“Apple is planning a ‘significant redesign’ of the iPod to counter slowing sales of the digital music player, according to reports. Industry weblogs, which in the past have tended to accurately predict Apple’s development plans, say a new player will be released this autumn and could replace the current iPod nano,” Rhys Blakely reports for The London Times. “Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple Computer, last week dismissed claims that the company was facing a growth slowdown, insisting that a sharp drop in sales of the iPod was ‘not a cause for concern.’ Mr Jobs blamed a drop in sales of the music devices from 14 million to 8.5 million on the exceptionally strong demand during the holiday season. He said he remained optimistic about the growth prospects for the iPod, adding: ‘To be honest, nobody has ever sold 8.5 million music players in a quarter.'”
“However, the fall, during Apple’s fiscal second quarter, marks dragged sales figures about one million short of what Wall Street had expected. Analysts said the drop in iPod sales, which was accompanied by a forecast that was below expectations, signalled that the company was no longer set to forge ahead at the same pace. Significantly, Apple has not recently introduced new versions of the iPod to help to lift sales. Meanwhile several rival products have come on to the market. Shipments of Apple Macintosh computers also fell in the period to 1.1 million, down from 1.25 million during the holiday period,” Blakely reports.
Full article here.
Today’s poorly conceived hit-piece brought to you by Rhys Blakely and the fine folks at The London Times who can’t seem to figure out that there is no “second Christmas” in March. For “several rival products” that “have come on to the market” to have affected iPod sales, wouldn’t such products have to have actually sold some units in quantity? No such evidence is provided by Blakely. Bad form, Rhys. Blakely and his editors also can’t fathom why people would decide wait a bit to buy certain Intel-based Macs until they are actually available for sale. They’ve registered a “Thurrott” on the Obtuse Scale (see related article). Blakely’s article is just a stupid waste of time, paper, ink, bandwidth, and electrons. And, as quoted, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is wrong. One company has sold at least 8.5 million music players in a quarter: Apple has done it two quarters in a row, with many more to come.
As for the rumored “iPod redesign,” please name a year since the iPod was introduced when Apple didn’t redesign at least one iPod model.
Apple shipped 1,112,000 Macintosh computers and 8,526,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 4 percent growth in Macs and 61 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter.
[UPDATE: 11:08am EDT: Added Mac and iPod shipment and growth numbers to end of Take.]
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Related articles:
RUMOR: iPod nano featuring ‘significant internal redesign’ due fall 2006 – April 25, 2006
Thurrott: It’s starting to look like Apple’s iPod and Mac sales are leveling out – April 21, 2006