Take this one with a 9.7-inch grain of salt, but according to Citi analyst Richard Gardner, Apple has overcome all technical hurdles and will be releasing the iPad 3 in February sporting a full 2048×1536 Retina display.

According to "several sources" the next iPad will launch in February, and it will sport a screen with double the resolution of the current model. Gardner says, "there do not appear to be any significant technical hurdles remaining" to prevent a launch of a high-resolution iPad, despite rumors to the contrary.

TiPb previously heard Apple had considered moving iPad 3 up to a fall 2011 release but due to scale issues with the Retina display had moved it back to a spring 2012 slot.

Bearing in mind analysts are often only as reliable as flipping a coin, this shouldn't dissuade anyone who wants a current generation iPad 2 for the holidays from getting an iPad 2 for the holidays. If you can hold out, however, the original iPad was released in April 2010, and the iPad 2 hit in March of this year, so the cycle could well continue. (Or Apple could move iPad 3 to the June slot, keeping iPhone in its new fall position -- there's simply no way to know until Apple makes the announcement.)

Source: BusinessInsider

Shing Yin, a Citadel Securities analyst, thinks a Sprint iPhone deal may not be that far off, perhaps as soon as this year, which would likely mean a CDMA iPhone 5. After Verizon finally shipped the iPhone 4, we found out T-Mobile might be getting one, either on their own or as part of the ongoing T-Mobile and AT&T merger. That leaves Sprint sitting alone in the corner.

Interestingly enough, after Verizon ends unlimited data on July 7, 2011, Sprint will be the only carrier to still offer unlimited data. Yin things that may appeal to Apple.

With lower prices on plans, a Sprint iPhone could offer an attractive proposition for more price-conscious users (a demographic that we think is increasingly important to Apple following the rise of Android)...

I think it's only a matter of time before Sprint picks up the iPhone. I'm not convinced they'll receive the next hardware iteration at the same time as Verizon and AT&T but I could see a launch later in the year or early next year, the same way Verizon got the iPhone 4 roughly 8 months after AT&T.

Like with AT&T, eventually everyone on Verizon who wants an iPhone, even an iPhone 5, will have one, and selling into Sprint's user base is the next logical step for expansion in the US.

Barron's

During a meeting with Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi, Apple COO Tim Cook referred to the iPhone as "the mother of all halos" because of its ability to expand sales of other core products like the iPad and the Mac. Cook went on to strongly suggest that Apple would be releasing a cheaper iPhone in the not-so-distant future:

The analyst says Cook “appeared to reaffirm the notion that Apple is likely to develop lower priced offerings” to expand the market for the iPhone. Cook said the company is planning “clever things” to address the prepaid market, and that Apple did not want its products to be “just for the rich,” and that the company is “not ceding any market.”

Could Cook be referring to the rumored release of a cheaper, smaller iPhone Nano? Maybe, maybe not. Last time Cook said Apple had ideas about netbooks we got iPad and the 11-inch MacBook Air.

In addition, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer suggested that rumors of a soft-SIM or "Universal SIM" iPhone may be in the works to help Apple prevent carriers from dictating terms, which would ultimately be beneficial for the consumer.

One last significant tidbit was that Tim Cook indicated the tablet market will eventually out-grow the entire consumer PC market, with all major PC manufactures jumping into the game. However Apple believes that, despite growing competition, they will remain a leader in the space because of their innovations and year-long head start.

What do you think, is Apple interested in expanding their iOS product line, or could they have other ideas to own the smartphone and tablet markets?

[Forbes]

Credit Suisse Research analyst Jonathan Chaplin thinks we can expect Apple's iPhone to remain exclusive to AT&T for an additional 12-18 months, long past some people's expectations (and recent rumors). Not only will it remain exclusive, Chaplin says, but the delay will have a major negative impact on Verizon, causing him to lower his rating on Big Red from "Outperform" to "Neutral" and cut his share price target from $32 to $30.

"Our analysis suggests that Apple will eventually sell the device at all carriers; however, there is a much greater probability that AT&T keeps exclusivity for another 12-18 months than investors realize," Chaplin wrote. "We think this has profound impacts for Apple, the carriers and the other handset OEMs."

Credit Suisse is 75% certain that AT&T will keep their stranglehold on iPhone for the rest of this calendar year.

"We conclude there is only a 50% probability that it (exclusivity) ends in 2010," Chaplin wrote. "Next, we try to determine whether AT&T bids for another year of exclusivity if exclusivity does end in 2010. We conclude they would and they can afford to compensate Apple such that Apple would be economically indifferent. Our approach yields a 25% probability for this outcome. Taken together, we see a 75% probability that AT&T keeps exclusivity for another year."

Those of us here at TiPb have often wondered "analyst" predictions were any more reliable than magic 8-ball results, so we will ask you, our readers -- will we ever see an iPhone on Verizon or is Steve out to bury them for rejecting the iPhone the first time around? Sound off in the comments!

[Via Apple Insider]

According to Mary Meeker and analysts from Morgan Stanley, Apple has a two to three year lead over its competitors in the mobile Internet space. Even though Apple's iPhone and iPod touch represent just a small piece of of the global smartphone pie with 17 percent, the two devices are responsible for a astounding 65 percent of all mobile internet use.

The iPhone and iPod touch have significantly surpassed the likes of Netscape, AOL, and NTT's DoCoMo in the first nine quarters of being on the market with an install base of 57 million users. That's most impressive if you consider that in the same time frame DoCoMo achieved 25 million users, Netscape 11 million, with AOL coming in last with 7 million.

We can't say Apple is slaughtering the competition, not with Android coming on strong and other platforms just rebooting (or about to). But, we are not likely to see this trend die anytime soon as Apple continues to gain more and more market share in the smartphone world.

Apple is set to announce their Q1 results at 5pm EST (2pm PST) and TiPb will bring you any and all iPhone related news that comes of it. In the meantime, analysts are saying that regardless of how well (or poorly?) the iPhone did during the holiday quarter, it did better than the Android G1. Quotes Apple Insider:

Based on polls of recent cellphone buyers, the analyst firm believes T-Mobile USA may have sold upwards of 300,000 of its touchscreen G1 handsets from launch in late October through to the end of 2008. In contrast, even Morgan Stanley's prediction of about 1.75 million iPhone 3G units sold through AT&T is about 5.9 times greater than what T-Mobile is believed to have managed.

(Note: That's the US T-Mobile, not the German T-Mobile which is busy boosting iPhone sales with heavy discounts.) Are the analysts right? Is this comparing international Apples to domestic Oranges... er... G1s? We'll have to wait in see. Regardless of what the iPhone sells, Bullish Cross (via Daring Fireball) reminds us:

Apple’s use of subscription-based accounting for iPhone revenue has significantly hurt its share price — casual investors who are only looking at Apple’s GAAP results don’t realize how much revenue they’ve deferred.

With the launch of the iPhone 3G, Apple dropped the price point to a carrier-subsidized $199 for the 8GB model. Naturally, that led the usual suspects to complain it wasn't cheaper. It should be $99. It should be free. They should pay us $199 to take it!

Somewhat -- if only slightly -- more seriously, however, that's pretty much what Apple Insider says Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty's studies are showing, with fully 46% turning their nose up at the current price point. She claims that sales of the iPhone 3G were half as strong in September and October when compared to July and September, and suggests:

To spike sales, Huberty suggests that Apple should take a cue from recent rumors and halve the price to $100, which she believes could at least double iPhone sales numbers. Apple's prized profit margins likely wouldn't be an issue, she claims, as the company only needs to reduce the cost of manufacturing and selling an iPhone by 17 percent to achieve the intended effect.

In addition to the launch buzz, pent up demand due to lack of iPhone 2G supplies prior to 3G launch, Kaufman analyst Shaw Wu points out that gift cards for the iPhone may cloud holiday numbers, with revenue from those sales not being counted until the iPhones are actually picked up and activated later.

Of course, everyone loves free stuff. However, few people would want to work for free or give away what they make without recompense, but who ever said the intertubes (and analysts) have to be self-consistent? So the question remains, is the $199 iPhone still too expensive? If so, what price should it be?

Everybody has been playing the guessing game on how many iPhone 3Gs Apple has sold. The numbers have been pitted at 11 million this year and 25 million in 2009 on the low end and 13 million this year and 45 million in 2009 on the optimistic side. Well according to people familiar with Apple's production plans, it looks like Apple is preparing for the high end of the spectrum, upping their yearly production to around 40 million.

As it stands, Apple is pumping out 150,000 iPhones a day which roughly equates to 39 million a year (5 days a week, 52 weeks a year). Apple should have no problem selling these iPhones because of the international rollout and the Best Buy initiative, greater availability leads to more sales.

What does need to be fixed is the activation process, analysts deem the current process as the bottleneck that limits efficiency. Analysts are also pointing at a cheaper iPhone model to be announced during Macworld. That'll certainly help Apple reach its ambitious goals.

We at TiPb think it's entirely feasible to reach 40 million by 2009. Even after the initial hype subsides, there are still plenty of new markets to reach. If the iPhone begins to come in colors, new models, and more polished apps the iPhone 3G will continue to stay fresh for a long while. Now if Apple ever decided to sell the iPhone online again, well then, 40 million will be easy as pie. What do you think?

ReadVia

Steve Jobs announced Apple would sell 10 million iPhones in 2008. Up until June, given waning sales, 3G expectations, and large-scale unavailability from Apple and carriers alike, it didn't look possible.

Enter $199. Jobs said it. I said it. Casey said it. Pretty much everyone and their blog said it. Now the analysts are saying it to:

Sales BOOM!

In total [RBC's Mike Abramsky] expects Apple to sell 14 million iPhones by the end of the year [...] For 2009 though Abramsky is only predicting sales of 24 million, a drastic difference from Piper Jaffray estimates of 45 million. Observes note however that Piper is factoring in unannounced sibling iPhones, which could make the device more affordable for the average person.

They're talking iPod scale numbers now, folks.

What do you think? Can Apple do with the iPhone what they did with the iPod?

Read Via

Monday was analyst prediction day, as RBC Capital analyst Mike Abramsky and Banc of American analyst Scott Craig separately provided the following guestimates on Apple's next gen iPhone:

Abramsky predicts him some amped up CPU, more memory, and the faster 3G speeds that allow for higher def (HD?) video, voice capture, streaming HD video, real-time GPS, and other Trekkie goodness. All this would, coupled with a mid-2008 release, would let Apple blow past 10 million, and hit a potential 11 million unites sold by year end.

For his part, Craig skipped features and stuck to the money: "We believe that demand in the U.S. may have been impacted by the anticipation of a new 3G phone..." (Perhaps because of continued analyst bombardment of same?) Craig also sees a 3G handset in 2008 as necessary to complete the 10 million handset march.

Check out AppleInsider for more.