Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares closed at 532.17 in trading Monday rising on hopes that the fiscal cliff would be resolved and reports that AAPL shares have remained undervalued for the month of December.
As Apple rings in the New Year with these higher hopes, it appears that some analysts are claiming that Apple’s topping British market search results for “returns policy” will not actually affect the bottom line numbers for this quarter’s sales across the pond. Returns are understandable according to Experian, considering it might be easy for not so tech savvy gift buyers to mix up an iPad mini with an iPod Nano. The position Forbes contributor Tim Worstoll seems to take on this assertion is that the returns are happening at such a high rate because Apple has a massive market share, not in spite of the fact it does.
In France, New Year’s Eve marked the country’s first highly-organized heist involving an Apple Store and Apple product as local police were distracted by keeping Champs Elysee and Eiffel Tower celebrants of New Year’s Eve civil. To authorities it seems clear that theft was conducted by professionals as the assailants were armed, masked and planned their attack well. This is also not the first time Apple product has gone missing in France, as there is a very strong black market specializing in the firm’s group of iGadgets and casual theft is considered common. Over 1 million Euros worth of product is unaccounted for after the fact, rounding out to roughly $1,322,000 USD.
In other international Apple news, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is partnering with publishers in Japan to publish more ebooks to serve the company’s 60 percent market share of tablet devices within the country with a selection of over 80,000 titles. Though this is not the first time that the Cupertino company has attempted to enter the ebook market in Japan, this attempt will likely be more profitable than a prior 2010 attempt in which the firm and publishers could not reach an agreement. This market could be a great potential one for Apple, if it can price material to compete with the already successful Japanese firm Rakuten—a Japanese Amazon that has over 2.5 million titles and prices its readers at $100.
The content game is clearly what Apple needs to up the ante in according to more than one opinion though—and predictions that the firm will do exactly that in 2013 abound. Louis Bedigan of Forbes predicts that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) will push further into the textbook market in the upcoming year and Geoffrey Goetz of GigaOM notes that Google has many apps that run well on iOS that Apple can’t contend with. This doesn’t mean Apple plans to or can abandon the hardware even if it gets cheaper as product gets smaller in size or Apple discounts it to grab scores of students—durability in markets that involve children is a key selling point.
Other ideas we might see come to life in 2013 according to Bedigan are more confirmations on Apple Television rumors, an iPad Mini with retina display and a reborn Siri appearing as a function on more devices.
Disclosures: None
