Rick Povich on Gene Munster: Apple splits the difference - '“Apple’s recently launched iPhone 18 is seeing “muted” initial wait times in major global markets for the technology giant’s first foldable smartphone, UBS Securities [David Vogt] said in a note e-mailed Friday.” There you are, David, right on cue this morning. Vogt, one of the perpetual AAPL low-ballers currently has a Hold rating with a $296 target. No surprise. He also seems to think the Duo’s price may cause problems with sales. “Sell” rating forthcoming'
on Premarket: Apple was green, turned red - 'Yes. Price includes GST of 10%. Aus consumer law says a device must be effective for the term of its reasonable useful life. Apple has taken that to mean 2 years for most of their products. Apple’s explicit warranty is 12 months but they honour consumer rights and then some. Bring in a 25 month old product and say you noticed something wrong after 23 months and if you aren’t rude you might get your product replaced on the spot. Technically these laws apply to android devices too. But as many androids are bought in supermarkets, small shops, Amazon etc it is too difficult to get a phone replaced 2 years later, so I assume they are just trashed. So yes Aussies pay a bit more than just the exchange rate and gst but they get Ritz Carlton service at an Apple Store and longer device life. For me the extra money of buying in Australia is a no-brainer.'
on Gene Munster: Apple splits the difference - 'They’ll say “Apple is doomed. They mis-managed not just the demand and supply chain for the Duo, but also the scalability of their website.” There is NO SCENARIO where Apple wins with a lot of those people…'
on Gene Munster: Apple splits the difference - 'What will all these analysts write once the Duo is not only sold in seconds, but the web site crashed due to overwhelming demand. My gut tells me that Apple has been preparing for an order onslaught of these Duo devices and have produced far more than anyone is predicting will be sold. I still remember all the articles mocking the Apple Air Pods as: “Nobody will want to be seen walking around with Q-Tips in their ears.” How did that prediction turn out? About as well as Apple entering the streaming wars will be a disaster!'
on Premarket: Apple was green, turned red - 'Aussies are complaining heavily about the Duo’s cost, around AU$3500, but aren’t your prices forced to include GST taxes plus a mandatory charge for warranty and support AND other fees? Yes, Apple has to build/add in foreign exchange and currency fluctuation buffers plus operational costs (logistics, store, online, support and repair) for the entire quarter if not the whole sales year, so most international regions are charged between 10% to 25% above a straight exchange rate. But apparently it hasn’t deterred iPhone 18 Pro model buyers?'
on Gene Munster: Apple splits the difference - 'Upvoted. I hope Apple keeps offering low-end models, even if they delay upgrades right now due to memory shortages. Meanwhile, used iPhones range in price from $90 to $850 (per AI) and account for 150M units annually.'
on Premarket: Apple was green, turned red - 'Closed red, as expected, but only about 0.4%. For a Triple Witching day, that’s danged good! And volume as I type is about 67 M, which is actually decent, and definitely contributed to AAPL not getting railroaded by options houses trying to lock in their Max Pain, ie, maximum profit.'
on Premarket: Apple was green, turned red - 'We are now in the final 30 minutes of trading for the day and the week. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ Composite have just poked into the green on the day with the S&P 500 up 0.03% and the NASDAQ Composite higher by 0.17%. Apple remains in the red $0.82 or 0.24% at $336.18. Apple closed last Friday at $332.87. Overall it’s been a good week for the Mac maker. Apple supplier Broadcom is up $8.46 or 2.44% at $355.76. Let’s see how the market closes out the week at the closing bell.'
on Gene Munster: Apple splits the difference - 'Just adding my 2 cents: ”Few people have analyzed why Apple has done this” What if Apple took a long at iPhone sales, and discovered that the more expensive models were expanding and the non-Pro models were shrinking. Needing production capacity for the more expensive Duo, Apple decided to delay non-Pro deliveries. Could this be a signal that the least expensive iPhones are being phased out, as Apple doesn’t need to remain somewhat competitive to Android, who are having their own memory induced profit issues and no where to go.'
on Demand for Apple's Phone 18 Pros 'better than feared' - 'who feared? I seriously would like to know. I can bet nobody here feared, or fear, slowing demand. Next they are going to say the Duo sells better than they feared. Who are these people?'
on Gene Munster: Apple splits the difference - 'Getting my blue ProMax today- already wearing my new Ultra!'
on Gene Munster: Apple splits the difference - 'From other reports, more people are also upgrading their phones sooner, likely because of Siri AI. And there really is not anything else to get for the holiday season (only a lucky few will get their Duo before Christmas I suspect). So while the high end early adopters may move to Duo, a lot of people who had bought lower priced iPhones before may be buying the 18 Pro/Max. I wonder how many are using Apple Upgrade to deal with the price hit? Also, as I mentioned elsewhere, burgundy is a very important color in China, representing sophistication and a grounded confidence (according to Google). It will be interesting to see Chinese sales.'
on Gene Munster: Apple splits the difference - 'I am totally happy if Apple sales of the Pro models are higher than last year in this new release pattern. Few people have analyzed why Apple has done this completely and the company hasn’t given a reason that I know of. I am going to say it is due to supply chain issues mostly caused by ram supply costs to maintain all the product releases at the same time. There may be other supply reasons as well. They are usually a bit stingy in creating new capacity before judging sales. Once burned twice shy. Apple is choosing prioritizing the more profitable devices first. They didn’t try and shoehorn the new Duo into the same release dates as the Pro models either. Of course many will buy Pro models now instead of base models since monthly purchase plans are not that much more expensive for the new models than previous years. This is a different version of Good, Better, Best as different generations of models and different form factors will now have different capabilities and different price points than previous years. By the end of the product cycle when Apple has introduced and have for sale all the 18 models and the Duo we will see if they have expanded their own market as well as average selling prices or not. Of course everyone wants to know after the first day of sales what the rest of the year will look like.'
on Gene Munster: Apple splits the difference - 'Agreed, PED. I for one will be getting a Duo! First iPhone in a long time that I’m truly excited about.'
on Barron's: Apple's silicon strategy pays off in spades - '“… For example, Apple often markets battery life in terms of how many hours of video playback a device can deliver–up to 36 hours for the iPhone 18 Pro…” Or, as Joanna said, how many times you can poke the pickle 🙂'
on Barron's: Apple's silicon strategy pays off in spades - 'Steven, There is something called the Microsoft Experience Center on 5th Avenue in NYC. I am not sure about other locations but we did notice it on our trips to NYC during the holiday season. We didn’t go in but it didn’t seem very busy from the outside.'
on Barron's: Apple's silicon strategy pays off in spades - 'Apple should order extra copies and hand them out at Microsoft and Android stores. (Do they still have Microsoft stores?)'
