Gizmodo: analyst

CHART OF THE DAY: Google's Massive Cash Flow In Context II

The Business Insider — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:01:00 EDT

Google turned in another solid quarter yesterday, with free cash flow coming in at $2.5 billion. Think about it: that's a $10 billion run rate for a company that didn't exist ten years ago.

How does that stack up to other companies? It's still not close to Microsoft, but it's pulling away from Time Warner. Here's an update from our April chart.

Note: We've used analyst estimates for Q3 for Microsoft and Time Warner.

Great Moments in Apple Analysis

Jason Chen — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:40:00 EDT

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Benjamin Reitzes of Barclays Capital drops this insightful load in a NYT piece on Apple strategy:

If they start making products people don't want, and start losing users, then Apple's strategy will run into problems.

I'm going to have to say that this is the best quote I've ever seen. [NYT - Thanks ponies!]

Analyst Says Apple Tablet in First Half of 2010

Jason Chen — Thu, 21 May 2009 12:52:12 EDT

Gene Munster, an Apple analyst, says that Apple's likely to release a 7 to 10-inch touchscreen tablet some time in the early half of 2010. Usually analysts' predictions are sketchy, but Munster's is slightly less so.

Munster says he spoke to "component contacts" in Asia, analyzed patents, looked at comments from Tim Cook (and probably read our Apple Tablet roundup), which caused him to make the prediction that the device won't be ready yet in 2009.

He did say that the tablet should be more complex than an iPod/iPhone, and will be some kind of hybrid between that OS and the standard OS X on desktops and laptops. But of course, he's still an analyst, so none of this is guaranteed to be true. [Business Insider via Wired]

Analyst Pulls 2nd-Gen iPhone OLED Display Rumor

Jason Chen — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:00:00 EDT

Another day, another analyst making crazy predictions about Apple products that most likely aren't true. Today it's Ken Dulaney of Gartner saying the second generation iPhone will have an OLED display instead of the current LCD display. Where did Ken get this wacky idea? "'Rumors' overheard in Asia." Here's our take on it.

1) OLED in a display the size of an iPhone is expensive. EXPENSIVE.
2) OLED sucks under sunlight right now. The iPhone is awesome under sunlight. They're not going to trade in for a crappier technology.
3) Apple doesn't use unproven technology. Until lots of phones have OLED, count on Apple sticking with cheaper (and very usable) LCDs.

[Apple Insider]

Rumor: iTunes Movie Prices Going Up to $15 Per Movie

Jason Chen — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:30:18 EST

According to Pali Research analyst Richard Greenfield, Apple's just made some concessions to movie studios that will result in higher prices for iTunes movies. Each flick will supposedly go up to $15 (compared with an $18 DVD), and is part of the tactic to lure studios like 20th Century Fox to the movie store.

Another reason for the concession is to get studios to encode an iTunes-friendly version of their movie on the DVD so people can just directly import that onto their computers, then onto their iPods, iPhones and Apple TVs. Whether this is true or not is still up in the air, but when DVD to iPod/AppleTV conversion is essentially a one-click affair nowadays, a pre-encoded version isn't that huge of a deal. [Electronista]

Analyst Predicts iPod Delayed, But Why?

Charlie White — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 14:07:20 EDT

One analyst predicts iPod delays of three months or more, and Apple's stock takes a dive. But why the delay? According to American Technology Research analyst Shaw Woo, Apple switched chip suppliers. As a result, he says the much-anticipated widescreen video iPod probably won't see the light of day until the first half of 2007 instead of the originally-anticipated (or guessed at) 4th quarter of this year.

But we know Steve Jobs is a master of arm-twisting, and maybe he isn't putting a lot of pressure on those parts suppliers because of his imbroglio with the Hollywood studios. They're locking horns because he wants a consistent $9.99 price for each movie, while the studios want a tiered pricing scheme. This stalemate could go on for a while. So what's the rush? Releasing a widescreen video iPod without much video content? The player would be all dressed up with no place to go. – Charlie White

Analyst Predicts iPod Delays [personaltechpipeline]