Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster on Wednesday issued his reaction to Appleis Tuesday product introductions, noting: "We believe the impact of these announcements should be a catalyst for AAPL shares for the next three to four quarters." He also saw movie downloads and the upcoming release of Appleis "iTV" product as the first volleys "in Appleis strategy to take over the living room."
He added: "This is a significant new emerging market for the company. We consider the living room as one of the key, untapped consumer electronics markets. We believe that Apple, with more than 50 million iTunes users, maintains the pole position to convert/upsell iTunes users into Apple living room customers."
Addressing the new iPods, Mr. Munster concluded: "We believe the updates to the nano and Shuffle will be more than enough to reverse the two-quarter decline in iPod sales."
The analyst retained his "Outperform" rating on Appleis stock, with a $99 price target. At 1:24 PM EST on Wednesday, the companyis shares were selling for $73.31, up 0.94% for the day. While Apple has yet to get back to the $85.59 52-week high it set on Jan. 13, the stock is well up from the $50.67 low it hit on July 14.
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