Vodafone
Apple analyst raises estimated EPS 39%, downgrades stock
April 9, 2012: 1:19 PM ETPredicts the carriers will "stunt the pace of phone upgrades" in 2012, starting this quarter
BTIG's Walter Piecyk sent his clients some deeply mixed signals Monday, two weeks before Apple (AAPL) is scheduled to report its second fiscal quarter earnings.
On the one hand, he's taken a new look at estimates he published in January and revised them sharply upward -- nearly 39% in EPS alone (see table at right).
On the other, he's issued a rare Apple downgrade -- to "neutral" from "buy."
"We believe," he wrote, "that investors should take a breather during the expected strength of this quarter and the rapid rise in the stock and take a moment to consider;
- the changing dynamics in the post-paid wireless industry, which has seen margins squeezed by the frequent upgrade activity of iPhone customers,
- the sustainability of a $600 iPhone and possible need for a price cut, and
- the elevated expectation that the company will deliver another revolutionary product into the market."
The note is rather lengthy, but the thrust of it is that the carriers, having helped fuel iPhone fever by offering deep subsidies and easy upgrade terms, have collectively decided to tighten the screws: (I quote)
The commentary by wireless operators is likely to be decidedly more firm in how they plan to continue to hold back the rising phone upgrade rates that are hurting their margins. Even weak operators like Sprint, which has a large contractual commitment with Apple, will likely experience a decline in iPhone sales based in part on changes to its upgrade policies last year. They will not be alone as we expect a similar trend at Verizon, Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, America Movil and Telefonica, to name a few. In the United States, we expect iPhone sales to decline 4 million sequentially to 9 million with the largest impact coming from AT&T, Apple's largest customer.
This assumes the carriers have the power to slow the Apple juggernaut. We'll find out soon enough. Apple will report its Q2 earnings -- and offer guidance for the current quarter -- after the markets close on April 24.
One more thing: Piecyk also removed his $600 per share Apple price target, noting that it had been "surpassed." Indeed it has. On Monday, the stock hit a new intraday record of $639.84 and closed at an all-time high of 636.23.
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The amazin' elastic iPhone 3GS
Who gets hurt most by Apple's entry into the $250-$400 mobile phone market?
In a 36-page report to clients issued Monday, a Credit Suisse team led by Kulbinder Garcha took a close look at the iPhone's price elasticity -- Econ 101 jargon for the question: "If I lower the price of my widget, how many more will I sell?"
Garcha et al.'s focus is the iPhone 3GS, which Apple (AAPL) last month began MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 22, 2011 7:06 AM ETPosted in: Apple, AT&T, Credit Suisse, iPhone, iPhone 3GS, Mobile, Price elasticity, Rogers, smartphone, Vodafone -
Meet India's mobile revolutionary
Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel is aggressively expanding at home and abroad to maintain momentum in an increasingly competitive market.
By Anurag Prasad, contributor
Sunil Bharti Mittal wants to be a big influence in the everyday lives of the nearly 200 million users of his Airtel phones across South Asia and Africa. He wants to play banker, entertainer, teacher, doctor, and countless other roles. If he succeeds, he'll not only change how MORE
Feb 10, 2011 12:02 PM ET -
Meet the first $100 Android phone
Vodafone is selling its '845' Android phone for £70 ($108) with £10 top up included on a Pay-as-you-go plan.
It looks like we are entering into the age of the $100 Android smartphone. I talked a little bit about what this would mean for consumer adoption of smartphones last week. In short, many more people will be moving from featurephone to smartphone and carriers get to compete for tight budget handset buyers.
The MORE
Seth Weintraub - Dec 31, 2010 1:10 AM ETPosted in: Android, bluetooth, Feature phone, Global Positioning System, GPS, smartphone, Vodafone, Wi-Fi -
Tech's roving R&D man
Frog Design's Jan Chipchase interviews residents of the world's hot spots so big business doesn't have to.
Jan Chipchase is the Indiana Jones of technology for the developing world. The British-born, Shanghai-based researcher travels the globe, trying to understand how and why the planet's poorest people would use cellphones and other gadgets. Part cultural anthropologist and explorer, and part designer and entrepreneur, Chipchase uses his findings to develop new products and MORE
Jessi Hempel, writer - Nov 29, 2010 3:00 AM ETPosted in: Afghanistan, cellphones, consultants, Dell, developing world, Disney, Frog Design, gadgets, Ghana, Hewlett-Packard, Jan Chipchase, Kenya, Nokia, Uganda, Vodafone -
Lowell McAdam: Seidenberg's 'air' apparent
By Sarah Ellison, contributor
While Ivan Seidenberg got his start as a cable splicer's assistant, working hands on with the copper wires and fiber-optic lines that were once the phone company's core business, his handpicked successor, Lowell McAdam, 56, has spent the bulk of his career in the wireless industry -- Verizon's new core. Last year wireless accounted for 58% of Verizon's annual revenue, up from 50% in 2008.
McAdam, who became MORE
Oct 29, 2010 3:00 AM ET -
Google's Nexus One goes to Europe on Vodafone
Vodafone will sell the iconic 'Google phone' for free with a £35 ($54)/month service plan starting on April 30th.
Android fans in the UK will now be able to get their hands on a flagship Android phone at the end of this month, according to a press release by Vodafone. Plans start at £25 per month and contract terms vary from 18- to 24-months.
The phone is likely identical hardware MORE
Seth Weintraub - Apr 26, 2010 12:20 PM ET -
Mobile gets down to business
Verizon, Sybase and Quickcomm team up to manage corporations' mobility needs. Their service just scratches the surface
Telecom giant Verizon (VZ) says it is launching a suite of services to help corporate IT departments manage their fleets of mobile devices. Corporate clients can hire Verizon to track their inventories of phones and monitor billings, add and drop devices as employees come and go, enforce security policies on phones and even remotely MORE
Stephanie N. Mehta, Deputy Managing Editor - Sep 9, 2009 3:00 AM ET -
4G hype: Time for a reality check
Wireless carriers tout a new wave of wireless technology but it will be years before most consumers benefit -- and before carriers make money.
Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon (VZ) and Vodafone (VOD), last week announced it had completed data "calls" using its flavor of so-called 4G technology, a new generation of radio upgrades that promises to improve the throughput and capacity of wireless phone networks.
Rival Sprint Nextel (S) MORE
Stephanie N. Mehta, Deputy Managing Editor - Aug 18, 2009 10:00 AM ET -
Finally, the real iPhone
There's a theory favored by savvy Apple watchers that the first generation iPhone -- greeted with such hoopla last year -- was not actually the real thing.
That iPhone -- the one that hundreds of thousands of Americans queued up to buy for up to $599 apiece, the one that Time magazine named the Invention of the Year, the one that six million people purchased before Apple finally stopped making them in MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jul 9, 2008 7:31 AM ETPosted in: 3G, App Store, Apple, Apple Stores, AT&T, Battery problems, Deferred revenue, Europe, France, Germany, GPS, iPhone, iPhone 3G, O2, Orange, RIM, Rogers, Steve Jobs, T-Mobile, Third Party Apps, U.K., Vodafone
