“According to Dan Frommer of Silicon Alley Insider, the Era of the iPod is over. That dramatic conclusion comes from the limited new iPod unit sales increase year over year in the December quarter; this year, Apple sold just five percent more iPods that it did last winter. However, reality isn’t quite so simple, and there’s no reason to buy into the professional panic being advanced by the usual suspects,” Daniel Eran Dilger writes for RoughlyDrafted.
“It’s hard to be too upset about Apple’s iPod sales. It sold 22,121,000 iPods, which while only five percent more units compared to the winter quarter last year, represented 17 percent higher revenues. That’s because Apple brought a more powerful and expensive iPod to market, the iPod Touch. Brisk sales of the higher end model bumped up revenues and profits and raised the average selling price of iPods in general. Apple enjoyed the highest growth rate in revenue for the iPod in a year,” Dilger writes.
“Another secret that seems to have slipped through the fingers of every analyst on the planet is that the iPhone is also an iPod. It’s essentially an iPod Touch with a camera and a mobile phone. Apple sold 2.3 million iPhones in the winter quarter, so if you add those into the iPod units, you arrive at 24.4 million iPods, which is what analysts were looking for, albeit in the wrong column of the report,” Dilger writes.
“The iPod Touch reinvented what the iPod was going to become in the future. Rather than being a hard drive wrapped in a simple UI, suddenly it charted out a course as a handheld WiFi multitouch mobile computer,” Dilger writes. “To drive that strategy home for investors and analysts, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook articulated the concept repeatedly in the Q1 conference call. The iPod is no longer just an MP3 player, but is now ‘the first mainstream WiFi platform for mobile applications.'”
Apple “blew away expectations for Mac shipments, iPhone sales, and exceeded its guidance for iPod sales. Analysts’ response has been to bewail the fact that the company didn’t meet even higher expectations for iPods set by speculators or exceed fanciful “whisper numbers” based more on optimistic conjecture than solid research,” Dilger writes.
“What drove down Apple’s stock price in aftermarket trading was the company’s more conservative guidance for revenue and earnings in Q2, which ends in March. The company forecast sales of $6.8 billion and earnings per share of 94 cents, below analysts’ consensus expectation of earnings of $1.09 per share on sales of $7.0 billion,” Dilger writes. “Clearly, Apple would rather impress than disappoint.”
Much more in the full article here.
They shouldn’t let traders work with all that kind of money, they know jack shit about business
Here is bonddad’s typically insightful take on Apple:
http://bonddad.blogspot.com/2008/01/apple-reports-disappointing-projections.html
“NASDAQ’s advance/decline line and new highs new lows line has been decreasing since October. This is a prime reason why I have not bought into the “tech will save us” bandwagon. The bottom line is fewer and fewer issues are advancing and making new highs. As a result, fewer and fewer stocks are responsible for the market’s gain.
Apple was one of those stocks responsible for the market increasing. But now it’s being conservative with its earnings and it’s dropping hard as a result. A final piece of the NASDAQ puzzle is starting to fall.”
Even Apple can’t weather a post real estate bubble recession.
I think you were warned long ago to take your profits. I did.
Don’t cry now. Just wait it out and don’t sell, it will rebound by this time next year.
And tell Apple to fsck off the cheap glossy screens please. Thank you. (your future eyesight)
A scary look into the future. The only one that can profit and weather the recession is MS. Guaranteed revenue in hand, they can keep producing wannabe products like the Zune. The economy is so strapped users will buy it since “it’s good enough” and soon will take over the iPod. Since the Zune is cheap and good enough. Another win for MS. How sad is that.
Old Mac Man:
The screens are fine; it’s your eyesight that most likely sucks.
Jubei:
Just say no to drugs.
Traders make the market. These traders are called market makers. A brokerage firm, say Morgan Stanley, underwrites an IPO for a company, say Apple. They then give the shares to a trader who represents them on the the seat of the trading floor they have purchased at NASDAQ. These individuals decide among themselves how much a stock is worth and then try to talk others into holding these same beliefs, and once they have done that, they sell shares until the stock price goes high enough that they can shorten the position in share count by 10% and still have, say a 300% profit. They will then decide that the stock is worth less, say 40% less, justified or not, borrow money on the unrealized profit, and buy up any shares sold buy anyone that sells due to the new “value” they have given the stock.
The screens are fine; it’s your eyesight that most likely sucks.
And how, praythee, did you think my eyesight got so bad?
Yep, staring at glossy CRT screens for 20 years.
I know what I’m talking about. It’s called Computer Vision Syndrome.
Read up on it sometime, but in a nutshell it’s intensive eyestrain and eye muscle fatigue caused by the eye automatically refocusing between the true image and the slightly out of focus reflections.
The eye muscle fatigue means that your eyes get lazy and can’t focus correctly anymore, requiring the premature need for glasses.
Glasses are a pain in the ass. But don’t let me warn you now. just go ahead and keep using those nice shiny glossy screens.
Is there another liberal rant wrapped inside this one?
It’s not the screen, you idiot, it’s the lighting.
The reflections disappear with proper lighting.
@R2
What?
st1
They shouldn’t let traders work with all that kind of money, they know jack shit about business
…what he said!!!!!
@Al “The reflections disappear with proper lighting.”
– ahhh non-reflective lighting?
I agree with Old Mac Man. I’ve put off buying a new iMac cuz of its terrible glossy screen. Looked at one the the Apple store the other day… all I could see were the rows of lights in the ceiling behind me.
tsk tsk come on Apple… your slipping badly.
It’s not the screen, you idiot, it’s the lighting. The reflections disappear with proper lighting.
Of course they do, in a dark hole.
But again praythee, tell me how many workplaces and homes are dark hovels?
How many workplaces are going to spend a lot of money to correct what is basically a design flaw?
How many people are aware of the problem?
One can try to slap a cheap anti-glare filter on your nice new shiny Mac or PC screen. See how much it really helps in 20 years. It doesn’t.
How many workplaces are going to spend a lot of money to correct what is basically a design flaw?
Should read:
How many workplaces are going to spend a lot of money to correct their enviroment for what is basically a product design flaw?
I’m not alone in this, research the polls and opinions from longterm computer users. Glossy is a pain in the ass if you have to use the computer all day like we do.
MacPolls, Ar Tech “glossy vs matte” and even MacSlash Polls all prefer matte over glossy screens.
It’s time Apple start listening to people’s needs and quit dictating our hardware requirements.
Oh yes, the CRT’s glossy screens didn’t affect you after years of use but the LCD’s same glossy finish does…
Why is that?
The era of the iPod is over. In two words I can say BULL CRAP!
How many other companies have sustained sales of this magnitude? NONE! This is some inside conspiracy against Apple with nothing to do with how the company itself is doing. The company has 18 BILLION dollars in cash building interest and record profits. All products are selling like crazy and the anal-lists have already said that Apple is the only company to sell at double the rate of anyone else. So this stock price fixing I think should be investigated seriously and I hope Apple is the one that starts legal action.
Old Mac Man,
How about this? Your eyesight is changing in “middle age” as it does for almost everyone, including generations before CRT’s were invented. It’s called “presbyopia” — read up on that sometime.
No good deed goes unpunished.
Just think of all those idiots who are panicking right now and selling all their AAPL shares because everyone else is (most for a loss). Buy now.
Oh yes, the CRT’s glossy screens didn’t affect you after years of use but the LCD’s same glossy finish does..
Glossy CRT screens did make a lot of people complain, matte screen LCD’s were a welcome change for the better.
Now Apple goes back to glossy LCD screens to fool the ignorant.
Your eyesight is changing in “middle age” as it does for almost everyone, including generations before CRT’s were invented. It’s called “presbyopia”
My diagnosis and the early need for my glasses was done in my late twenties.
Eyestrain and muscle fatigue caused by extensive computer monitor use. (It was my job)
The glasses sure went over well with the ladies too. (not).
Argue all you want. Glossy is bad for your eyes. I just try to warn people not to do what I did.
It’s kind of hard when you have computer OS combined with a rather small hardware line. You basically have to take what APPL feeds you.
Yesterday, after due diligence, I bought into AAPL ahead of their earnings report. Today I’m wincing from the panic driven street reaction. Tomorrow will be bright because I know that Apple is systematically producing the best products in its class. Period.
Remember that Abbie Hoffman once said “Free Speech is the right to yell ‘Theater!’ in a crowded fire.”. Today is an example of that.
Please remain calm. All will be well. Maintain the long view, and this too shall pass.
(-_-)
First, I really wish MDN would put up a permanent thread for people to complain about glossy screens.
To address the topic at hand, stock price movements are not related to the underlying business when the market is as volatile as it has been, especially to the downside.
The large institutional investors invest heavily on borrowed money (margin), and when the market drops quickly, they have to cover their margin loans as the value of the collateral they borrowed against drops. A lot of the selling in this market will be margin calls as people scramble to pay margin calls.
Many of these institutions bought AAPL at lower prices, and they are cashing out to cover their calls, not because they think their is any issue with AAPLs business. They just don’t think that their is a short term upside to the stock, and they may as well lock in whatever gains they can.
Yes it’s looking at computer screens, glossy or not.
You may have noticed bibliophiles mostly all wear glasses too, that’s from looking at mat pages with no reflections.
Women traditionally have needed glasses at earlier years than men, that’s because they spent most of their lives working inside the home without the opportunity to exercise the eye muscles.
The reason is that the eye is optimized for viewing distances in excess of twenty feet, for watching out for predators. Evolution is a slow process.
Sit near a window and look out often is maybe the best you can do if you work on computers. Play a sport like soccer, ride a bike, lots of things are great exercise for the eye muscles.
@Jubel: If MS “weathers” the recession better than some other companies in terms of stock price, it will be because of three factors:
– Pile of cash on hand (nice to have)
– Low expectations (already factored into the price)
– Little gain in stock price in recent years (less to lose)
Any high flying stock like Apple will be more volatile when people get scared.