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Months after the controversy made headlines and angered consumers, Samsung is only now getting around to trolling Apple for throttling iPhones. A new commercial tells the familiar tale of many Samsung ads: an iPhone user gradually becomes so fed up with Apple’s phone that they ultimately make the switch to the latest Galaxy device, which in this case is the Galaxy S9.

The minute-long spot aggressively hammers on Apple’s decision to throttle performance of iPhones containing older batteries. Our tortured iPhone owner is too slow to pull up her boarding pass in the Wallet app. (Who waits until they’re right in front of the TSA agent to do that?) The TV app takes a few extra seconds to load her in-flight entertainment. Then there’s the Uber car mix-up that occurs while it’s pouring outside.

These problems stemming from Apple’s throttling eventually lead the iPhone owner to make an abrupt stop at the local Apple Store for help. The employee notes she can disable the performance management option to restore fast performance, but this comes with the risk of her smartphone randomly powering down. (The “Battery throttling!” line that follows has to be the most absurd part of this whole ad. Who says that?) “Or, you can just upgrade it,” he says.

Somehow the fake Apple employee fails to mention the best option: replacing the battery. Handing over $29 probably would’ve rectified the situation and alleviated this person’s many frustrations for less money than any new phone upgrade. It would’ve given new life to her iPhone 6 — as much new life as an iPhone 6 can exhibit in 2018, that is. Instead, Samsung’s commercial understandably ends with someone buying the latest, greatest Samsung phone and reveling in immense satisfaction after replacing their iPhone.

Okay, fine. It’s an ad after all. By the end, the notch haircut that pokes fun at the iPhone X (and now many of Samsung’s Android competitors, I suppose) makes a return. Both ads feature the same song, so this is clearly something of a sequel to that original Note 8 spot.

Several of Samsung’s past ads chastising Apple have been pretty great. The recent Note one was better because it told a fair story of Samsung being a step ahead of Apple’s design over a few generations of phones. And I think these direct, aggressive ads have played a big role in Samsung’s mobile success. But this feels both late and a little petty. There’s not much creativity to it. Here’s the commercial that started all this off back in the era of the Galaxy S2:

Look, I’ve owned and genuinely enjoyed many Samsung smartphones over the years. But for this to be the company chiding Apple over slow software? Or anything having to do with batteries? Come on! Only in the last couple years have smartphone processors finally reached a point where they can run Samsung’s software smoothly and maintain that same responsiveness after a few months of use. Before that, factory resets were a routine thing if you wanted to maintain optimal performance and keep everything feeling quick.

Apple screwed up and wasn’t nearly transparent enough about the way it slowed down phones until a rising controversy forced it to be. But 2014’s iPhone 6 still runs pretty well when Apple isn’t mucking with its speed — even if, yes, a modern flagship from Samsung handily trounces it.

“No matter how much evidence exists that seers do not exist, suckers will pay for the existence of seers.”

– J. Scott Armstrong, “The Seer-Sucker Theory”

Wall Street analysts, the well-paid prognosticators that frequently appear on CNBC and generate headlines with their reports, hold enormous sway over the fortunes of a company (and its shareholders). Why should we, as individual investors, place so much emphasis on what they have to say?

Look at Apple AAPL +214054.37%: analysts like Toni Sacconaghi at Bernstein and Katy Huberty at Morgan Stanley MS +0.2% have outsized influence when it comes to driving its stock price with their reports. Before releasing its earnings report on May 1, Apple stock went down more than 3.5% on April 20 after Huberty predicted that iPhone sales would be more sluggish than expected and the stock would fall post-earnings.

As reported in Barron’s, Huberty’s note “offers more troubling fodder to an increasingly negative news cycle: The iPhone X isn’t the top-seller Apple anticipated, the company is struggling to expand its supply of OLED screens, and demand for its products is weaker in China.”

Sacconaghi had lowered his iPhone shipments estimate from 52 million to 51 million. Bank of America BAC +0.06% Merrill Lynch analyst Wamsi Mohan wrote in a note to clients, “In our opinion, investors are already expecting a weaker CQ2, but the magnitude could be surprising to some.”

So what happened when Apple reported earnings on May 1?

Missing The Mark

iPhone shipments were 52.2 million (led by the top-selling iPhone X), revenue in China increased by 21% and Apple announced a 16% dividend increase and a $100 billion share repurchase program. The stock went from $166.90 on the date of Huberty’s report to an all-time high of $190.37 last week.

Analysts are paid millions of dollars a year, their firms have the most expensive algorithms and predictive models and yet, they consistently miss the mark with their predictions. The market, however, responds to these reports as if they were gospel.

Analysts are prone to groupthink — once one analyst changes their rating or price target, others quickly follow suit. Oftentimes, this happens after a company surprises with an earnings beat or news about the company is released. At this point, the market has already priced the news into the stock.

Spencer Jakab, a former analyst for Credit Suisse and currently a writer for the Wall Street Journal, wrote about his former profession, “Analysts are, as a group at least, like the farmer who bolts the barn door after the horse has run into the meadow.”

When the stock drops based on an analyst’s report, the markets may be overreacting to misleading or false data. As long-term investors, these drops may be hard to swallow, and we’re subjected to them on a quarterly basis. Analysts publish their earnings expectations and a company’s stock is affected by whether or not they meet those expectations. There is limited focus on the long-term outlook, and the analysts typically have no accountability for frequently missing their estimates.

Perhaps betting against analyst reports might be a good contrarian play. One prominent investor who clearly doesn’t agree with analysts: Warren Buffett, who increased Berkshire Hathaway's BRK.B +0% stake in Apple by 75 million shares last quarter.

“The idea that you’re going to spend loads of time trying to guess how many iPhone X … are going to be sold in a three-month period totally misses the point,” Buffett told CNBC. “Nobody buys a farm based on whether they think it’s going to rain next year,” he added. “They buy it because they think it’s a good investment over 10 or 20 years.”

Apple health App
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Apple’s potential role in delivering health records to consumers was underscored this week by a government watchdog report that showed how costly and complex it is for patients to retrieve their most sensitive data.

In a 25-page report about the “fees and challenges” that patients face in getting their medical records, the Government Accountability Office said many people simply give up on trying to collect their personal information when they hear of the cost, especially if they’re very ill.

The GAO provided examples from a patient advocacy group, including two patients who were charged more than $500 for a single record request, one who was charged $148 for a “PDF version of her medical record,” and two others who were “directed to pay an annual subscription fee” for access.

Apple moves closer to a $1 trillion market cap Apple moves closer to a $1 trillion market cap
9:46 AM ET Fri, 11 May 2018 | 01:23
This is the reality of the world Apple is entering.

In January, the iPhone maker announced a new health records app and said that it is partnering with hospitals Cedars-Sinai, Johns Hopkins Medicine and Penn Medicine and electronic medical record companies including Epic Systems, Cerner and Athenahealth.

Apple is setting out to break down the walls that separate the many silos where medical data is stored and has developed a standard that’s been adopted by several big companies so they can transfer records across disparate systems.

Here’s what Steve Kraus, a health investor at Bessemer Venture Partners, said after Apple disclosed its initiative:

“The brilliance of Apple’s approach thus far is to open up their software and services to developers to build apps for consumers, and allow the consumer to push their data to these apps,” Kraus wrote in an op-ed for CNBC. “I believe the same paradigm will exist in health care, where consumers will push their personal health records to apps to open up a much more personalized and engaging product experience.”

Apple CEO: We can make a ‘significant contribution’ in health care Apple CEO: We can make a ‘significant contribution’ in health care
6:11 PM ET Tue, 13 Feb 2018 | 00:51
But the health-care industry is a unique beast.

“You do not want to give Jeff Bezos a seven-year head start.”
Hear what else Buffett has to say

Charges for records vary from state to state, and requests can come into hospitals in person, over email, by snail mail, through a fax, over the phone or via a proprietary online portal. Privacy must be ensured every step of the way. Also, medical centers are stuck on older systems, with 78 percent of physician practices in the U.S. using legacy software as of 2013, despite the fact that one-third to two-thirds of physicians surveyed are dissatisfied with the technology, according to a 2016 report in the online journal “Perspectives in Health Information Management.”

The dream scenario for Apple, and potentially for iPhone users, is a digital hub similar to how iTunes centralizes your music.

The GAO report lays out some of the challenges. They include storing and sharing documents that are hundreds of pages long, scanning of paper documents with charts that are difficult to read, dealing with a mix of paper and electronic records and protecting the privacy of electronic data.

The future of health data
On its newsroom page in March, Apple published a story highlighting the need for patient control of data and the work that will be required to get there.

“People hand you all sorts of things these days,” one doctor told Apple. “More data is almost never bad, but when they show up with paper, how do you summate that?” He called it “a very tedious task.”

This isn’t music, books or apps, but Apple may be the only company on the planet with the power to push the medical industry in a new direction.

As Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer, said in an interview earlier this year, “We view the future as consumers owning their own health data.”

With those sales, the firm says Apple should have around a 6 percent share of the market, which puts it far behind Amazon and Google and just below Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. According to the estimates, Amazon captured 43.6 percent of the smart speaker market with 4 million unit sales, while Google 26.5 percent with 2.4 million sales. There are a few grains of salt here. The HomePod didn’t go on sale until February 9th, so Apple didn’t have the full quarter, which ended on March 31st, to rack up sales. These are also just estimates, as Apple has released full figures and we don’t know for sure how accurate Strategy Analytics is in this case, though the firm has long monitored tech industry sales trends and market leadership. RELATED Apple HomePod review: locked in And Strategy Analytics is careful to say “shipped” and not “sold” here. While the HomePod may primarily be sold through Apple’s website, where the distinction between those terms may not be as meaningful as it is for other brands, it’s still an important one to point out here in the event a sizable amount of HomePods are just sitting in inventory rooms. Lastly, each of these smart speakers are available in a different number of markets around the world, which affects sales. Still, the HomePod’s slow start would seem to jibe with news that the product failed to meet Apple’s expectations. Bloomberg reported last month that Apple lowered its sales forecasts for the HomePod and slashed orders with supplier Inventec. Initially, the company saw its smart speaker 10 percent of the market compared to Amazon’s 73 percent, mostly on the strength of an initial HomePod preorder wave, Bloomberg reported, based on data from Slice Intelligence. (Slice’s data appears to differ from Strategy Analytics’ when it comes to how much of the market each company owns.) But that enthusiasm faded after many of the early adopters got their hands on the product, and the HomePod captured only 4 percent of the market three weeks after launch, the report stated. There are a few reasons why the HomePod may not be selling as well as Apple hoped. For one, the speaker is mostly treated as an iOS ecosystem accessory, like the AirPods, that works best only for those deep within Apple’s walled garden. For instance, the speaker and its Siri capabilities only play nice with Apple Music, and other music streaming services must rely on AirPlay to beam music from an iOS device to the speaker itself and cannot access voice control. On top of that, you need at least one iOS or Mac device to use the HomePod at all, leaving out PC and Android users who may not own an Apple-made device. Apple also launched the HomePod without stereo pairing support, which is coming later this year. Another issue is price — at $349, it’s much more expensive than Amazon, Google, or Sonos offerings. There are rumors Apple could develop a cheaper, smaller HomePod to compete more directly with the standard Amazon Echo and Google Home, although more reputable Apple analysts like Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI are not confident that will happen any time soon. Kuo estimated last month that Apple would sell between 2 and 2.5 million HomePods in 2018, which would make Apple’s smart speaker nearly a $1 billion business and certainly nothing to scoff at.
The Washington Post reported just yesterday that Apple was talking with Virginia officials for a new campus in Northern Virginia. But WRAL is now reporting that Apple is about to announce a new campus in North Carolina.

According to WRAL’s sources, it’s “a done deal.” The company and legislators plan to talk about a tax break to seal the deal. If North Carolina agrees to reduce the taxes, Apple could create a new campus in the Research Triangle Park.

Multiple tech companies already have offices in the Research Triangle Park as it is close to top universities (Duke University, NC State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). IBM and Cisco have established huge offices in the region.

It’s also worth noting that Apple CEO Tim Cook got his MBA at Duke University.

This report doesn’t necessarily mean that Apple didn’t talk with Virginia officials. The company could be considering opening a big office in one of those two locations and a smaller one in the other.

Apple has been looking for a new location for its new campus. The company already has thousands of employees in Cupertino and Austin. Apple expects to hire 20,000 employees over the next five years in those three locations.

Apple shipped 600,000 HomePods in the first quarter of 2018, according to a new sales estimates from market research firm Strategy Analytics. With those sales, the firm says Apple should have around a 6 percent share of the market, which puts it far behind Amazon and Google and just below Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. According to the estimates, Amazon captured 43.6 percent of the smart speaker market with 4 million unit sales, while Google 26.5 percent with 2.4 million sales.

There are a few grains of salt here. The HomePod didn’t go on sale until February 9th, so Apple didn’t have the full quarter, which ended on March 31st, to rack up sales. These are also just estimates, as Apple has released full figures and we don’t know for sure how accurate Strategy Analytics is in this case, though the firm has long monitored tech industry sales trends and market leadership.

RELATED

Apple HomePod review: locked in
And Strategy Analytics is careful to say “shipped” and not “sold” here. While the HomePod may primarily be sold through Apple’s website, where the distinction between those terms may not be as meaningful as it is for other brands, it’s still an important one to point out here in the event a sizable amount of HomePods are just sitting in inventory rooms. Lastly, each of these smart speakers are available in a different number of markets around the world, which affects sales.

Still, the HomePod’s slow start would seem to jibe with news that the product failed to meet Apple’s expectations. Bloomberg reported last month that Apple lowered its sales forecasts for the HomePod and slashed orders with supplier Inventec. Initially, the company saw its smart speaker 10 percent of the market compared to Amazon’s 73 percent, mostly on the strength of an initial HomePod preorder wave, Bloomberg reported, based on data from Slice Intelligence. (Slice’s data appears to differ from Strategy Analytics’ when it comes to how much of the market each company owns.) But that enthusiasm faded after many of the early adopters got their hands on the product, and the HomePod captured only 4 percent of the market three weeks after launch, the report stated.

There are a few reasons why the HomePod may not be selling as well as Apple hoped. For one, the speaker is mostly treated as an iOS ecosystem accessory, like the AirPods, that works best only for those deep within Apple’s walled garden. For instance, the speaker and its Siri capabilities only play nice with Apple Music, and other music streaming services must rely on AirPlay to beam music from an iOS device to the speaker itself and cannot access voice control. On top of that, you need at least one iOS or Mac device to use the HomePod at all, leaving out PC and Android users who may not own an Apple-made device. Apple also launched the HomePod without stereo pairing support, which is coming later this year. Another issue is price — at $349, it’s much more expensive than Amazon, Google, or Sonos offerings.

There are rumors Apple could develop a cheaper, smaller HomePod to compete more directly with the standard Amazon Echo and Google Home, although more reputable Apple analysts like Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI are not confident that will happen any time soon. Kuo estimated last month that Apple would sell between 2 and 2.5 million HomePods in 2018, which would make Apple’s smart speaker nearly a $1 billion business and certainly nothing to scoff at.

Apple is teaming up with leading educators for blind and deaf communities across the US to bring accessible coding to their schools. Beginning this fall, schools supporting students with vision, hearing or other assistive needs will start teaching the Everyone Can Code curricula for Swift, Apple’s powerful and intuitive programming language.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/05/apple-brings-everyone-can-code-to-schools-serving-blind-and-deaf-students/?imgid=1526596718647

Students from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired take part in a Swift Playgrounds session.
Apple created the comprehensive Everyone Can Code curricula so students from kindergarten to college and beyond can learn and write code using Swift. With teacher guides and lessons, students learn the basics on iPad with Swift Playgrounds which lets you use real code to solve puzzles and control characters with just a tap, to App Development with Swift to help aspiring app developers build their first iOS apps.
“Apple’s mission is to make products as accessible as possible,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We created Everyone Can Code because we believe all students deserve an opportunity to learn the language of technology. We hope to bring Everyone Can Code to even more schools around the world serving students with disabilities.”
VoiceOver on iPad enables students to use Swift Playgrounds without needing to see the screen.
The schools will tailor lessons using Apple’s groundbreaking accessibility technology, which has changed the lives of millions of people with vision, hearing, physical motor, cognitive or other assistive needs. Apple collaborated with engineers, educators, and programmers from various accessibility communities to make Everyone Can Code as accessible as possible and will work in close coordination with schools to augment the curricula as needed. This will include providing additional tools and resources such as tactile maps to enhance the understanding of coding environments for non-visual learners.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/05/apple-brings-everyone-can-code-to-schools-serving-blind-and-deaf-students/?imgid=1526405071213

Students can learn to write code using Swift through Apple’s Everyone Can Code curricula.
Initial list of participating schools:
California School for the Blind (Fremont, CA)
California School for the Deaf (Fremont, CA)
District 75/Citywide Programs, New York City Department of Education (New York, NY)
Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind (St. Augustine, FL)
Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Winnetka, IL)
Perkins School for the Blind (Watertown, MA)
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (Austin, TX)
Texas School for the Deaf (Austin, TX)
“Our students were tremendously excited at our first Everyone Can Code session earlier this year,” said Bill Daugherty, superintendent at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Austin. “There are more than 10,400 students with visual impairments in Texas, and the development of this curricula is going to be a big step in opening up coding opportunities for our students and those across the nation.”

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/05/apple-brings-everyone-can-code-to-schools-serving-blind-and-deaf-students/?imgid=1526596792748

Students at the California School for the Deaf in Fremont, California use Skoog connected to iPad during a coding workshop.
California School for the Deaf superintendent Clark Brooke said, “We’re thrilled to kick off the partnership with Apple. This program is a great way to bring to life the ideas and imagination of our Deaf students through coding, while also building a foundation for future careers in software development and technology.”
Julie Tye, president and CEO of the Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired added, “As the largest educator within the visually impaired community, Hadley knows firsthand how important Apple’s technology is in making daily living easier and more enjoyable. Now, partnering with Apple, we are excited to help even more people learn how to code. Whether for fun or future employment, learning the language of technology can offer tremendous opportunity to everyone.”

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/05/apple-brings-everyone-can-code-to-schools-serving-blind-and-deaf-students/?imgid=1526404960210

iOS makes it easy to access features like VoiceOver and Switch Control by triple-clicking the Home button or side button on iPhone X.
The Everyone Can Code curricula is compatible with VoiceOver, the most advanced screen-reading technology for people who are blind or low vision. VoiceOver is a gesture-based screen reader that describes nearly everything happening on your screen, and is the most popular screen-reading technology of any mobile technology platform1. With VoiceOver integration, Swift Playgrounds can take students step-by-step through learning Swift, all without needing to see the screen.
Accessibility features for people who are deaf or hard of hearing include FaceTime for capturing every gesture and facial expression, Type to Siri, closed captions, LED Flash for Alerts, Mono Audio and Made for iPhone hearing aids.
iPad and Everyone Can Code can also be used by students with physical motor limitations through Apple’s built in Switch Control, which enables switches, joysticks and other adaptive devices to control what is on your screen.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2018/05/apple-brings-everyone-can-code-to-schools-serving-blind-and-deaf-students/?imgid=1526405250220

Students from Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired use code they wrote through Swift Playgrounds to pilot Parrot drones.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day
In recognition of Global Accessibility Awareness Day on May 17, Apple is hosting events around the world to promote inclusive design and emphasize how technology can support all people with disabilities.
Throughout May, all Apple stores will host accessibility-related events and sessions for customers. On May 17 Apple corporate locations in Cupertino, Austin, Cork and London will also hold events. Since 2017, Apple has held over 10,000 accessibility sessions across the globe.

Last week at its annual I/O developer conference, Google unveiled its new AI-powered “Google News” application. Replacing the neglected Newsstand service from Google, and seen as a direct competitor to the Apple News app, Google News is now available on the App Store…

Google News relies heavily on the data it already has about you, paired with artificial intelligence. This means that once you download the app and sign-in with your Google account, Google News will already be populated with stories and headlines it thinks you will care about.

In the app, the “For You” tab houses a rundown of stories that Google thinks you’ll be interested in. For me, this ranged from some political news to technology and sports.

Meanwhile, the “Headlines” feature serves as way to quickly skim through the biggest news of the day. You can sort by the latest stories, as well as topics such as business, technology, sports, science, entertainment, and health.

In the “Favorites” tab you can add specific topics, sources, and locations that you’re interested in. This, in turn, will show you the top content from the criteria you select.

Finally, the Newsstand tab lets you see a magazine-like interface for specific publications, such as CNN, Fox News, The New York Times, Reuters, and more.

Here’s how Google describes the new application:

With Google News, you’ll see:

Your briefing – It can be nearly impossible to keep up with every story you care about. With your briefing, easily stay in the know about what’s important and relevant to you. Your briefing updates throughout the day bringing you the top five stories you need to know, including local, national, and world content.

Full coverage – Understand the full context on any story with just a tap. Google News gives you everything online about a story and organizes it for you – highlighting different perspectives, a timeline of key events, FAQs, important people, and more.

Credible sources – Find quality content from a diverse set of credible publishers and discover sources you haven’t heard of before.

Stories, for you – Keep up with what’s happening on the topics you care about, whether that’s travel, politics, sports, tech, or fashion.

Google News for iOS comes at a time when Apple is putting an increasingly heavy focus on its own Apple News app. The company recently published its first “Apple News Exclusive” piece, while its hiring trends suggest that the focus on editorial is only just beginning.

The Google News app is available for both iPhone and iPad on the App Store.

n the not-too-distant-future, Amazon (AMZN) could let customers zap each other cash with Alexa, and then deposit the money in an Amazon-branded checking account.

Apple (AAPL) is reportedly on the verge of launching a joint credit card with Goldman Sachs (GS) that would carry the Apple Pay brand. And Facebook (FB) just formed a team to explore the power of blockchain that could include creating its own cryptocurrency for payments.

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SMARTASSET.COM
Big Tech’s experiment with finance is aimed at deepening relationships with customers — especially younger ones — making it less likely they’ll go through the hassle of taking their business elsewhere.

“There has been a clear shift, with much more aggression into the banking space,” said Daniel Ives, chief strategy officer at research firm GBH Insights.

“Technology companies are trying to get further entrenched in the consumer lifestyle,” he said.

At the same time, delving into finance can give tech firms valuable insight into what Americans are spending money on. That information can then be used to shape future business strategies and defend against threats.

Apple Inc. (AAPL
AAPL
Apple Inc
186.44
-0.91%

) shares have climbed by nearly 20% over the past year, easily topping the S&P 500’s return of 13.5%. Options traders see the stock continuing to rise through the summer months, by as much as 9% by the middle of September. That month also happens to be when Apple typically announces its new slate of iPhones; rumors are that this year may see as many as four new phones.

Apple’s stock has jumped by about 10% to an all-time high since it reported better-than-expected fiscal-third-quarter results on May 1. Earnings for the quarter came in at $2.73 per share, over 2% better than estimates. Meanwhile, revenue topped estimates by about 40 bps, coming in at $61.14 billion. The better-than-expected results calmed investors nerves over weak iPhone sales sending the stock on a relief rally.

AAPL Chart

AAPL data by YCharts

Options Bulls
The long straddle options strategy set to expire on Sept. 21 is pricing in a rise or fall of about 10% from the $185 strike price. It places the stock in a range of $166.50 and $203.50. The number of calls outweighs the puts by a ratio of about 4 to 1, with 10,300 open call contracts to only 3,300 open put contracts.

The $200 strike price calls have an open interest of about 42,000 contracts and a cost per contract of about $4. The stock would need to rise to $204 to break even. It is a large wager, with a value of nearly $17 million. Since May 2, the number of open contracts at that strike price has climbed by almost 68% from just 25,000.

Technical Breakout
Apple shares technically have also broken out since its earnings report, sending the stock to an all-time intraday high of about $190. The stock now has a substantial support level in place around $180, which serves as a base for the stock going forward. The uptrend in Apple’s stock is over a year old and has also served as solid support when tested. The relative strength index is indicating shares of Apple may be a little bit ahead of themselves, with a reading at an overbought level above 70 and maybe suggesting a short-term pullback.

Analysts Are More Hesitant
Analysts are not as optimistic as the traders, with an average price target of only $196, about 6% higher than the current stock price. Analysts have left their estimates for the full year relatively unchanged, upping earnings by less than 1% to $11.55 per share, giving the company 25.4% growth over last year. However, revenue estimates have been lowered by about 10 bps to $261.12 billion, providing the company growth of about 13.9% over last year.

For now, the options traders are optimistic the recent rally in the stock will continue through the heat of the summer months: That is, until the next wave of iPhone worries once again hits the market.

Michael Kramer is the founder of Mott Capital Management LLC, a registered investment adviser, and the manager of the company’s actively managed, long-only Thematic Growth Portfolio. Kramer typically buys and holds stocks for a duration of three to five years. Click here for Kramer’s bio and his portfolio’s holdings. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Upon request, the advisor will provide a list of all recommendations made during the past twelve months. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

Gordon Kelly , CONTRIBUTOR
I write about technology’s biggest companies
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
It might just happen. In a year where Apple AAPL -0.91% will reveal three all-new iPhone X models, by far the biggest excitement surrounds the budget-friendly one. And now new information suggests this really is the iPhone we should be spending/saving our money on…

Following its big scoop last week, accessories retailer Mobile Fun has been back in touch with me to expose new renders of Apple’s entry-level iPhone X spin-off as well as CAD drawings showing its remarkably compact design.

Olixar
Leaked render of Apple’s budget-friendly new iPhone

At this stage, it is worth pointing out Mobile Fun’s source is once again case maker Olixar. This is good news because Olixar is acclaimed for leaking accurate designs of the iPhone X (source), Galaxy S9 (source), Galaxy Note 8 (source), Galaxy Note 7 (source) and iPhone 7 (source) well ahead of launch.

So what do we learn? That this new affordable iPhone X might just be the model millions of users have been waiting for.

In short, Olixar’s new images show a hybrid of the original iPhone SE metal chassis but updated with a glass back (for wireless charging) and bezel-less iPhone X-style front with Face ID notch. As with the iPhone X, Touch ID has been removed to allow the screen to be substantially enlarged.

How big? This is perhaps the most exciting part.

With confusion reigning over whether this is a 5-inch ‘iPhone SE2’ or a larger circa 6-inch model sometimes referred to as the ‘iPhone X SE’ (neither name is likely to be the official one), Mobile Fun has obtained a pair of CAD drawings which show the new iPhone has the same size chassis as the iPhone SE.

Olixar
iPhone SE 2 CAD image shows almost identical size to iPhone SE

Given the iPhone X manages to fit a 5.8-inch display in a chassis about the same size as the 4.8-inch iPhone 8, this strongly suggests Apple is working on a 5-inch design. This is backed up by Mac Otakara’s latest sources while the ever credible OnLeaks, aka Steve Hemmerstoffer, states he is hearing the same thing though he has cannot as yet confirm the reports.

Personally, I still have my doubts that Apple would bring so much technology to the budget model of the range. But if Apple is indeed planning to launch iPhone X-inspired models at 5-inches, 5.8-inches and a widely expected 6.5-inch monster, then I expect fans will be very happy indeed