“The first big computer maker to release figures for the September quarter is Apple (AAPL), which reports on Oct. 21. There’s growing concern that Apple may be experiencing a slowdown in Mac sales. ‘Cracks may be starting to form in its PC business, where the firm has enjoyed growth driven by the iPod and iPhone halo effect, and by broad-based share gains,’ wrote FBR Research analyst Craig Berger in a research note issued on Oct. 8. Berger estimates that Apple has cut its orders by 17%. The company is expected to report sales of $8.07 billion and per-share profit of $1.11. For the December period, Apple is expected to record $10.83 billion in sales and a $1.70 per-share profit,” Arik Hesseldahl.
MacDailyNews Take: Historically, Apple has cut certain orders ahead of new products and product transitions.
Hesseldahl continues, “Apple is also set to take the wraps off a new line of notebooks on Oct. 14. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says he expects Apple to reveal, among other things, a notebook that sells for $899 to $999, less than the company’s other computers. A lower-priced notebook would help explain a drop in gross margins that the company warned about when it last reported earnings in July.”
Hesseldahl reports, “Signs of a slowdown in PCs and consumer electronics in general were already beginning to show by Labor Day, says NPD Group researcher Stephen Baker. ‘The back-to-school season wasn’t great, and we’ve seen sales weaken since then,’ he says.”
MacDailyNews Take: Wasn’t great for whom, exactly? By now, even if the analysts can’t figure it out, at least Hesseldahl should know better than to lump Apple in with a bunch of PC box assemblers and printer cartridge peddlers.
More in the full article here.
I’m going to the State Fair!
i am not a native speaker, probably that’s why what the mighty analyst is writing doen’t make sense to me: “where the firm has enjoyed growth driven by … broad-based share gains”. isn’t it that the share-gains are the result of the growth and not the driver? but that is probably only due to my lack of understanding, i would never dare to question the wisdom of the analysts and their carefully chosen words.
I don’t care tbh, just as long as they earn enough to justify still making great computers etc.
“‘Cracks may be starting to form in its PC business, where the firm has enjoyed growth driven by the iPod and iPhone halo effect, and by broad-based share gains,’ wrote FBR Research analyst Craig Berger”
And pigs may start sprouting wings next week. I’ve followed AAPL daily for 5 years. Who the hell are FBR Research and Craig Berger?
Ralph– I think he means market share, as opposed to stock share price, which it sounds like you are referring to.
I don’t know why we even bother to hear Apple’s actual numbers every quarter. Why not let all the analysts tell us what the company should do, or might do, or could do, or will do, etc.? Rumors and speculation are so much more important than actual facts, who gives a crap what Peter Oppenheimer has to say next week? I say let those who know the absolute LEAST about a product or company have the greatest say in its promotion!
@spark.
understood that but doesn’t the whole sentence make any sense? how can gaining marketshare being a driver? gaining marketshare is the result of growth. the driver must be something else. the “analyst” wrote that the ipod/iphone halo effect and gaining marketshare are the drivers of their pc-business.
probably just another stupid analyst hwo doesn’t know what he is talking about.
@ralph
Anal-cysts are paid to be somewhat incomprehensible. If they were unambiguous and later found to be wrong, they would be out of their lucrative jobs.
Think of them as modern day oracles of Delphi.
“I say let those who know the absolute LEAST about a product or company have the greatest say in its promotion!”
In business schools, this concept is referred to as “Ballmovation.”