers, and then some.