Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster this afternoon reiterates an Overweight rating on shares of Apple (AAPL) and a $900 price target, rebuffing an article this morning by Paul Mozur of The Wall Street Journal�that said Apple’s retail debut of the iPhone 5 today at its store in Beijing‘s Sanlitun shopping district was “arguably the least eventful launch of an Apple device in the company’s four year-history in the Chinese capital.” The plaza outside the store was nearly empty, reports Mozur.
Concerns about a tepid reception of the iPhone 5 were the topic of discussion this morning�by both Steve Milunovich of UBS and Peter Misek of Jefferies & Co., both of whom trimmed iPhone estimates.
Munster argues there’s no problem with demand, but rather changes Apple has made to distribution and order procedures for customers:
We believe there are a few key takeaways from the China iPhone launch and why there were not long lines as seen in the US:�Reservations – Apple is using a reservation system for customers that want to purchase an iPhone, which we believe is enabling them to avoid the riots that the company saw during the 4S launch. We note that Apple has used this system for the most recent iPad launches.�Increased Distribution – We believe that Apple has roughly 2x as many points of sale for the iPhone 5 compared to the 4S launch. Additionally, the iPhone 4S launched on only one carrier, while the iPhone 5 is launched on two. China Unicom Pre-Orders – According to a post on Sina Weibo reported by Reuters, China Unicom noted that it had 300k iPhone 5 pre-orders ahead of the launch compared to 200k for the last iPhone pre-orders the company had done.
Apple shares today are down $19.49, or almost 4%, at $510.20.
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