“Buoyed by a surge in sales of both iPods and Macintoshes, Apple Computer on Wednesday reported first-quarter earnings that soared past expectations,” Ina Fried reports for CNET News. “The Mac maker earned $295 million, or 70 cents per share, on revenue of $3.49 billion. That compares with earnings of $63 million, or 17 cents per share, on revenue of $2 billion in the same quarter a year ago.”
Fried reports, “Analysts said that the new $499 Mac Mini should help the company convert many of those iPod buyers into Mac users. ‘We believe the Mac Mini will increase the percentage of iPod-toting Windows users who purchase a Mac by almost threefold,’ Needham analyst Charles Wolf said in a research note ahead of Wednesday’s earnings report. Mac sales rose significantly last quarter. The company sold 1,046,000 Macs, up 26 percent from last year. Analysts have been projecting a rise for the computer industry as a whole of about 10 percent, meaning Apple gained significant share during the quarter.”
“Sales of the iMac were particularly strong, as Apple redesigned the product around a G5 processor. The product accounted for $620 million in revenue, up 187 percent from iMac sales in the prior quarter and up 147 percent from a year ago. iBook sales were also up in the quarter, but sales of the Power Mac and PowerBook were down from a year ago,” Fried reports. “The company’s forecast for the coming quarter also was higher than prior analyst predictions. Apple projected revenue of about $2.9 billion and earnings per share of about 40 cents. Analysts had been looking for revenue of $2.75 billion and earnings of 33 cents per share.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: No iPod Halo Effect, eh? Glad we’re not WindowsDailyNews for more reasons than one.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple posts net profit of $295 million on $3.49 billion revenue, highest in Apple’s history – January 12, 2005
IDC VP Roger Kay sees no evidence of Apple ‘iPod Halo Effect’ based on ‘Apple’s desktop share’ – January 10, 2005
Dvorak calls Mac market share ‘stagnant’ when numbers really show Mac market share growth – December 29, 2004
Signs point to Apple adding to their 30 million Mac users via ‘iPod Halo Effect’ – October 26, 2004
Apple said in the conference call that the PowerMac will not reach the 200,000 unit level in any quarter ever again. It’s clear that the iMac G5, they said, has taken away sales, particularly to those who had a G4 PowerMacs.
In a way this is too bad, as the PowerMac is the most profitable of all of Apple’s CPUs. However I would think that growth in the server market could eventually help the higher end sales. Dispite the Mac geeks desire for power and more power the general public is no longer concerned with that as much as before. They just one computers that work….. and that’s where, in my opinion, Apple is going to benefit with the iMac and Mac mini.
This is a great time for Apple. The second coming, so to speak.
the powermacs will pick up more if IBM comes out with speed increases more frequently and gets they’re production figured out really well.
I think, lots of us are waiting for the 3GHz machine with “Tiger”, and Power Book with a G5. They’ll go like hot cakes!
Actually, this is the flip side of proper market segmentation.
I used to argue (on AI) that Apple needs to broaden its reach so that products were available to cover the low-end consumer (which is obviously high-volume) and the “true” workstation user who needs a four-way system with high-end graphics performance.
I always view this as a classic pyramid: simplistically 40% of the market only needs 10% of the functionality available, 30% needs 30%, 20% needs 60% and only 10% of the market needs 100% of the functionality and power.
Mac mini is now available to address the bottom segment, and the iMac/Book addresses the next segment up.
What needs to happen next is that the PowerMac range splits to address the needs of what I’ll call 2D and 3D professionals in slightly different ways.
Appropriate segmentation is the best thing in the world, simply because it creates appropriate demand for each product class and removes excessive pressure from the market.
Apple is on a roll!
What was the name of that insignificant, pathetic and dead company from Redmond??
Go for it Apple!!!
Magic word is ‘costs’ – as in lack of innovation from M$ costs them user market share!
Not sure if it is iPod Halo Effect, or Windows Malware Effect, but it is great news!
Three More Windows Security Updates Today!
Microsoft: Where to you want to patch today?
“What needs to happen next is that the PowerMac range splits to address the needs of what I’ll call 2D and 3D professionals in slightly different ways.”
Totally agree with you, MCCFR. Apple hasn’t been at all aggressive on the high-end. There is no reason PowerMac sales can’t be higher, but Apple needs to offer true workstation class hardware. Like quad processors. EEC RAM. The most powerful graphics cards available. Right now, they are essentially coasting with the PowerMac.
Still, all in all, a very SPECTACULAR quarter!
“Not sure if it is iPod Halo Effect, or Windows Malware Effect”
One could argue that they’re different sides of the same coin. The realization that the Windows malware ecology has become intolerable, coupled with the realization that there is a ready alternative to the suffering.
“The product accounted for $620 million in revenue, up 187 percent from iMac sales in the prior quarter and up 147 percent from a year ago.”
Wow. (magic word: beyond)
I think most potential buyers of the G5 are waiting until the last possible moment hoping for a dual 3+ machine though Apple seems to be doing a great job selling Xserve’s & XSan’s so …
Hmm.. is it just me or has the “hot cake” reference been used one too many times? It is popping up in every single thread.
How do we know hot cakes even sell that well?
My jaw hit the floor while reading this. Geez, first I get a coworker to order a Mac mini to replace his Gateway, and now this…
It’s a good week so far to be an Apple fan. Here’s hoping the good news keeps coming…
…. and i hope this shuts all these know-it-all Windoze lovin’ columnists up already. They’re trying to paint the Mac mini in a very negative light and confuse people… but it’s clear that it is THEY who are behind the eight ball and finding themselves on the losing end….
I’d like to see every mini-mac come with BASIC. Bring back the fun! How about Woz writing it? What’s Woz do’in anyway? Realbasic is not fun enough, easy enough, or complete… Examples:
Where’s the INPUT command?
Where’s the inkey$ comand?
What if you just want to write code?
There is a great manual for Realbasic called Realbasic for dummies, but…
It’s out of date. Out of print. And oh yes, you can buy one USED, for up to 75$ on Amazon.com.
Doesn’t anybody out there remember the good ol’ days when EVERY computer included BASIC?
Who told Apple to stop doing that? And now that they have the closest thing to the ol’ home computer, maybe they should do it.
Woz?
I took a BASIC programming course in high school! I remember my Commodore 64 had BASIC built in.
Isn’t an emulator available?
c w: “I’d like to see every mini-mac come with BASIC”
I think you should beaten to within an inch of your life for even thinking this.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” /> (Just kidding)
The Mac mini ships with Xcode. So you have AppleScript, Java, C, C++, and Objective C++.
“Where’s the INPUT command?
Where’s the inkey$ comand?
What if you just want to write code?”
Part of the issue with BASIC is that it was really designed around the terminal (trust me, I know. I graded papers for John Kemeny back in the 1980s at Dartmouth). It wasn’t really meant for event-driven programming (you can do it, but it’s pretty messy). So there isn’t really a clean way to deal with menus, windows, etc.
If you want to write code, go pick up one of the many books on Java, perl, C, or C++. If you want to do more with Apple’s tools, consider books on Objective C and Cocoa.
Let’s see…last quarter, Gateway beat Apple by about 100,000 units (933,000 vs. 836,000). Apple just shipped 1,046,000 or 113,000 more than Gateway did last quarter. Now it’s Christmas and everybody got an uptick and Gateway did correct guidance upwards…
It’s gonna be close, boys and girls.
Damm peter!! Calm down. But I’m really happy to listen to you.
O.K. I’ll check out XCODE.
Now tell the truth peter, is C, or C++ as EASY as BASIC?
Now the point about
Where’s the Input command?
Where’s the Inkey$ command?
is that there Missing from Realbasic, and provide a BETTER, easier way of doing things. The Input command gives me an event-driven ability, that right now I miss.
As to XCODE, I don’t know if it’s as easy as BASIC, but I’ll check it out.
It’s not a good idea to threaten people.
Besides, I have some frozen Bruce Lee DNA around here, somewhere.
good shit!
It’s nice to not hear that Apple is going out of business.
Well, the issue with the INPUT command is how do you know which text field you are getting your input from? Windows can have lots of text fields. That said, I’ve never used BASIC on a Mac. In fact, I haven’t used BASIC since I was 12…
If you’re looking for something simple, though, you might want to check out AppleScript. While it can be a little verbose, you can do some cool things with it. C or C++ is certainly not as easy as BASIC.
“I have some frozen Bruce Lee DNA around here, somewhere.”
Cool! Pop it in the microwave! Mmm…Bruce Lee DNA…
Good numbers. I feel something that might be egg on my face.
“Apple said in the conference call that the PowerMac will not reach the 200,000 unit level in any quarter ever again.”
Argue for your limitations, and they are yours!
About this BASIC tangent…
e.c.: Maybe one reason that Apples don’t come with plain ole BASIC anymore is that you can get it for free. I use ChipMonk BASIC probably once a week (google for it), but I use it more for a fancy calculator than anything else. And yes, it has INPUT and PRINT, and a lot more than that. I like it.
Peter: “It wasn’t really meant for event-driven programming (you can do it, but it’s pretty messy). So there isn’t really a clean way to deal with menus, windows, etc.” Wow… where have you been? REALBasic was meant for all that and more. I’ve used it many times to write several apps, and handling events, menus, windows, sprites, TCP, and on-and-on-and-on couldn’t be easier. It makes fast and fairly efficient code. You should check it out and see what BASIC has evolved into nowadays.
“Apple said in the conference call that the PowerMac will not reach the 200,000 unit level in any quarter ever again.”
Perhaps, Apple is hinting that it is replacing the PowerMac. “Mac” has a very home-computer sound. The current iMac has enough power for 90% of the professional users. Apple may be looking at a way to better appeal to the “workstation” users; a computer that can auto-config to a single Xgrid mini-super-computer when linked with other units, so even a small office can (wirelessly?) link up their workstation Macs and have a very low cost super-computer with no IT department (and associated costs and headaches). With every new employee, their computer is added to the grid and the company seamlessly upgrades the entire super-computer. It doesn’t make sense for Graphics Dept. Greg to be waiting for his 3D animation to render while the 95% of the CPU cycles are sitting idle on text-typin’ Terry’s Mac.
–How do we know hot cakes even sell that well?–
Maybe they don’t sell that well now, but they USED to!
“Hot cakes cooked in bear grease or pork lard were popular from earliest times in American. First made of cornmeal, the griddle cakes or pancakes were of course best when served piping hot and were often sold at church benefits, fairs, and other functions. So popular were they that by the beginning of the 19th century ‘to sell like hot cakes’ was a familiar expression for anything that sold very quickly effortlessly, and in quantity.” From “Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins” by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997)