Since Apple’s iPad event last week, the tablet has seen a record number of pre-orders with shipping times for new orders now reaching two to three-week delays. Canaccord Securities analyst Mike Walkley anticipates Apple will continue to dominate both market and value share in the growing tablet market through 2013. The analyst wrote in a research note on Wednesday that due to the company’s leading hardware specs, competitive pricing and iOS developer and application ecosystems, Apple’s lead will not be challenge in the near future. In fact, according to Walkley, Android vendors have indicated to him that they can’t compete. Read on for more.
“We believe Apple has extended its leadership position in the fast growing tablet market, and we have increased our 2012 and 2013 iPad tablet share estimates,” Walkley wrote in his note to investors. “We believe the new iPad has raised the bar relative to competing tablets with impressive hardware specs, competitive pricing, and the leading software ecosystem of over 200k iPad-specific applications.”
The analyst continued, “At MWC, our meetings with Android OEMs focused on smartphones as tablet OEMs indicated difficulty competing with the iPad 2, let alone the new iPad.”
Canaccord has increased its 2012 iPad shipment estimates to 65.6 million units from 55.9 million, and Walkley now predicts that Apple will sell 90.6 million units in 2013, up from his previous estimate of 79.7 million. He also projects that Apple’s EPS will increase to $44.58 in fiscal 2012, and $50.68 in fiscal 2013.
Walkley reiterated a Buy rating on Apple stock, and he raised his price target to $710 from $665.
