MacDailyNews Take: Abject failure. The move by Apple was in no way unusual and readers should hold accountable those “journalists” who deign to concoct and spew baseless bullshit.
Apple holds Black Friday sales every year and there was absolutely nothing “unusual” about this year’s sale:
• Analysts: Apple one bright spot in otherwise lackluster Black Friday – December 01, 2008
• Apple posts Black Friday deals, save on Macs, iPods, and more for one day only – November 28, 2008
• Apple launches Black Friday Deals teaser: ‘Lots of gifts. 1 day not to miss.’ (with image) – November 25, 2008
• Nielsen: Traffic to Apple.com up 111-percent on Black Friday – November 26, 2007
• Apple posts Black Friday deals, save on Macs, iPods, and more for one day only – November 23, 2007
• Ready. Set. Shop: Apple to hold annual one-day only Black Friday shopping event – November 20, 2007
• Apple posts Black Friday deals – November 24, 2006
• Apple announces Black Friday ‘Joy to the Wallet’ special one-day shopping event on Nov. 24th – November 21, 2006
• Apple announces Black Friday ‘The Feast After the Feast’ special one-day shopping event on Nov. 25th – November 21, 2005
Contact Rex Crum and ask him why he’s reporting that a normal sale held annually by Apple as “unusual” here. Please also consider contacting the MarketWatch site’s feedback via web form here.
Crum continues, “‘Our checks show demand for Macs, iPhones and iPods remains resilient despite the weaker consumer spending environment,’ Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore wrote in a note to clients. Whitmore said sales of the recently revamped line of MacBook laptops and the 16-gigabyte versions of the iPod touch and iPod nano were particularly strong and should help boost Apple’s gross margins for the quarter. He maintained his buy rating and $150 price target on Apple’s stock.”
“At Kaufman Bros., analyst Shaw Wu said he would have liked Apple to offer even greater price cuts, but regardless of the company’s prices, ‘customers appear to be resonating with Apple,'” Crum reports.
MacDailyNews Take: Why? Apple is selling Macs just fine. Better than the rest of the PC industry is selling upside-down and backwards poorly-faked Macs, in fact. Many times better. So, why does Wu want Apple to offer even greater price cuts? Is he in the market for a Mac, iPod and/or iPhone or just does he just want Apple to have weaker margins for some unimaginable reason?
Crum continues, “Wu, who has a buy rating and $120-a-share target on Apple’s stock, said the company’s apparent performance over the Black Friday weekend is ‘a fairly important indicator of [business] trends.’ Wu said he is still comfortable with his December quarter estimates for Apple to earn $1.47 a share on $10 billion in revenue for the quarter. He also forecasts iPod sales of 21 million units, which would be down 5% from a year ago, sales of 2.7 million Macs, which would be up 17% over last year’s December quarter, and 6 million iPhone sales, up 160% from a year ago.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Mike in Helsinki” for the heads up.]
I concur too… I was at the South Coast Plaza store and it was not only packed, I dropped two grand on a new MacBook Pro.
That thing is unbelievable, by the way. At first I didn’t think it was that big of an update… But trust me, it’s huge.
Cool, South Coast Plaza. Thats my Mac store too.
Wu has a “$120-a-share target on Apple’s stock”. We can dead cat bounce past that. Very gutsy call Wu.
That and Apple does not “lower its prices once a year when it updates its product lines.” , they do sometimes move previous models into the Referb Store (I have on 2 occasions ordered Referb an received brand new) and sell them at a discount there.
I love my MacBook Pro, too!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> SWEET!
Swiping left and right to navigate back and forward in Safari and Finder windows is awesome… It’s one step away from just controlling the computer with your mind.
Apple is taking the same headshots that everyone else in the sector is taking despite their consistently strong numbers. The market is being driven by fear and misconception right now. Solid fundamentals like “sales” and “margin” will continues to be ignored by analysts who can’t help associate “Apple” with “luxury brand”.
I don’t know how many more reports like this can go into the same black hole where the market response is supposed to be. It’s ridiculous.
Positive reports just help drive the stock lower. Jeesh!
See… Apple succeeds without having a panicky Black Friday fire-sale. So much for the know-nothing analysts predicting doom and gloom UNLESS Apple offers the “deepest Black Friday discounts ever.”
Apple sells unique and desirable products that competitors cannot offer. When you do that, you can charge full price and have consistent sales all year long. When you have a 5-10% discount for one day, that’s enough incentive for most customers to buy (instead of wait longer).
cptnkirk got one thing right … “Positive reports just help drive the stock lower”. Don’t the guys who buy blocks of stocks ever check to see if their purchases/sales make actual sense?
As we “pump up the stock”…
As obvious as the “Apple will be affected by the economy” premise is, and as decimated as the stock price is by it… ummm… there isn’t yet any actual EVIDENCE of it.
The reports from the real world are: Apple/Apple stores are business as usual. Product sales slow before new models and then more than make up the difference when new product is released. iPod matured, torch passed to iPhone which is sprinting ahead with it. Macs growing in share. Usual Black Friday specials. Usual heavy traffic and sales. Apple lowballs its projections.
No news… but lots of webpages to fill and hits to attract.
But just observing the facts: Apple appears to know what it is doing. The analysts are just full of themselves to bother observing any evidence.
And “unusual” Black Friday price cuts. I am embarrassed for this guy.
I also keep seeing more and more iphones around. I think $199 set its share on fire.
The stock? We are in a Great Bear Market.
But someday, some people are going to lose a lot of money being short AAPL. Not today though.
(okay the reasonable
Rex Crum of Marketwatch is a noted Apple-basher. He, like Eric Savitz of Barrons only posts negative stories about Apple, and the supposed positive stories, all have negative linings just like this one, as he makes up all sorts of odd bits, like the “unusual” Black Friday sale, which is a tradition in that it is never more than a 5 to 10% sale on a few items.
I am sure Apple did well this past holiday weekend. The deals at the Apple Stores were OK but nothing to make me rush out and buy anything.
Black Friday at an Apple store in Honolulu.
Have you ever noticed how often these ANAL-ysts are wrong when dealing with Apple? The Apple people and Mac people get it, but the analysts and PC fanboys/Mac haters don’t.
Apple has something people want. On the PC side they sell on price. When do you see FEATURES as the motivating reason to buy a PC? Almost never and not for the PC OS either.
Jobs has said it a thousand times if he’s said it once (paraphrased): We are after an amazing experience all the way around.
I’m NOW even hearing guys working in Best Buy telling me they will be getting Apple stuff and they know a lot more about it than many Mac fans do. (This was not always true.)
The analysts, the Rob Enderle’s, and others WANT to see Apple fail so they can say “I told you so.” When was the last time they were right about anything? Now they are complaining about falling iPod sales! Good grief, Apple’s sold them to so many people it was bound to happen but then there’s always refreshes which pick them up again.
Get over this “economy” thing. Analysts are nothing more than manipulators and doomsayers.
And by the way, “Dell Computer?” Who is that?