Bidness Etc - Apple Gets a New Patent, And a Self-Driving Rumored iCar Sighted

A mysterious self-controlled car has been sighted in Concord Bay Area. It is rumored to be another one of Apple’s experiments for their product expansion.
Apple is keen on ensuring quality in terms of mapping service, hence it was no surprise spotting the minivan having at least 12 cameras fixed on its top, it came across at the one used in Street View car. Besides this, two disc-shaped small antennas were also fitted, along with LiDAR sensors that look like spinning cylindrical devices, seems to be hanging over the rear end and front, also to measure rotations of the wheel as far as guesses are being made.
A number of minivans have been sighted in California, having LiDAR sensor fixed on its roof and rear. LiDAR is basically a laser-based technology which is used to create high-resolution maps, and is of significance for the sensing systems that is placed in self-driving vehicles. LiDAR has also been used by Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), in their self-driving cars.
It is also being said that almost identical minivan in white, was witnessed in Brooklyn last September, with a license plate of California. Moreover, the California Department of Motor Vehicles has confirmed that a Dodge Caravan spotted along with the van carrying equipment is leased by Apple.
It is nothing new about Apple wanting to try its hands on the electric car. The tech giant has been rumored long to be interested in smart cars. A patent was granted on Tuesday for "Apple Electric Car, Inc.," which doesn’t come much as a surprise but surely did raise eyebrows.
The patent, which was discovered by a blog Patently Apple, was basically to support an adjustable pedestal for the computerized display view in a golf cart, which is highly unlikely for Tim Cook to be interested in anything of that sort. According to the filing, the patent allows the golf cart’s display to be seen by the diver despite whether the driver or user is inside the golf car or outside of it.
The news about Elon Musk being spotted at Apple’s Cupertino headquarters was enough to make the tech world go insane with the news. However, the speculations weren’t completely shattered when Mr. Musk reported that the visit was about an acquisition.
The Wall Street analysts have quite for long been claiming that the company might be interested in making an investment in order to purchase an electric car company. But nothing of material has occurred so far, except a development ELEKS creating an Apple iWatch app to allow control of Tesla using their wrists.

Bidness Etc - Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) is past its previous high of $119 per share.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) shattered expectations regarding its share price as well as shipped more smart phones in last quarter than Samsung Electronics did. After the company’s record last quarter result came out, its stock price witnessed a boost this week. On Friday, its share price reached $120 for the very first time after its stock split last year and past their previous high of $119 per share.
Apple Inc. with total market capitalization of $695 billion surpassed Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) and nearly doubled market cap that of Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG).
On Wednesday, Kristen Scholer wrote about Apple’s profit of $18 billion, that it was the highest ever posted by a public company in one quarter. Apple today has a cash pile of almost $178 billion, which is more than enough to buy IBM.

According to Apple’s senior portfolio manager, Daniel Morgan said that the company’s quarterly result was excellent and showed a good sign, but it is upsetting for its rivals Microsoft Corp. and IBM. According to BTIG analysts, the company will see even more upside in first quarter of 2015, as the tech giant has the potential to earn strong revenue and earnings per share growth this year.
After company released its quarterly results, many research firms increased their target price on Apple. For example, Citi reportedly wrote that besides having more worth than any other public company, Apple costs less than the broader market on P/E basis. Citi today has $135 target share price on Apple.
There are chances that Apple could tumble its top competitor Samsung Co. in the smartphone battle. Samsung reported 27% decrease in its profit last quarter, as per company’s earnings’ report. According to the management, this is due to lower smartphone sales. However, another report states that, Apple has presumably conquered the Chinese market from Samsung in terms of smartphone sales.
Co-Founder of Global Equities Research, Trip Chowdhry predicted apple share price to go up to $150. He mentioned the firm as “a multiyear, multi product, multi geography, multi service growth company”. An announcement followed by, from California-based company’s CEO, Tim Cook that Apple’s iWatch will be released in April. Trip is expecting Apple watch to be an “extraordinary success”.
62 analysts recently covered Apple Inc., out of which 45 has rated it as a ‘buy’ whereas, 13 gave it a ‘hold’ rating.
The company’s share price climbed to $114.90 during the after-hours trading on Friday.