Apple Blames Low Mac Sales on iMac Supply Constraints

Time for Update Cycle?

Funny how if they update too quickly we complain that our shiny new toy is outdated already and if they take too long - that's also reason for concern.

I bought my 27" iMac on the previous release and enjoyed having the most recent system for so long. That being said, the new one is a bit more than I'd like to spend now, but - after the first price cut I'm in.

Apple, put a little more effort into the desktop Macs, and maybe more people will buy them. As it is, I wouldn't be surprised if they just stopped selling them and stopped supporting them tomorrow.

Is this also the explanation for the local Apple store only having one display iMac in it? They were out of stock and had to sell the other display models?

Lesser Evets said:

I wonder about that AND the price-vs-function of the iMac.

Apple should consider making sub-iMacs that are maybe 20" and less processing power and connectors to make something like an iMac-mini for $999. One USB3, one TB, one Ethernet, one headphone output, mono speaker, small camera, etc.

At the moment they supply a barely-mid-level machine at a price a little above worth for starters. A good machine, but most budget conscious people can go with the mini and regret nothing.

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No ones gonna pay 999 dollar for a machine with that kind of crap in it. A mono speaker on a thousand dollar desktop.

StellarSoul said:

I'd also say that the insanely high price for a retina MacBook Pro (with decent hard disk space) is as larger factor in the sales drop. If they introduce Haswell models with a price drop this year plus revamped Airs I'm sure sales will rebound.

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The price of the MBP Retina is far from "insanely high" given the spec. It's also hugely popular and regarded by many as the best computer ever made. The non-retina MBP is also still available so even if your pricing complaint had been valid then your argument about the sales drop is nonsense.

MacRumors said:

If you look at last year, we had 14 weeks in the quarter last year. 13 weeks this year.

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How is the first quarter of Apple's fiscal year defined if it's not October 1 to December 31?

Marlor said:

When I realised I couldn't open the machine to change the hard drive, I bailed on my purchase of a 27" model. That's basic maintenance - like changing the oil on your car.

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WAT What are you doing with your Mac(s) that makes so much use of the hard drive? And I assume you need lots of storage space or else you'd just put in a solid state drive.

Could it also be because the biggest "improvement" was in a feature that hardly anyone cared about....a super thin (at the edges) monitor.

Maybe if they weren't so obscenely priced more people would buy them.

cxny said:

This is probably the biggest surprise of the numbers at least to me. What happened to the "Halo Effect"? It can't be explained by just the delay in production on iMac. All the recent news has been about iPhone sales but if Apple can no longer produce compelling computers then Cupertino, we have a problem.

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I'd say Steve Jobs was right and we're starting to see people view large desktop computers as those proverbial trucks.

Apple knows they have a huge following that will buy anything they put out, so why not delay the release of the latest iMacs until they have say a million or 2 made and ready to ship?

They'd cut down on per-unit manufacturing costs, and probably get a lot of free media advertising for selling more computers in a short amount of time.

Plus you'll have happier customers.

If they did that, kept the ram upgradeable, and if they removed the dvd drive, at least include it in the box and they wouldn't have this problem. First rule of business, you can't sell it if it's not available and if you can't sell it you can't make any money off of it.

iMac took 577 days for upgrade.
After 577 +55 days Apple's finding out some "supplying constraints" and customers cannot hope to order an iMac and wait for lesser than 4/5 weeks

i don't see low mac sales much as a surprise

craig1410 said:

The price of the MBP Retina is far from "insanely high" given the spec. It's also hugely popular and regarded by many as the best computer ever made. The non-retina MBP is also still available so even if your pricing complaint had been valid then your argument about the sales drop is nonsense.

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Best computer ever made. Are you serious?! Be rational here

Lesser Evets said:

I wonder about that AND the price-vs-function of the iMac.

Apple should consider making sub-iMacs that are maybe 20" and less processing power and connectors to make something like an iMac-mini for $999. One USB3, one TB, one Ethernet, one headphone output, mono speaker, small camera, etc.

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Agreed. I understand for many this is a mobile market, but at least have one decent desktop/tower system (not talking AIO). Selling a power system with three year old specs for thousands of dollars is just... sad. The new iMac's aren't wowing many for that price range.

Apple has neglected a market, and sales are showing. People state that Apple leads markets, not follows. Yet these same people claim Apple is neglecting power systems as it is a "niche" market, and thus are following sales into the consumer market. Which is it? you can not have it both ways.

Yes, power systems are a smaller market than the iDevice/notebook market. However, that doesn't mean there aren't power users/businesses that need a tower system. PowerMac's and Apple's CCFL LCD's were great, affordable systems that many invested in as they allowed upgradability, expandability, and the use of different displays. AIO systems are not as flexible, repairable, and/or useful longterm. This has forced many, from studio's to power users, into Linux, hackint0shes, or Windows systems. Adding up the thousands many businesses invest in hardware and licenses, it adds up.

While I would agree that there are plenty of reasons why consumers might hesitate to buy a new mac right now (my own iMac is almost 4 years old at this point and still works fine--I guess I'm in the minority in waiting until my current system fails irreparably before buying a new one (as far as I'm concerned, these things are just too expensive to do otherwise)), presumably if demand were more constrained than supply, there wouldn't be 2-3-week waits to get a new machine shipped to you. A long wait time still implies more demand than available supply.

bedifferent said:

Agreed. I understand for many this is a mobile market, but at least have one decent desktop/tower system (not talking AIO). Selling a power system with three year old specs for thousands of dollars is just... sad. The new iMac's aren't wowing many for that price range.

Source please:

Apple has neglected a market, and sales are showing. People state that Apple leads markets, not follows. Yet these same people claim Apple is neglecting power systems as it is a "niche" market, and thus are following sales into the consumer market. Which is it? you can not have it both ways.

No the sales are showing that numbers are down because of constrained availability.

Yes, power systems are a smaller market than the iDevice/notebook market. However, that doesn't mean there aren't power users/businesses that need a tower system. PowerMac's and Apple's CCFL LCD's were great, affordable systems that many invested in as they allowed upgradability, expandability, and the use of different displays. AIO systems are not as flexible, repairable, and/or useful longterm. This has forced many, from studio's to power users, into Linux, hackint0shes, or Windows systems. Adding up the thousands many businesses invest in hardware and licenses, it adds up.

Yet Apple announces their best earnings and sales ever proving that the users you speak of are inessential to Apple's success.

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Response in-line in red

cameronjpu said:

The supposed supply chain genius engineered this problem.

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BINGO! Totally foreseeable & unacceptable. You don't half-ass launch a new product during the holiday season. If we understand this then surely Tim Cook did but he launched the new iMac anyway & now shifts blame for Apple missing revenue estimates. AAPL has lost $250 per share under his tutelage.

Hmm, Mac desktop sales down? I don't know, maybe....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect

Maybe now is a good time for Apple to introduce a headless iMac with more expandability than the Mac Mini but less expensive than a Mac Pro.

In this economy I don't want to buy a computer with a monitor grafted onto it, my existing monitor works just fine. I need more power what the Mac Mini offers and I can't afford a Mac Pro. A desktop-class video card would be nice too, not the mobile video cards Apple sells in everything except the Mac Pro (IIRC).

In other words, a scaled-down less expensive Mac Pro with the same power as an iMac, please.

ShinySteelRobot said:

Maybe now is a good time for Apple to introduce a headless iMac with more expandability than the Mac Mini but less expensive than a Mac Pro.

In this economy I don't want to buy a computer with a monitor grafted onto it, my existing monitor works just fine. I need more power what the Mac Mini offers and I can't afford a Mac Pro. A desktop-class video card would be nice too, not the mobile video cards Apple sells in everything except the Mac Pro (IIRC).

In other words, a scaled-down less expensive Mac Pro with the same power as an iMac, please.

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This. For YEARS we have been waiting for affordable headless mac. Mini is not going to cut it. We need mid tower size in which you can customize your videocard, put an expansion card and so on. Don't tell me about USB or Thunderbolt, not everyone wants cables around. Sometimes just easier to put in a PCI card. My last Mac desktop Blue and White G350 was a gorgeous machine to expand, i had there at least 2 PCI cards added and god knows what modified and it was running like champ. I miss it.

nuckinfutz said:

Response in-line in red

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Obviously my post was opinion based, I never stated otherwise.

nuckinfutz said:

Alec

It's simply not an issue. The DVD drive is far more pressing of an issue.

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I think its an issue, it proves Apple cares about form WAY more than function. It makes no sense to have to spin your computer around just to plug in an SD card. Who cares about how thin the edges are? Does it help anyone be more productive in any way whatsoever? They should have the SD slot on the side and at least offer the DVD drive in one model or make it a build-to-order option.

The other thing is FireWire........hoards of musicians and visual artists still use perfectly good interfaces that are FW. So now everyone has to buy adapters or new kit to work w/ their computers. One Thunderbolt and one FW port would have made more sense than 2 thunderbolts on the same computer.

I really think there's the market for an iMac Pro....one that bridges the gap between the consumer grade iMac and Mac Pro. Make all these consumer laptops back into MacBooks and actually build a high end MACBOOK PRO which is loaded.

Loaded with RAM
Super Drive
Thunderbolt
FireWire
USB 3
SSD Drive
SD slot on the side
Ethernet

I'd pay extra to have these features....even 2 FireWire ports on their own buses.

FW is PERFECT for audio, nothing better is required....please bring it back!

Dear Tim,

You wouldn't have this issue if you only delayed the redesign for the 2013 model.

Now customers like myself who ordered on the first week of December must wait until Feb to get the 27" iMac Core i7.

Thanks a lot!

Paolo

My 2008 24" iMac is the best computer I've ever owned.

Looking forward to one of the new ones or perhaps if Apple actually does replace the aging MacPro with some new sort of powerhouse.

I only wish I could get the guts of the 27" iMac in the 21" one and a matching 21" monitor to go with it.

I blame it on the weak 13" MBP / rMBP lineup. They REALLY dropped the ball there.

Announced they would ship in November and December. Did ship by those dates.

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And by "ship in November" they mean the last 3-4 days of the month?

I was itching to buy one but I don't like the fact that the display bezel is glued on. I'd like to be able to have the ability to easily swap out hard drives. I also haven't seen much as far as innovation goes in the OS and developer tools in quite some time now. The focus for the past couple years seems to be solely on iOS, which IMO is starting to feel a bit dated.