All Eyes On Apple - AAPL - Apple delivers big

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is one of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index, and the number one Innovator in the world. Innovation Index Group, Inc. has a BUY recommendation for Apple with Q4, 2008 price target of $235 to $250.

Analysts were expecting Apple to earn $1.07 on revenue of $6.96 billion - earnings growth of 23% and revenue growth of 32% year over year.

How many iPods will Apple sell in the quarter? How many iPhones? Will Apple announce the new iPhone availability today? How about the growth of Mac sales?

Last quarter which is normally Apple's best quarter owing to the holiday season, "Apple shipped 2,319,000 Macintosh® computers, representing 44 percent unit growth and 47 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 22,121,000 iPods during the quarter, representing five percent unit growth and 17 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone™ sales were 2,315,000."

For the first quarter of 2007 (one year ago quarter), Apple "shipped 1,517,000 Macintosh® computers and 10,549,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 36 percent growth in Macs and 24 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter." Apple iPhone was not shipping yet.

If Apple were to grow at least 15% year over year, Apple should ship at least 1,744,000 new Macintosh computers and 12,131,000 new iPods; and if Apple iPhone were to hit 12 million unit sales in 2008, Apple should ship at least 2 million iPhones in the first quarter.

All eyes will be on Apple as the quarterly earnings are announced.

Earnings Announcement

Apple Inc. "announced financial results for its fiscal 2008 second quarter ended March 29, 2008. The Company posted revenue of $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share. Apple revenue increased by 43%, and net profit increased by 36%. These results compare to revenue of $5.26 billion and net quarterly profit of $770 million, or $.87 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 32.9 percent, down from 35.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter's revenue.

Apple shipped 2,289,000 Macintosh(R) computers during the quarter, representing 51 percent unit growth and 54 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 10,644,000 iPods during the quarter, representing one percent unit growth and eight percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone(TM) sales were 1,703,000"

Great Earnings Report from Apple. Although Apple had provided a very conservative quarterly forecast in January, 2008, Apple beat the high end estimates on revenue, and came on the high end estimates on earnings for the quarter. Apple once again gave a conservative outlook for the future. The street should get an idea now. Mac business is solid. iPod volume business is stalling, however Apple is selling higher priced iPods. iPhone business is strong, and Apple is on track to sell 10 million or higher iPhones in 2008.

Is Apple winning marketshare against Windows Vista? Apple had a strong surge in Mac business. Can Apple reclaim the position, slowly but surely, in the PC business? Apple has a really long way to go.... but if Apple can get to the 10% marketshare of the overall PC business worldwide, this would mark a significant milestone and signal a shift.

Watch out for Apple in Q4, 2008!

Related Articles:

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 2.0 software scores a trifecta
Nike and Apple iPod working out at a Gym near you
Why Apple will hit $250 by December 2008?
Apple Creativity and Innovation in Business Case Studies
Apple iPod - Apple's Best Innovation
Apple introduces new iPhone and new iTouch
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Kicks Off 2008 with Bold...

About Innovation Index Group:

Innovation Index Group, Inc. is a new investment management company focused on systematically identifying, tracking and investing in the most innovative publicly traded companies in North America – collectively called the Innovation Index. We have developed the Innovation Index Fund, LLC as our first vehicle to invest in the Innovation Index.

Innovation Index Group, Inc. and Innovation Index Fund LLC are registered California Corporations, and member of the Irvine Chamber of Commerce in Orange County. Further, Innovation Index Fund LLC is a private placement investment partnership organized under the California state regulations.

The Innovation Index Reports:

Invest in The Innovation Index - Innovation Index Fund tracks The Innovation Index
The Innovation Index closes 2007 at 66% - 2007 Annual Report on the Innovation Index
Top 50 Innovative Companies in the world - 2007 Report on Top 50 Innovative Companies
Annual Report - Chapter One - Total Innovation Activity - 2006 Annual Report One
Annual Report - Chapter Two - The Top Innovator - 2006 Annual Report Two
Annual Report - Chapter Three - The Innovation Insights - 2006 Annual Report Insights
Innovation and Stock Performance Correlation - The Innovation Index and Stock Performance

About The Innovation Index

The Innovation Index introduced in December 2006 is a weighted stock price index of the top 20 Innovators in North America.

The Innovation Index returned 66% in 2007, and returned 174% over the previous five years (2002-2006). This assumes equal investment in each stock of The Innovation Index as of December 31, 2001. An average of $100 invested in The Innovation Index on December 31, 2001 returned $454 as of December 31, 2007. By comparison, $100 invested in S & P 500 returned 28% or $129, $100 invested in NASDAQ returned 34% or $136, and $100 invested in the Dow Jones Index returned 30% or $131 through December 31, 2007. The Innovation Index beats the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index by more than seven times over the past six years.*

Alphabetical list of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index for 2008 and their stock ticker symbols:

3M Company - (NYSE: MMM)
Amazon.com, Inc. - (NASDAQ: AMZN)
America Movil - (NYSE: AMX)
Apple Inc. - (NASDAQ: AAPL)
AT&T Inc. - (NYSE: T)
Best Buy Co., Inc. - (NYSE: BBY)
Cisco Systems, Inc. - (NASDAQ: CSCO)
Costco Wholesale Corporation - (NASDAQ: COST)
eBay Inc. - (NASDAQ: EBAY)
General Electric Co. - (NYSE: GE)
Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ)
Intel Corporation - (NASDAQ: INTC)
International Business Machines Corp. - (NYSE: IBM)
Merck & Co., Inc. - (NYSE: MRK)
McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD)
Microsoft Corporation - (NASDAQ: MSFT)
NIKE, Inc. - (NYSE: NKE)
Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM)
The Proctor & Gamble Company - (NYSE: PG)

The Innovation Index will analyze the positions and standings of the Top 20 Innovators at the end of each year. For 2008, there will be no further changes in The Innovation Index.

Disclaimer: The Innovation Index Group, Inc. invests in the stocks comprising The Innovation Index.
*Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results

Zero to Sixty in 2.09 Seconds - Safari 3.1

2.09 Safari 3.1 - First

3.62 Firefox 2 - Second

4.00 Internet Explorer 7 - Third

5.95 Opera 9 - Fourth

Blazing performance.

The fastest web browser on any platform, Safari loads pages up to 1.9 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.7 times faster than Firefox 2.

Safari loads web pages in 2.09 seconds - "0 to 60 in 2.09 seconds flat!"

And it executes JavaScript up to 6 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 4 times faster than Firefox 2. What does all that mean for you? Less time loading pages and more time enjoying them.

- Performance measured in seconds. Testing conducted by Apple in March 2008 on a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo-based iMac system running Windows XP Professional SP2, configured with 1GB of RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 2600 with 256MB of VRAM. HTML and JavaScript benchmarks based on VeriTest’s iBench Version 5.0 using default settings. Testing conducted with a beta version of Safari; all other browsers were shipping versions. Performance will vary based on system configuration, network connection, and other factors.

Bottomline:

Can Safari become The Web Browser?

Would FireFox users convert to Safari?

Would Internet Explorer users convert to Safari?

What would it take for new users to embrace Safari, and old users to convert to Safari?

Apple claims Safari as the fastest and easiest-to-use browser. Give Safari a test-drive and find out yourself.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is one of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index, and the number one Innovator in the world.

“Safari 3.1 for Mac and Windows is blazingly fast, easy to use and features an elegant user interface,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “And best of all, Safari supports the latest audio, video and animation standards for an industry-leading Web 2.0 experience.”

References:
Apple Press Releases

Elegant user interface.

Safari’s clean, sleek look lets you focus on the web instead of your browser. The browser frame is a mere one pixel wide. You see a scroll bar only when you need one. You see no status bar by default — a blue progress bar fills the address field as the page loads — giving you more room to browse and view the web.

And with commonly used tools like a Google search field built right into Safari, you can get anywhere on the web faster.

Easy bookmarks.

Safari makes it easier than ever to manage your bookmarks. Know iTunes? Then you know Safari bookmarks. One click opens the single-window interface, where you can browse, search, and organize bookmarks the same way you browse, search, and organize music in iTunes.

Importing your current bookmarks couldn’t be simpler. In fact, the first time you open Safari, it imports all your bookmarks from the browsers you’ve been using. And if you want to import bookmarks later, just choose Import Bookmarks from the File menu.

Safari even helps you find sites to bookmark. Using the innovative Bonjour technology, Safari discovers and shows devices such as printers, routers, and webcams associated with web servers on your local network — automatically.

Pop-up blocking.

Say goodbye to annoying pop-up ads and pop-under windows that clutter up your desktop and distract you from your browsing.

By default, Safari blocks all unprompted new windows. You can open new windows when you click links, but you’ll get no surprises from unexpected, unwanted pop-ups.

Find.

Now you can locate any text on any web page using the Find command in Safari. Type a word into the new integrated Find banner

under the bookmarks bar, and Safari shows you the found count and highlights matching terms while dimming the page below them. So you can view every instance — in an instant.

Tabbed browsing.

With tabbed browsing in Safari, you can open and switch between multiple web pages in a single window. Drag and drop your tabs to rearrange them, open one in a new browser window, or merge all your current windows into one tabbed window.

Safari resizes each tab depending on the number you have open. Set a bookmark for a group of tabs or revert to the tabs that were open when you last closed or quit Safari.

SnapBack.

With most browsers, it’s easy to lose your way on the web. You go surfing, and before you know it, you’ve drifted far from where you started. Stop hitting the Back button and start using SnapBack in Safari. SnapBack lets you instantly snap back to your original search results or to the top level of any website, even after you’ve browsed down a few levels.

The SnapBack icon appears in the search field after you click a link in a search results page. Clicking the icon takes you back to the results page and even scrolls to the specific location you last viewed.

SnapBack also works in the address field. Type an address, click a bookmark, or click a link in email or another application, and Safari creates a SnapBack anchor point. When the SnapBack icon appears in the address field, click it to return to that anchor point instantly. So, if you type in the address of your favorite news site, click a link to read an article, then click another link, the SnapBack icon will take you back to the front page of the original news site.

Forms AutoFill.

Now you need never fill out an online form from scratch. That’s because Safari Forms AutoFill completes online forms with information from your Address Book or from previously completed forms.

Let Safari fill in your name, street address, city, zip code, email, and other information. Safari also gives you the option to automatically enter account names and passwords — all stored in a secure, encrypted format.

Built-in RSS.

Scan all the latest news, information, and articles from thousands of websites in one simple-to-read, searchable article list delivered right to you. The built-in RSS (Really Simple Syndication) reader in Safari tells you when new articles or blog posts have been added to your favorite sites, so you never have to guess.

Whenever you land on a page that offers an RSS feed, Safari displays an RSS icon in the address field. Click it and you view the simple RSS feed. Bookmark it and Safari tells you how many updates have been added since your last visit. The RSS view in Safari is customizable, so you can adjust article length or sort and filter articles by date, title, and source. You can also use the built-in search field to find articles relating to topics of interest. All from one place: Safari.

Resizable text areas.

Maybe the text area you’re typing in is a bit too small to read. Or maybe you just have a lot to say.

Either way, Safari lets you resize text areas on any website, just by grabbing the corner of the area. Resize and the web page reflows to make room.

Private browsing.

Your browsing is your business. Which is exactly why Safari offers private browsing — to keep your online activities private. Turn on private browsing and Safari won’t store your Google searches, your cookies, the history of sites you’ve visited, your download history, or information from online forms you’ve filled out.

If you’ve been browsing without private browsing turned on, just use Privacy Reset to empty your cache and clear Safari of your browsing, forms, and search history. It’s a one-click clean slate.

Security.

Now you can enjoy worry-free web browsing on any computer. Apple engineers designed Safari to be secure from day one.

For starters, Safari uses robust encryption to ensure that your private information stays that way. When you browse a secure site, Safari displays a lock icon in the upper-right corner of the browser. If you want to know more about the credentials of a secure site, click the lock icon and Safari displays detailed information about the site’s security certificate.

Safari supports SSL versions 2 and 3, as well as Transport Layer Security (TLS), the next generation of Internet security. Safari uses these technologies to provide a secure, encrypted channel that protects all your information from online eavesdroppers. And Safari lets you use standards-based authentication such as Kerberos single sign-on and X.509 personal certificates, or proprietary protocols like NTLMv2 to log in to secure sites.

Safari also supports a variety of proxy protocols — services that help firewalls control what flows in and out of the network — including Automatic Proxy configuration, FTP Proxy, Web Proxy (HTTP), Secure Web Proxy (HTTPS), Streaming Proxy (RTSP), SOCKS Proxy, and Gopher Proxy.

Graphics and fonts.

Apple brings the same amazing graphics technology to Safari that's used in Mac OS X to ensure great color in everything from iPhoto to Final Cut Pro. Safari is the only browser that employs advanced color management to deliver web images with the most accurate color possible.

And Safari makes text beautiful and easy to read on all displays thanks to Apple's sophisticated font-rendering technology. Safari smoothes fonts so that they're easy on the eyes but also remain as faithful as possible

to the chosen font. As a result, your favorite websites look the way they were meant to be seen.

With CSS3 web fonts in Safari 3.1, web designers can go beyond web-safe fonts and use any font they want to create stunning new websites using standards-based technology. Safari automatically
recognizes
websites that use custom fonts and downloads them as they’re needed.

How can Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) turnaround the iPod sales growth?

(click to maximize)

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is one of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index, and the number one Innovator in the world.

iPod - Apple's best innovation, introduced in 2001 and masterminded by Steve Jobs, combines outstanding design, easy-to-use interface, superb performance, and an experience like no other. Apple assumed the world’s number one innovative company position in 2005, and held it again in 2006 and 2007 in large part due to the exponential growth of iPod – aptly called the iPod phenomenon.

Apple has sold more iPods every year since its introduction. In 2007 alone, Apple sold more than 52 million iPods, 6 million more than in 2006, and eclipsed the cumulative total of 100 million iPods sold since introduction. Apple also introduced the all new iPod touch in 2007, and new models in 2008. Apple reported in the quarterly earnings conference call that although the introduction of the high-end iPod touch may have reduced the sales volume growth of iPod in 2007, it increased the average selling price.

On the one hand, Apple is poised to have a great year of iPhone sales - Apple Innovation blog and Innovation Index Group, Inc. estimate that Apple will sell more than 12 million iPhones in 2008. Most of the industry analysts estimate Apple to sell more than 8 million iPhones in 2008. But will the growth of iPhone business cannibalize the growth of iPod business?

The iPod sales volume growth peaked in 2004 with a growth of 469% from 2003. However, since 2004, the sales volume growth of iPods is in a free fall. In 2005, the iPod sales growth was 287% over 2004 sales; in 2006, the iPods sales growth was only 45% over 2005 sales; and finally, in 2007, the iPods sales growth was a meager 13% over 2006 sales. Of course, the sheer size of iPod sales is a huge number - over 52 million a year - and it is harder to keep up the triple-digit sales growth when you achieve the 800 lb gorilla status. However, iPod market share has remained relatively flat around the 70% mark in the last couple of years.

How can Apple turnaround iPod Sales Growth Engine?

First, we must ask the fundamental question on whether the overall market of MP3 players is big enough and growing fast enough for Apple to grow the iPod sales 20% to 40% a year? If the overall market of Mp3 players is say 90 million in 2008, for Apple to maintain its 70% market share, it must sell 63 million new iPods in 2008. This would amount to a 20% growth in iPod sales from 2007, and a positive turnaround from the 13% sales growth of 2007. For Apple to grow its lead to say 75% in the MP3 market, Apple would need to sell 67.5 million iPods in 2008, or a sales growth of about 28% from 2007. This would be an amazing turnaround. However, if Apple sells anything less than 60 million iPods, a growth of 15% only over 2007, the analysts would begin to wonder on whether iPod is a growth phenomenon anymore. It would mark two years of back to back growth of 13% and 15%, and could mark a real slowdown of iPod sales.

Can Apple drive consumer behavior further to buy more iPods in 2008, and create a bigger market of MP3 players - thereby growing the market share?

What is Apple doing to drive this behavior?

1. Apple has introduced the new iPod touch at lower prices. iPod touch is perhaps the best iPod ever made, and would find existing iPod owners upgrading to it, and also new buyers.

2. Apple has lowered the starting price of iPod Shuffle to only $49 so as to attract first-time iPod buyers.

3. Apple is experimenting with newer business models for the iTunes store (unconfirmed) so as to provide more value and more songs in a new iPod.

4. Apple has introduced the new pink model of iPod nano, and also expanded the partnership with Nike for the gym.

5. Finally, Apple is expected to reduce the iPod prices further when it launches iPhone 2.0 (unconfirmed) or in summer, 2008.

Can Apple provide a free iPod Shuffle to every new buyer of a MAC or Apple TV? In order to get the Shuffle for free, a buyer has to subscribe to an iTunes service for $9.99 or $14.99? Would that drive more sales of iPods?

Or does a higher sales volume really matter to Apple? If Apple can sell iPods at a higher sales price, that would still drive the overall sales revenue growth. And that's what the investors are really looking for. Knowing Apple though, it is not about to relinquish its firm foothold on the MP3 market anytime soon, and it would continue to play both ends of the market.

2008 - Can Apple turnaround the iPod sales growth engine?

Innovation Index Group, Inc. maintains a BUY rating on Apple with a Q4, 2008 price target of $235 to $250.

Related Articles:

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 2.0 software scores a trifecta

Nike and Apple iPod working out at a Gym near you
Why Apple will hit $250 by December 2008?
Apple Creativity and Innovation in Business Case Studies
Apple iPod - Apple's Best Innovation
Apple introduces new iPhone and new iTouch
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) Kicks Off 2008 with Bold...

About Innovation Index Group:

Innovation Index Group, Inc. is a new investment management company focused on systematically identifying, tracking and investing in the most innovative publicly traded companies in North America – collectively called the Innovation Index. We have developed the Innovation Index Fund, LLC as our first vehicle to invest in the Innovation Index. Over the past six years, the Innovation Index has generated a gross average annual return of 40%.

Innovation Index Group, Inc. and Innovation Index Fund LLC are registered California Corporations, and member of the Irvine Chamber of Commerce in Orange County. Further, Innovation Index Fund LLC is a private placement investment partnership organized under the California state regulations.

The Innovation Index Reports:

Invest in The Innovation Index - Innovation Index Fund tracks The Innovation Index
The Innovation Index closes 2007 at 66% - 2007 Annual Report on the Innovation Index
Top 50 Innovative Companies in the world - 2007 Report on Top 50 Innovative Companies
Annual Report - Chapter One - Total Innovation Activity - 2006 Annual Report One
Annual Report - Chapter Two - The Top Innovator - 2006 Annual Report Two
Annual Report - Chapter Three - The Innovation Insights - 2006 Annual Report Insights
Innovation and Stock Performance Correlation - The Innovation Index and Stock Performance

About The Innovation Index

The Innovation Index introduced in December 2006 is a weighted stock price index of the top 20 Innovators in North America.

The Innovation Index returned 66% in 2007, and returned 174% over the previous five years (2002-2006). This assumes equal investment in each stock of The Innovation Index as of December 31, 2001. An average of $100 invested in The Innovation Index on December 31, 2001 returned $454 as of December 31, 2007. By comparison, $100 invested in S & P 500 returned 28% or $129, $100 invested in NASDAQ returned 34% or $136, and $100 invested in the Dow Jones Index returned 30% or $131 through December 31, 2007. The Innovation Index beats the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index by more than seven times over the past six years.*

Alphabetical list of the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index for 2008 and their stock ticker symbols:

3M Company - (NYSE: MMM)
Amazon.com, Inc. - (NASDAQ: AMZN)
America Movil - (NYSE: AMX)
Apple Inc. - (NASDAQ: AAPL)
AT&T Inc. - (NYSE: T)
Best Buy Co., Inc. - (NYSE: BBY)
Cisco Systems, Inc. - (NASDAQ: CSCO)
Costco Wholesale Corporation - (NASDAQ: COST)
eBay Inc. - (NASDAQ: EBAY)
General Electric Co. - (NYSE: GE)
Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ)
Intel Corporation - (NASDAQ: INTC)
International Business Machines Corp. - (NYSE: IBM)
Merck & Co., Inc. - (NYSE: MRK)
McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD)
Microsoft Corporation - (NASDAQ: MSFT)
NIKE, Inc. - (NYSE: NKE)
Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM)
The Proctor & Gamble Company - (NYSE: PG)

The Innovation Index will analyze the positions and standings of the Top 20 Innovators at the end of each year. For 2008, there will be no further changes in The Innovation Index.

Disclaimer: The Innovation Index Group, Inc. invests in the stocks comprising The Innovation Index.
*Past Performance Does Not Guarantee Future Results