Here are your Apple rumors and news items for Tuesday:
Still Going: As quoted in Apple Insider, Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White believes that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) will report record sales of its iPad tablet when the company reports earnings next week. White believes Apple sold close to 8.5 million tablets in its latest quarter, which would be the best period for the device since it was released in April 2010. The iPhone also had a great quarter, according to White, with more than 17.5 million phones sold. The quarter should give the stock a chance to return to the growth levels seen in the latter half of 2010.
Light My Fire: Venture Beat demonstrated how foolhardy it is to doubt the earning power of iPhone apps. Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) just invested more than $2.5 million in app developer Skyrockit, a company whose most popular app is a Zippo lighter simulator. But it’s the framework behind the app that has Intel, among other companies, interested in Skyrockit, which has built apps for Intel as well as Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA)-owned NBC and Kraft Foods (NYSE:KFT) that are little more than interactive advertisements. Skyrockit’s success exemplifies not just the profitability of apps on Apple’s platforms but the fact that companies need to fundamentally alter their conception of what valuable advertising is in the mobile age.
Price Tide Rising: More arguments in favor of a healthy app business: Forbes has reprinting a note by Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster that says the average iPhone and iPad user is buying more apps and spending more per app than ever before. The average iPhone user will download 83 apps in 2011, compared to 51 apps in 2010. Munster also wrote that the 61% increase in app downloading proves that Apple still controls the healthiest app business ecosystem. More promising for app developers is the fact that the average price of apps has risen 14% this year, after declining 18% in 2010.
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.
