Leopard - Apple's $200 Million Extra Revenue

Leopard is Apple's latest operating system that will be launched this spring. Expectations for the Mac OS X 10.5 are high as it is said to bring several major additions and improvements and should bring Apple one step closer to enterprise customers.

There were rumors saying Apple will deliver Leopard by the end of March, but if one were to judge by its most recently build seed, this would seem highly unlikely. The build has brought to life several of the announced additions, but there are still plenty of unaddressed issues, many of which critical.

Still, there are those who believe in an early launch. Prudential Equity Group upgraded Apple stock from 'Neutral weight' to 'Overweight', expecting a Leopard release synchronized with that of Adobe's CS3 (announced March 27).

Prudential analyst Jessie Tortora thinks Apple will have much to gain from Leopard, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, Apple TV and iPhone sales, combined with the drop in component costs. Prudential also raised its price target for Apple shares from $100 to $105.

Other analysts also see Leopard as the future cash source. Keith Bachman, hardware analyst at Bank of America, wrote in a note Friday that the Mac OS X 10.5 could bring to Cupertino an extra $200 million in revenue as he thinks it could add 7 to 9 cents a share in the June and September quarters combined.

The launch of Tiger in 2005 reportedly produced $135 million in extra revenues, but the analyst says the 2007 launch has the advantage of more users. Bachman says the March quarter will line with revenue expectations and sticks with a price target of $107 for Apple stock (still rated a BUY).

Keep your eyes on this space for more financial analysis and predictions; we'll keep you posted on the matter.