Here is your daily Apple rumors roundup for Thursday. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) news this week includes The New York Times on the iPad, the impact of Japan on Apple supply lines and rumors about the iPhone 5 case design.
New York Times Announces New iPad, iPhone Subscriptions: Newspaper icon The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) announced it will offer a variety of new digital subscription packages starting on Mar. 28. iPhone users will pay $15 for four weeks of access to The New York Times on their smartphone as well as at the company’s website while iPad users will pay $20 for the same access. Users interested in using all three platforms will pay $35. Most significant for AAPL stock shareholders is the fact that the publisher agreed to Apple’s new digital subscription policies. Apple will take a 30% cut of every subscription package sold through its iOS platforms.
iPad and iPhone Supplies Limited Due to Crisis in Japan: Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster issued a note to investors on Thursday saying that supplies of Apple’s popular smartphones and tablet PCs will be constrained throughout the second quarter of the year and well into the June quarter. Munster’s Asian contacts have indicated that since Japanese component suppliers are still unsure of what their output will be over the coming weeks, its unclear how well Apple is going to able to keep up stock of the iPad 2 and iPhone 4. Shareholders concerned over how the ongoing crisis in Japan will effect Apple revenue for the quarter ending in March don’t have too much to worry about. Munster believes that the disaster will only impact Apple revenue by around $202 million, or 1% of overall revenue. He set a target price of $483 for Apple shares.
iPhone 5 Will Feature Similar Case Design as iPhone 4: Website HardMac posted images of what are purported to be prototype iPhone 5 bumper cases on Wednesday. If real, the cases demonstrate that the iPhone 5’s body will be almost identical to that of the iPhone 4, with button placement and the phone’s SIM card slot in the exact same positions. Earlier rumors about the iPhone 5 have indicated that the biggest physical change coming to the smartphone is a new edge-to-edge, 4-inch screen.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here.
