Monday Apple Rumors: iOS Rings Up 82% of Mobile Black Friday Sales

by Christopher Freeburn | December 2, 2013 12:40 pm

H[1]ere are your Apple rumors[2] and AAPL news items for today:

Big Share: When consumers rushed to take advantage of deals on the day after Thanksgiving, the overwhelming majority of those making online purchases with smartphones and tablets[3] did so with Apple (AAPL[4]) devices, AppleInsider notes. That report comes from IBM’s (IBM[5]) Digital Analytics Benchmarks service, which reviewed sales data from 800 online retailers. Mobile devices accounted for 37% of all online retail sales traffic on Black Friday. Apple devices comprised 82% of that, compared to just 18% for devices running Google’s (GOOG[6]) Android operating system. 21% of online sales were made through mobile devices this year. Overall use of mobile devices climbed 9% over last year. Apple device owners also spent more than Android device owners. The average online order made through an iOS device came in at $131.34, compared to an average order of $111.35 placed on Android devices. IBM noted that mobile traffic generated by BlackBerrys (BBRY[7]) and devices running Microsoft’s (MSFT[8]) Windows did not produce sufficient online activity to be included in the results.

Draw: Nearly half the consumers who have purchased the lower-priced iPhone 5c have switched from other platforms[9], CNET notes. Data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech indicates that 80% of people who purchased Apple’s new flagship iPhone 5s were upgrading from an older Apple phone. By contrast, almost half of iPhone 5c buyers previously owned a smartphone from another manufacturer, including LG and Samsung. Perhaps not surprisingly, the iPhone 5c skews to a less affluent demographic, with 42% of buyers earning less than $49,000 a year. The average iPhone 5c buyer is 38 years old, four years older than then average iPhone 5s owner. Both iPhones launched last month, with a variety of rumors suggesting better-than-expected demand for the iPhone 5s and lower demand for the 5c.

Rising Expectations: A number of Wall Street analysts have boosted their price targets for Apple shares since last week[10], Fortune notes. Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry increased his target for AAPL shares to $800, citing Black Friday iPad and iPhone sales at retailers and carriers. Deutsche Bank (DB[11]) analyst Chris Whitmore upped his target for AAPL stock from $575 to $625 a share, based on reports that China Mobile (CHL[12]) will begin offering the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s this month. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White has set a target of $777 a share for Apple stock on higher consumer interest in tablets. And Peter Misek, analyst at Jeffries, expects Apple shares to hit $600. Misek notes that the iPhone 5s and iPad Air are outperforming the early sales of prior-generation models. Apple shares were trading around $555 on Monday afternoon.

For more about the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors[13] stories.

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2013/12/monday-apple-rumors-ios-rings-82-mobile-black-friday-sales/

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