Three things to watch for this week from Steve Jobs and company
While it has the media's attention — having dazzled it last week with the launch of the iPad — Apple (
AAPL) may have a few more tricks up its sleeve in the days ahead.
- iPhone 4.0: Apple has summoned the press to its Cupertino campus Thursday April 8 for a "sneak peek of the next generation of iPhone OS software." Speculation about what that might mean for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch began immediately and read like a blogger's dream come true: multitasking, higher screen resolution, support for a second camera, unified e-mail inbox, enhanced voice-to-text, music streamed from the cloud and more.
- iAd: On Wednesday April 7, according to a widely circulated report in Online Media Daily, Apple is going to brief Madison Avenue executives on a new mobile advertising service (tentatively called iAd) that Steve Jobs has reportedly called "revolutionary," Apple's "next big thing" and an antidote to mobile ads that "suck." A one-stop Apple-branded service that works as seamlessly as the iTunes Store could have enormous appeal to agencies and media companies preparing to sell into all that iPad screen real estate. It could also put Apple in serious conflict with Google (GOOG), which reportedly has patents on a lot of the things Apple may want to do, such as serving ads tailored to a user's location.
- iPad: Apple on Monday released some carefully selected data points from the devices' closely watched launch (over 300,00 units sold on Day One, over 1 million apps purchased, over 250,000 books downloaded). But as the inevitable second-week stories about early problems dribble in (so far we've heard that iPads can overheat in the sun and may have Wi-Fi issues), Apple may choose, before the end of the week, to counter them with some more nice round numbers.
Apple shares have hit another all-time high now that it appears the iPhone could find a new sales outlet through Verizon Wireless.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple plans to release an iPhone this year that would work on the network technology used by Verizon Wireless. For now the phone is available only to subscribers of AT&T.
Apple and Verizon declined to comment.
Apple shares rose as high as $237.48 on Tuesday before retreating to $235.30, up 1.3% on the day. Apple has jumped about 13% this month.
In the past year, Apple shares have more than doubled.
If Apple opens up its wildly popular gadget to other networks, it stands to gain a massive pool of customers who hesitated to switch to the phone because of reservations about AT&T.
Handsets such as Apple's iPhone may also help Verizon Wireless boost its subscriber and revenue growth, a Jefferies & Co. analyst said Tuesday.
In a client note, Jefferies analyst Jonathan Schildkraut reiterated a "Buy" on Verizon Communications, which operates Verizon Wireless in a joint venture with Britain's Vodafone Group.
Schildkraut said if Verizon could bring its cellphone selection in line with the competition with the iPhone or other devices it would free customers up to choose carriers based on network quality.
"We believe (Verizon) Wireless is currently viewed as the network leader," Schildkraut said.
Along with subscriber growth, Schildkraut said "handset parity" could boost Verizon's average revenue per customer, or ARPU, on data plans that provide services such as Web browsing and e-mail.
