Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is “best positioned in the tech world” to reap benefits from this year’s holiday shopping season, which starts this week on Black Friday. That’s in the view of Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian J. White.
Apple’s new products are on a roll
Apple has introduced several key new products already, and White believes the company will “be tough to compete with.” Apple confirmed its online Black Friday shopping event this week. The company is discounting certain items by 7 to 9%. Of course products which are still supply-constrained or extremely popular are not on the discount list.
In addition to the new products themselves, a survey from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) suggests that 31% of adults are expecting to buy consumer electronics on Black Friday weekend. That is just a little over last year’s 30%. The biggest item on the list is apparently tablets, with 30% saying that’s what they plan to buy. Laptop computers came in second with 29%, while video game consoles tied for 29%. The survey suggested 22% plan to buy televisions.
White says Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is “most sensitive to trends around tablets and smartphones” of all the companies in their coverage universe.
Slight growth expected in holiday shopping
We should hear more details about how the overall retail industry is doing when the National Retail Federation (NRF) and the CEA post more details about it over the weekend. The NRF expects to see total holiday sales to increase 3.9% this year from last year to $602.1 billion. That is just a little more than the 3.5% growth recorded at last year’s holiday season.
White says the 10-year average sales increase for the holiday shopping season is 3.3%. In consumer electronics alone, the CEA expects to see spending increase by 2.6% this holiday shopping season. That’s compared to the 4% growth seen at last year’s holiday shopping season.
