“Shipments of Apple’s iPod digital music players appear flat or declining this month as sources report the company is, for the first time in a long while, seemingly overstocked on most iPod models with about a month remaining in its third fiscal quarter. Most Mac models are also following a similar trend, with a few exceptions,” Katie Marsal reports for AppleInsider.
“Apple next week will host its annual World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco, which has predominately been a software-centric event. Still, company chief Steve Jobs has been known to pull a hardware trick or two from his hat. Last year he introduced new Apple Cinema Displays and would have unveiled the iMac G5 if IBM had supplied Apple with enough microprocessors to meet demand. Two years ago, WWDC 2003 delivered the Power Mac G5 and iSight video cameras,” Marsal reports.
Full article here.
Time to increase advertising a little to see if it will spur sales.
Advertising is very expensive and takes funds from R&D.
There’s recession a coming in most western economies, all those remortgages based on ridiculous house price increases are coming to an end.
I see price dropd in our future…
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No recession for at least 3 years, at least not in the States–only smooth sailing. The housing bubble (or “froth”, as Greenspan called it) will only be a minor blip nationally.
Euroland (or whatever they decide to call it after coming to terms with “no”), on the other hand, is another story. Looking pretty grim except for the UK.
I mean “price drops”.
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(and can someone shut that damned noisy ad off? The one that says, “Kill Shao Khan.”
This is to be expected. I myself am waiting until the WWDC to buy my new Mac. If the current selection stays the same, it will be a 2.7 GHz Power Mac (I am sick of everyone I have switched having a faster machine than me
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> ) but we will have to see what Steve “pulls out of his hat” before I will make the final decision. Traditionally I have been a laptop man but I seriously doubt that a G5 Powerbook shows up. A dual core G4 Powerbook might make me think twice tho, even tho I REALLY want to finally get on a G5 chip.
I ask again: How do they *know* this stuff?
Apple is the only one with the numbers, and they ain’t talkin’.
Or did I miss something?
Hmm. High demand…factories working overtime to try and meet demand…press and analysts say Apple can’t deliver.
High demand…adequate stock (factories catch up)…press and analysts say Apple has overstock problems.
Whatever.
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mtMacPhee – you are missing something.
I agree with Jack Arends. I want to buy my wife a Mac Mini, but have been waiting for WWDC to see if an improved model is announced as rumors have hinted at. The Mac community has gotten used to keeping its powder dry in anticipation of new goodies from Steve. We’ll know next week!
Apple really do need to advertize OS X and the Macs. Plus any cost associated with advertizing can be put against taxes.
It sounds like Apple does have their retail channel saturated with product. But isn’t that a good thing – more opportunities for people to buy their goods.
July 13th will reveal all for sales. I doubt Jobs will say anything about that at the WWDC.
Galdalf, if a profit is made on each product, advertising pays for itself unless Yao Ming and Minime get too greedy. As for the recession, there is one “coming”, and someday the sun will nova. Care to predict a timeframe?
my prediction for WWDC:
iTunes Video Store.
$9.99 per movie, burnable to 1-3 DVDs.
Streamable over new Airport Express A/V
I had a dream last night… kinda crazy. I downloaded the 4th season of “24” from iTunes in .mp4 format, and the 3rd season in H.264. The 4th season was about 2x as big, and 1/2 the quality as the third season. Saddly it said the first two seasons were still being encoded.
Crazy.
You have to advertise to sell products. The iPod ads are old and tired, there’s no Mac advertising to speak of, and all the major electronics retailers, except CompUSA, have little nothing to offer to Macs. It’s no wonder people with PCs are confused and disoriented when a Mac appears before them. They haven’t seen much of anything Mac for 10 freaking years!!! ADVERTISE for heaven’s sake!!!! Word-of-mouth advertising only works on selling the Popeil Rotisserie!!!!
Yeah, that’ll be it – Steven P Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar, will take time out of his busy schedule to announce a speed-bump to a consumer machine based on a processor that has been around for the best part of five years.
Or, more probably, he’ll be announcing something that moves the game forward like xStation.
This article is ridiculous! I work at a major retailer as the resident “Apple guy” and we are completely out of stock of both the 4 and 6 gig mini ipods and have been for weeks! We have a few 20 Gb but no 30 or 60 ipod photos. We could see ten times what we do get in! I simply do not believe, based on first hand experience, that sales are droppng and that there is a surplus, if so send them our way we’ll sell them!
Appleinsider are talking out of their arses.
That story they just ran about iPod.Mac inventories was GROSSLY irresponsible. They put a negative spin, by implying that sales may be slow, or inventories may be TOO large, in the story, when QUITE the opposite could be true. 10s of thousands of Shuffles in channel? Big fckuing deal! They sell MILLIONS of them a quarter! Thank GOD they can keep up with demand now – and with independent resellers’ too, not just Apple Store customers. They have just knocked $2+ off this stock with your story, which has been quoted on CNBC and Bloomberg. They might feel smug about this. I have just lost about $10,000 dollars as a result of this idiocy. They have A D*U*T*Y to both get the facts right, AND report a balanced view of a story like this, especially in the run up to WWDC when the rumour sites are being scoured for news by analysts. This story is, to me, very positive. I was in France and Switzerland last month – and they had a SHORTAGE of Shuffles, mac Minis, and iMac 20″ G5s. How does that pan with the story? Apple only makes 43% of its sales in the US. The rest of the world is still experiencing supply problems. If they have finally gotten on top of the supply/demand curve, I, for one, am ECSTATIC, because it means that for the first time in absolutely years, Apple will be able to sell to any customer who wants any of their products, at any time – a unique development in Apple’s history, I’d say! They SHOULD have reported this neutrally, but obviously couldn’t resist the “ipod/Mac sales must be falling, because inventories are up” line. I’d bet this is because, as someone pointed out to me, they’re in league with someone trying to drive down the share price JUST before a WWDC, so they could scoop them up cheap and profit after Monday. AI probab;y have news of a major announcement and are keeping it quiet, but know it might drive the share price higher. This could be a classic (and highly illegal) example of stock price manipulation by people with inside knowledge, panicking sellers to dump stock on false reports of slowing sales.
They may of course be right, but the point is, there is NO proof either way, and anecdotal evidence actually points to increased Mac sales, not decreased, and very steady iPod sales.
In reality, they should check their story next time, and write it up properly, before they start ruining other people’s finances with such manipulative sensationalist fast talk. I’ve been a long time reader of AI, and check several times a day for breaking stories. As far as I’m concerned, they’re just a bunch of irresponsible shitheads now. I hope Apple sues the pants off them for something soon.