Analyst predicts new MacBook Pros, iMacs at WWDC
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
May 23, 2007 at 1:13pm
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster thinks Apple stock is in for another boost next month with the launch of the iPhone and the 2007 Worldwide Developer Conference. At the latter, he thinks we’ll see new MacBook Pros, perhaps new iMacs and, of course, more info on Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”). However, he doesn’t expect much talk of the iPhone at WWDC; Munster thinks that will get its own special roll-out event.
WWDC will be held June 11-15 in San Francisco at the Moscone West convention. Apple has already announced that a “feature complete” version of Leopard will be given to developers, with the rest of us getting the shipping version in October.
Munster thinks Apple will announce new MB Pros and iMacs because both the pro laptop and consumer desktop are overdue for updates. On average, Apple’s pro-level laptops see an update every 182 days, but the last MacBook Pro refresh happened over 200 days ago, he says. The iMac was last refreshed over 250 days ago, but historically has seen an update on average every 168 days, the analyst adds. He thinks a “redesigned” iMac may see the light of day.
Exactly what sort of tweaks the iMac will get is a great matter of speculation. Some are predicting a fairly routine update (bigger hard drives, faster processors, slight price cuts, but no major redesign), though AppleInsider has predicted “aubstantial facelift that will showcase striking new industrial designs aimed at leaving both competitors and onlookers smitten.”
Munster wrote to clients that he has no doubts that the iPhone will ship on time (which means some time next month). However, “we expect Apple to host a separate event [from WWDC] to launch iPhone,” he says. Regardless of when the device ships, demand is expected to be high with “2-4 weeks” between orders and shipments from the Apple web site alone, Munster says. However, he offered no forecast on sales volumes at Apple retail stores or AT&T’s stores.
“The iPhone launch is set to be one of the largest product launches in company history,” he added.
Munster is maintaining his “Outperform” rating and target price of US$140 for Apple stock. Apple is currently trading in the pre-market at $114.50, up 0.98.
Article Information
Comment on this Article Print this Article Email this Article Digg This
Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
