Its been a few days now since Apple (AAPL) officially unveiled its latest and greatest smartphone - the iPhone 5.
Of course there are the usual stock prospects that have been touted as having the iPhone 5 halo effect - Qualcomm (QCOM), Skyworks (SWKS), Cirrus Logic (CRUS), and ARM Holdings (ARMH) to name a few. A more comprehensive list of Apple’s suppliers can be found here.
The flip side of the halo effect, however, tends to mean pain for those companies that are in the crosshairs of Apple’s innovations. With its iPod, iPad, iPhone, Apple TV and most importantly iTunes products, Apple has changed the way people consume and pay for content. Music. TV shows. Movies. Books, text books and magazines. Software. Games and more. As one would expect given Apple’s install base, this has had a ripple effect in a bad way across those aforementioned industries and the companies that serve them. Make no mistake, Apple is not alone and others, like Amazon.com (AMZN) and its Kindle e-reader have also been contributors to this.
When it comes to Apple, however, many quickly think of the other smartphone manufacturers that the iPhone has taken market share from over the last few years. Its a who’s who list who used to be winners and includes Nokia (NOK), Research in Motion (RIMM), LG and even HTC. But that list has also expanded over the last two years or so with the rise of tablets. Apple has a leading market position by a wide margin with its iPad and others, like Microsoft (MSFT) and several mobile phone manufacturers, like Samsung, are trying to catch up. The rise in tablets has stunted PC growth and spelled trouble for companies like Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Dell. (DELL).
Hardware is not the only playing field in which Apple has taken other companies to task. By adding certain features as standard apps in its iOS software, Apple has put companies through the wringer. One such example is Wunderlist, a task management app that is available for iOS, Android and Windows powered devices. Apple’s response is to offer a native solution called Reminders, that lets you set set create to-do lists and use time or location based reminders. Another is Apple’s new Passbook offering which will likely impact Constant Contact (CTCT)’s CardStar app. Similar to Passbook, CardStar eliminates wallet and keychain overload by consolidating your membership and rewards cards with a single free app. It also allows you to access coupons and other deals from merchants.
With Apple’s new iOS 6, which will be supported by a number of iOS devices including several iterations of the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, Apple may be aiming at Google’s (GOOG) Google Maps, but odds are it will hit GPS device vendors like Garmin (GRMN), Cobra Electronics (COBR) and TOMTOM NV (TMOAF) even harder. Those companies compete in the portable GPS market as well as the original equipment manufacturer installed GPS market. While GPS makers have been challenged by map applications on smartphones for sometime, more recent applications include 3D mapping and turn-by-turn directions. Both of those are included in Apple’s native Maps as is real-time traffic information and spoken directions.
With a huge install base of iOS 6 compatible devices, Apple’s maps could accelerate the shift from hunting directions on the desktop to smartphones and tablets. That will likely impact traffic to Yahoo!‘s Yahoo Maps (YHOO) as well as AOL’s (AOL) MapQuest. Keep in mind that both companies rely heavily on traffic given their revenue model that is highly reliant on advertising revenue.
As consumer look to embrace Apple’s new iPhone 5 in record numbers and update existing iOS devices once iOS 6 is available tomorrow (September 19), it looks like once again Apple will be be causing a fair amount of pain for others.
