“Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPod get most of the limelight, but it was the company’s decades-old Macintosh computer business that defied a broad slowdown in consumer spending to deliver a 36% increase in profit,” Nick Wingfield reports for The Wall Street Journal. “‘The takeaway is the Mac business is on fire,’ said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. But, Mr. Munster added, ‘investors wanted more of the phenomenal revenue flowing through to the bottom line.'”
“The Cupertino, Calif., company’s Mac sales was further evidence Apple is resisting the weakening economy for now. Apple said it sold 51% more Macs in the quarter than a year earlier, with that revenue jumping 54% to $3.49 billion from $2.27 billion, about 47% of Apple’s total revenue,” Wingfield reports.
“In contrast, shipments of new PCs world-wide grew by only 12%, according to research firm Gartner Inc. While it is still a niche player compared with PC titans like Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., Apple’s strength is helping it to gain share on rivals. Apple had 6.6% of U.S. domestic PC sales in the first three months of the year, up from 5.2% a year earlier, according to Gartner,” Wingfield reports.
“Apple said it sold 1.7 million iPhones in the quarter, in line with what many analysts were projecting. The product, from which Apple earns revenue from hardware sales and fees shared by wireless carriers, isn’t a big contributor to Apple’s current results, because Apple defers much of the revenue from the product over a 24-month period,” Wingfield reports.
“Analysts widely expect Apple to introduce a new iPhone that supports Web browsing at faster speeds by the middle of the year. Apple executives said a “significant” portion of its iPhone sales continue to involve consumers who ‘unlock’ the iPhone to work on unauthorized wireless networks, especially overseas in countries such as China, where the iPhone isn’t yet available from Apple,” Wingfield reports. “‘Our view continues to be this is a proxy for world-wide demand for the iPhone,’ said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief operating officer.”
Full article here.
so, how do I buy a leaps to take advantage of this?
I am doing my share and converted another PC owner today. That is two in two weeks.
This conversion came from a guy tired of his Dell XPS. I told him about my MacBook Pro and how quickly it booted both Leopard and Vista and he was sold.
It is getting easier and easier to convert people these days. A few years ago it was near impossible. Perhaps there is something to the iPod “halo effect” after all. Or it is just Microsoft and the PC manufacturers slowly killing themselves.
Gene is right and Shaw Wu is a hack lackey of some short selling clients who wanted to cover prior to today.
deepdish, just in case you are serious, try typing “How do I buy LEAPs” in google.
Or just call your broker.
FI-YAH!!!!
@ deepdish
You’ll probably need to update your brokerage account to allow options trading. Usually there’s an approval process and perhaps some sort of account minimum balance. There may also be several different levels of approval. Make sure you know which level you need to trade leaps.
@ BSOD
Well done!
I finally got a friend switched that I’ve been working on for over a decade. The final straw: Vista.
Wow™.
Gene Munster says Apple is doing well. That’s really comforting from a guy who never has a negative word to say about the stock even before it plunges and whose company makes it’s living from trading the stock.
@Who to beleive [sic]
AAPL plunged, sir or madam, because the entire equities market plunged . . . or did you not notice? Think MSFT was immune to the dip? Think again. How about GOOG? Buy any DELL lately? Yes, AAPL is vulnerable when assholes like Shaw Wu begin their pontifications from on high, but the potential upside of the stock is nothing short of phenomenal. To be sure, Gene Munster is looking down the road, where 250 per share will be considered a bargain. I know it, and so should you.
BTW: It’s = “it is.”
I’ve converted 2 in the last 4-6 six months. My mother in law is currently using my TiBook (which doesn’t really count). Her husband won’t let her drop the dough for a new iMac like her son just got (whom I just converted)
Wish there was some sort or referral program.
My mac feels snappier with all his new friends..
I calculated $500M in actual iPhone hardware sales that were deferred. That’s cash in the bank. In total, Apple sold $8B last quarter, but because of the accounting change, it’s only recognizing $7.5B. It’s important because they compare sales year-to-year, but last year’s $5.3B was under the old accounting rules.
Comparing apples-to-apples, analysts should be comparing $8B to $5.3B, not $7.5B.
Imagine the shareprice if Apple had reported ACTUAL sales of $8B. Also, realize that last quarter when Apple reported $9.6B in sales, I calculated actual sales were $10.5B. Do you think the stock would have tanked if the real comparison had been widely disseminated?
KenC…
The figures you refer to will become impossible to ignore once we start the next financial year and Apple continues to report income on iPhones sold last July.
In the quarter ending December, Apple reported $241 million from 2.315 million iPhones – an average of $104 per unit. Yesterday, they reported $378 million from only 1.703 million phones – $222 per unit: across the six months as a whole, Apple has reported 4.018 million units and $619 million, which is $154/unit.
What will be interesting will be this quarter’s results: theoretically, it should be a bloodbath given the amount of discounting that Apple and the operators are doing across Europe. However, the reality is that the deferred revenue model means that Apple will only get hit by a mere $12.50 – a charge that will be easily offset by the network operator commission.
So, if that $154 figure gets hiked way above $160 by July, we’ll know that Apple’s business model is resilient to deep discounting on the actual hardware.
Well KenC…
It looks like the time has come to lay out the odds for when Apple when Apple will overtake Microsoft in the revenue stakes…
2009 even?
@MCCFR, I took that $378M to mean the revenue Apple recognized this quarter. So, I backed out the deferred revenues from the iPhones sold in previous quarters. As Current Deferred Revs for iPhones was $816M in the Dec Quarter, I backed out $204M, or roughly 1/4.
So, backing out $204M from $378M leaves $174M. And, 1.7M iphones into that figure gives you $100 per unit.
Imagine, if Apple HADN’T changed their accounting treatment of the iPhone, but had just charged people $5 for software updates, like the wifi-N update, then reporting $10.5B in sales in the Xmas quarter would have been just fine and dandy. This deferred revenue is NOT being reported, when it should be, when comparing this year’s sales to last year’s, for a valid apples-to-apples comparison.
This quarter, if Apple hadn’t changed their accounting treatment, imagine $8B in sales and not $7.5B. That’s 51% greater than the $5.3B they did a year ago.
New macbooks are everywhere on campus now, pro and plastic. It’s awesome to see. Things will accelerate this summer as well when they offer the ipod deal with a laptop for back to school. There are going to be some serious gains coming for Apple.
Can’t wait for 3G iPhone. I’ll be getting one– I know several others who have said the same, too. I don’t even care about the speed so much, but knowing that there’s a new one fairly close on the horizon makes me and others wait. I would expect that iPhone sales will spike tremendously this year, too.
And once the iTunes app store is open and I can download programs on-the-go a la Matrix wherever I get a wireless signal, my path to world domination should be nearing completion…
Don’t understand the bs about more revenue going the bottom line. Holy crap, M$ spends 3x’s as much on “R&D;” (read big ass table) and has losers like x-box, zune, M$N, etc. I don’t hear anybody saying bring more to the bottom line, not even their corporate customers who are being grossly overcharged. It is urgent, and I mean urgent, that Apple gets up to at least 20% market share so they can begin to influence what the heck is happening on the Web and enterprise and take a true leadership role. I know Apple is a leader, but it’s technologies don’t have an immediate impact, and because of that, M$ has the ability to copy, as everyone waits for M$ to simply catch up. It’s important to drive technology for a significant amount of decision makers to see, so M$ shortcomings and it’s FUD is seen for what it really is.
Formal apology from Wu at WuPooTech for triggering Monday’s downturn……NOT A CHANCE!!
Just wait until Micro$oft opens its retail stores then Apple will be in big trouble.
What the F?
” While it is still a niche player compared with PC titans like Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.”
Apple is not a Fking niche player when it is the third biggest in the world righ after Dell and HP.
Acer is a niche player in that case. (4th biggest)
I haven’t converted any and I don’t plan to. Once you bask in the warm glow of Vista and Microsoft’s customer-driven attention to detail there’s no turning back. Microsoft
Maybe I need more pretentious friends who like to waste money and are too good to play games.
Your potential. Our passion.™
Microsoft already had a store. It was in SF at the Sony Metreon shopping center, just 400 feet from the Moscone Center where the Macworld Conference is held every year.
Never heard of it? It closed over 3 years ago. I don’t think there is anything to fear from a Microsoft Store.
The Mac business is on fire?
Like hell it is!
Apple’s haven’t been on fire since the PowerBook 5300
Congratulations to MDN on their numerical palindrome.
My only question: Where is the iMac refresh? Does anyone think it won’t be till June when they release the new version?