Apple Q2 Financial Results Conference Call

[artifex]

Are they trying to hide how successful the mac mini is, or how bad of a flop it is?

I want it to succeed. I want them to come out with an updated one next quarter. I want a matching box underneath, a la Sun, that has real drives in it. Maybe a box to act as a quality a/v breakout. But the friends of mine that aren't geeks are still surprised when I tell then about the cheap mini, and don't sound excited. So how do people think it's really doing?

 

[Doctor Q]

- Education Channel.

What about it? What was said?

 

[quagmire]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050112/sfw092_1.html

Read the wrong results...4th quarter of last year. So its true. 🙁 There's a idiot born every minute.
I'm happy the other numbers are strong but PowerBooks I'm sorry...stupid. Just stupid. Apple should throw in a LCD glass wipe. Watch sales go up 30%. OMG OMG it’s a glass cleaner. 🙄 *sighs*

Sheesh calling people idiots when they make a mistake is just bad. Well I won't trust that person who gave me that info from another forum.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Are they trying to hide how successful the mac mini is, or how bad of a flop it is?

Its not a flop. I know at least 10 people in the last month who have gotten their first Mac. Granted that is hardly concrete evidence but the fact remains I’ve never know that many people to pick up a Mac in such a short timeframe.

Honestly I expect strong Mini sales through the year but frankly I expect the X-mas season to be a MAJOR blowout for Apple as long as they get the word out.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Sheesh calling people idiots when they make a mistake is just bad. Well I won't trust that person who gave me that info from another forum.

No I made the mistake. I'm saying that people who upgraded or purchase their first PowerBook didn't do their homework....basically I'm supremely jaded about Apple's lack of forward momentum and the fact that the rest of the industry is kicking the living snot out of their laptop line all the while people are eating it up based on....*shrugs* What? It’s nice and shiny? Whatever. That is where the phrase comes into play.

 

[maclamb]

Wow this is interesting i couldnt tell listening but i think he changed his mind saying that it is not the mother of all thermal challenges but i could be wrong. Either way this is interesting to listen to.

"A: Still think it's the "mother of all" technical challenges. "

 

[Macmaniac]

Dang I was hoping to go off to college with a G5 PB, I guess not🙁 Its a little annoying that Apple is not releasing numbers for the mini or the shuffle, I bet Steve will announce those at WWDC🙂

Look at this, 300 million songs on March 2nd, and now 350 million on April 13, thats 42 days, so thats 1.2 million songs a day.

 

[quagmire]

No I made the mistake. I'm saying that people who upgraded or purchase their first PowerBook didn't do their homework....basically I'm supremely jaded about Apple's lack of forward momentum and the fact that the rest of the industry is kicking the living snot out of their laptop line all the while people are eating it up based on....*shrugs* What? It’s nice and shiny? Whatever. That is where the phrase comes into play.

Oh ok. Sorry for the confusion. I thought by you saying, " Read wrong results," meant that I made the mistake. There was no "I" in the sentence so I got confused.

 

[Object-X]

How many minis

How many Mini's does that make?

 

[arn]

"A: Still think it's the "mother of all" technical challenges. "

My bad... I'm pretty sure he said "thermal"

arn

 

[Nastard]

With the after-hours drop and the upcoming release of Tiger, plus the speculated announcement of new PowerMacs, it seems that now would be a good time to buy stock.

 

[JordanNZ]

The mac mini is no flop.. Put it this way.. 3 of my friends just got one.. Their first mac.

There was a wait of 6 weeks in this country!

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Jan 2005, Apple introduces a low-cost computer, after users repeatedly ask and ask, Q2 profits rises to a record-high.

Jan 2006, Apple introduces a 2-button mouse for all their computers, after users repeatedly ask and ask, Q2 profits skyrocket 1,000%.

Jan 2007, Apple finally wises up, and releases OSX for PCs, thereby gaining the lead from Microsoft, Q2 profits reach $10 billion.

LOL... very nice.

Though the 2007 prediction i think is more far off than that. The joy of OSX is that Apple has been able to control the platform that it ran on. The only way for OSX for the PC to succeed successfully would be to have a closed system, with severe limitations on the hardware that could be added internally.

 

[powerbook911]

Excellent. Looks like PowerBook sales fell. Didn’t tank as I hoped but it looks like the band-aid release a couple months ago was enough to keep it from being a complete gusher. Hopefully this is putting more pressure on Apple to put out a REAL PowerBook update. Then again I keep hearing P. T. Barnum's famous quote ringing in my ears since that update. Is my post harsh? Yes but so it Apple's PowerBook offerings so I call it even.

Powerbook sales were up. They were less than 200,000 in Q1. You should pay better attention. The current Powerbooks are real. 🙂

 

[xsnightclub]

Was there any mention of the iTunes/Pepsi promo, Wonder how it is doing this time round.

All in All an outstanding report, very impressive that Apple beat Wall St estimates by about $.10 /share.

Still waiting for "the mother of all thermal challenges" to be addressed for my next Powerbook.

 

[minimax]

good numbers???

despite the introduction of mac mini sales of the consumer desktop line climbed a meager 11000 units. Also total macintosh sales stayed almost flat. In other words, it has NO effect whatsoever on windows users, potential switchers / adders.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Lame...

Prolly brought on by embarrassing PM sales.

Could be that, or it could signal new competitive strategy to keep people guessing (read competitors) guessing. Apple is on a roll, and needs to maintain that momentum.

It is my take that at this time only us Apple "geeks" care about how many of each are sold. the investors at this point are only interested in total units sold and at what margins.

 

[azdude]

- Q: Last conference call, mentioned that putting a G5 in a PowerBook would be a significant technical challenge. A: Still think it's the "mother of all" thermal challenges.

OMG. They keep using that phrase.

Guess what's coming on MOTHER'S DAY 2005?!?!?!?!!!!!!!1111!!!!1!111!1!

; 😉 😎

Uhh... back to work.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Excellent. Looks like PowerBook sales fell. Didn’t tank as I hoped but it looks like the band-aid release a couple months ago was enough to keep it from being a complete gusher. Hopefully this is putting more pressure on Apple to put out a REAL PowerBook update. Then again I keep hearing P. T. Barnum's famous quote ringing in my ears since that update. Is my post harsh? Yes but so it Apple's PowerBook offerings so I call it even.

I am sure that Apple is wanting to release the mother of all PB's as soon as they can. Only since so many are focused on the "numbers game" of processor speed. Never mind that G4's and dual G4's have much life left in them in reality.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Actually, Powerbooks sales went up. iBooks fell a bit. Here is Q1.

Product     Units k   Rev $m
iMac          456        620
iBook         271        297
PM            167        381
PB            152        307
iPod         4580       1211
Other                    674
----------------------------
                        3490

Thanks for the data. It maybe that those that were tempted by the iBook decided instead to go with the Mac mini instead.

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Probably brought on by the fact that they can cover ANY embarrassing results with a blanket statement. PowerMac sales can be covered as can PowerBook sales. This can be attributed to Apple being almost incapable of updating multiple products at the same time leaving some of them to rot on the vine. By doing this they can get away from the market bitching about bad e-Mac, PowerMac, iBook, PowerBook sales. So they update PowerMacs and iMacs take a hit for being out there X time without an update and it makes it look like the status quo or better is being maintained. Even though a product in its line is getting thrashed. Its marketing spin is all it is. Similar to Jobs’s RDF but at a lower level.

Or it can be looked upon a good marketing. Delivering everything at one time may provide a short term bounce. But give consumers too many choices, and they waiver.

Imagine if they had updated the eMac at the time they introduced the Mac mini. Though this does fall apart when a new OS is to be released. And that may play into the longer release dates between OS's.

 

[mhouse]

Look to Last Year

good numbers???

despite the introduction of mac mini sales of the consumer desktop line climbed a meager 11000 units. Also total macintosh sales stayed almost flat. In other words, it has NO effect whatsoever on windows users, potential switchers / adders.

Don't mean to be rude but you're totally off base. To determine if the numbers are any good you have to look at the year ago quarter, not the previous quarter.

Apple's Mac sales are up 43% from the year ago quarter. Those are very, very strong numbers indeed.

 

[davey-nb]

Huh?

good numbers???

despite the introduction of mac mini sales of the consumer desktop line climbed a meager 11000 units. Also total macintosh sales stayed almost flat. In other words, it has NO effect whatsoever on windows users, potential switchers / adders.

How do you figure that if Desktop sales were 608,000 (up 55%)?

 

[Chip NoVaMac]

Its not a flop. I know at least 10 people in the last month who have gotten their first Mac. Granted that is hardly concrete evidence but the fact remains I’ve never know that many people to pick up a Mac in such a short timeframe.

Honestly I expect strong Mini sales through the year but frankly I expect the X-mas season to be a MAJOR blowout for Apple as long as they get the word out.

I agree. We tried at our camera store selling Mac's in the recent past. Did not go well with all the options for purchase out there. Though the Mac mini may breath some life into our ability to meet consumer need.

The problem for the independent retail channel is to overcome the objections of the salespeople. May mean some sort of "sales incentive" to put Mac's into the diehard PC faithful.

 

[Porchland]

This is surprising...in June Apple will only announce CPU sales in two categories, desktops and portables. No more iMac/eMac/Mac mini, PowerMac, Powerbook, iBook breakdown. Hmmmm...

I think that's all about margin gotcha. Apple doesn't doesn't want to show its hand on products like Mac mini that are driving market share but aren't necessarily cash cows. I agree with the analyst's report earlier this week that we're fixin' to hear a whole lot about Tiger and applications.

I read somewhere that a 1 percent move in Apple's PC market share works out to about $2B in gross sales of PC and ancillary products. If Apple grows to 10-15% of the PC market in the next few years, we may see a radical rethinking of the platform by all sorts of software manufacturers, including Apple.

And the bigger Apple gets, the higher its stock price will climb and the greater its leverage is going to be for picking off software companies. Apple's model has been to buy smaller software companies, but we may see the days very soon when Apple could decide to buy a gaming company, Macromedia ($3B), Adobe ($16B), Intuit ($8B) or other companies that it wouldn't have had the market cap to swallow before.

It is a really exciting time to be following Apple.