The setup this week is too good for Apple (AAPL) bulls, who look to be overly complacent with the Nasdaq at new highs.
It's as if the company is dropping its latest smartphone into a Goldilocks market, with tech stocks rising when the U.S. jobs report is strong, then rising higher when it's weak.
On the product side, the company's competitive landscape suddenly looks a little softer. Apple's biggest global rival, Samsung, is embattled in a defective battery debacle on one of its key handheld products just as it looked set to cement victory in this year's smartphone innovation battle. What's more, expectations for Apple CEO Tim Cook's latest smartphone unveiling in San Francisco on Wednesday morning have been thoroughly beaten down by the tech press.
Very down. It's as if Apple design chief Jony Ive has been too busy choosing seats for the company's new headquarters to bother tidying up its biggest revenue contributor. Unlikely, but with the event being hosted at the Bill Graham Civic Center, the eponymous venue of the rock impresario once roamed by the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, anything is possible.
But while the stage is set for Cupertino, Calif., consumer tech company to surprise and recapture its sizzle with investors and consumers alike, the low expectations are likely well founded, at least in the short term.
The suits on Wall Street are as dour on this iPhone launch as the industry pundits.
Revenue for Apple's December quarter is expected to drop 3.4% from a year earlier, after revenue for the quarter ending in September expected to fall 9.3%. The latter number makes sense as consumers wait for the new model.
Yet, the expected drop at year end bodes poorly for iPhone demand during the crucial holiday quarter, unless Apple solidly beats Wall Street views.
