The U.S. International Trade Commission on Monday ruled that S3 Graphics’s patent rights were not violated by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). [1] S3 Graphics was recently acquired by HTC, which incidentally became the top U.S. smartphone player last quarter. [2] After this news, HTC’s shares were down by more than 5%. This could be termed as a mini-win for Apple, which is trying to overcome the challenges posed by Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android-based smartphones such as Samsung and HTC.
Our $500 price estimate for Apple stock is about 35% above market price.
See our complete analysis for Apple stock here
iPad still the king for the holidays
According to a recent survey, demand for tablets is increasing this holiday season with Apple and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) in particular looking like they will emerge as winners. [3] About 65% of the surveyed members are planning to buy Apple iPad and 22% Amazon Kindle Fire. However, ChangeWave marks the launch of the Kindle Fire as “the most explosive development in the tablet market since the release of the original iPad”.
We believe that Kindle Fire threatens Google more than Apple, the analysis for which we have already done in our earlier note titled Amazon’s Kindle Fire Threatens Google More than Apple.
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Notes:- U.S. Trade Body Clears Apple in Patent Case, WSJ, November 22nd, 2011 [↩]
- HTC takes the lead in the US smart phone market, Canalys, October 31st, 2011 [↩]
- Amazon Fires at Apple as Tablet Demand Soars for the Holidays, ChangeWave Research, November 21st, 2011 [↩]
