Future PCs threat to $AAPL Apple? Yes, says top analyst

Future PCs threat to Apple? Yes, says top analyst

"Apple's "limited innovation" in tablets this year will make it vulnerable to newfangled PCs -- so says a Citibank analyst.

Yes, you heard that right, PCs. While financial analysts write lots of research notes about Apple every week, this one from Citibank analyst Glen Yeung -- sent out early in the week -- got my attention.

 We believe Apple will launch an iPad Mini Retina and a thinner/lighter iPad5 (both likely sporting newer processors) in 3Q13...iPad innovation of this nature is insufficient to reverse share loss.

Whereas we see limited innovation in tablets in 2H13, we see growing innovation in PCs. The growing presence of touch-based, ultrathin, all-day notebooks at improving price points (e.g., Intel requires all Haswell-based Ultrabooks to have touch and envisions price-points as low as $599) could create competition for 10" tablets not fully anticipated by the market.

So, after getting their keisters kicked by the iPad for the last three years, PC makers may finally get some payback.

Citibank, like other analyst groups, is pegging a lot of this prognosticated PC success on new designs based on Intel's upcoming Haswell processor and Intel's stipulation that Haswell-based ultrabooks must have touch screens.

In other words, expect more designs like Microsoft's Surface Pro and Samsung's ATIV Smart PC Pro, but thinner and lighter with better battery life (though I suspect battery life won't approach that of the iPad)."