Analysts are making bold predictions about Apple’s performance during its current quarter, saying the company has had its “best November ever.” That’s according to Ticonderoga’s Brian White; Canaccord’s T. Michael Walkley also crowed about Apple’s recent sales success, albeit with a caveat.
White issues a monthly “Apple Barometer” to help investors gauge its success, using data gathered from supply chain sources to anticipate Apple’s sell-through numbers. The barometer was up 17 percent during November versus the previous month, whereas normally it tends to gain around only 2 percent per month. Even though White says that October was not as strong as usual for Apple, the gain for November was still very strong, and due mostly to amazing sales on Apple’s part for the month.
Over at Canaccord, Walkley didn’t have all good news for Apple watchers. In a note Tuesday, he said that the firm expects Amazon’s Kindle Fire to take away as much as 20 percent of Apple’s tablet unit share between the third and fourth quarters of 2011. That’s not necessarily that bad for Apple, however, since the iPad is still projected by Walkley to sell more units than it did in Q3 2011, with Amazon’s device just adding to the global tablet shipment forecast total. Plus, Apple seems to anticipate that more Kindle Fire sales should lead to more iPad sales down the road.
The iPhone, however, is unquestionably a success for Apple, prompting Walkley to bump his sales estimate of Apple’s smartphone from 29 million up to 30.5 million for the quarter, which is huge compared to the 17.1 million Apple sold last quarter. The iPhone’s sales success should see it gain back significant market share from Android competitors, according to Walkley.
Apple always has a strong holiday quarter, but with the late introduction of the iPhone 4S this year, and the continued success of the iPad 2, we definitely should see some entirely unprecedented numbers this time around.
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