“Apple saw record sales performance this past month on the strength of the new iPhone 5S, the iPad Air, and new Macs, an analysis of the company’s Taiwanese suppliers suggests,” John Koetsier reports for VentureBeat.
“Taiwan-based manufacturers build most of Apple’s iProduct, either on the island nation itself, or in factories in mainland China,” Koetsier reports. “‘We estimate sales in October rose by approximately 11 percent month-over-month and well above the October average of flat month-over-month performance over the past eight years,’ Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White said in a research note this morning. ‘As such, we believe this October will prove to be the strongest in the history of our Apple Barometer.'”
Koetsier reports, “That sets Apple up for a very strong holiday shopping season — the company’s first fiscal quarter of 2014, and traditionally its biggest quarter of the year.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: YKBAID.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Great news, but let’s temper our enthusiasm to understand why: once again, Cook released nothing for months, then pushed out a small avalanche of products in the 4th quarter. As a result, sales were great, but they were actually limited due to retail and server constraints.
As an investor, I would be much happier if Apple distributed new product releases a few times per year rather than attempting to push them all out in the 4th quarter. Driving huge peaks and valleys, in my humble opinion, is the sign of poor management.
As an investor, you should understand how important it is to have hot and new products for the Christmas quarter. You ramp up from October and have availability for December. Sometimes supply channel is constrained because AAPL uses unique components that are not always available in volume immediately. Eventually it catches up. And the shortage of retail inventory just makes it that much more desirable. You should get out of AAPL until you figure out that management is not a problem where new and interesting products cannot keep up with demand. That is good management. Bad management is where you have plenty of product, but nobody wants it. Invest in MSFT, you’ll be much happier.
As an investor you should understand that sometimes products cannot be released earlier due to supply constraints or relevant technology available to make better products. As an investor you should understand just wanting something at a particular time does not guarantee it will be ready. Reality of R&D and manufacture ramp up have a tendency to put a crimp in one’s style, and release dates.
Some of us were investing in Apple in the days when Apple used to announce major products at the CES each January. It was a particularly inappropriate time of the year for doing that and Apple very wisely decided to stop attending the CES.
Apple now sets it’s own schedule for product release and fully understands that for consumer electronics, there is a huge peak in the last quarter of the year through to Christmas. As a result, Apple’s plans all revolve about that timing.
The fact that Apple can properly plan for such massive peaks is a sure sign that Apple has very strong management.
Apple has worked out the optimum time of year to release each category of product and knows from experience that spreading the releases evenly throughout the year is not the answer. It’s hard work to release so many products in a short period, but it pays off handsomely.
This assumes that Apple can change the world on your command, that earth-shattering, category-creating new inventions can be pumped out each week or quarter.
Sorry pal, but life does not work that way.
Also, bear in mind that there is this time of year called Christmas (AKA Winter Solstice Period of Pleasantness and heavy shopping). Ask any retailer and they’ll explain that 3/4 of their annual sales happen around that period. The rest of the year is basically filler.
Gone are the days when we’d crowd around our browsers just after New Year’s, eagerly awaiting a MacWorld Stevenote. The problem was that the big announcements would happen AFTER the Christmas holiday. By ramping up product announcements in advance of holiday sales, instead of spreading them out over the course of the year, Apple can maximize potential consumer product sales.
That’s retail 101.
You’ll still get your wish. But Apple is in the business of making money. The company is transitioning to a schedule that can maximize that for the company and you, the stockholder.
Please don’t be so quick to blame management for ideas that will benefit you.
I think an Apple investor should understand the company and what makes the company. Apple is not your typical company that plays by everyone else’s rules yet is outrageously successful and profitable. Wall Street doesn’t appreciate this and thus why Apple’s stock is performing oddly.
Performing oddly?!! Ho! That has to be the understatement of the year.
Analists are dumbfounded and in search of new FUD at what is palin to everyone.
Palin = plain…LOL
Or Paladin. Great Richard Boone character and series – HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL. In this case though HAVE PALAVER, WILL SPIN.
So that’s why the stock is down today.
No, Sansung continues to manipulate AAPL options and daily early and pretty market selling via reported third party brokers…
Where’s the SEC to investigate this, which has already been reported and published..?
Nope. Wall $treet is in a crappy mood. A number of companies are down today, and analysts are having a major hissy fit because they set expectations of earnings way too high for a lot of companies. Apple merely got caught in the down draft.
For proof, look what the $treet did to Tesla and CTRIP, as two examples. Ditto Under Armor. Their earnings were actually pretty good (yes, CTRIP was down, and guidance pointed to the next quarter being down 5%, which resulted in a 10% drop in the stock’s price). If a CEO even blinks in the wrong direction on an earnings conference call, Wall $treet freaks out, and often over-reacts.
That’s unsettling, but if you think about it, that over-reaction is often a buying opportunity. So instead of being upset, consider it a chance to buy more shares of your favorite company at a discount.
If I told you that Target had a 10-20% off sale on specific products, you’d leave skid marks racing over there. But if Apple stock is off 10% for no reason, we freak out. Instead, we should imagine that Target or Walmart is having a sale and consider buying. That is how you can make some money in the stock market.
“Be greedy when others are fearful. And be fearful when others are greedy.”
– Warren Buffett
Why the hell does Apple always get caught in a downdraft and not Google? Just tell me that much. Google has ridden up a bunch while Apple not so much. Because it’s easier to step on a mouse instead of a tiger? Couldn’t they just leave Apple alone and give the poor shareholders a break for a change.
Crappy mood? Today the dow hit an all time record high. Who is in a crappy mood? Maybe just you. Because Tesla is down and AAPL is down and a few others? Hell man, the overall market is very strong. You talk as though Wall $treet is of one mind, it is certainly not. Warren Buffet is not god, he is not even the most successful investor either.