Tag Archives: aapl

GT Advanced Might Miss Out On Apple IPhone 6 Launch

The glass might be more than half empty for GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT). The fortunes of the maker of sapphire materials for LED and solar products was called into question by an analyst research report Monday that said revenue from its sapphire glass business could be limited by Apple (AAPL). GT Advanced stock was down 12% in morning trading in the stock market today, near 71. GT stock touched an all-time high of 20.54 on Wednesday. GT has a

Nuance rocked by sale chatter, Apple Siri developments

Speech-recognition technology provider Nuance Communications (NUAN) has been roiled in recent weeks by sale rumors and reports that Apple might drop Nuance from its Siri voice response app in favor of its own technology. Since hitting an all-time high of 31.15 in February 2012, Nuance stock has struggled. It hit a low of 13 last November and has risen since then on hopes for a buyout. Apple (AAPL) and Samsung have been rumored as possible acquirers of Nuance. Wired reported Monday that Apple has built its own speech-recognition software team by poaching engineers and managers from Microsoft (MSFT) and Nuance. Apple wants to catch up to Microsoft and Google (GOOGL) in the neural network approach to speech-recognition technology, which has leapfrogged the algorithms Nuance uses, Wired says. Neural network voice-recognition tech focuses more on context and the relationship among words to increase accuracy. Nuance was up nearly 1% to below…

Apple could see higher Q3 gross profit margin

With Apple’s fiscal third-quarter earnings report due July 22, investor focus is shifting from future products to how current ones are selling. Apple (AAPL) could see upside to its gross profit margin in Q3, Wells Fargo Securities analyst Maynard Um said in a research note Tuesday. Apple guided to gross margin of 37% to 38%, but Um is forecasting 38.3%, due in part to accounting-related items. Warranty accruals could drop below claims in Q3, he said. However, “this upside potential is likely to be offset by sales and marketing actions Apple likely took to start preparing the channel for the iPhone 6 launch,” Um wrote. Um expects Apple to report earnings per share of $1.27 on sales of $38.2 billion, both ahead of Wall Street estimates for $1.22 EPS on $37.9 billion in sales. That’s compared with $1.07 and $35.3 billion in the year-earlier quarter. He sees Apple selling…