Given the bank’s top notch performance during that whole subprime thing, would you trust Citibank’s opinion on anything these days? One of its fancy pants analysts has officially predicted that Apple will release a 3G iPhone sometime in the next six months, citing low inventory of the current model and high demand for a 3G phone in Europe. Said the analyst, “We believe that lack of 3G has been a significant headwind for iPhone in Europe where 3G is already pervasive.”
Apparently Apple has been telling the bank that it plans to release the 3G iPhone in Europe and Asia before the end of the year. The implication there is that there’s no 3G iPhone in the works for the U.S. this year. Might it have something to do with AT&T’s purchase of all that spectrum?
I’m sorry, but to me, the whole Citibank institution has been to look utterly incompetent these past few months. I wouldn’t put too much credence into what it says.
…make it Citigroup. Apple was not telling anything to Richard Gardner — Apple does not disclose production data — he tried to analyze supplier-leaked order info about manufacturing rates. There are no implications of differential treatment of markets as far as I can see. AND refrain from throwing around incompetencies, please. Play nice!
I’d be surprised if it was released in Europe before the U.S.
i think citibanks’ subprime mess is separate from their analyst and are probably completely different business units that never talk to one another. subprime mess was a systemic problem across all financial institutions not just citibanks. they were probably more aggregive than others in their lending practices…
wouldn’t disregard the 3G iphone report based on the subprime issue — the 2 don’t appear related
Citing the sub-prime difficulties as a reason not to rely on an equity analyst’s opinion shows a total lack of comprehension of how investment banks operate. As a former Salomon Brothers analyst (which was acquired by Citibank), I guarantee the mortgage side of the business has no connection whatsoever with the equities business. Moreover, analysts operate fairly autonomously within even the equities division so one analyst’s credibility does not extend to another. Add that to rick Gardner’s fairly high reputation and the real credibility gap would seem to fall upon Mr. Deleon himself. Really poor work.