“Apple Inc. shares climbed as much as 7% in early trading Thursday, an upbeat reaction to the company reporting a 73% increase in fiscal third-quarter profit due to growing sales of its flagship Macintosh computers and iPods,” Rex Crum reports for MarketWatch.
“Additionally, Apple reported a strong initial weekend for its highly anticipated iPhone, with shipments of 270,000 units in less than two days of sales,” Crum reports.
“‘[The] major business lines were strong, and we see multiple catalysts that will drive growth in the second half of 2007,’ Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore said. He expects new iPods and Mac computers to be released later this year,” Crum reports.
“Much of the credit for Apple’s results was given to its resurgent line of Macintosh PCs,” Crum reports. “Apple sold 1.76 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, a record for Mac sales in one quarter and up 33% from the year-earlier period. Mac sales included 1.13 million MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook PCs and 634,000 desktop Macs.”
Crum reports, “iPod sales climbed 21% from a year ago to 9.8 million units. ‘The quarter was really strong,’ said Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research. ‘Mac sales, in particular, were better than expected, and the iPod also had a strong quarter.'”
Crum reports, “‘By any normal company’s standards, sales of the iPhone in its first two days were brisk,’ said Charles Smulders, PC analyst with Gartner Inc. ‘If there is any sense of disappointment, then over-inflated expectations driven by Apple’s marketing machine are to blame.'”
MacDailyNews Take: The over-inflated expectations were driven by analysts and certain media outlets, not by “Apple’s marketing machine” which was responsible for a five TV commercial iPhone campaign, a national print ad campaign, and a few press releases. Apple’s goals have remained the same from day one and the company never predicted any iPhone number for the first day and a half of sales.
Crum continues, “Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Kevin Hunt went so far as to forecast iPhone sales of 700,000 units. Hunt called Apple’s iPhone sales ‘weak,’ and was also disappointed that the company’s target for sales of 1 million iPhones by the end of the current quarter fell below his forecast of 1.5 million units.”
MacDailyNews Take: We predict a billion ping pong balls will fall from a Chinese satellite at 2pm EDT today. We’re going to be severely disappointed as our last good one rolled under the furnace late yesterday. Obviously, it’s Apple’s fault that Kevin Hunt and other analysts suck at forecasting iPhone unit sales.
Crum continues, “On a conference call to discuss Apple’s results, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer reiterated Apple’s goal of selling 10 million iPhones in 2008. Oppenheimer also said Apple would name its initial European wireless-network partners for the iPhone later this quarter, and would begin selling the iPhone in Europe during the fourth quarter.”
Full article here.
Juggernaut
MDN word is OWN, as in I am SO glad I own aapl
Eat me, Cramer.
I ouwld like to know just how many sales of iPhone were made ONLINE in those 30 hours.
Why did Apple not include them? Surely an online sale with money taken instantly from a credit card is a sale?
You Go MDN !!
Misprint. The Thomas Weisel Partners analyst name is Hevin.
If AT&T’s figure had been sales for 1 week then that would still have been well within Apple’s 10m in 18 months target. As is they sold twice as many in 2 days. If people are disappointed in that then they should kill themselves because life is gonna be one big long disappointment to them.
@Chrissyone
ROTFLMAO I couldn’t agree more. What a tool. I guess he doesn’t know everythign about APPL. Very well put
Hunt called Apple’s iPhone sales ‘weak’?
270,000 iPhones sold in 30 hours is weak?
The RAZR sold 150,000 in its first month.
I noticed there’s no mention of the tv. I wonder how it’s selling.
@Macaday
They cannot count them on a financial report until the credit card is charged, they do not charge the credit card until the product ships. Otherwise your warranty would start 2-4 weeks before your iphone was in your hands.
@ Jumbo
He is just doing what he does – the responsible thing to do is to take some profit after a big run-up. But, the responsible thing to do is also to diversify and put your money into a lot of places where it’s never really going to go anywhere.
But hell, I say no guts no glory – and that’s why every spare dime I have is in Apple, and I’ve been well rewarded for that gamble. Beats a lot of other stupid and supposedly ‘safe’ advice I’ve heard from Cramer and other such brokers.
Just remember, they call ’em ‘brokers’ for a reason. Because if you listen to them too much, that’s what you’ll be.
@ Cosmo Kramer
The RAZR sold 250,000 the first month. It was the Q that sold 150k.
Amazing how 270,000 is a disappointment, They should compare it to any other phone intro – How ’bout that Chocolate phone? what were its sales? the Q, the BlackJack… The Treo, Blackberry Pearl (sweet little girl name) Have they even sold 270,00 of these?
Thanks for that AppleGuy – I’m learning!
“He is just doing what he does – the responsible thing to do is to take some profit after a big run-up. But, the responsible thing to do is also to diversify and put your money into a lot of places where it’s never really going to go anywhere.”
Well said. Cramer has been touting aapl for a long time. He had to say sell at some point if only to cash in on the remarkable run-up.
The thing that makes my hair on my neck stand on end is that Apple is just warming up. How many other products do they have in development that will turn another industry upside-down?
Although I don’t have all my investments in aapl, I do have a significant proportion. It is a risk because the market will punish aapl severely if something smells bad. However, they have so much potential (just look at those mac sales) that the risk is way less than 7 years ago when the bubble burst and the iMac was the only hot seller Apple had.
Here’s a couple more numbers to chew on. Apple says they’d like 10-million iPhones by end of 2008. That’s over 18,000 iPhones sold per day between now and end of 2008. Since the first day’s sales were 10 x that number, they’re off to a good start.
Looking at just US numbers, AT&T and Apple combined have about 2,000 stores, so they only need to sell, on average, about 10 phones per store per day to hit the big number, US only, by end of 2008.
What’s coming will be more iPhone models– 3G, iPhone with a hard drive, less expensive iPhone, and so on.
What’s not covered here is that Apple is basically migrating a version of OS X to the handheld arena. Think iPod with multi-touch screen technology, basic OS X apps, VoIP and Skype or iChat, and more. Who competes with all that?
No matter how you slice it, the future looks very good for AAPL.
I am a patient guy, so I sitting back and watching the Apple story develop. I didn’t react with disappointment to the iPhone activation numbers from AT&T, nor am I crazy with enthusiasm because the initial iPhone sales blip was 10x the average rate needed to meet their stated end of 2008 goal.
Personally, I’m looking forward to buying a new iMac in a couple of months and, perhaps, an iPhone by the end of the year or early next year.
All things Apple are so much better than they were in the mid-1990’s. Relax and enjoy the ride.
Hi All,
whenever people start talking about investments, stocks, etc, it always bring to mind Peter Lynch. He’s the guy who took Fidelity from a small little place to the Funds powerhouse it is. He ran Magellan and Capital Appreciation funds etc…
His basic advice was this:
Find something you know, research some companies, and find those companies that are doing well. If they have a good product, and good planning, put you money there. If it’s worth investing in, it’s worth holding. There’s no such thing as timing the market, etc. Buy and hold long term, otherwise, stop plying the market. Put your money into somehting for the long haul.
Well, I like Cramer, he’s fun to watch. But he’s not were I get my advice from…