Apple (AAPL) officially started selling its new iPad Mini with high-resolution Retina display on Tuesday, an unusually quiet start of sales for a new Apple product. It’s the second of the two new tablets Apple launched this month. The first was the iPad Air, which hit store shelves Nov. 1. Both were unveiled at Apple’s Oct. 22 product announcement, though the pencil-thin Air got by far the most attention. Here’s IBD’s report on the product
Women’s health company Hologic (HOLX) was hit by a series of downgrades Tuesday morning after its quarterly revenue and guidance missed estimates, sending shares down 14% to below 20 in the stock market, a four-month low. Late Monday, Hologic reported sales for its fiscal Q4 ended Sept. 28 of $622.1 million, up 6% from the year-earlier quarter but about $2 million short of analysts’ consensus. Profit rose 5% to 39 cents a share, beating views by 2
After introducing millions of consumers to home cleaning robots with its Roomba vacuum cleaner, iRobot (IRBT) went back to the drawing board for its latest model. The result is the biggest leap forward in robotic cleaning since the original Roomba debuted in 2002. Bedford, Mass.-based iRobot on Tuesday introduced its top-of-the-line Roomba 880 model, which it says features 50% better pick-up of dirt, debris and hair from carpets and floors. IRobot eliminated the traditional bristle brushes, which often can get tangled with hair. “It’s the biggest thing in cleaning since the first Roomba,” iRobot CEO Colin Angle told IBD. “This is something to be really excited about. And it comes at a very timely point when competition is increasing in the vacuuming robot business.” The heart of the Roomba 880 is the patent-pending AeroForce Performance Cleaning System. The system includes counter-rotating AeroForce Extractors, which break down debris and…