Investment bank Piper Jaffray speculates about the possibility of an announced special Apple (AAPL) event taking place in the month of September. The event would be used by Apple as a launching pad for a new line of iPods and Mac notebooks.
Analyst Gene Munster is expecting the Cupertino based tech giant to refresh its iPod family through “pricing and capacity changes.” He is expecting the iPod shuffles and nanos to get an increase in capacity/storage, with no price reductions. Additionally, Munster is expecting the iPod touch to see a redesign, “and a new $199 price point, in line with the iPhone.” We have previously reported about the inclusion of GPS in the iPod touch and how the device is falling out of sync with the rest of the company’s product line.
Munster also believes that the ongoing notebook overhaul rumors we’ve been hearing about for quite some time, could likely come true at the special event in September. Apple offered the iBook at a $999 price point in the past, and Munster believes we could see the same for the upcoming Macbook.
“We note that the MacBook has had the same design since its launch over two years ago, and the MacBook Pro has had essentially the same design since its launch over 2.5 years ago, which was very similar in design to the PowerBook G4 released over 5.5 years ago,” he told clients. “To compare, the long-running iMac G5 design lasted three years.”
Additionally, in the note to his clients, Munster speculated about the use of Apple’s multi-touch technology, and how it will relate to the Mac’s future roadmap. He said that the current multi-touch gestures, that users have become familiar with in the the Macbook Pro and Macbook Air “are just the beginning of Apple’s exploration of multi-touch on the Mac.” Munster also weighed in with beliefs that Apple is almost certain to include various technology points from the iPhone to drastically advance the user experience on the Macintosh platform.
“Currently, these gestures require the same touch-sensing technology used in the iPhone, but they use a traditional looking trackpad,” the analyst told clients. “Eventually, we expect Apple to change the trackpad to backlit color screens for a more dynamic user interface on the Mac.”
Munster doesn’t expect Apple to introduce a full touch-screen Macbook until 2009, “not until the technology has fully matured over the next 2-3 years.”
For the past three years, Apple has used this September “special event” to launch new iPod lines. Munster advised his clients that historically, Apple shares have risen near 4% on average between the week before the event, and the week after.
Munster reiterates his $250 price target on shares of Apple with a strong Buy rating.
via Apple Insider
