Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Friday:
$24 Billion: JPMorgan analyst Mark Moskowitz’s $450 target price on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares doesn’t seem as crazy it may have last December. In a note to investors on Friday, Moskowitz said the unexpectedly strong performance of the iPhone — bolstered by the release on Verizon’s (NYSE:VZ) network — and the strong debut of the iPad 2 in March should help Apple pull in an expected $24.42 billion in revenue, growing almost 45% from a year earlier. If the first few months of 2011 have proven anything, it’s that Apple can find new success in breaking free from its traditional product release cycle. Now they just need to prove that the market can sustain multiple iPhone releases inside a calendar year.
Free Wired: As the dialogue surrounding publishing on Apple’s tablet PC has shifted from the excitement of new publications like News Corp.’s (NYSE:NWS) The Daily to publisher discontent with Apple’s revenue-sharing model, it’s become more difficult for individual magazines to generate buzz on their own. Conde Nast’s Wired has partnered with a number of companies to rekindle interest in its iPad edition. In a promotion sponsored by editing software company Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE), Wired is offering its latest iPad issue for free. The issue also has new partner-specific features — Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is providing links to its store that let readers purchase featured products directly through the magazine, while Facebook and Twitter have offered tools letting readers share articles on their profiles. According to Wired publisher Howard Mittman, monthly iPad readership has fallen from 100,000 a month to around 25,000 in the past year. If this promotion proves successful, the iPad publication business may be reconsidered yet again.
Get Your Updates: Apple released software updates for its portable devices on both AT&T (NYSE:T) and Verizon on Thursday. The company’s iOS 4.3.2 (iOS 4.2.7 for Verizon iPhone users) brings a number of fixes to the software in the iPhone 4, including repairs to FaceTime video calling that should end frozen calls, fixes for international iPad users having difficulty connecting to 3G networks, and new security updates.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at @ajohnagnello and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.
