“Apple will likely proclaim the past week’s Macworld expo a success… but deep questions linger as to the future of its computer business,” Red Herring reports. “Reaction from the Mac faithful to the first of Apple’s Intel-powered machines couldn’t have been more positive the day CEO and founder Steve Jobs unveiled them, despite worries that Apple was giving up its unique identity by switching from IBM’s PowerPC chips.”
“But it’s unclear if the initial love shown Apple’s new laptop, called MacBook Pro, and upgraded desktop, will be enough to translate into increased revenue and market share for the Cupertino, California-based company’s computer business,” Red Herring reports. “Apple’s market share is tiny—just 4.2 percent of the personal computing market, according to Gartner. Its bread and butter the past couple of years has been the iPod, but with the portable player’s somewhat low-key presence at the conference, even Apple seems to realize that it must shift emphasis back to computers to survive. It won’t be easy, experts said. ‘Macintosh is not doing very well,’ said Caris & Company analyst Mark Stahlman. ‘Sales of Macs in December were a disappointing 1.2 million. … Expectations were well north of 1.5 million—1.7 million would have been good.’”
“The machines introduced at Macworld may not have what it takes to lift Apple’s doldrums. Though Mr. Jobs touted them as between two and five times faster than current Macs, using Intel’s low-power Core Duo chip, Mr. Stahlman said those speeds aren’t actual measures of performance,” Red Herring reports.
Full article here.
Is it really so hard to realize that the closer to the Intel transition Apple got, the more people waited for the new machines? And it was 1.25 million Macs sold to be correct (according to Apple’s 8-K filed on Jan. 10, 2006); those extra 50,000 machines made last quarter the best for Macintosh ever: last quarter, ended September 05: Apple shipped 1.236 million Macs; the quarter ended June 05: 1.182 million Macs; the quarter ended March 05: 1.07 million Macs; the quarter ended December 04: 1.046 million Macs; and the quarter ended September 04: 836,000 Macs. That’s a pretty clear growth trend and accomplished in the face of a looming major processor transition, no less. Expectations for higher Mac sales were just not realistic. As the Intel transition progresses, any lingering “deep questions” about Apple’s Mac business will evaporate because Apple has started to take orders for and ship the kinds of Macs for which many were waiting.
For more about Caris & Company analyst Mark Stahlman, and an insight into his inability to predict how Apple is doing with their business, please see the related article link below. It contains some of Stahlman’s advice that would have been rather costly to investors if they had actually followed it. Clearly, Mark Stahlman is the one who’s not doing very well.
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Related MacDailyNews article:
Caris & Co analyst downgrades Apple, says ‘current enthusiasm might have overrun the realities’ – April 11, 2005
