Tavis McCourt, Raymond james Financial
You’ve probably heard the rumblings that there’s some sort of deal or talks going on between Apple and Yahoo to make Yahoo a much bigger player with iPhones and iPads.
This begs the question, is Apple replacing Google with Yahoo, or put another way; Larry Page with Merissa Meyer? Man, I don’t know, after the harsh tyrannical, zero tolerance attitude that Meyers has taken to squash telecommuters at Yahoo, I think the devil you know seems better in this case.
In any event, it’s a risky proposition, Tavis, along with two other Apple analysts were tapped for the story, and the consensus; Brian Colello, an equity analyst for Morningstar, and Tim Shepherd, a senior analyst with research firm Canalys…don’t you just love a consensus between analysts, it’s like getting three times the shit for the price of one. The agree that any deal with Yahoo is likely to be incremental, perhaps starting with data only at first, then carefully replacing apps with like or better quality..
It would be quite challenging to ship an iPhone devoid of Google apps, as they are often preferred to Apple’s own apps; take Maps for example. On the other hand, with Meyers at the helm of Yahoo, she means business and has something to prove. Maybe this is the type of leadership Apple needs to be really competitive…he says tongue in cheek.
Analysts say Apple’s strategy makes sense, competitively, but that any attempts to swap out Google with Yahoo will be well down the road. “It’s probably less likely to happen near term after the way Apple Maps went,” says Tavis C. McCourt, senior equity analyst at financial services company Raymond James. The company’s decision to replace Google Maps with Apple Maps when the iPhone 5 went on sale last year was widely panned by consumers and tech analysts, who complained the product was buggy and offered confusing results. As a result, chief executive Tim Cook offered up a rare apology for the sub-par app.
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