Apple Inc (AAPL)

[fmikehugo]

AAPL Apple Computer: New iPods likely delayed; consensus estimates continue to be unreasonable; reducing tgt to $75 - AmTech (57.43 ) -Update-09:16

AmTech says that over the past month, there has been speculation that new iPods could face delays. Firm shares some perspective and insight from their proprietary analysis: 1) firm previously believed that new nanos and the widescreen vPod could ship in calendar Q3 and Q4 of this year respectively. However, they now believe that both are likely delayed; 2) for the new nanos, firm now anticipates the December quarter as more likely as they believe the delay is related to an S.O.C. change from PLAY to another supplier; and 3) on the widescreen vPod, they are picking up that battery life continues to be the key gating factor that could delay its release until 1H07 from Q4. Firm believes AAPL is exploring different ways to improve battery life including using both N.A.N.D. flash and microdrives. For FY07, firm models $22.1 bln and $2.45, below consensus of $23.6 bln and $2.58. Firm cuts tgt $75 from $101.