Super Mario Run Is the Power-Up Apple Inc. (AAPL) Stock Needs

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One of the most anticipated smartphone events of the year takes place today. It’s not free iPhone 6 batteries for everyone, and not the day the last Galaxy Note 7 goes silent. It’s the release of Super Mario Run for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) mobile devices by Nintendo Co., Ltd (ADR) (OTCMKTS:NTDOY). And it’s going to be huge.

Super Mario Run Is the Power-Up Apple Inc. (AAPL) Stock Needs

Source: Via Nintendo

Let’s face it, Apple and Nintendo could both use a bit of a pick-me-up right about now.

Shares of Nintendo surged when Pokemon Go hit mobile phones. But billions of dollars in value were wiped out once investors realized that Nintendo wasn’t actually cashing in on the game. Pokemon Go was developed in partnership with Niantic Labs and Nintendo only owned a third of the Pokemon Company, further diluting its take.

Nintendo was forced to release a statement informing investors that Pokemon Go’s success was not going to be the financial windfall many expected. Still, the company is sitting pretty compared to its position at the start of the year, but NTDOY is going into the holiday season with a lame duck game console in the Wii U.

Super Mario Run is all Nintendo. It’s free to play, but it costs $9.99 to unlock the full game. And all of that revenue — minus Apple’s App Store cut — goes to Nintendo this time.

“Super Mario Run” Will Also be Good for Apple

Apple hasn’t had the best December so far. The company has been plagued by seemingly unending iPhone 6 battery woes. The new MacBook Pro has also seen complaints about everything from cost to lack of ports and poor battery life. It’s going into the holiday shopping season with promised Bluetooth headsets like the BeatsX facing delayed availability.

Smartwatch sales have tanked, putting a question mark around the Apple Watch. AAPL is also trying to convince holiday shoppers to buy a premium, 1080p Apple TV at a time when everyone else is undercutting price and offering 4K video.

Super Mario Run is the good news Apple needs.

The buildup to the game has been immense. This is the first full-fledged Nintendo game released for mobile devices. The response to Pokemon Go was incredible, but Super Mario Run could be even bigger.

And while Pokemon Go launched simultaneously on iOS and Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL) Android, Super Mario Run is an iOS exclusive — at least for now. The game won’t be available on Android until early 2017.

“Super Mario Run” by the Numbers

In the lead up to the game’s release, Apple has been heavily promoting Super Mario Run. It’s shown the game off onstage at Apple’s iPhone 7 event, personally demonstrated by Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto. And the game has been running for the past week on iOS devices at Apple stores, showing Android fans that the iPhone is still the platform of choice for many first-run games and apps.

Predictions are that the game could result in 30 million downloads in its first month, and as much as $71 million in worldwide gross revenue. And by the end of March 2017, the game could have 150 million to 200 million downloads, with 15% to 20% of users paying to unlock the game.

Those would be the kind of numbers that could move the needle on Nintendo stock. The risk is that the game flops because of the premium unlock price. With pent-up demand for Nintendo properties on smartphones and the willingness for App Store customers to pay (Apple says it shelled out over $20 billion on apps last year), that seems minimal.

Super Mario Run will be available for iPhones and other iOS devices in 151 countries today through the App Store. If the game comes anywhere close to living up to expectations, it should make the holiday season a little brighter for both Apple and Nintendo.

As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Brad Moon has been writing for InvestorPlace.com since 2012. He also writes about stocks for Kiplinger and has been a senior contributor focusing on consumer technology for Forbes since 2015.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2016/12/super-mario-run-iphone-nintendo-apple-aapl-ntdoy/.

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