Here are your Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) news items and rumors for Wednesday: an analyst predicts major sales for a Verizon (NYSE: VZ) iPhone; the Army considers standard issue of iPhones and iPads, iAd is off to a slow start, and Epic Games is coming out with new development tools.
Nine Million Verizon iPhones Sold in 2011?: In a research note cited by the Apple Insider website, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicts 20 million iPhones will be sold in the U.S. in 2011, with 9 million of those sold through Verizon. It’s been rumored for more than a year that the device would be coming to the telecom’s network, and Munster’s new smartphone sales model assumes an early 2011 release is inevitable.
However, this may not mean a dramatic boost in overall iPhone sales — Munster believes that just 2.5 million additional iPhones would be sold next year from a move to Verizon. He believes the majority of new iPhone customers on Verizon will be those already on AT&T (NYSE: T) who make a change in carriers.
Standard Issue: A new report in this week’s Army Times says the Army is looking to make smartphones a standard item in soldier’s bags. The new policy would evolve existing programs like Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications, which provides soldiers with Army-issued phones, to packing a smartphone into each soldier’s gear in active war zones. A director of the mission command complex said the army isn’t just considering an iPhone, but possibly an iPad or competing devices such as a Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android phone, or portable e-books made by and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS).
iAd Slow Out of the Gates: The release of Apple’s iOS 4.1 update to its mobile operating system was important not just because it brought the iPad closer to the broad functionality of the iPhone. It also brought support for Apple’s larval mobile advertising platform iAd to the iPad tablet as well, opening a new, tech-savvy audience willing to spend to advertisers.
But it looks like iAd on iPad will take its time flourishing. A new report from Advertising Age claims that a current iAd campaign promoting Disney’s (NYSE: DIS) new film Tron: Legacy will be the only campaign on the platform until next year. The ad will include many of the rich features that make iAd appealing to advertisers — high-quality video, an image gallery, previews of the film’s soundtrack with links to purchase it on iTunes, and even a theater locator.
Still, it’s curious that Apple didn’t line up a number of high-profile advertisers to launch iAd on the iPad at the end of 2010. It’s not time to worry about iAd’s future just yet, but this slow rollout is hardly the way to topple Google’s advertising empire.
Epic Games Unveils iOS Tools: Independent game developer Epic Games, the studio behind blockbusters like Gears of War and Unreal Tournament, will be releasing their new game development tools for the iPhone and iPad on Thursday. The tool kit is available as a free download, though any developer using the tools to create paid-for applications on iOS devices must purchase a $99 license. When and if that app passes $5,000 in sales, 25% of all royalties must be paid to Epic. The first game to use the engine, Epic’s own Infinity Blade, was released on iPhone last week and has earned at least $1.6 million since.
As of this writing, Anthony Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
