Did You Have a Bite of the Fresh APPLE?
Rekha is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.
The wait was finally over. Wednesday, the 12th of September saw Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) releasing their much awaited iPhone 5- the latest inclusion in the tech behemoth’s iPhone series. This came a day after Apple’s shares closed at an all time high of $682.98, up 2% after hitting an all day high of $685.50. This has stirred what they are calling as the “iPhone 5 fever.” The company, though, said that a few customers might have to wait for around two to three weeks for the new, slimmer and faster smartphone.
The customers in the UK, France and Germany in particular would have to wait as long as till next Friday for the shipments to begin. However, this might not be the only delay they’d suffer. AT&T, Verizon Communications Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp- the three US companies who will sell the latest iPhone- showed delays ranging from a week to a month by Friday afternoon.
Pre-orders for the iPhone, the company said, have been awesome. The company, however, didn’t give any further details on the demand for the latest iPhone.Verizon Communications Inc. said that they’ve seen “significant volumes”since the pre-orders have started being accepted. The newest smartphone can be bought at Apple’s stores beginning next week. Retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy Co have also been taking pre-orders.
The iPhone 5 fever is in full swing. There have been overwhelming demands for this edition of the iPhone. Apple Inc. began taking orders around midnight on Friday while the shipments are to begin on the 21st September. The company plans to sell the iPhone in phases and by the end of 2012, they say, they’d have sold the iPhone 5 in around 100 countries.
The newest iPhone has chic features; it sports a 4-inch retina display and runs on high-speed 4G LTE network. The smartphone is 20% lighter than the previous iPhone 4S.
Such overwhelming were the demands that the smartphone got sold out on the first day of its release. It ain’t unusual for Apple products to sell out on the very first day.Orders for the previous iPhone 4S had surpassed one million in the first 24 hours of its release in the US market, beating its predecessor iPhone 4’s first day record sales of 0.6 million.The launch of iPhone 4S came days before founder Steve Jobs died.
In the midst of all the success, the company seems to be facing a supply crisis. Some analysts are predicting that the early sellout may lead to a potential supply crisis. The Wall Street predicts that the company might sell around 42 million iPhones by the year-end. This, however, is just a prediction as an early sellout would indicate a high demand but a constrained supply. The rollout schedule by the company has all the more amazed the analysts. They say that the company is hurrying to rollout its latest iPhone model and believe it to be the fastest rollout schedule charted by the company, for a particular iPhone model, since they first launched the iPhone as far back as 2007. Given the rollout schedule, the company must back it up with a strict production plan. For the record, Sharp, a Japanese company and Apple’s key supplier for screens is struggling with high costs and scrambling to raise funds to pay off the debts.
Analysts have predicted this to be the best selling smartphone of all time. The stocks remained relatively cheap, trading at about 13 times what investors expect Apple to earn in its 2013 fiscal year. Apple’s shares have climbed more than 66% so far this year in contrast to Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Dell, which fell 31% and 29% respectively in 2012. Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) said it would continue to support Hewlett-Packard Itanium-based servers after losing a bitter lawsuit against the company. Oracle Corp had argued that it was not obliged to make new versions of database software compatible with the servers.
Oracle has announced that they release their software on HP's Itanium computers at about the same time they release their software on IBM's Power systems. Santa Clara Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg had declared last month that a contract between HP and Oracle existed that required Oracle to continue offering their product suite on HP's servers that use Intel Corp.'s Itanium chips.
Oracle in defense had argued that no such contract existed and they had decided to stop supporting HP's Itanium based servers as Itanium was approaching the end of its life. However,their attempts went in vain after being forced to continue after losing a bitter law suit against the HP.
HP was always thought of as a place where new innovations opened new frontiers in technology. But now all that HP does is look behind the times. After a five-year stretch of misinterpretations and miscalculations, HP desperately needs a reboot. Many investors have already written off its chances of a comeback.
Since iPhone's introduction, HP's market value plunged 60% to $35 billion. During this period, HP spent more than $40 billion on dozens of acquisitions that turned out to be duds. HP has even planned a massive future job cuts of around 1300 in the UK and about 3000 worldwide. Unions have criticized this move heavily and have termed this a "butchery" and accuse the company of replacing UK jobs with cheap labors abroad.
Analysts have said that it is the most aggressive sales strategy ever attempted by the company. However, Tim Cook promises to break all sales records by acquiring markets in over 100 nations worldwide by Christmas. Every time Apple releases a new product, people start expecting a “revolutionary innovation”. Even the investment opportunities look bright as Apple sets out to acquire about 100 markets worldwide, breaking all records and generating umpteen revenues.
Interestsed in Additional Analysis?
The stakes are high and the opportunity is huge after Apple’s introduction of the iPhone 5, so to help investors understand this epic Apple event, we've just released an exclusive update dedicated to the iPhone 5. By picking up a copy of The Fool’s premium research report on Apple, you'll learn everything you need to know, and receive ongoing guidance as key news hits. Claim your copy today by clicking here now.
rekhamarwah has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple and Oracle. Motley Fool newsletter services recommend Apple. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.If you have questions about this post or the Fool’s blog network, click here for information.
