“Apple Computer’s surge in iPod sales in the third quarter surprised analysts and doused concern that demand for the music players has peaked. iPod shipments rose to a record 6.16 million, Cupertino, California-based Apple said,” Connie Guglielmo writes for Bloomberg via The Irish Examiner. “The sales eclipsed the 5.29 million average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Absurd pre-earnings Bloomberg article: ‘Apple iPod shipments probably fell in 3rd quarter’ – July 13, 2005
Im sure the guys at Bloomberg had crow for lunch yesterday.
MW higher, as in sales of iPods were higher than even the most staunch optimist’s prediction.
They’ll be doused until about two weeks before the NEXT financial announcement.
That, or when Creative announces softer than expected demand for its players (about two weeks from now).
Whatever comes first.
To give the author (Connie) from Bloomberg some credit, I feel she did the responsible thing by writing a follow up article to her original article yesterday. I lashed out and wrote her an email after yesterdays orignal article… here is her response. My original message is below hers:
Thanks for your comments and for taking the time to write. As I’ve told the man
other members of the online Mac forums who have written to express their
opinions, the speculation of the financial analysts is what drives the stock for
the many weeks leading up to the earnings report. The share gains/losses are
not fiction and these are not the random musings of random people. The fact that
Wall Street was wrong on Apple is newsworthy in and of itself and led the news
reports yesterday after results were announced and continue to be the topic of
stories today. It’s not wrong to report on what the most influential people —
who are making recommendations to investors who hold millions of shares of the
stock — are expecting and why. We do that every quarter prior to the earnings
results of major companies, including Apple. It would be wrong, however, not to
write a follow up story noting they were wrong, by how much and why. I’d be
happy to send you today’s report if you are interested. Hope that provides you
some context. I’m always happy to engage in an open dialogue with interested,
intelligent and thoughtful readers. Have a nice day. – connie
—– Original Message —–
From: Mike Kraemer <mikekrae84@earthlink.net>
At: 7/14 11:38
Dear Connie,
This is truly the most laughable article I’ve read from an Apple
naysayer in a long time. I find it amazing what lengths some
journalists will go to to discount Apple’s success. This is up there
with the article from tech pundit Rob Enderle last year when he
said, “The new iMac G5 is poorly designed…It could topple over in
the event of and earthquake and leave broken glass scattered about.”
Yeah right, broken glass on a plastic computer…
Back to my point… Where did you find your sources? Seriously, this
is completely irresponsible journalism. Purely conjecture. This
should be illegal.
This just goes to show how little foresight most tech analysts have
and why they will never understand Apple’s potential or what the
company is about. They need to realize that Apple is not a commodity
driven company. Apple’s focus is on design, ease of use, and bottom
line.. Quality! Is it really so hard to fathom that the masses are
finally figuring this out? Apple and Steve Jobs are creating one
hell of a legacy!
More than 6 million iPods shipped and Mac sales have tripled the
growth rate of the PC industry! It’s a good time to be an Apple
Stock holder!
Mike Kraemer
So initially the predict that they were going to sell less of them because another company wasn’t doing very well and therefore Apple weren’t either, and accordingly the market had peaked. Now they’ve sold loads and the market has still peaked! They sure know their stuff these analysts.
AAPL at 40.62. Nice to have all of my purchases back in the black. Now if it would just surge to 55
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This is evident of the market as a whole. Demand for Apple must be falling because all the competitors demad has fallen. So the anylist see the products as a commodity, so it one is weak then they all must be. They fail to grasp the concept that Apple may be the reason their sales are falling.
Reguarding the iPod, they see it as an mp3 player and expect people to decide the same way they decide between coke and pepsi – which is the better price. The iPod is much more than a mp3 player, it is the only mp3 player to offer the complete package – from iTunes to the music store to the hardware to the “cool” factor. no other player can compete as a whole package. Not only does it mean that apple will not follow the market trend, but that it will run counter to the trend as the consumer abandons the old market for the new one … fast becoming an apple monoply (Lets hope steve is a benevolent dictator).
Similarly, PC sales fall, therefore mac sales should fall. Wrong again, Apple has started to demonstrate that it is not a commodity PC – and a small trend toward apple has developed. Could it be that PC sales are slumping (at least in part) because Mac sales are rising? Mac growth is not 40% above the industry average, it is 400%. Because of how small apple’s market share had become, this has not hit the mainstream radar the way the iPod has … but it will. Perhaps as more people see that the mac is truely different, the trend will increase. I expect to see demad flatten till the intelimacs (macintels, mactels, etc.) come out, then expect year over year sales to to double.
The market anylists will not get it till they see redmond produce the stilborn calf though.
You didn’t make us Mac users seem very reasonable, Mike, but kudos to you for not covering it up–and don’t feel bad, we’ve all felt like sending that kind of email sometimes!
Kudos to Connie for being level-headed in the face of a LOT of unprofessional emails, too.