“Music could prove to be Apple Computer Inc.’s saving grace, as it indirectly puts the company back on track as a credible, albeit still tiny, player in the personal computer market,” Ian Karleff reports for The Financial Post. “‘We have been waiting for signs that the anticipated halo effect from Apple’s retail stores and iPod would materialize. This quarter’s results provided the first definitive data point, suggesting that Apple’s core businesses may not be destined to continual decline,’ said First Albany Capital analyst Joel Wagonfeld.
“First Albany was one of three brokerages to upgrade the stock on the back of the quarterly results, and noted that gross profit margins also surprised on the upside as growth in the company’s personal computer business mitigated the margin dampening effect of iPod Minis,” Karleff reports.
Full article here.
and it begins…
speaking of credibility.. do any of these dickwad analysts even know what marketshare IS?!
and it ends
Halo Effect? I think it is over rated. Here is my analysis. Oh dear. I hope this doesn’t make me an “analyst”. Guess not – no money
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This was written to a journalist who overstated the topic a bit, too (probably parroting the above story). I also did not have the time to write it brilliantly:
“You seem to have decided that the only reason that Apple is doing well currently is because of the “Halo Effect” of the iPod. No doubt iPod has been a raging success, and no doubt that that success can not hurt Apple in the market. But possibly you could explain just *how* iPod might be helping so dramatically? The simple fact is that iPod works on Wintel PCs, and the superb iTunes software is “the best program ever written for the PC”. In other words, as far as music listening goes, the PC is an equal platform to the Mac.
Here are the real reasons:
Apple stores. There are about 100 now. For the first time, it is actually possible to walk into a retail outlet, play with *all* the equipment (which is working properly, and has the latest OS installed), browse the software section, and make a selection. Let me repeat: FOR THE FIRST TIME. Do you think that might help sales?
…continued…
…continued…
OS X. The old joke in the Macintosh community is a variation on the theme: “If you want to know what Longhorn will be like in 2007, buy a Mac today.” Mac OS X Panther is an astonishingly advanced operating system which is literally years in advance of anything from Microsoft. Display PDF, searching, Expose, journaling file system, Preview, iLife and etc. etc. etc. are extremely compelling. Did I mention the lack of viruses? No? Well there are zero. None. Nada. Zip. Did I mention upgrading procedures? It all happens automatically. My many year old system, released with Mac OS 8.6, is happily running the latest version of the Mac operating system, 10.3.4. And it is right up to date. To the minute. Total effort expended on my part? I have to click “OK” to install the latest upgrade. Do you think anyone else would like a virus free computing experience?
Super Computers. Virginia Tech. US Army Research and Development Command. University of Maine. UCLA Plasma Physics. More being announced every day. These systems rank with the FASTEST COMPUTERS IN THE WORLD. Top 10 stuff. Made out of components that you can go down to your local Apple store and buy off the shelf. No tricks. No limited production run. No special order. Just plain jane Macintoshes. Do you think that might contribute to growth?
I think if I were you, I might want to carefully research an article about Apple and their computers. Might make interesting work. It would certainly make for good reading.”
So endeth my rant.
Mike
Go Mike. Right on. Of course, the iPod does get Apple back into the minds of Wintel users, and it shows them just how easy and simple something high-tech can be. And from there, a logical jump would be “maybe apple makes all their products this good…”.
But yes, overall I don’t think the iPod is the #1 reason for mac sales growth.
In fact… I think it’s the whole liquid-cooled computer. Can’t tell me that’s not sexy. That’s why I ordered me one. I just hope it gets here before i leave back to school…
Current: Coming:
G4 Dual 800 Quicksilver G5 Dual 2.5 Ghz Liquid-Cooled
1.12 GB SDRAM 1.5 GB DDRAM
GeForce 4 Ti 128 DDR GeForce 6800 Ultra 256 DDR
60 gig internal HD 160 GB internal HD
Original (2x) Superdrive 8x Superdrive
Airport Card Airport Extreme Card
DVI-Video Adapter
Both will be using a 19″ Lacie Electron Blue monitor.
Boy am I excited.
Oh no! It lost the columns I made for it! ^^^
G4 Dual 800 Quicksilver
>>> G5 Dual 2.5 Ghz Liquid-Cooled
1.12 GB SDRAM
>>> 1.5 GB DDRAM
GeForce 4 Ti 128 DDR
>>> GeForce 6800 Ultra 256 DDR
60 gig internal HD
>>> 160 GB internal HD
Original (2x) Superdrive
>>> 8x Superdrive
Airport Card
>>> Airport Extreme Card
Microsoft bought Lookout Software LLC, a two-person company specialized in email and desktop search. Microsoft appears to be in a race with Apple to develop the best search technology….
From now on, M$’s desktop search system will be known as, ” Lookout ! ” and its email search function should perhaps be known as ” Lookyheah ! ” Internet Exploder longgone version? How about, ” LookAway ! ” and longgone, ” StilLookin’.”
We’ve all been telling the Windozers for years about how “insanely great” the Mac is and they’ve hardley ever listened. But the iPod is finally getting their attention. Because it is so cool, so easy to use, and so well made, that they are beginning to respect Apple’s products. Three cheers for the iPod!
all hype and b.s. –
well duh. most windows people dont think about apple and macs. they get an ipod and it works great so now they DO think about apple and mac.
of course thats good for selling macs! thinking about is better than not even thinking about
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The more Apple comes up with creative system improvements, the further out the release of Longhorn becomes. This may be Apples best weapon against MS.
iThink, therefore iMac, iPod, i….
“fans migrating” –> Wind of change
No halo effect? And there I was thinking that college students are buying PowerBooks and iBooks because they look so cool with their iPods.
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All the analysts seem to be worried about is “market share” it isnt until the last paragraph that they make any mention of Apple’s 5 Billion $$$$$ in the bank and the fact that is a profitable company. I do how ever believe that as more and more PC users get into iPods, that the gradual migration will move from being a few drops at a time….. to a trickle…. to a steady flow of PC users who dicover the Mac platform. Of course if Apple comes out with suitable volume of coloured 4th Gen iPods and DOESNT run out during the christmas iPod buying Spree ( I would bugdet 3 Million Units for the US market as miniumum amount for pre christmas if I was Apple…) considering the current sustained demand for the 3rd Gen iPod and the supply issues with current insufficient world wide volumes of iPod mini. When you get into corporate sales is when you get into main market recognition ie… well I know how to use my Dell PC at work so I will buy a Dell PC for home… which could become …well I use an iMac at work so I will get and iMac for home …..
If Apple can provide a complete set of features with its Xserve to work with the likes of Oracle and possibly SAP to enable corporate custumers to consider the benefits of Xserve to run their CRM applications (I dont know if this can be done already…?) as opposed to just running Oracle 10g clusters.
They already provide a very competitive priceing and user licencing structure.
Just my opinion.
Now is the time for Apple to advertise it’s up-and-coming Tiger to PC users while Microsoft has nothing to offer. My brother, my dad and I watched the keynote and it blew us away how amazing this operating system is. And it isn’t even finished. We’ve been Mac users for a while now, at least 10 years, and we still love it. In my opinion, I’d take a beta version of MacOS over a finished Windows version anyday.
Naah — kill all ads until the stores are stocked.
And it sure doesn’t hurt that the iPod is getting Windows users into the Apple retail stores. The stores are great.
amyhre;
[I]”In my opinion, I’d take a beta version of MacOS over a finished Windows version anyday.”[/I]
Hahaha that’s a good one. A Window$ version is [B]NEVER[/B] finished. It is [B]ALWAYS[/B] a work in progress – [B]VERY SLOW[/B] progress at that too!!!
Im a full PC user (never owned a mac, and paid out plenty of mac lovers)- and the only reason that im reading this forum is that i’ve seen the huge sucess of the iPod, and am seriously considering changing over to a powerbook.
There is a halo effect, and the flood of PC users to mac will only get bigger.