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Apple 4th Quarter Conference Call

I listened today and read the release and it sounded positive. I was a bit surprised they didn't talk about order backlog. They mentioned strong demand for G5's and PB's but didn't mention outstanding orders. Perhaps I am a bit biased since I have been waiting weeks for my PB order with no end in sight. I half expected some comment to the effect of "... demand is so strong that we have XX weeks of production backordered...". Maybe my situation isn't representative or perhaps they didn't want to put any damper on demand by the lack of availability. Still, a good report. I'll be interested in tomorrow's music-related announcements.
 
Originally posted by dongmin
That's 1,344,000 iPods a year. It'd cool if they can get to 500,000 ipod a quarter. Forget $500 budget PCs (with $0 profit margins). The iPod is Apple's entry gadget, and it probably has way better margins than those budget PCs.
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Not quite the same. Margins can be lower in bargain-priced PC-s, but the iPod doesn't expand MacOS market-share in any way. This is why the $500 machine would be important for Apple. I don't see, why Apple doesn't make and sell headless versions of their iMac or eMac. Would be good, cheap pizza-box machine for the users who want an Internet-box, but already have a monitor.
 
good performance ...but

Apple have to be very careful to make sure the problem that arose in the Professional Range, ie they became behind the market in performance, doesn't flip into the Comsumer Range.

The iBook and iMac and eMac sales are tailing off, and they need new form or chips in all three fairly soon, the life is being squeeezed out of the Moto chips.

The iBook sales can be explained partly by what Fred A said regarding the 12in powerbook cannibalising sales, but the education market is sluggish too and Apple needs a good-value small notebook for schools ready, that builds on the initial success of the new ibook.

iMac sales are more tricky. The world clearly didn't take to the wonderful design in the way they embraced the original, I know it was a better time for computers generally, but they have never really taken off in the way that we mac-heads and Jobs himself would have predicted. They haven't reached the new markets, in the way the orginal was beginning to.

And it's now a sluggish machine compared to other PC offerings.

I hope apple has a faster chip and a new form for the iMac soon, it can't rely on iPod sales for ever being strong as more pile into that market, same with the music store. Although it's good to see that apple's diversification strategy is beginning to work, peripherals, other hardware and software sales are looking stronger, and apple has a much larger suite of software than ever before.

Why don't they give a free (or half price) iBook away with the top range iPod! If all these windows users are buying ipod's, that way round is the way to convert them!
 
Hard luck any one who bought Apple shares this week, down 8% right now. Good time to buy too for an easy 8% over the coming weeks maybe even days, before the price carries on rising steadily in the next year. Dont you just love speculators.:rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by billyboy
Hard luck any one who bought Apple shares this week, down 8% right now. Good time to buy too for an easy 8% over the coming weeks maybe even days, before the price carries on rising steadily in the next year. Dont you just love speculators.:rolleyes:
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In the stock market, everybody is a "speculator." Anyone who considers themselves to be an "investor" these days doesn't really understand the forces they are up against.

The only rationale I've heard for AAPL getting trounced on good news is the slightly lower margins in the financial report -- about 1% lower -- and Fred Anderson's less than enthusiastic reading of the next quarter in the education market. None of which justifies a -8% hit, but there you go.
 
Originally posted by IJ Reilly
In the stock market, everybody is a "speculator." Anyone who considers themselves to be an "investor" these days doesn't really understand the forces they are up against.
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I reckon there is a scale of investing and some investing is more speculative than others.
Sure you speculate by buying shares and hoping the value rises - without actually having any control of the business performance yourself. But if you adopt the long view and buy into a business that also has a long term view, good business plan and a useful management team, and you stay for the long term, then Id argue that you are less the speculator, more the investor. The people forcing 8% off the value of a company the day after announcing their game plan is still on roughly the right track - they are pure speculators with their eyes set on a horizon between 1 minute and 3 months. They dont give a monkeys how Apple is doing in a year, and their opportunism does no one any favours.

I just hope there is a gambler (err speculator/investor) ready to buy all my shares when AAPL hits $50 whenever that happens in the next century.
 
When I saw AAPL halved in value in an hour or so of after-hours trading a couple of years ago, that's when I realized I was not really an investor, but just along for the ride. I doubt I'll see that money again even if I live to be 100. Unfortunately, patience is not always rewarded. In this case, it was punished, severely.
 
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