Analysts: Apple to Further Surge Ahead on iPhone 5, iPad Mini, Apple TV
Samsung is definitely riding high on the rousing success of its Galaxy smartphone lines following the June quarter but analysts were convinced that Apple will mount an incredible surge in late 2012 through much of 2013.
The rally will be fuelled by the much-waited iPhone 5, which has been touted to roll out between September and October 2012, and the subject of intense online rumour, the iPad Mini.
Speculations were ripe that Apple, despite clear protestations from its former CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs, is bent on competing in the small tablet market, which is an offshoot of the new market that the Cupertino, California-based firm had actually created.
If the stories were indeed correct, Apple, according to Forbes, is slated again to reap billions anchored on the projected sales of iPad Mini that the financial publication said should easily reach tens of millions 12 months after the product's debut.
Citing a financial note provided by RBC Capital, Forbes said iPad Mini would deliver $US10 billion additional revenues to Apple as the gadget is predicted to lure more than 40 million buys before the end of 2013.
While technically a new device, the iPad Mini will immediately attract hordes of global buyers, thanks much to the excitement already generated by its supposed production, which CNET has commenced in August.
"We expect panel production (for iPad Mini) to start in August, with production ramping up to high volumes (more than a million units per month) in the fourth quarter," the tech news site quoted a recent report by NPD DisplaySearch as saying.
It is highly likely that the gadget will be issued in December, some two months after the iPhone 5 would have hit the market, which media reports said Apple will unveil in a scheduled September 12 function announced earlier by the tech giant.
Apple's new smartphone, in turn, will surpass the record sales garnered by the iPhones 4S, according to tech news site BGR, when the latter was pushed out of the market in October 2011.
Basing its report on a survey conducted by ChangeWave, BGR said the iPhone 5 has been creating a tsunami of anticipation, at least in the North American region, that could easily exceed the ripples sent out by Samsung earlier this year when it unleashed the Galaxy S3.
The survey further claimed that iPhone 5 will erase the records set by its predecessor in late 2011.
"The biggest finding of the survey is the unprecedented level of advance demand for the next generation Apple iPhone - which based on these survey numbers easily dwarfs the advance demand of any previous iPhone launch," the tech blog site quoted the survey as saying.
In terms of the number of consumers that would plunk down their cash for the gadget, iPhone 5 will beat out Samsung's Galaxy S3, ChangeWave said.
Some 17 per cent of participants said they would 'somewhat likely' purchase Apple's new handset while only seven per cent professed the same sentiments for the S3, the survey said.
Clearly, Apple looks ahead to a rosy financial year ahead despite the misses it absorbed earlier this year and the company's course will head towards 61 per cent of sales growth, according to Apple Insider.
In fact, the blog site said, Apple's further north movement has already started in July, adding it is not remote for the tech giant to eventually breach the $US1000 mark in stock price value, citing estimates provided by Topeka Capital Markets.
Of course, the products behind the ballooning figures are the iPhone 5, the iPad Mini and a fully refurbished Apple TV, Apple Insider said.