“Demand for Apple’s MacBook Pro and Intel-based Mac minis is still solid, according to UBS Investment Research. The firm believes the new 17-inch MacBook Pro and upcoming Intel-based MacBooks — which could be announced tomorrow — should lend support to its estimates for five percent year over year unit growth for Macs in the June quarter,” MacNN reports. “UBS estimates that consumer sales account for well over half of Apple’s revenue, and while demand for MacBook Pros is still strong the company may continue to be impacted by the Intel transition on a short-term basis. ‘We continue to be pleasantly surprised by our checks which indicate that there has been solid reception of the new Intel-based Mac minis. The new Mac minis appear to be off to a stronger than expected start as our checks continue to indicate units are being purchased both as media centers and low-cost entry-level Mac options.'”
“The firm notes that demand for Mac minis is not limited to Apple stores, pointing to a CompUSA it visited which indicated that the Intel-based minis continue to see relatively solid demand there as well,” MacNN reports. “Sales of new Intel iMacs remain relatively solid with consumers, according to UBS, but sales continue to be slower with professionals and “prosumers,” who are still waiting for the release of more high-end software applications. ‘We believe momentum in Mac sales should continue in 3Q06 and continue to believe 2Q06 was the trough quarter for Mac sales.'”
Full article here.
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
Cowen & Co survey shows strong Apple Mac sales prospects, Boot Camp impact ‘broadly positive’ – April 18, 2006
Wall Street’s Apple jitters overblown: Strong demand seen for Apple Intel-based Macs – February 16, 2006
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trough quarter…… I love analysts and their throwing-together of ideas
Oh Be joyful!
UBS Investment Research … estimates for five percent year over year unit growth for Macs in the June quarter.
What? I can’t imagine it being that low! Surely UBS has been misquoted — or is just stupid.
the overall pc growth rate is much higher than 5%
“… five percent year over year unit growth…”
That won´t even keep up with total personal computer sales growth. Not real good news for Apple.
When is this 20% Market share everyone talks about going to happen?
“Sales of new Intel iMacs remain relatively solid with consumers, according to UBS, but sales continue to be slower with professionals and “prosumers,””
Hey – all you people here have been boasting about unbelivably strong sales of macs – double, triple quadruple usual sales.
Do I smell a bit of Mac FUD by you all???
Hey, No stocks, no money Sam, the magic number is 10%. Never heard anyone except Mac users on acid trips say anything about 20%.
MDN: on – as in: Troll on by.
the overall pc growth rate is much higher than 5%
The only reason Apple fell behind the overall PC sales growth rate is the “Intel pause”. Once that’s over, Apple will again be outpacing the industry average growth.
And no matter what, Apple will still be making tons of profit, which is really all that matters.
Just wait til intel rolls out the new chips for the powermac replacements, and the pro products start being universal binary.
The mactels being bought are more or less being bought by consumers and switchers.
The amazing thing is that mac sales haven’t plummeted during their switch to the intel roadmap. Could you see any other computer manufacturer being able to pull off such a transition? I can’t.
Jooop: I agree that profits are essential, but greater market share would also be a very advantageous thing for all us users — hence I can’t agree that profits are “all that matters.”
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Professionals/Prosumers are more conservative when their pro apps are not quite ready. The pro market I see booming with Intel Macs is mine, where all “pro” apps are *nix and compiled from scratch on a regular basis. Not much processor sensitivity.
i agree with Joop. Profit is what really matters, and if you are going to grow, do so profitably, so that you can re-invest the profits in innovation. Don’t grow by slashing profits (GM, Dell); in effect, purchasing market share.
If faced with a choice between growth and profits, His Steveness always chooses the latter.
the overall pc growth rate is much higher than 5%
no, it isn’t
… and as for you everett g.
let’s talk when Dell’s market cap passes AAPL’s
Does anyone else remember all the doomsday prophets and naysayers when the Intel chip was announced?
There were so many people saying “NO ONE will buy a PowerPC Mac for the next year!” and “Apple sales will tank for the forseeable future”.
Where are all those self-professed seers now? Apple has had an absolutely remarkable transition – in addition to getting the first Intel Macs out 6 months earlier than people thought they would, they hardly even showed a slowdown in sales during the worst of it.
Now everyone wants to be the first to jump on the “Where’s the big sales increase” bandwagon. I’m reminded of the old adage:
Better to be silent and be thought an idiot, then to open your mouth and prove it.
Oh, bother. The grammar police missed my stop.
“Better to be silent and be thought an idiot than to open your mouth and prove it.”
MDN, when are we going to get registration for comments so we can have real non-theftable user names and be able to edit (or even retract) posts??
I’ll admit, I am _not_ impressed with the possibility of 5% YoY unit sales growth. I want to see _significant_ growth. Apple has the best OS, the best hardware, the best service, and the best brand image. What the hell is keeping this brand from “tipping”?
I want to know if the PDFs will open in Preview automatically? If so, will Adobe cry foul? This reminds me of when Microsoft got sued for tying Internet Explorer to the system. Can Apple get sued for doing this? Or is the fact that iTunes is on PCs and PDFs would launch into Acrobat Reader enough to keep them out of trouble?
Sorry, wrong news tab!
Sounds like pretty decent intel. <rimshot>
The overall market only grew at about the same rate as Apple last quarter, which is barely at all. Given the Intel transition, that’s pretty good. I hope the pros don’t all wait for Photoshop UB to get new computers, though, because that pushes real market growth out into 2007.
🙁
Not only do proffesionals wait for pro apps to be universal binaries, they are very unlikely to use Mac minis. The only pro Intel machines are MacBook Pro which lacks power for day-to-day heavy use.
blucaso – Better to be silent and be thought an idiot, then to open your mouth and prove it.
Don´t you just love it when people think they are smarter than the rest of us and tell us how to act and think ….and they are the real idiots
For Apple to gain market share it must sell much, much more than the PC market. USB says it isn´t hoping for much sales growth from Apple.
And remember every processor that Apple sells is the same as what everybody else sells.
———–
No sales boost until desktops come out and Pro apps run natively…and Leopard appears.
Apple has been growing at a rate above the rest of the market for several quarters now and recently (months back) stepped solidly into the “top 5” of PC makers. 5% unit growth does not seem the sort of growth needed to maintain that position.
Still, it is one of the few who are making much by way of profit, these days. And, yes, Apple’s market cap exceeded Dell’s a couple of times in the recent past and is currently only ~$120 million back. (61.36 Billion vs 61.48 Billion) But … Apple stock is crazy!
bluecaso
it was Mark Twain who said. “Better to be silent and thought an idiot, than to speak and remove all doubt.”
I know dozens of pro photographers in NYC, and all of them use Macs. All of them. The only time I ever see a PC is when I’m on a shoot in a corporate environment. A lot of photogs have G4s or early-model G5s. These folks are going to jump on new desktop Conroe Macs like starving tigers on a steak when Photoshop CS3 hits the market. With new desktops, Leopard, and UB versions of pro apps becoming available over the course of the next year, I predict Apple will make a lot of very profitable sales in this market. The pent-up demand is huge. For these folks, the MacBook Pro is an appetizer.
“starving tigers on a steak when Photoshop CS3. . .”
Or maybe Leopards?
Professionals and “prosumers” are waiting for the towers to go Intel, and then for Adobe CS3 which is going to be Universal. Probably the delay in Adobe is why Apple’s holding off a rollout of the Intel towers, taking care of the regular consumers with the iMacs (and now the consumer laptops reportedly tomorrow).
I’d expect the announcement of CS3 and the Intel towers at MacWorld 2007; that would also give the Aperture team six more months to get their sh*t together…
bluecaso, macaholic,
Methinks Solomon said it first:
“Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.” Proverbs 17:28
I think I will be quiet now.
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“19 April 2006. Apple reports 34 percent growth year-over-year, earnings increase 41 percent.”
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/apr/19results.html
Thank God, the worst is over.
>skewed perspective
The worldwide PC marketplace grew 13% last quarter in terms of units sold.
Apple grew 4% last quarter in terms of units sold
Apple’s pc sales are predicted in this article to grow 5% this year.
>let’s talk when Dell’s market cap passes AAPL’s
Apple is a story stock.
Apple ,all other things remaining equal, needs to grow revenues at 18% per year every year for the next 10 years to justify it’s market cap. 5% growth in pc unit sales a year is not going to do that.
I guess we’re far enough past the .com bust that people can again allow themselves to think that current market cap defines the long term prospects of a company. They’re wrong of course.
Apple’s bumper year last year makes the growth rate figures seem worse than they are. A 5% increase on last year, when Apple was growing at three times the industry average, is actually quite impressive.
Now growing at less than half the industry average is good?
Must be a new kind of good.
Story Stock:
How do you reconcile Dell’s recent earnings slump with your reported industry sales growth? Is it possible that selling greater numbers of PC’s at smaller and smaller profits is not the best long-term strategy for solvency? Yes, the consumer may benefit in the short-term by being able to purchase a cheaper than average PC, but it seems that this practice is not sustainable.
>How do you reconcile Dell’s recent earnings slump with your reported industry sales growth?
Simply. The industry growth numbers are unit sales, and also industry wide, not Dell specific. Even if they were growth numbers for just Dell, earnings per share is not directly related to unit sales.
>Is it possible that selling greater numbers of PC’s at smaller and smaller profits is not the best long-term strategy for solvency?
Possibly, but remember Dell is far from losing money, they’re warning that they’ll make $0.33/share rather than $0.36-$0.38/share.
They could do that forever. So is it sustainable based on that news. Yes.
As you’ll note, the news also hit other PC maker’s share prices, including Apple’s. Why, because if Dell expects earnings to be down, people expect other company’s earnings to be down too.
Dell’s drop should be instructive to you as to what happens when you fail to deliver what the market expects. As I noted the hopes and expectations driving the price of Apple’s stock are much greater then those for Dell.