Charlie Wolf

'Shock and Awe!': Charlie Wolf raises his iPad estimates by 10 million units

The persistence of record-setting queues has Wall Street scratching its collective head

The morning phone call to Apple's Fifth Avenue Store followed a familiar script:

Do you have iPad 2s today? Yes, we got a shipment. Is there a line? Yes, it goes around the block. Do you have enough units for everybody? No, we don't.

That crowds of buyers are still gathering outside Apple Stores every morning, more than two weeks after MORE

Mac is the hare, PC the tortoise

Last quarter, Apple's shipments grew nearly 7 times faster than the market's

December marked the 19th straight quarter that Mac shipment growth has outpaced the market's, and in note to clients earlier this week, Needham's Charlie Wolf used IDC's numbers to break down Apple's (AAPL) sales by market segment. Among his findings:

Mac sales to the worldwide home market grew 17.1% year over year in the December quarter, compared with the broader MORE

Why a tiny iPhone could be a big deal

Has Apple built a smaller, cheaper smartphone that is carrier independent?

Peter Burrows, a tech writer who knows his stuff, reports in Bloomberg Businessweek that Apple (AAPL) is putting the finishing touches on two key technologies:

An iPhone one-third smaller than today's model that could be sold for about $200 without a contract
New software built around a dual-mode chipset and a universal SIM that would allow users to change carriers on the MORE

Apple Store sales see-saw wildly

Revenues soared 95.2% last quarter. In 2009, they fell sharply. Charlie Wolf explains.

No Wall Street analyst follows Apple's (AAPL) retail operations more closely than Needham's Charlie Wolf, who has been using quarterly in-store sales as a metric for how well the Apple Stores are doing in general.

But you can sense his frustration in a note to clients issued earlier this week in which he reports that in-store sales, while up MORE

Bloggers vs. pros: The $2 billion gap

With Apple's earnings due next week, the two groups of analysts are miles apart

The amateur analysts who follow Apple (AAPL) tend to be considerably more bullish than the professionals who do it for banks and brokerage houses. After all, unlike the sell-side analysts who are telling investors to buy the stock, they don't have clients who will be angry and disappointed if the company doesn't exceed expectations.

But with Apple set MORE

A smartphone race to the bottom

In a turf war between Android and Windows Phone 7, Apple's iPhone could be the winner

"The major event in the [past] quarter," writes Needham's Charlie Wolf in a note to clients issued Friday, "was the successful launch of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft's new smartphone operating system."

With so much at stake, he expects Microsoft (MSFT) to compete aggressively with Google (GOOG) for the loyalty of the major smartphone manufacturers: HTC, Samsung, MORE

Mac shipments outpace market 3 to 1

In sales to business, the Mac's year-to-year growth last quarter was nearly eight times faster

Needham's Charlie Wolf found lots of good news for Apple (AAPL) in IDC's report on the state of the worldwide PC market for Q3 2010.

That's because his report to clients issued Tuesday never mentioned that the Mac's share of that market last quarter was only 4.36%.

Instead Wolf focused exclusively on the Mac's rate of growth.

Viewed that MORE

$44 million for Mr. Genius Bar

Another big payday for Apple's senior vice president for retail

Ron Johnson, the man Steve Jobs hired from Target (TGT) to create the Apple Store -- and who famously persuaded his boss, over Jobs' initial objections, to include a Genius Bar -- has joined the string of top Apple (AAPL) executives taking advantage of the stock's recent run-up to cash in some options.

According to an SEC Form 4 filed Saturday, Johnson MORE

Analysts weigh in on the new Apple TV

Steve Jobs' latest iteration of the set-top box gets mixed-positive reviews on Wall Street

Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster:

We see the new Apple TV as a meaningful change in Apple's efforts in the digital living room. The addition of new content, such as Netflix, in combination with the $99 price (down from $229), will drive higher unit volumes compared to the the previous version of Apple TV. We MORE

Mac enterprise sales surged in June

Apple scored its biggest gains in government, big business and the European home market

Given the Mac's tiny share of the worldwide PC market -- roughly 3.5% as of June -- Apple (AAPL) has a lot of room to grow. And grow it did in the second quarter, as a note to clients issued Monday by Needham's Charlie Wolf makes clear.

Using IDC's numbers for calendar Q2, Wolf takes a close look MORE