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Investment bank Piper Jaffray issued a note on Friday highlighting10 key points, which range from anticipated future products toChina iPhone growth, that it believes will drive shares of Apple upto $1,000 in the next couple of years. In the note obtained by AppleInsider , analyst Gene Munster offered a bird's-eye view of the company andits prospects. He believes the most important highlights for Apple will becontinued innovation in the company's 2012 product roadmap; ablowout next-generation iPhone launch; an Apple television arrivingin 2013; little change to carrier subsidies for the next two tothree years; sustained gross margins above 40 percent and the Chinaopportunity. 2012 product roadmap Munster said he expects Apple to release "meaningful updates" toits core product lines, especially the iPhone and Mac, that willdemonstrate the company's continued "ability to innovate." Macupdates should arrive within the next six weeks with enhancedRetina Displays and Intel's Ivy Bridge chips, he added. Given thatit would be the "first meaningful Mac update in over a year,"Munster expects the refresh to "reaccelerate" Mac sales. Looking ahead, Munster sees a smaller iPad with a screen of 7-8inches and the Apple television arriving next year. Apple's next iPhone With regard to Apple's next-generation iPhone, Munster's positionremains largely unchanged from an earlier note expressing confidence in the upcoming handset. He think Apple willmanage to overcome a shortage of Qualcomm's 28nm baseband chips byprocuring "a lion's share" of them ahead of production. Heestimates there is an 80 percent chance that Apple will hit PiperJaffray's 49 million iPhone forecast for the December quarter. The next iPhone will have a "completely redesigned body style,"possibly with a metallic rear panel similar to that of the currentiPad. He puts the probability of a 4-inch screen at 60 percent. Thenext-gen handset will also likely include 4G LTE, an upgradedprocessor and memory and a higher-megapixel camera. Apple television For several years now, Munster has been one of the most vocalproponents of the theory that Apple is working on a connectedtelevision. He speculated on Friday that Apple could announce theproduct as early as December 2012 in order to "freeze the market"of prospective TV buyers during the holiday season. The analyst believes an Apple television would arrive in the rangeof $1,500 to $2,000 and would come in larger screen sizes (42-55inches). By way of comparison, Munster pointed out that a typical42-inch connected TV costs around $700, while a 55-inch goes for$1,400. He cited Bang & Olufsen's upcoming $3,700 40-inch V1 TV asan example of the market's high end. The Apple television would reportedly include interface control viaan iPhone and iPad app, as well as voice-control through Siri.Munster also suggested that the new TV would have access to an AppStore that would "enable consumers to play games, listen to music,etc." on the TV set. The firm believes Apple could achieve 10 percent of the marketwithin 1-3 years of the device's launch. Analyst Michael Olsonestimates the connected TV market will reach 110 million units nextyear. Munster estimates that every one million units of Apple TVssold would bring in an additional 1 percent in revenue throughoutcalendar 2013. Phone subsidies Though some financial analysts have cautioned that carriers may be cutting back on phone subsidies, theinvestment bank expressed belief that iPhone subsidies would remainrelatively unchanged for the next 2-3 years. It noted the fact thatthe iPhone reportedly has the lowest churn rates of any mobiledevice and pointed to in-house research showing that consumersinterest in the iPhone should enable carriers to achieve lowercustomer acquisition costs. Comparing Android subsidies to those of the iPhone, Munster saidthe market share on AT&T and Verizon was tilted heavily toward Apple. Additionally, even if marketleaders among the wireless industry were to drop subsidies, second-or third-place carriers would remain willing to subsidize theiPhone, Munster said. Though such a situation could cause near-term"hiccups" in regional markets, the analyst believes consumers wouldvote with their wallets for the iPhone. 40%+ Gross margins Munster suggested that Apple will be able to maintain gross marginsabove 40 percent over the next three years largely because theiPhone will make up a larger part of the company's total sales. Hebelieves the iPhone has a 60 percent gross margin, significantlyhigher than the estimated 40 percent margin of the iPad and thepresumed 25 percent margin for Macs. Assuming just 10-15 percent of Apple's component costs are laborrelated, Munster does not expect increased wages at manufacturing partner Foxconn to have a "noticeably negativeimpact" on the iPhone maker's margins. "Heart transplant" strategy Munster described Apple's strategy of phasing out older productsfrom its lineup as a "heart transplant" strategy. "We believe this strategy is a key factor in the company benefitingfrom scale of producing a streamlined product line, which in partcould enable the company to secure the best component pricespossible which translate to higher margins," he said. Looking ahead, Munster believes that Apple will continue to offertwo older iPhone models and one older iPad alongside itscurrent-generation products. China adoption curve Munster cautioned investors not to believe that China's adoptioncurve will follow the same arc as that of the U.S. According to hisestimates, Apple sold 8-9 million iPhones in China during the Marchquarter, compared to 9.5 million Stateside activations and 1million in the channel. "While the US saw a 34 percent quarter-over-quarter slowdown iniPhone activations following the launch quarter, we do not believeChina will follow the same path," he said. The analyst said "most investors" believe the slowdown in the U.S.,coupled with an expected dropoff ahead of the next iPhone, poses arisk to consensus estimates of 29 million iPhones during the Junequarter. However, Munster remains comfortable with his 29 millionunit estimate because he views iPhone sales in China as remainingrobust over the period. Piper Jaffray expects continued "healthy smartphone growth" fromChina because of its growing middle class and the currentunder-penetration of smartphones in the country, the analyst noted. Tablets eclipsing PCs Another key area of strength for Apple is the long-term tabletopportunity, Munster continued. Agreeing with Apple CEO Tim Cook on the matter , the analyst expects the tablet market to eventually outgrow thePC market. For now, Munster expects Apple to sell 66 million iPads this year,roughly two-thirds of the projected total tablet market. Meanwhile,the PC market is expected to hit 371 million units this year,according to market research firm IDC. In 2015, Munster believesApple will sell 176 million iPads out of a total of 301 million. "Through 2015, we believe Apple will maintain its market share leadin tablets and have heard tablet competition likened to iPodcompetition in the early days of the iPod (XYZ is coming, whichwill kill the iPod)," Munster said. IDC projects PC sales to reach 484 million in 2015. As such,Munster believes tablets could potentially surpass PCs by 2020. Enterprise strategy Munster also said Apple's "long road" enterprise strategy will beanother key point for its growth. He believes the company considersthe consumer and enterprise markets as "significantly differentverticals" and counts on consumer adoption to lead to enterpriseadoption. The analyst expects the high "consumer desire" for the iPhone andthe iPad to transfer over to the corporate level. He did say,however, that he doesn't expect the Mac to enjoy the same amount ofsuccess in the enterprise as Apple's mobile products. The Macmaker's reluctance to support older OS versions is an obstacle tocorporate adoption, since most companies prefer to use olderversions of Windows "for reliability purposes." Services Finally, Munster expressed belief that services such as iTunes, theApp Store and iCloud will help "enhance" the Apple ecosystemwithout needing to produce substantial profits on their own. Applecould potentially take a similar approach to a "larger contentinitiative" for its rumored Apple television, he added. "We note that with 225+ million registered iTunes accounts and 125+million iCloud accounts, Apple has one of the largest registereduser based in the tech world," Munster wrote. Piper Jaffray reiterated on Friday its Overweight rating for Appleand its $910 12-month price target. I am an expert from inflatable-advertisingballoon.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Inflatable Lighting Balloon , Cube Balloon Manufacturer, Inflatable Lighting Balloon,and more.
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