Apple Inc. (AAPL) Has Samsung to Thank for Today’s Rally

Word on the Street
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster considers the S4 to be an incremental upgrade, with spec bumps mostly in line with expectations. The display, camera, and processor were already mostly known quantities and Samsung’s efforts to push new software features aren’t quite game-changers, either. Munster considers Siri on iOS as and even Google Now on Android as more powerful features relative to what Sammy showed off last night.

His estimates are unchanged and expects Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to keep a roughly 40% share of the high-end market this year, and still expects the company to sell 177.5 million iPhones in 2013. Munster doesn’t believe that the Galaxy S4 will hurt iPhone sales, but it could easily win more Android sales.

Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White believes Apple’s upcoming “iPhone 5S” will trounce the Galaxy S IV when it launches in a matter of months. The S4 is still less refined than Apple’s build quality, in part because Samsung continues to use a cheap plastic casing that White considers “no match” to the iPhone 5’s aluminum unibody chassis.

White notes that the popular perception is that Samsung is absolutely crushing Apple in the smartphone market, a notion that he considers “complete nonsense.” It’s true that Samsung has become the top vendor worldwide, but most of those gains are in low-end emerging markets, not high-end flagships.

To be fair, there are also analyst bears, too. Jefferies analyst Peter Misek thinks the device is an “incremental negative” for Apple, and Nomura analyst Stuart Jeffrey sees the S4 potentially helping Samsung overtake Apple in the high-end segment.

Judging by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s gains today, investors obviously aren’t too impressed with the Galaxy S4, either.

The article Apple Has Samsung to Thank for Today’s Rally originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Evan Niu, CFA.

Fool contributor Evan Niu, CFA, owns shares of Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Apple, Google, and Intel. The Motley Fool owns shares of Apple, Google, and Intel.

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