Apple slides down: a buy in opportunity? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Wall Street has wondered for some time how profitable the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone is. First, numbers of analysts pulled the device apart and found out what each component cost. That probably gave a good sense of how much the margin was on the hardware.

But, there has always been a sense the Apple was making a great deal from AT&T (NYSE: T). This was based on the idea the the phone company gave Apple a bit of its service plan revenue in exchange for have an exclusive right to sell the phone in the U.S.

Now that Apple is coming close to closing deals to sell the phone in Europe, information is leaking out about what the consumer electronics company will make for calls placed on the device. According to The New York Post, T-Mobile will have exclusive rights to sell the phone in Germany but will pay "10 percent of the revenue from voice calls and data usage." If the German company is anything like Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ), it operations have an operating margin of 15%. So, they are giving up a very great deal indeed.

The paper also writes that Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, in July estimated that Apple collects $3 per month per iPhone subscriber from AT&T for voice calls and data usage, as well as $8 per month for every new subscriber who signs up for AT&T with the device. But, if the T-Mobile deal is as good as its looks for Apple, the estimate of what AT&T gives up may be too low.

The bottom line: If the iPhone is not a huge hit at bringing in net new customers to these cell carriers, then they have made very bad deals.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

What Apple (AAPL) makes on the iPhone: A new cut originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its last earnings report declared that 2007 was going to be an exciting year for the company. It may be exciting in all the wrong ways, however, as legal battles are already shaping up over its next major product and with a continuing investigation into stock options irregularities. It will be both a great year for products, and an interesting year to watch how this company makes it through some upcoming challenges. How Apple starts the year with announcements about its earnings over the holidays could have an important impact on the stock.

In Apple's last meeting in October, Peter Oppenheimer said to expect $6 to $6.2 billion of revenue and $0.70 to $0.73 earnings per share.

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) calls for better-than-expected results, somewhere in the vicinity of $0.79 per share and $6.38 billion. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster also expects earnings to come out a few pennies higher, and Munster often seems to read Apple retail better than other analysts.

With analysts betting on above-expected earnings, and such signs as iPods flying off the shelves and high traffic to Apple retail and websites, the money looks to be on Apple to beat earnings. But what's your vote?

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know your thoughts on earnings expectations.

Will Apple beat expectations at the upcoming earnings call? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 16 Jan 2007 10:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.