Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was already expected to post a strong holiday sales. A survey conducted by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster indicates that the iPhone, iPod, iPad and MacBook all appear among the 10 most desired items this holiday season. Munster randomly selected 25,000 tweets with the handle @Santa and contained the hashtag #Wishlist. He analyzed the tweet wishlist and found that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s iPhone topped the list, followed by Sony Corp. (NYSE:SNE) (TYO:6758)’s recently released PlayStation 4 and the iPad.
Apple products most desirable
Munster said that Twitter wishlist analysis may not be as accurate as a formal targeted survey, but it gives a positive signal about sales of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s products. The survey is restricted in a sense that it considers only those consumers that operate a Twitter Inc. account. So, it’s just a snapshot of the larger market. Munster added that it’s just a wishlist, revealing what consumers would like to have this holiday season if money were no object. The survey can’t measure direct sales of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) products. But it suggests that the Cupertino-based company’s products remain the most desirable holiday gifts.
Four Apple products among top 10
Munster found that the iPhone was mentioned in 0.49% of tweets, much higher than PlayStation 4’s 0.34%. The iPad was the third most popular product, while Xbox was ranked fourth. MacBook appeared at the fifth spot, accounting for 0.15% of tweets studied. Galaxy was mentioned in 0.14% tweets, iPod in 0.09%, tablet in 0.08%, Samsung in 0.08% and Android in 0.03% tweets.
Looking at the demographics, Munster said 29.9% of the tweets studied came from users between 12-17 years, 34.5% were from 18-21 year old users. Users between the age group 22-25 accounted for 21.8% of the tweets analyzed. In contrast, only 4.5% of those tweets were from users above 30, and 9.2% from those between 26-29 years.
Gene Munster has an Overweight rating on Apple stock with $640 price target. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares were down 1.32% to $547.64 in pre-market trading Wednesday.
