Apple 2.0
Forecast of the day: iPhone and Galaxy June sales
May 22, 2013: 7:09 PM ETGoogle Trends says Apple beats low expectations, Samsung momentum stays strong.
Source: Morgan Stanley's AlphaWise Smartphone Tracker. Click to enlarge.
FORTUNE -- Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty unveiled a new crowdsourced forecasting tool Tuesday. As explained in an April whitepaper, the AlphaWise Smartphone Tracker is based on an analysis of Google Trends, using different search terms for different regions and adjusting for seasonal trends.
The results of the first month's survey of the U.S., U.K., German, French, Japanese and Chinese markets are shown in the chart above.
As Huberty notes, 31 million iPhones is better than the Street's consensus (she's at 27 million units), but is consistent with what she's hearing from Apple's (AAPL) Asian suppliers.
AlphaWise's 45 million Galaxy forecast, according to Huberty, is roughly in line with expectations (46 million). "Samsung Galaxy searches grew Q/Q in most regions with the largest growth in China and U.S.," she writes. "Demand upside for lower priced Galaxy S3 likely offsets slightly weaker than expected demand for Galaxy S4, in our view."
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Bloomberg: Apple stuck bond buyers with a '$280 million loss'
As if Apple's bonds were the only ones whose price fell as interest rates climbed.
FORTUNE -- As John R. noted in the comment stream of Mary Childs' latest story on the Bloomberg newswire, she is not an idiot: "She knows using a sensational headline containing 'Apple' will attract readers."
Thus a rise in interest rates across the board is reported on Bloomberg as Apple (AAPL) news:
Apple Bonds Stick Buyers With $280.6 MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 22, 2013 3:42 PM ET -
Guess which senator asked Apple the smartest questions?
To the surprise of many, it was the Tea Party candidate from Wisconsin.
FORTUNE -- Sen. Ron Johnson -- not to be confused with the Ron Johnson who created the Genius Bar -- gets a lot of heat from liberals in his home state for his positions on abortion (he's against it), same sex marriage (ditto), global warming (caused by sun spots) and the Violence Against Women Act (unconstitutional).
There's even a MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 22, 2013 1:13 PM ET -
Tim Cook's testimony on Apple's taxes: The reviews are in
Reporters wrote two kinds of second-day stories, with two very different takes.
FORTUNE -- A search of Google News the day after Tim Cook's Senate testimony on Apple's (AAPL) taxes turned up two kinds of stories.
Headlines reporting on the fact of the hearing tended to use metaphors of violence ("rip," "lambaste," "clash," "spar," "fend off") or of high-temperature torture ("grilled," "hot seat").
But the journalists who reported on the atmospherics -- and, MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 22, 2013 10:14 AM ET -
Mr. Cook came to Washington and escaped unscathed
No one laid a glove on Apple's CEO, not even the subcommittee's hostile chairman.
FORTUNE -- In February, the Huffington Post's Jason Gilbert reviewed the performance of Apple (AAPL) shares on days that Tim Cook spoke in public and concluded, as his headline put it,
The Last 6 Times Tim Cook Has Talked, Apple's Stock Has Dropped.
So it was with some trepidation that Apple investors tuned in to C-Span.org Tuesday morning to watch Cook's MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 21, 2013 3:05 PM ET -
Sen. Rand Paul: 'The Senate should apologize to Apple'
The junior senator from Kentucky has been tweeting up a storm in Apple's defense.
FORTUNE -- In subcommittee hearings Tuesday, Senators Carl Levin and John McCain were careful to balance praise for Apple's (AAPL) achievements with outrage over its "convoluted and pernicious" (McCain's words) tax avoidance strategies.
Sen. Rand Paul showed no such balance. He lit into his own committee's leadership for "dragging" one of America's great success stories into what he MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 21, 2013 11:10 AM ET -
Where to watch the Senate's Apple hearings
C-Span.org began coverage at 9:30 a.m. Tim Cook is scheduled to appear in Part 2.
FORTUNE -- If the subcommittee report is any indication, Tim Cook and his colleagues will face tough questions Tuesday from Sens. Carl Levin (Dem.) and John McCain's (Rep.) Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
The report charges that Apple (AAPL) avoided paying roughly $10 billion in U.S. taxes a year by funneling foreign income through a series of Irish MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 21, 2013 9:30 AM ET -
Apple vs. Subcommittee: Tim Cook has some explaining to do
It's a good thing for Apple that most people won't read the Senate subcommittee's report.
FORTUNE -- The 40-page case study on Apple's (AAPL) overseas tax strategies submitted by the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Monday is not an easy read.
The 10-page overview of tax principles and law in the middle -- a history of how a program to block the use of offshore tax havens begun by President Kennedy was MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 21, 2013 7:33 AM ET -
How Apple sidestepped U.S. taxes: The Senate's version
The results of its probe of Apple's offshore taxes are now available online.
FORTUNE: By Monday afternoon, the day before Tim Cook's scheduled appearance before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, both sides of the story were available online as PDFs: Apple's (AAPL) 17 pages of airbrushed testimony and the subcommitee staff's blistering 40-page retort.
As reader Jim Neal puts it: "Anybody who thinks this is going to be a cordial exchange of ideas MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 20, 2013 7:05 PM ET -
Meet AOI, Apple's mysterious Irish subsidiary - updated
In a statement to the Senate, Apple explains -- sort of -- what it's doing in Cork.
FORTUNE -- There are three parts to the 17-page testimony Apple (AAPL) submitted Monday afternoon in advance of Tim Cook's appearance before the Senate Permanent Subcommitee on Investigations, scheduled for Tuesday:
The easy part: A recitation of how much Apple pays in Federal taxes ($6 billion in fiscal 2012), the number of jobs it has created MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - May 20, 2013 5:08 PM ET
