Why it’s good news for Apple if Mac sales disappoint

“Apple might disappoint on Mac sales in next week’s earnings call, according to Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray,” Vincent Trivett writes for Minyanville. “Apple hasn’t made any major changes to the Mac lineup in over a year. This means that would-be buyers are merely waiting to avoid the risk of obsolescence.”

“Some would-be buyers are waiting for the next generation to come out, presumably with Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processors, which will start shipping next week,” Trivett writes. “Munster predicts that a hardware upgrade in the next quarter will send sales way up. I think it will make me jealous.”

Trivett writes, “Mac sales only represent 15% of Apple’s revenue, but sales are benefiting from the popularity of Apple’s other products.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Okay, who’s currently waiting for new Macs before they upgrade?

61 Comments

    1. Me too. My late 2006 15″ MBP isn’t showing it’s age, I’m just waiting for my tax refund. I’m certainly not waiting a for a new generation MBP because of a “risk of obsolescence.” My 2006 works perfectly so my daughter gets it to replace her late 2005/early 2006 MacBook from the Apple refurbished store.

    1. I bought an 8-core Mac Pro 4 years ago. Put 16GB of ram in it and a pair of 512GB drives set for RAID0 (plus 2 other drives for Time Machine & misc). I see no need to get a new one. It’s still faster than I need.

  1. I am waiting for the new MacBook Pro. Our MacBook white (first generation) is 6 years old now an ready for a replacement. Our old one will spend its golden years in our kids’ hands.

  2. “Apple hasn’t made any major changes to the Mac lineup in over a year.

    Bullshit. I’ve got last summer’s new Mac Mini sitting in front of me.

    Some would-be buyers are waiting for the next generation to come out

    Ever the case. Not revelational.

    Gene Muster ain’t no newbie. I sense an August Effect article here (aka his brain is on vacation but his editor needs an article).

    1. Someone ought to remind Munster about the MacRumors Buyer’s Guide. You shouldn’t treat it as gospel, but it is a handy was to check how long it has been since the last product refresh.

      Desktop Macs – primarily the Mac Pro and iMac – are overdue for new releases. Perhaps the new Intel Ivy Bridge processors with 22nm features and 3-D transistor technology will trigger the release of new desktop models, followed by new Macbook Pros and MBAs later in the summer.

    1. if that happens they better use that space for longer battery life so they can put Retina display. Anyways I’m waiting for a new Mac mini or a MacBook Pro and I wish SSD drives were cheaper too.

  3. My (tentative) plan is to buy a new Mac mini once they come with Mountain Lion installed.

    Mind you, I don’t really need a new Mac. As long as I’m willing to settle for Lion, my current MacBook (which I keep plugged in as a desktop; my iPhone satisfies my need for mobile computing) is just fine.

    Apple screws themselves by making hardware that lasts and lasts. But we love them for it.

    ——RM

  4. I’ve been waiting for a newly designed Mac Pro for YEARS. Now I find out that my 8-Core Mac Pro won’t even run MacOSX Mountain Lion! Apple better get their Mac Pro act together and introduce a new Mac Pro before MacOSX Mountain Lion comes out or this happy camper will not be happy at all.

    1. Yeah that was a shock to me too that Mountain Lion won’t run on my 8 processor 2007 Mac Pro but it is 5 years old! Everything going forward will be 64-bit. Looking to buy a new Mac Pro refresh this year as well as a 15″ or 17″ Mac Book Air or Mac Book Pro or whatever they end up calling them. I only hope that they will provide space for additional internal SSD storage in lieu of an optical drive. Once these refreshes come out they are going to sell a lot of Macs this year! This current dip, if there is one, totally reflects this anticipation of new stuff coming out momentarily. Too bad the “pro” analysts never figure this stuff out.

  5. I am, I want an top dog iMac with USB 3, HDMI and a screen with DPI greater then 130. (a 27″ is 109).

    I have an iPhone and iPad and I am forced to use an XP machine at home for work that I don’t like.

      1. Thunderbolt is great but the total lack of any significant amount of widespread third party peripherals support is dispiriting and disappointing. USB3 on the other hand is cheaper & pretty great too, as I added a USB3 card to my Mac Pro and the speed is pretty amazing as well. No reason we need to be denied USB3 capability, for which there are many more reasonable cost peripherals available. It’d be kind of mean to exclude it.

        1. I agree with you actually. Thunderbolt has a lot of promise, but the support has been very slow. I haven’t jumped on board yet, as I have a mid 2010 iMac.

          I just don’t see Apple supporting USB3 since it is technically a competing technology, and I’ve read that Sonnet is supposed to be coming out with Thunderbolt to USB3 adapters, so it’s probably unlikely until USB3 gets a huge share.

  6. I have a Mid-2010 Macbook Pro with a 500GB HD and 8GB of RAM. My next planned upgrade is simply replacing the HD with a solid state drive (or ideally, a combo solid state / spinning drive so I still have at least 500GB.)

    A sufficiently awesome new Macbook Pro could change my plans, however, so I’m waiting to see what the next update is

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