“Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Kevin Hunt told clients that while checks suggested continued strong demand for iMac G5, refreshed PowerBook and iPods — especially iPod mini and shuffle — Mac mini sales are disappointing and high-end iPods appear to have slowed down considerably. ‘Our checks suggest Mac mini sales are somewhat slow, as consumers realize that price including monitor is no bargain,’ he said,” Wanfeng Zhou reports for MarketWatch.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Of course high-end iPod sales have slowed. There are more different iPod models now to choose from, like the iPod shuffle line. New iPod buyers are more likely to try the iPod shuffle (and miss much of what’s so great about the iPod, but that’s another story) than an iPod photo. Perhaps it would be a good idea if Apple advertised the Mac platform and the Mac mini on television? Ask twenty people at random if they know anything about Apple’s Mac mini and/or Mac OS X. You’ll be lucky to find one who has even heard the names.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
RUMOR: Apple prepping new ad campaign focusing on Macs – May 17, 2005
Apple about to resurrect its Switch campaign? Are the ‘OS wars’ really over? – May 09, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘Tiger bolsters Mac OS X’s edge as the best personal-computer operating system’ – May 06, 2005
The Guardian: Mac OS X Tiger a powerful solution while Microsoft’s Longhorn remains on drawing board – May 06, 2005
Chicago Sun-Times: Mac OS X Tiger shows ‘there’s never been a more compelling time to switch to Mac’ – May 05, 2005
Dan Gillmor: ‘With Mac OS X Tiger, Apple is plainly in the lead today’ – May 05, 2005
Jupiter Research VP: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger ‘runs rings around Microsoft Windows’ – May 04, 2005
Mac OS X Tiger review for a Windows PC audience finds Tiger’s ‘far, far better than Windows XP’ – May 03, 2005
Boston Herald: Mac OS X Tiger should compel Windows PC users to think about switching to Apple Mac – May 02, 2005
Forrester analysts: Apple should advertise Mac OS X Tiger on television and in movie theaters – April 29, 2005
BusinessWeek: ‘Tiger bolsters Mac OS X’s edge as the best personal-computer operating system around’ – April 28, 2005
Associated Press: Mac OS X Tiger ‘provides another excellent incentive to switch from Windows’ – April 28, 2005
Mossberg: Apple’s Tiger ‘the best, most advanced personal computer operating system on the market’ – April 28, 2005
NY Times: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger is the most secure, stable and satisfying OS on earth – April 28, 2005
Windows is weak, Longhorn will be cosmetic upgrade; Apple can deliver killer blow to Microsoft – April 27, 2005
Thurrott: ‘Longhorn is in complete disarray and in danger of collapsing under its own weight’ – April 27, 2005
Thurrott: Longhorn ‘has the makings of a train wreck’ – April 26, 2005
Thurrott: Longhorn demos ‘unimpressive, fall short of graphical excellence found today in Mac OS X’ – April 26, 2005
Apple posts QuickTime movies of Mac OS X Tiger features in action – April 13, 2005
Why doesn’t Apple advertise Mac OS X on TV? – April 12, 2005
Mini Mac might get more interest if some third parties were selling inexpensive mini monitors and keyboards to fill the market gap between a portable and a desktop Mac packaged in one carry case. – or are these products available? What I’ve seen on line isn’t inexpensive.
I’m giving my daughter my 3g 20gig iPod. She’s outgrown her mini so that’s going to mom. Me, I’m getting a new iPod Photo to go with my new Canon EOS DIgital Rebel!
That’s why high end sales have slacked off: not enough daughters filling up their Mini’s.
Of course sales have slowed. The high-end iPods are due to be refreshed as they were introduced on 26 Oct 2004 (almost 7 months ago). Duh! Give us some real analysis.
Frost Pots
Magic Word: Story
Hey “analyst”, ever heard of SEASON-FRIGGIN-ALITY?
If Mac mini sales are so slow, then why did I see a very recent article that stated that 1 in every 3 Macs sold at Apple Stores are minis? I personally know of 4 different people that have bought one (and 2 were entirely new to Macs) in the past 3 months. So as for this story, I don’t buy it…
I don’t think so. I test every day top sellers on electronics in Amazon, and iPod 20 GB is always between the top 3, and in the last two or three weeks for the first time an iPod photo (30 GB) has been between the top 25 (now is 19).
I’m about to help move my aunt to a Mac mini. She’s scary computer-illiterate, so a Mac should be perfect for her. I’m even going to give her the one-button mouse that came with my PowerMac.
I would be very surprised if Mac mini sales are disappointing. My impression is that they’re actually very good, and they should be. Some advertising wouldn’t hurt, of course.
I can’t help feel that this is BS!
I have four prospective customers for minis just from friends who have gotten tired of PC crap and want to move to Mac and recycle their old keyboard, etc. And I’m not even an accredited reseller.
And if Mac Mini sales have indeed recently slowed, what will Apple do?
Most likely, they will sit on their butts and wait another 3 months for a hardware refresh.
Come on, Apple! If sales are slowing down, DO SOMETHING about it! Don’t just try to pretend nothing is wrong and wait like a drooling idiot for a long overdue product refresh to kick sales back up.
Apple needs to be updating each product line once every 4 months, not 6-8 months like they’ve been content to do. You don’t need a major update each time, but every 4 months, do something to keep the value equation viable, like upping the disk or memory.
It’s like whatever genius that runs hardware at Apple has a philosophy that updates are only needed if sales start to approach zero, instead of working to continually increase sales of that product every quarter.
ipods are past the early adopter high-priced phase.
Now, they need to lower the price on this now common technology.
Apple makes a killing off of ipods.
to know what portion of total iPod sales are “high-end”. Also, have the others grown or not? If the “high-end” are 5-10% of sales, even a 30% drop in that category could easily be offset by single digit growth in the other iPod categories. Also important is profit margin in each category, in terms of the bottom-line effect.
Yeah, I can see how the mac mini could be hurt by Apple’s monitor prices, even though they’re worth the $. For the price of a mini + an Apple monitor, you can almost get a G5 iMac. A 15″ or 17″ monitor would be nice for an optional bundle, but it manufacturing may not be cost effective for the number they’d produce for such a purpose. Also, the analysis seems to be relative to an expectation – what was that expectation?
“Apple needs to be updating each product line once every 4 months, not 6-8 months like they’ve been content to do.”
Bad idea.
Consider the following: You’re considering the 1.4GHz Mac Mini for $599. Would you buy it now, or would you wait four months to see if it comes down in price? Of course, in four months, they’ll have a 1.6GHz Mac Mini for $599, so you go with that one. But you can wait the four months for it to come down in price.
You end up in a perpetual holding pattern, waiting for the next big thing to show up in four months.
Hey NewType,
First of all, who the fsck do you think you are. Are you some know-it-all that thinks they know better how to run a billion dollar company than the highly experienced execs that do it every day? Get a life.
Do you know anything about return on investment? What sort of fscked-up genius idea do have that will change basic economics about how a business invests in its products and reaps the rewards of those investments (ever heard of a product life cycle?).
Apple is not your personal bitchboy that spends gazillions on new products every 3-4 months just to make your miserable life more interesting.
Sheesh….
color me skeptical about flagging mac mini sales. Ordered one the third of this month and it just shipped today. Apple cited overwhelming demand for the delay
magic word “written” as in just becausse an analyst has written it doesn’t make it so
NewType and Dr. Dude,
I understand where both of you are coming from.
Dr. Dude you can make an opposing point without attacking people.
One thing I like about Apple products is they do have a much longer product life cycle than PC products. It seems to me that it is best to buy an Apple product “immediately when it is released” or “when Apple discontinues the product” and they are clearing inventory at a discount price. There is not much of a price drop between the beginnig and the end of the product life cycle.
PC buyers are not used to this type of buying. If you buy a PC “Immediately when it is released” you end up getting ripped off, because it is half price in months.
If you buy a PC at the end of its “very short” product life cycle, it is already relatively obsolete and unattractive compared to other product offerings.
Although it is frustrating waiting for new Apple products, they are usually worth the wait. Alternatively buy something today and start enjoying it today.
Looking forward to WWDC
Bill
Bandit, you’re right. I guess I just get a little fed up with whiny-types that knock Apple for every little thing. We get enough of that from the mainstream tech press.
I need some serious therapy!
I agree with sammyz. I just convinced my Dad to buy a Mac mini a few weeks ago to connect to his plasma TV (for showing pictures, iTunes, etc…). His order was delayed a week and I can only imagine it is due to demand. BTW, he also just bought a 30GB iPod after I showed him mine. He just sent me an email today to tell me about the purchase and here’s the last line of his email…
“This represents a significant bump in my “quality of life” and I thank you for it.”
I don’t imagine that would have been in his email if he had just purchased a Dell DJ.
Later,
Druze
Shooting cockroaches is mega fun!
Anyways, I don’t know about Apple making a 15-17″ monitor specifically for the mini. LCD’s aren’t just an Apple/PC thing anymore. Most PC people (the ones targeted by mini) already have mismatched PC/Monitor combos (bought an Compac back in the day, and the CPU pooped. So, they bought a Dell, but kept the old monitor.)
Doesn’t seem like it would “light a fire” like Apple prefers to do with new products.
And from a stock/shareholders perspective, I don’t see a big enough return on investment if Apple makes small, low margin monitors.
Dell makes booku dollars in the commodity market.
Apple makes booku dollars in “flashy” market.
I think they should both stick with whats working for their profits and stocks.
PS, Mac Mini needs to upgrade it’s GPU, maybe to something 9650-esque.
I know several people who’ve bought either iMacs or Mac minis since Tiger was released. They waited so they could save the $129.
Maybe Mac mini did dip right after the upgraded iMacs were released. But overall, I think Apple will exceed the average growth in PC sales for a third straight quarter.
what utter BS, the mini is for switchers.. hence, A VERY F–ing GOOD DEAL…
er.. did I just quote “Snatch”?
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Hey guys, Apple had a good run, but it’s over. It was fun while it lasted. The last great threat to Microsoft has finally, and utterly failed.
I guess i’ll be giving away my Powerbook and slitting my wrists now. Goodbye sweet, cruel world. Goodbye.
Hmmm, I realize this might open a HUGE can ‘o worms – but just consider for a moment MDN’s comment about 1 out of 20 who might know something about the Mac – isn’t that 5%?
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[ducks for cover]