Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) finally unveiled new iPads and Macs on Tuesday, and there were no big surprises there. Stifel analysts are generally pleased with what they saw, however. They say their fourth quarter iPad estimates may be a bit too high, but they believe there could be upside to Apple’s iPhone results.
Estimating Apple’s iPad and iPhone shipments
At Tuesday’s event, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) showed off a full-size iPad and an iPad Mini with Retina display, as expected. Stifel analysts Aaron Rakers and Sanjiv Wadhwani. They note that Apple didn’t provide much “incremental detail” other than to say that as of earlier this month, it had shipped more than 170 million total iPads. With that number, they believe investors will expecting fourth quarter iPad shipments to be around 15 million. However, they are estimating about 16.7 million iPad shipments for the fourth quarter estimates.
The analysts say it is possible that their iPad estimate is too high, but they see possible upside to their current iPhone estimate of 28.1 million for the fourth quarter. They believe Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone shipments could reach into “the mid-30 million range.”
Other notes from Apple’s event
At the big event on Tuesday, Apple revealed that the iPad Air will start shipping Nov. 1 in more than 40 countries, including China. Only the Wi-Fi models will ship in China, but this will be the first time China will receive iPad shipments in the initial launch wave of the tablet. The iPad Mini with Retina display won’t start shipping until late November.
Apple also said the new Maverick OS X became available on Tuesday free of charge. Previous versions required a payment for the upgrade. It will run on all MacBook and Macs produced since 2007. The company also revealed a new thinner 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display and a redesigned Mac Pro.
The Stifel analysts continue to rate Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) as a Buy with a $540 per share price target.
