*from www.money.cnn.com, April 18, 2013 (To view original article click here.)
Take Away #1: Apple Inc., the seemingly invincible tech titan has lost nearly a quarter of its stock value this year.
Key Facts and Figures:
- Shares slipped below $400 for the first time since 2011 on Wednesday.
- In the first quarter of the year, Apple was one of the worst performers in the S&P 500.
- Investors are concerned that the iPhone market has peaked in the western world.
- Supply issues have plagued production of iPhones and iPads.
- Apple’s profit margins are falling at an alarming rate.
Take Away #2: The margins problem grew worse last quarter as many customers opted to buy older iPhones and the cheaper iPad mini.
Key Facts and Figures:
- Those devices are less profitable to Apple.
- Overall, the company’s gross profit margin fell 6 percentage points over the year to 38.6%.
- That’s a scary slump, leading analysts to pile on concerns about Apple since last fall.
Take Away #3: Apple’s biggest problem may be an innovation gap.
Key Facts and Figures:
- Apple hasn’t released a major new product since October’s iPad Mini.
- Many expected Apple to make some kind of gadget announcement in March, which the company has typically done for the past few years.
- The quiet March led Hudson Square Research analyst Daniel Ernst to dub the company’s fiscal 2013, which ends in September, “Apple’s lost year.”
Take Away #4: With all the negativity surrounding the company, expectations aren’t high for Apple’s second fiscal quarter earnings report next Tuesday.
Key Facts and Figures:
- Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect earnings to fell 18% over the year.
Take Away #5: To get margins and earnings revved up again, Apple likely needs to launch a high-profile, disruptive product, and the rumored “iTV” could be it.
Key Facts and Figures:
- Apple’s TV ambition is the worst kept secret in Silicon Valley, but no device has yet emerged.
- Apple CEO Tim Cook told NBC’s Brian Williams it’s “an area of intense interest.”
- Apple already has an “Apple TV” set-top box, but the rumored iTV would reportedly offer much more – all the content imaginable on one device.
- An elegant product that brings together content from all TV studios, cable companies, broadcast networks and streaming content would be revolutionary.
- Searching for content today is an absolute mess, and solving that problem could get Apple back to its history of radical innovation.
Take Away #6: Speculation is rampant about what, exactly, the iTV will look like.
Key Facts and Figures:
- Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White surveyed suppliers in China and Taiwan earlier this year.
- White says the iTV will be a 60-inch set with gesture-control capabilities.
- The iTV will also include a smaller, iPad-like screen to watch content away from the living room, he says.
Take Away #7: In a research note earlier this month, Brian White said Apple’s new TV could disrupt its market in the same way iPhone changed the mobile phone market and the iPod radically altered the music industry.
Key Facts and Figures:
- “The iTV ecosystem represents a major innovation for the $100 billion LCD TV industry that will revolutionize the TV experience forever,” White wrote.
Take Away #8: The iTV hopefuls will be looking to Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference next month, but they are likely to be disappointed.
Key Facts and Figures:
- Rumors are swirling about minor products and updates: a new iPhone and iPad Mini, a streaming-music service, and an iOS powered smartwatch.
- Like the iPad Mini in October, those announcements would be fun and welcome news for Apple diehards, but hardly game changers like an iTV would be.
Take Away #9: Until Apple turns the TV world upside down, its stock may continue to slump.
Key Facts and Figures:
*To view original article from www.money.cnn.com click here.