Tag Archives: aapl

Apple Watch Sales Could Tank This Year With No Big Redesign

Apple Watch sales are likely to tumble this year as the company prepares a second-generation smartwatch that is only a modest upgrade over the original version, respected Apple ( AAPL ) analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities said in a note Monday. Kuo predicts that Apple Watch sales will fall by more than 25% this year, according to 9to5Mac . He estimates that Apple will sell fewer than 7.5 million watches for the full year, compared with 10.6 million units last year when the watch was only available for eight months. Kuo argues that the Apple Watch lacks killer applications, and the hardware has room for improvement. Limited battery life and reliance on the iPhone for functionality are two knocks on the Apple Watch, he said. The next version of the Apple Watch is likely to be an “S model” refresh, with only incremental changes to the device, which will look basically the same, he said. It is seen launching this fall along with the iPhone 7. Kuo doesn’t expect a major redesign of the Apple Watch until 2017. But Drexel Hamilton analyst Brian White disagrees. In a note Friday, he said Apple Watch 2 could be 20% to 40% thinner than the current model and might be launched in June at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. Last month, market research firm IDC predicted that Apple would ship 14 million units of its smartwatch this year, compared with an estimated 11.6 million units in 2015. Apple’s biggest competition in smartwatches comes from manufacturers using Alphabet ’s ( GOOGL ) Android Wear operating system, IDC said. Image provided by Shutterstock .

Dell Beats HP In U.S. PC Shipments For First Time In Over 6 Years

Dell retook the U.S. personal computer shipment lead for the first time in over six years in Q1 as former No. 1 HP Inc. ( HPQ ) stumbled, market research firms Gartner and IDC reported late Monday. HP had been the top PC vendor in the U.S. for 25 consecutive quarters, IDC said. Dell shipped 3.48 million PCs in the U.S. in Q1, giving it a 25.6% market share, while HP shipped 3.44 million units for a 25.3% market share, IDC said. It was Dell’s first No. 1 ranking in the U.S. since the third quarter of 2009, IDC said. Dell increased its domestic PC unit shipments by 4.2% year over year in the first quarter, while HP’s U.S. shipments declined 14.1%, IDC said. Overall PC shipments in the U.S. fell 5.8% in Q1, IDC said. No. 3 vendor Lenovo increased its shipments by 21.1% to 1.92 million units, giving it a 14.1% market share. No. 4 vendor Apple ( AAPL ) grew its shipments by 5.6% to 1.76 million units, giving it a 13% market share. Gartner ( IT ), which measures the PC market differently from IDC, said Dell was No. 1 in the U.S. in Q1 with a 26.3% market share, followed by HP with 23.7%. On a worldwide basis, PC shipments fell 11.5% to 60.6 million units in the first quarter, IDC said. Gartner put the decline at 9.6%. Gartner said it was the sixth consecutive quarter of global PC shipment declines. Consumer PC sales remain weak, hurt in part by free upgrades to Microsoft ’s ( MSFT ) Windows 10 operating system. Enterprise customers are still mostly testing Windows 10, but adoption by businesses is expected to start in earnest later this year. Lenovo was the top PC vendor worldwide with a 20.1% market share in Q1, IDC said. HP was in second place with a 19.2% market share, followed by Dell (14.9%), Apple (7.4%) and Asus (7.2%), IDC said.

Facebook Stock Breaches 50-Day Support Amid Usage Fears, F8 Show

Loading the player… Facebook ( FB ) fell in quick turnover for a second session in a row amid concerns that users are not sharing as many personal posts. The Information reported last week that Facebook saw a 21% drop in original posts from mid-2014 to mid-2015, and that it is working to correct that decline. Meanwhile, privately held social media competitor Snapchat is all about personal shares. Facebook-owned Instagram is also a hub for personal posts. The social media giant has indicated that it’s just the type of sharing that has changed on its main platform, not the level of sharing. Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference begins tomorrow, where chatbots are expected to be a hot topic. That could open a new revenue stream for businesses looking to interact with their customers on a social platform. But tech giants still have a lot to learn when it comes to chatbots. Microsoft ’s ( MSFT ) experiment with teen chatbot Tay quickly went south. Facebook shares dropped 1.5%, breaching support at the 50-day line. A drop below the 50-day moving average in heavy volume is an especially bearish sign, but this move was in slightly above average trade. Shares are trading 7% below a cup-with-handle base buy point of 117.09. Microsoft is trading 4% below its late-December high and a consolidation buy point at 56.95, which is 10 cents above the high. The stock fell 0.2% Monday. Facebook last week rolled out its Live platform globally, with expanded features — edging into Twitter ’s ( TWTR ) realm, which includes its Periscope live streaming platform. Twitter is still searching for positive catalysts to revive its shares. Last week, it signed a pact with the NFL to live stream 10 Thursday Night Football games. Twitter is in an extended downtrend, trading 68% below its 52-week high. The stock dipped 0.8% Monday. Among other widely held tech stocks, Google owner Alphabet ( GOOGL ) is working on a cup-with-handle base with a 777.41 buy point. It’s trading 3% below that level, falling 0.3% Monday. And Apple ( AAPL ) tried to retake the 110 price level, but pared its gains to close up 0.3%. Apple is nearing its downward sloping 200-day line, but its recent attempts to retake that level have failed. Apple stock is 18% below its late-April peak. Image provided by Shutterstock .