Apple Q3 Conference Call Results

[XForge]

G5 Imac. Should sell well this holiday season. Can't wait to see what it looks like.

I wish they'd throw us a little preview of it on the website.

 

[switcherck]

fellow OU alum...

My alma mater, Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, started putting computers in every dorm room at least five years ago. Part of the "give the kids whatever they want" approach to recruiting. I think many schools have followed.

craigiest - i'm an OU alum as well! graduated in '01. you're right on about the computers in every dorm room. i believe most schools are doing this now. OU does a pretty decent job of supporting macs. In fact, I got interested in macs because the computer labs always had a wait for PCs while no one was using macs.

sorry, that was a bit off topic. I think I might find a way to be in the market for a new computer come September!

 

[blakemsf]

There is no iMac education market. For the most part, schools cannot afford to pay an extra $20,000 just to get flat screens in a computer lab. Either they will buy an affordable eMac, or spend the extra money on PowerMacs and use existing monitors.

College students are not interested in buying desktop machines. Most dorm rooms include a PC, so if kids want a computer of their own, they want a laptop to use with campus-wide WiFi.

I agree some what with that statement but would buy the iMac for the reason of deskspace in a lab. We have moved more and more towards All-in-one machines(will have 3 labs with Gateway Profiles and hopefully one iMac G5 lab soon) This is an ease of shipping(one box instead of two and when you have a 1 or two it is hard to store 42 boxes(2 labs) now imagine 84) Another thing is not as many cables running everywhere(no power cable for monitor or VGA cable running to computer).
Currently we have PM G4 but on campus a 3 iMacs(old iMacs DV) and a few PowerBooks. I was in a dorm this passed year @ Ohio State and noticed a few iMacs around along with a few PowerBooks as well. My 2 cents

 

[Master Windu]

That is Good profit, but not huge.

With that kinda profit why so much for the new displays? Maybe a cheaper imac?

61 Mill sounds huge, but is less than a 10% profit margin found on many products in and out of the tech industry. I bet the new displays cost more to make and the design work had to cost something; therefore, higher cost to you and me. Don't get me wrong I don't want to over pay, but I do feel fine about supporting Apple and keeping the company growing.

 

[blakemsf]

craigiest - i'm an OU alum as well! graduated in '01. you're right on about the computers in every dorm room. i believe most schools are doing this now. OU does a pretty decent job of supporting macs. In fact, I got interested in macs because the computer labs always had a wait for PCs while no one was using macs.

sorry, that was a bit off topic. I think I might find a way to be in the market for a new computer come September!

Well this is just an OU reunion site! Although I didn't graduate OU(went to U. of Rio Grande, about 40 miles down the road) I currently work for them dealing with computers.

 

[iPC]

Because they are in business to make money.

3% is pretty crappy. old furniture store i used to work at cleared 7% after everything was said and done.

 

[Master Windu]

imac as a powerbook indicator

Since we know the Imac is going to have a G5, whats the Chance PB G5 in December

If you assume the form factor will be similar in space to the now old iMac then the only issue left to solve will be power. The other big problem Heat disipation will have been taken care of. You can think of an iMac as a laptop with a really odd formfactor with one exception. It will always be plugged in! No need to worry about battery life. The new powerbooks I am sure are in the works, but if they change the imac form to a bigger box for cooling you can bet powerbooks are still quite a while off. Power/Battery life issues will need to be addressed and might be significant, but if Dell can get a 3GHZ crapium with 2 hrs battery life apple will better them and be the first 64 bit usable laptop. (there have been a few attemps to put Athlon 64 into a "laptop", but turned into a desktop with a flat screen welded on and a battery life of about 5 mins.)

I would bet that the Tiger release and powerbooks are on the same time frame.

 

[Master Windu]

lots of research

3% is pretty crappy. old furniture store i used to work at cleared 7% after everything was said and done.

research can kill your profit. With new displays, Tiger, 3GHZ power mac, G5 iMac, and G5 power book under development all at once it is not hard to imagine a 3% profit, so I take it as a good sign and that the company is planning to grow. You know they have to profit off from iTunes even if they had to make a deal with the devil to get iTunes music store avalible to the peecee market.

 

[Trekkie]

right there with you. i LOVE M$ mice

I've yet to figure out why people do based on my experiences. I've yet to have one last over a year and it's not like I wing it around my head like a bolo every day.

 

[Master Windu]

This is how

how then do the G5 x serves fit into this line of reasoning?

terry

Xserves do not work as a powerbook line up. They can hog as much power as Apple wants and nobody will care. They are put in strictly controlled climates. Powerful fans can be used to cool the units.

Imacs have the same display attached, low noise, hard to get rid of heat issues as a powerbook. They only very significate probelm is power (battery life) since a Imac is always plugged in.

 

[Trekkie]

how then do the G5 x serves fit into this line of reasoning?

terry

maybe teh big fans that make lots of noise blowing through the unit help vs. passive radiating cooling that they're trying to use in the iMac

 

[MacEyeDoc]

Apple's 61 million vs IBM's 2 billion

61 Mill sounds huge, but is less than a 10% profit margin found on many products in and out of the tech industry. I bet the new displays cost more to make and the design work had to cost something; therefore, higher cost to you and me. Don't get me wrong I don't want to over pay, but I do feel fine about supporting Apple and keeping the company growing.

FROM CNN: IBM, the world's largest technology services company posted income from continuing operations of $2 billion, or $1.16 a share, up 17 percent from the $1.7 billion, or 97 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts were expecting IBM to report a profit of $1.12 a share, according to Thomson First Call.
Sales at Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM came in at $23.2 billion.



Before we get too blown away with Apple's numbers - IBM's profit was more than Apple's entire gross, and their sales were almost 12 times Apple's. (1,180 percent greater).

 

[dongmin]

Sure.....if you mean December '05. Just kidding

Seriously, though, I'm dying for a PBG5, as are so many others, but I'm beginning to resign to the fact that I'll probably have to wait until next spring or even summer until I can realistically think about having one in my possession. Sure, they might announce it sometime towards the end of the year or beginning of next, but then there will be setbacks in production, heat dissipation problems, shipping delays, etc. Even that prediction is starting to seem optimistic, since they're still having problems getting 970fx's out of IBM. Also, you can forget about anything over 2ghz in a laptop, or even this new iMac for that matter. I'd be shocked to see anything over 1.8ghz, given the heat issues.

I know this may be heresy on these boards, but I don't think Apple is in that much of a hurry to shoehorn the G5 into the PowerBooks. The PowerBooks are selling well as is, with a 'lousy' G4. The reason the PowerBooks sell well is because of the slick finish, ultra-thin form factor, and portability. Apple knows this. Sure they'd love to sell a G5 PowerBooks, but not if it means compromising on the design and portability.

The next PowerBook will come in October/November. I'm super-curious about what Apple is doing to extend the life of the G4. Does Motorola/Freescale have another version of the 744x in the works to scale beyond 1.5 ghz? Or will Apple do something semi-radical by introducing the e600 for their portables? The e600 is pin-compatible with the 7447A, but it allows for a fatter bus and requires a different memory controller. So Apple will have to redo the architecture.

My preference is for Apple to go the e600 route. It's a processor designed for a small-form-factor computer. The G5, even with a 90 nm version, is not. It's a server chip scaled down to desktop levels.

With that said, all signs point to G5s going across the entire pro line (here I include the iMac). Tiger is going 64-bit. I'm sure Apple will start to tune their pro audio and video apps for 64-bit addresing. And Apple themselves have confirmed as much, saying that they're working on fitting the G5 into the PowerBooks, even if it'll take a while. What would really excite me is if Apple-IBM are working on a mobile version of the G5.

 

[djdarlek]

Well said!

'Nuff said!

Aluminum scroll wheel NOW...!

its never going to happen via apple sadly.. but rejoice if you haven't seen this... http://macmice.com/themouseal.html

 

[rjfiske]

I'm blown away

Before we get too blown away with Apple's numbers - IBM's profit was more than Apple's entire gross, and their sales were almost 12 times Apple's. (1,180 percent greater).

I think it's ok to get blown away with Apple's numbers BECAUSE they are Apple's numbers. We're not IBM, or Microsoft, or Chrysler or McDonalds or Martha Stewart Living, Inc. We're Apple. We make hardware and we make the software... I STILL have PC ignoramuses (it's a word, trust me) who insist that Apple will be going out of business.. it's only a matter of time, they say. It's easier to show them Apple's successful numbers instead of someone else's dismal numbers to prove the PC ignorami wrong.

I'm encouraged by what I see with these numbers. It gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. This might be because I've never done business with a company (all of the other examples above included) who've made me feel happy like this. Disney up until Frank Wells' death and Jeffrey Katzenberg's departure is about the only thing that comes close.

But MacEyeDoc I see what you're saying... You use the phrase "too blown away" and with that I concur. Apple clearly has some things to work on, but being the eternal optimist that I am, I am counting on Apple to "blow us away" again in the not too distant future.

 

[stingerman]

FROM CNN: IBM, the world's largest technology services company posted income from continuing operations of $2 billion, or $1.16 a share, up 17 percent from the $1.7 billion, or 97 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts were expecting IBM to report a profit of $1.12 a share, according to Thomson First Call.
Sales at Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM came in at $23.2 billion.



Before we get too blown away with Apple's numbers - IBM's profit was more than Apple's entire gross, and their sales were almost 12 times Apple's. (1,180 percent greater).

WTF, HELLO! It's shareholder value not overall revenue that matter. Look at the difference in the shares outstanding between Apple and IBM. Both great companies and both great values.

 

[stingerman]

3% is pretty crappy. old furniture store i used to work at cleared 7% after everything was said and done.

My goodness, what geniuses we have here. Net income for a publicly traded company is different than how much is cleared. You need to look at the cash-flow numbers, Apple typically puts away from 170 Million to 300 Million a quarter. Net income includes many non-cash expenses by GAAP measures. Apple makes a heck of a lot more cash than 3%.

 

[Mord]

Maybe a cheaper imac?

the imac g5 should be cheaper because the g5 is a cheaper prosessor than the g4 because ibm is allot bigger and better than motorola and can produce chips on a larger scale, just look at the moto g5 it's at something like 500MHz or somthing pathetic like that

i'm sure apple would like to go g5 accross the range but they cannot due to heat constraints.

i'n never going to buy an imac but this is what i would be happy to recommend to my freind

17" 1.8GHz g5 imac
512MB ram
radeon 9600 pro 128MB
(9800 pro option 256MB)
superdrive (8x)
same quality tft as the new displays
bluetooth standard
gigabit ethernet


what will probably happen

17" imac 1.6GHz g5
256MB ram
nvidia 5600 128MB card
superdrive (8x)
average tft's
10/100 ethernet

i'm not convinced that they will do a wall mount imac unless it could somehow have an arm that connects to the imac's screen and works much like the current arm and is totally positionale.

remember you cant put optical drives and HD's at funny angles so if the mac is behind the display the display would have to stay vertical which is not a good design

i would keep the current desighn but make it out of aluminium that design is the only practical imac all in one lcd that looks good.

 

[xsnightclub]

Then what's the problem making chips?

FROM CNN: IBM, the world's largest technology services company posted income from continuing operations of $2 billion, or $1.16 a share, up 17 percent from the $1.7 billion, or 97 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts were expecting IBM to report a profit of $1.12 a share, according to Thomson First Call.
Sales at Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM came in at $23.2 billion.



Before we get too blown away with Apple's numbers - IBM's profit was more than Apple's entire gross, and their sales were almost 12 times Apple's. (1,180 percent greater).

With THAT amount of money one would with think IBM would be able to produce some damn G5 chips. Maybe a more investment in R&D and less in the pockets would help.

 

[AidenShaw]

remember you cant put optical drives and HD's at funny angles

Obviously this is why no laptop has hard drives or optical drives - if you sat in a chair and it wasn't exactly flat it would destroy the drives.

I guess it's also why there aren't any portable CD players - no way of keeping the portable player exactly horizontal or vertical.

And it's certainly why *nobody* would *ever* make a portable music player with a hard drive - it would destroy itself if the player was tilted.


In truth:

1. hard drives can function at any angle and orientation

2. CDs can run at any angle as well - a simple magnetic clamp is commonly used to hold the disc in place (for example, the Sony DNS707F "Sports CD Walkman" http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INT...SwfRMo54u6HRzOacg8Wt-Dk4I=?ProductSKU=DNS707F)

 

[xsnightclub]

lol

Obviously this is why no laptop has hard drives or optical drives - if you sat in a chair and it wasn't exactly flat it would destroy the drives.

I guess it's also why there aren't any portable CD players - no way of keeping the portable player exactly horizontal or vertical.

And it's certainly why *nobody* would *ever* make a portable music player with a hard drive - it would destroy itself if the player was tilted.


In truth:

1. hard drives can function at any angle and orientation

2. CDs can run at any angle as well - a simple magnetic clamp is commonly used to hold the disc in place (for example, the Sony DNS707F "Sports CD Walkman" http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INT...SwfRMo54u6HRzOacg8Wt-Dk4I=?ProductSKU=DNS707F)

Yeah, and if any would develop these devices they would be SOOOOO expensive that NOBODY would ever by one. They would be like $250 for a miniature version, way to expensive for anybody to buy. Horrible idea, better stick with magentic tape reels, floppy disks and 8-tracks (read:ATRAC)

 

[Mainyehc]

The RAM is not enough!!!

I think Apple KNOWS that the iMac is not a big seller for the education market. It's the iBooks and eMacs that people by. If people want more horsepower, they go to either the PowerBooks or Power Macs. The iMac appeals more to the style-freaks who don't mind shelling out big bucks for a mediocre performing machine. Students are way more budget-conscious.

(Fifth post, been hanging out on the forums since Sep. '03 )
I have a 1,25 GHz 17'' iMac and I must say it's not such a bad machine as far as performance is concerned... but yes, definitely a little bit mediocre... Ok, I was lusting over the Dual 2.0 GHz G5 when I bought my iMac, and besides, I have to work with large files as I'm studying graphics design... It's not the fastest machine avaliable, it's even slower than cheaper PCs, but I love it, perhaps because I'm a "style-freak"... And not THAT budget-conscious, for that matter, and I'm preety sure that there are much more like me around... Face it, every single Macintosh is, nowadays, aimed at "style-freaks", as are iPods, etc etc... They're the best products around, but they're also the coolest, and the more functional anyway... (yes, it's that "niche market" talk again).... BUT...
I have to agree with you. And one thing I can't cope with is with the lack of RAM; 80 GB of disk is not a problem, when you have a Superdrive... and a 4x Superdrive (instead of a 8x) is not a problem, unless you have deadly deadlines... 1,25 GHz, or 1,6-2,0 GHz as expected in the new iMac isn't a problem either, I honestly believe that Tiger will run smoothly on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems. BUT... 256-512 MB of RAM?? I even feel less "ashamed" of my iPod's meager battery life than of my iMac's ridiculously small amount of memory!! (then again, not much people around here are aware of the average battery life amongst the iPod's competitors )
One of the primary complaints made by my colleagues about Macs, when we talk about computers, is their ostentatious lack of memory! The "MHz myth" couldn't be less of an issue as it is now, people nowadays are quite more open minded about benchmarks and stuff... When I'm telling people how good Macs are, because of OS X, less bloatware/viruses/security issues, great compatibility, open standards, etc (even though sometimes their overall specs seem... "feeble"), they all agree with me. When they ask me about memory I just go "Eeeerrrr.... well, consumer [or shoud I say "prosumer"? ] Macs usually come with less memory than their PC counterparts... but you can always upgrade it, like... errrr... double it... or put some nice 1GHz [in the iMac] and throw away [or sell it at eBay??] the original 256MB DIMM [and I actually know you can already top its memory at 2GB... sweeeeeet, but expensive! so I don't even talk about that!]" , and then, I get those strange, unfriendly looks!
So, Apple, keep the small hard drives, slow optical drives, slow processors, minimal expansion slots, and GREAT LOOKS on the iMac, but PLEASE, give us more RAM (minimum 512MB on the eMac, and 1GB on the iMac, across the board)... I live in Portugal, and we don't have an official Apple Store here, so we can't have BTO machines as easily as you do, so it'd be nice to have some decent machines in retail stores... Now I need urgently a 512MB SO-DIMM (as I don't want to void my warranty) so I can handle my huge files with ease...
And remember, my iMac 17'', 1,25GHz, w/ 256MB RAM cost me €2.100, some $2.590... (I love it all the same, the thing is beautiful and everyone goes "oooohh" and "aaaaahh" just by looking at it, and specially after playing with the screen a bit...AND after ejecting the Superdrive... But I guess you'd have figured that out already, no? )

 

[maxterpiece]

eMac Sales

The eMac is ugly. It is a bloated version of the old iMac. It apparently has serious problems with its built-in CRT display. It hasn't been updated in a long time and gets the least exposure in all apple events and in the apple stores. The only thing unique or special about it is its price. It's the only apple you can get for under $1000. THe fact that so many (not that it's a huge number) eMacs are being sold tells me that the consumer market is thirsty for something from apple. Something cool and affordable. It doesn't have to be super powerful, but powerful enough to run OS X well. I hope the new iMac G5 will replace the current iMac and the eMac in price range. A 17" LCD display is only like $300. Price the iMac starting at $900 with a 17" LCD built in and people will buy.

 

[DavidCar]

An avenue for iMac HDTV?

For what it's worth, This is what I am watching for.

El Gato's EyeTV 500 for broadcast HDTV is selling better than expected, according to their website. It connects to the computer with Firewire 400. One problem is that to acheive full frame rate HDTV (1920 x 1080) it requires a Dual G5 to decode the MPEG-2. For some reason, according to their FAQs, they are not able to use the graphics processor for this. They claim Quicktime is unable to use the graphics processor to decode MPEG-2 either, and that the elgato software is 10 - 20% better at this than Quicktime.

Enter Mac OSX Tiger. Part of what was demonstrated in the Tiger preview was Core Video which "provides a modern foundation for video services in Mac OS X Tiger. It provides a bridge between QuickTime and the GPU for hardware-accelerated video processing." Does this mean that Core Video will allow ElGato to use the GPU for MPEG-2, and lower the hardware requirements for full blown HDTV?

Enter the G5 iMac. Will the new G5 iMac be usable with a 23 inch Cinema HD Display? (1920 x 1200) Will Tiger OSX allow ElGato to use an iMac G5 to present full frame rate full resolution HDTV? (1920 x 1080)

That is what I am watching for.

I seriously doubt a G5 iMac would have any built in TV capability.

 

[MegaSignal]

its never going to happen via apple sadly.. but rejoice if you haven't seen this... http://macmice.com/themouseal.html

Yeah - I'll be ordering the BT version in September.

After reading the entire thread with regard to IBM's ability of chip yields (especially once the 90nm process has all of the bugs ironed out), perhaps a lineup that needs some paring, and Steve's commitment to wireless, here's my $0.02:

iMac G5 1.6MHz
Aluminum case
15" lcd
256MB RAM
60G hdd
Combo drive
Standard w/BT and Airport Extreme, Standard w/wireless mouse and keyboard
$999

iMac G5 1.8MHz
Same as above plus:
20" lcd
512 MB RAM
160G hdd
$1799

eMac - discontinued

Then again - maybe not. Guess we'll just have to see what happens in Paris.