Analysts Up Apple Target Price Based on Strong Nano Debut

The Mac Observer writes that two analysts, Charles Wolfe at Needham & Company and Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray, are upping their projections for Apple partially due to the iPod nano. In sharp contrast to analyst Shaw Wu at American Technology Research, Munster "surveyed 20 Apple stores and found strong demand for the iPod nano, including zero availability of the black 4GB version."

Munster noted "that Apple has learned from past mistakes and will meet the demand this year." He wrote:

This is based on comments from Apple in which they said their manufacturing partner has dedicated a facility solely to nano production. Thus, going forward, we believe that if the lead time of the iPod nano increases, Apple would likely be selling more iPod nanos than their initial aggressive expectations.

Wolfe added the intro of the nano's "signaled that Apple should be able to maintain materially higher average selling prices on the iPod than we previously assumed."