The Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From The Field
Apple’s position in sports & forecasted stock rise
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Where Apple’s real strength is as a brand in sports
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Apple bringing their iPads into the arenas
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Adobe’s Photoshop to be available on next iPad and what that means for AAPL stock
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I Know First predicts another bullish year for Apple stock as it successfully did the previous year
Apple has become a brand that unlike competitors, is more than just the technology you are buying, but a feeling, a vibrancy. Today, If you are out for a run or a walk, chances are you are measuring your heart rate and distance on an apple device. Simultaneously, your favorite song is playing to give you a little extra motivation, from that very same device. This is coming from the company that used to be nothing more than a computer, and can now be utilized for almost any aspect of everyday life. The tree called Apple continues to grow and shows no signs of slowing down in it’s relentless evolution. Their next branch to sprout if it hasn’t already, may very well be a solidified position in the professional sports realm.
The first thing to be aware of, is understanding how powerful of a platform the professional sports world really is. At the core, viewers consist of a passionate, loyal fanbase that tune in almost every night. To get an idea, the average viewership of the finals of the 4 major sports in the US, which are football, basketball, baseball and hockey comes out to an astounding 40 million viewers. Now that the Supreme Court just granted states the permission to once again legalize gambling on sports matches, you can expect that number to rise just like the blood pressure of a die-hard fan or gambler during a close game. What happens now is the average person who normally wouldn’t care to watch a game at 8:00 on a Tuesday night when is favorite show is on, might be watching in hopes of getting a return on his bet.
What’s The Use?
Microsoft has been successful with bringing their tablet to the sideline of every NFL game. Today in the National Football League, you will constantly see players on the sidelines with these tablets in their hands, and the game they are playing is a little bigger than crushing candy. What they do is analyze the game through watching replays. How to improve in the game, on the spot. In the past they would be doing this only after the game was over or at halftime. That being on a big projector which only helped them when it may have been too late. This as opposed to seeing and breaking down the opponents game plan as well as their own shortcomings that can be improved, on the spot.
Apple’s first step into arenas came with the National Hockey League. Yes, it’s Apple on ice. Apple has their iPad and Mac in the hand of every coach to help improve in-game efficiency, similar to how NFL has utilized them. So the NHL was next in bringing these modernized coaching technique’s to the game, with Apple supplying the goods. Contrary to the games being played, this partnership leaves us with 2 winners.
It’s A Hit
Apple’s next move was bringing it’s iPad into every dugout in Major League Baseball. Being that the MLB has a way larger fan base that the previous inked deal, this one proves to be more lucrative. Besides for the players and coaches to increase efficiency, there is something for the fans as well. The At Bat app allows through AR (Augmented Reality) technology, fans to utilize their Apple device in game. They simply hold their device up to the player at bat to see all kinds of interesting stats. Statistics such as how hard their favorite player just hit the ball, or how fast he ran. This would be the first sighting of AR technology being instituted into a major sport. For a sport like baseball, I imagine a child seeing their favorite player with this Apple product in their hand makes a statement.
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As for the NBA, I believe a deal with apple would have been very fitting. Similar to the NBA, Apple epitomizes style, swagger and influence. This is right in line with what the creator of Apple himself, Steve Jobs, envisioned and strived for the products to be. Although, in the realm of the National Basketball Association, Apple did recently ink a television deal with one of the NBA’s biggest stars in Kevin Durant. This is the company that made similar deals with the likes of Steven Spielberg and Jennifer Anniston. They signed the baller to be part of a new drama series that subsequently is called “Swagger”.
Apple also banked in on the World Cup craze, implementing all types of features on their devices through Siri. Fans got easy access and full information to things such as scores, schedules, rosters and all other types of information.
The Real Deal
Apple’s partnership with the sports world may be stronger than inking any official deals.. Some of the biggest marketers for Apple in sports, are the players themselves. These highly influential superstars are photographed as they walk in and out of stadiums. As they do so, a majority of these superstars are using none other than Apple products. Primarily Beats headphones or AirPods. Apple acquired Beats for 3 Billion in 2014. This applies to every sport. (Not including the NFL in which the players are banned to wear them being that Microsoft has a deal with the NFL.) This was especially the case in the biggest sports event on the planet, this years World Cup. On the court and field, the athletes warming up for a contest are also usually always using Apple headphones to get in the zone before a game.
Lets not forget, this is a company that could reportedly buy every single professional sports team if it wanted to. Partnerships with leagues may no doubt be lucrative and necessary, but the place they strive most in the sports world is by the individual athletes themselves. The heroes of so many, wearing their product, on and off the field/court. Apple has established themselves as THE brand. In an expected fashion, they continuously adapt, and innovate to make life for the user, and of course the company, better.
How Can I Win?
The company that just hit a one trillion dollar evaluation is only going up. I Know First’s predictive algorithm forecasts another strong year for AAPL stock. The bullish prediction comes in line subsequently with the very thing that Apple is putting in players and coaches hands, the iPad. The iPad business produces $4.74 billion a quarter for Apple. With Adobe working on producing a full version of Photoshop for the iPad/iPad Pro next year, sales will rise. Adobe’s Creative Cloud, is bringing in record highs in for its revenue through subscribers who want access to Photoshop. This will now be available on the upcoming iPad. To give you an idea, this application is producing half of Adobe’s current total revenue. Apple will pocket 30% from each $9.99/month Photoshop subscription.
The new iPad won’t only become an asset to creative professionals (90% of which use Photoshop) but to professionals everywhere. With updates to its multicore CPU (as it has continued to do), it becomes a tool useful for anybody. It is important to note that besides when a new Apple product comes out, people want it and they get it.
I Know First’s Forecast For AAPL Stock
There is information on the bottom of the page to explain this graph further
I Know First’s Previous Apple Stock Forecast To Its Subscribers
One of our senior analyst wrote one year ago of this bullish signal of 131.7 and a predictability rating of 0.61. It turned out that in the conclusion of that year, Apple Inc. valuation reached a record $1 Trillion. Needless to say, subscribers were happy with this forecast.
Future and current forecasts and picks can be found here
I Know First Algorithm Heatmap Explanation
The sign of the signal tells what direction the asset price is expected to go. (Positive = to go up = Long, negative = to drop = Short position). The signal strength is related to the magnitude of the expected return. Used for ranking purposes for the investment opportunities.
Predictability is the actual fitness function being optimized every day. It can be explained as the correlation based measure of the signal. This is a unique indicator of the I Know First algorithm. This allows users to separate and focus on the most predictable assets according to the algorithm. Ranging between -1 and 1, one should focus on predictability levels significantly above 0 in order to fill confident about/trust the signal.
