This one was a no-brainer and is something that the
company would have factored into its calculations.
The new iPad Mini - which the entire world is
expecting Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) to unveil on October 23 at an event in Sans
Jose - will eat into the sales of the regular-sized iPads, analysts said, who
expect the more women and children to be attracted to the device.
The smaller and cheaper iPad, dubbed iPad Mini by the
media and the tech community, is expected to raise the overall sales of tablets
by the company, but may hit the sales of its larger iPads.
Janney Capital Markets' analyst Bill Choi said that he
expected cannibalisation to the extent of 15 percent by the iPad Mini on the
sales of the iPad.
Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray put the cannibalisation
rate at 20 percent.
"We view the smaller iPad as mostly an
incremental opportunity" for Apple, Choi said. "But (we) see some
modest cannibalization risk to the iPad and iPod Touch."
Choi has estimated the Apple will be able to sell
about 2.5 million iPads in the December quarter, while it will be able to sell
about 6 million iPad Minis and cannibalising about 1 million units from its
bigger cousin.
For fiscal 2013, which began Sept. 30, Choi raised his
forecast for Apple tablet sales by 19.8 million units to 102 million.
He predicted Apple will sell 32 million iPad Minis and
70 million iPads. He sees the average selling price for Apple's tablets
declining to $480, from his prior estimate of $521.
The iPad Mini is expected to have a 7.85 inch display
compared to the current iPad which has a display of 9.7 inches.
It's OK as long as it's AAPL eating AAPL and not some other company eating AAPL.
ReplyDeleteSure, the mini will eat some AAPL but it will probably eat a whole lot more Android, Kindle and Nook.
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