While it seems far too premature to begin counting down the number of shopping days left until the holidays arrive, mobile industry analysts are closely monitoring the calendar and placing their bets on which companies and products will perform the best this coming winter.
Not surprisingly, Apple is universally expected to do well. But the real scene stealer of sorts could be the iPad Mini - a lower-priced 7-inch iPad that would be used by Apple to heavily target emerging tablet markets. According to the latest estimates from Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray, a $299 or less iPad Mini (16GB) could be a blockbuster this year.
Munster says that the rumored iPad Mini will "cannibalize" just 10 percent of regular iPad sales but capture at least 30% of Android tablet sales in the last quarter of 2012. If so, Apple will effectively deflate Android's momentum in a product genre that Apple continues to dominate like nobody's business
"We believe this implies that Apple could sell 4-6 million smaller iPads in the December quarter, assuming a holiday launch," Munster told investors on Monday. "If the launch occurs in (the fourth quarter), we believe the smaller iPad would add about 1% to revenue and (earnings per share) in December."
Source: The Street
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