Billionaire investor and prominent AAPL shareholder Carl Icahn says we haven’t seen anything yet with regard to the growth of AAPL on Wall Street.

So where is the stock headed? According to Icahn, it shouldn’t already be at $240, not $130.

But we’ll get there eventually, he says.

“It is our belief that large institutional investors,” Icahn writes. “Wall Street analysts and the news media alike continue to misunderstand Apple and generally fail to value Apple’s net cash separately from its business, fail to adjust earnings to reflect Apple’s real cash tax rate, fail to recognize the growth prospects of Apple entering new categories, and fail to recognize that Apple will maintain pricing and margins, despite significant evidence to the contrary Collectively, these failures have caused Apple’s earnings multiple to stay irrationally discounted, in our view.”

To read the complete message from Icahn, click here.

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But Apple is not just obliterating the competition domestically, the company is doing well across the pond and across Asia.

For the three months to October 2014, Kantar’s data shows that the iPhone 6 launch has sent Apple’s share of British smartphone sales up 10.4 percentage points.

“Apple now accounts for 39.5% of British sales, its highest ever level,” the report summary reads.

Dominic Sunnebo, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, says Apple “has experienced a huge jump in sales share across almost all major markets thanks to the launch of the iPhone 6.”

In the US alone, Apple sales rose by a more modest 0.7% in the three months ending October 2014 versus the same period a year ago.

In China, Apple’s share grew by 0.2 percentage points to 15.7% in the three months ending October, growth driven by the success of the iPhone 6.

Apple will report earnings for the holiday quarter in late January 2015.

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After a record close on Tuesday, shares of AAPL drifted higher again Wednesday, seemingly bolstered by the unrelenting momentum of last week’s powerful and inspiring earnings report.

Although it remains to be seen if AAPL will move any higher than $107 this week, a growing number of industry analysts and market watchers now believe the next stop for AAPL is $120.

If Apple has the blockbuster holiday quarter investors are calling for, Apple will likely encounter very few issues excelling well beyond current projections early in the new year.

“Since May 20,” Apple Insider reports, “Apple’s share have appreciated 23.57 percent and have paid out a one-half percent dividend. IBM, in contrast, has consistently trailed Apple’s upward climb throughout the year and is currently down 12.55 percent. The company is gearing up for additional growth in 2015, having reported an all time high $1.7 billion investment in research & development in the last quarter, contributing toward $6 billion in R&D spending for fiscal 2014.”

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Largely obliterating analyst projections, Apple was firing on all cylinders last quarter — except when it came to its iPad.

Nonetheless, despite selling nearly one million fewer iPads in the same quarter one year ago (12.3 million sold in Q4 of 2014 vs. 13.1 million sold in Q4 of 2013), Apple is optimistic that its recently refreshed iPads will help accelerate its tablet sales in the months ahead.

The big star of Apple’s earnings report was, not surprisingly, the iPhone. Apple sold 39.3 million iPhones during the quarter ending September 30th.

All told, the company posted quarterly revenue of $42.1 billion and quarterly net profit of $8.5 billion, or $1.42 per diluted share.

Analysts were expecting quarterly earnings of $39.84 billion.

“Our fiscal 2014 was one for the record books, including the biggest iPhone launch ever with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “With amazing innovations in our new iPhones, iPads and Macs, as well as iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, we are heading into the holidays with Apple’s strongest product lineup ever. We are also incredibly excited about Apple Watch and other great products and services in the pipeline for 2015.”

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That’s the weather terminology-drenched version of the fiscal forecast offered up for Apple yesterday by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

On Tuesday, Munster told investors in a note obtained by Barron’s that good days are ahead for Apple.

Reiterating an Overweight rating on AAPL and a $105 price target, Munster cautions, however, that there will likely be declining margins in the coming months as a direct result of Apple’s iPhone 6 launch.

“Looking beyond December margins,” he writes, “we believe it is important to note that margins should rebound in the Mar-15 quarter. We note that in Mar-13, post the iPhone 5 launch, margins declined again q/q by 110 bps. However, we believe the majority of this decline was a result of iPad Mini reaching full availability after supply issues in the Dec-12 quarter.”

Apple’s iPhone 6 will be unveiled, we’re told, at a September 9th media event.

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Multiple sources close to Apple confirm that TSMC has started supplying A-series processors to Apple as iPhone 6 production swings into full gear.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the shipments from TSMC are the latest indication of Apple’s plan to distance itself as much as possible from Samsung.

Although Apple contracted with TSMC for the chips last year in a landmark deal, some analysts were skeptical that the Taiwanese chip maker, the world’s biggest contract chip maker by revenue, could deliver the complicated chips.

“Apple’s order is a big deal to the company. TSMC has assigned a large team to support Apple as you know this client is very picky,” an unnamed source in Hong Kong is quoted in Thursday’s report.

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Although Apple didn’t take the wraps off of any new hardware during the keynote for WWDC 2014, the grand reveal of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite were more than sufficient to wow Wall Street.

On Tuesday, shares of AAPL climbed $8.89, closing at $637.54.
Particularly noteworthy to investors this week was the revelation from Apple CEO Tim Cook that iPhone ownership is surging in China today, almost entirely at Android’s expense.

Half of Apple’s Chinese customers have rapidly transitioned from Android to iPhone in just the last six months.

“They [Chinese consumers] bought an Android phone, by mistake, then sought a better experience, and life,” Cook said in his opening remarks Monday.

As MMW reported last month, Chinese consumers are finally adopting Apple’s iPhone with the same degree of intensity and interest once reserved for Google’s little green robot.

China Mobile, which remains the world’s biggest mobile carrier with its 788 million subscribers, will likely send a thank-you note to Apple in the very near future.

According to the latest published reports out of Asia, strong iPhone sales are mostly responsible for accelerating 4G LTE adoption across China.

As of this writing, approximately half of the 2.8 million 4G LTE subscribers on China Mobile are iPhone owners.
This is particularly impressive considering that Apple’s iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c have not even been available on China Mobile for six months.

Nonetheless, says China Mobile CEO Li, Apple’s iPhone has become the preferred smartphone for Chinese customers, many of whom are quickly upgrading older devices to more modern handsets.

China Mobile is yet to reveal how many 3G subscribers are currently using iPhones.

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Spiking more than $40 per share in after-hours trading, Apple reported earnings of $11.62 a share on revenue of $45.6 billion.

Analysts expected earnings of $10.18 a share on $43.53 billion in revenue.

The real winner of the last quarter was Apple’s iPhone. Apple sold over 43 million iPhones for the quarter, almost 5 million more units than were projected.

The biggest disappointment, however, was the iPad, the sales of which were nothing to write home about.

“Analysts projected iPad sales would reach 19.7 million, an only marginal increase from the 19.5 million iPads sold during the same time period in 2013,” observed Christina Bonnington of Wired. “In fact, Apple sold 16.35 million iPads, a drop of roughly 16.4 percent since last year.”

In the earnings call, CEO Tim Cook attributed the apparent drop in iPad sales to two reasons: First, a reduction in channel inventory this year compared to an increase in channel inventory last year. Second, the holiday quarter last year ended with a backlog of iPad mini sales. This year, there was a supply and demand balance.

Nonetheless, Cook has much to boast about. And he didn’t shrink from an opportunity to do so on the earnings call.

“We’re very proud of our quarterly results, especially our strong iPhone sales and record revenue from services,” said Cook. “We’re eagerly looking forward to introducing more new products and services that only Apple could bring to market.”

The post Does Apple Have an iPad Problem? appeared first on Mobile Marketing Watch.

Others, however, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, say that Steve Jobs’ predecessor had done an excellent job contending with the enormous challenges of the day.

According to “the other Steve,” the reason we haven’t yet detected Cook’s penchant for innovation is because Cook – like Jobs – prefers to operate below radar.

“We haven’t seen what new categories of products are being developed secretly,” Wozniak says. “Who knows what’s going on in the company. But we have had stiff competition in the smartphones arena. Unfortunately, a lot of other companies came up with great products. But look at who is number one as far as sales, profits and company valuation are concerned. Tim Cook is a hard worker and he is very good at execution. I don’t know him too closely. But, I’m willing to wait for a longer time.”

Wozniak also still doesn’t believe that the death of Steve Jobs represents an end of the “magic” for Apple.

“It’s a sort of looking back thing,” Woz explains. “If Jobs had lived, would Apple be better or worse than what it is now, I think, nobody can look back and say if the company had made different decisions, it would have great. But what you got to say is how we can be constructive on the path that will get the best for Apple.”

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Last night, Cook told The Wall Street Journal and other national media outlets that the company will, indeed, expand the scope of its products into new mobile territories.

“There will be new categories,” Cook reveals, being careful not to say too much. “We’re not ready to talk about it, but we’re working on some really great stuff.”

Apple is fighting the perception that its best days are behind it. Revenue growth has dropped to less than 10% in the last three quarters, while net income fell 11% in the past fiscal year—its first annual decline in more than a decade.

As MMW reported this morning, Apple just announced that it is repurchasing of $14 billion in shares of AAPL.

“It means that we are betting on Apple,” Cook explained. “It means that we are really confident on what we are doing and what we plan to do,” Cook says. “We’re not just saying that. We’re showing that with our actions.”

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