14 DAY TRIAL // Investment Bank Piper Jaffray has looked at the history of time between Apple’s product launch events to conclude that “the company will introduce something new in March or April.”
Not that we needed trained financial experts to clue us in on that one, but whatever Piper Jaffray churns out, the media seems to be listening.
So here’s their latest prediction, via the well-known Gene Munster who told clients today, “Over the past two years, the Spring event has been iPad updates.”
Yes, it sure has been. And Munster is using this to back his claim that “Apple could update the full-sized iPad to a body style similar to the iPad Mini,” something that has been leaked in the press for weeks now.
“Additionally, we believe that the iPad Mini could get a Retina display, although that may happen later in the year given the supply constraints Apple faced on the Mini in the December quarter,” Munster noted, again, after widespread rumors saying exactly the same thing.
The analyst hits the nail on the head on one particular aspect, though. His research note includes some figures showing the time lapses between Apple events over the past few years. If the pattern remains true to 2013, a March-April event is indeed in the cards.
“The average time between the events has been 123 days, about 4 months,” writes Munster.
“The longest amount of time between events since the 3GS launch in 2009 was 216 days (about 7 months), which was the gap between the iPad 2 launch in March 2011 and the iPhone 4S launch in October 2011.”
“We believe the most likely scenario is an event in between the two, i.e. March or April,” the analyst says.
A longtime supporter of the iTV rumor, Munster also included his Apple TV predictions today, noting, “We would expect to see an Apple TV update in the next six months if Apple plans to launch a television by the end of the year, which we still expect.”
“We believe the updated Apple TV software could ‘prime the pump’ for the ultimate television,” he concluded.