Once again, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer has offered conservative and “disappointing earnings guidance for its current quarter. Not that Apple’s guidance is worth much — Apple blew past analyst estimates by a full 20 cents a share for its fiscal third quarter,” Caulfield reports. “The explanation for the weak guidance: higher component costs, back-to-school discounts and a mysterious ‘product transition’ will cause Apple earnings to come in lower than expected. Translation: Apple is going to shake up its product lineup.”
Caulfield reports, “Oppenheimer told investors to expect earnings to come in at only 65 cents a share for its current quarter, well below expectations of 82 cents a share. After Apple’s blowout quarter, at least one analyst wasn’t buying it. ‘You just guided to 66 cents and came up with 92 cents? Why should I believe it should be 65 cents when you’ve been so conservative?’ UBS’s Benjamin Reitzes asked Oppenheimer on a conference call after Apple announced its results.”
Caulfield reports, “Oppenheimer said, there will be a ‘product transition I can’t get into.’ Could that mean Apple is about to introduce some new products? If so, the possibilities include anything from a new version of the iPod music player to fresh versions of its hot-selling notebook computers. With Apple reporting surging sales of both its computers and music players, that would mean the company is about to go from one strength to another.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dave” for the heads up.]
Whoa!
Bring it on Apple
I’m betting on new iMac lineup and new iPods before the holiday season.
product transition? Perhaps they are discontinuing a product? Mac Mini?
I’m with DaddyMac.
Gotta be new iMacs. They are the only Apple products that haven’t been updated significantly in a couple years.
Yeah, my money is on new iMacs too.
I’ve learned that with Apple there’s always something new in the pipeline.
@Mudflapper:
MacBook Pro
I have the money for the new 24″ iMac burning a hole in my savings account.
Both iMacs and iPods. I want a new iPod.
Here’s WOW?
“Apple managed to wring out 36.9 cents of profit for every dollar in sales, up from 30.32% during the same period last year. By contrast, Dell managed just 18.28% percent gross margins and Hewlett-Packard 24.67% in their latest quarters.” I wonder what Micro$oft’s margin was? Zune Tang, do you know?
Im betting the transition is more then a product refresh, this is going to be a major change, like touch interface ipods, or no more imac, back to desktop and monitors.. something totally different from its current form.
OR, this could mean they are going to Announce a bunch of products and then launch them a few months later, and they anticipate the “hold” on current sales until they are released..
I am thinking revamped iMac also, but it sure would be nice to get a new Mac Mini.
Mac mini has been languishing. It’s obviously popular– maybe something’s been brewing?
Wonder if the new iMacs are going to be touch screen. Can’t wait to see them!
Its going to be something pretty price competitive I bet, likely a low end targeting Mac. It explains why Apple guided down their margins by so much.
The product transition is going to selling just the computer Operating System and not both the OS and the hardware.
Just kidding.
Big Al, I was thinking precisely the same thing. They could be bracing for an initial hit on hardware sales before settling in to their new role as a seller of premium hardware running either OS X or Windows.
well, since no one else has mentioned it:
g5 laptops on tuesday!
In the little Apple Employee meeting in which Steve Jobs announced that all Apple Employees were getting free iPhones, he mentioned that the Mac is one leg of the vision, the iPod/iPhone is the second leg, and Apple TV is the third.
Having said that, I think that we will start to see some effort being exerted there, to make it a more well-rounded and appealing product.
Absolutely. iMac is about to go through a huge transition. This will be the true desktop computer.
The computer will be like a wedge.. you can put it on your desk.. and you interact with it using your hands. You can also use a mouse and keyboard (wireless or wired). Coming in 20″ and 24″ screen size, this will be the true engineering table turned surface computer that you want on your desk!
Enjoy now. Get used to seeing things flat on the table again!
Leopard is coming early, we are finally getting a full sized Mac Tower to have users upgrade easily, we will get touch screen iPods and iMacs, Mac Mini’s with docking stations, and an iDVR for the living room.
For real though, Steve told the employee’s that the iPhone was the 3rd leg on a chair that previously only had two legs. Most chairs I see have 4 legs. They will announce something this quarter that will ship in time for the holiday season, it’ll be the 4th big product announcement. They also probably will have a different version of the iPhone, something smaller, that does iPod and phone only. I am excited. And Apple estimates are always low, but better to disappoint now than to over estimate and let down later.
It cannot be a new iMac or a new Mac Mini, because everybody seems to line up for one of these new Macs and they therefore wouldn’t down-grade next quarter’s earnings.
It must be something they won’t make a lot of money on! What about a Macbook Thin with a SSD?
The earning estimate will be lower because they are scrapping the Mac mini. The product transition will be about moving those users to the other lines of computers, like iMacs and MacBooks. Steve just hates the mini.
I’m thinking the lower guidance is being caused by a problem with Leopard. There will be a release delay announced for past October. This will impact the people who put off buying a new Mac this quarter because they were waiting for the new OS version. Lower Mac sales for the quarter.
Wow. It is going to be a very interesting year or two from Apple.
@BrianD
Your analysis seems the most likely to me – if we “product transition” is what we think it is.
John
@BrianD
Your analysis seems the most likely to me – if “product transition” is what we think it is.
John