Wrong. There was a big demand for office type equipment and maybe computers. People needed printers, monitors, webcams, office supplies, maybe telephones, paper, keyboards, mice etc. General things you would have in your corporate office, but weren't set up for in your home office. This started with general shelter in place. On the east coast it was March 13. One year ago today Oct 2019, there was a hint of what was happening in China, not in the US.
People didn't need cell phones. They already had their Galaxys, Notes, iphones, Oppos, Huawei, etc. Maybe they needed tablets. People needed office type stuff that they didn't have at home, including office furniture. I was lucky, early on I bought a new monitor, and very recently I bought another high end 4k monitor. Couldn't get toilet paper, but I picked up a monitor. The reality is windows runs corporate america and that is why the windows tech computer companies did well.
Why are you telling me about toilet paper and March 13 on the east coast? I live in the east coast and I know what happened on March 13.
Besides monitors, keyboards, and mouses (yes, it’s “mouses” and not “mice” when you refer to computer pointing devices), people needed laptops and tablets. Apple sold the all-time record of Macs in the last quarter, and the quarter before was also huge in Mac sales. And the iPads were in huge demand too. Parents who had money didn’t want their kids to be staring at Chromebook, so the Macs and the iPads were flying off the shelves. Every single tech company that had a product that could be used in a work-from-home environment sold out and if they could manufacture more, they sold out again, and again, and again. The reason that NASDAQ appreciated like it did since March 23 is partly because the anticipation of huge sales in the tech sector was prevalent. And huge they were. Look at Zoom! Even they made a hefty profit. Look at Ring Central, look at Logitech.
I put my 2018 MacBook Air on Ebay in anticipation of the new 2020 MacBook Air that I ordered in the Spring as soon as they were announced. When I realized that the 2020 MacBook Air was not powerful enough for me, I told the highest bidder that I would have to delay the shipment by 2 weeks while I was waiting for the 2020 13” MacBook Pro. The guy begged me not to delay the shipment. He said his wife was just transferred to the work from home routine, and she didn’t have a computer at home to use for work. He actually offered me $200 above the bidding price just to ship the 2018 MacBook Air to him on time. He begged and he cried. I ended up taking down that eBay auction because I couldn’t be without a computer for 2 weeks.
That’s how desperate people were for computers and tablets in the spring. Apple had a huge opportunity there to sell sell sell. Same was happening in the summer. Failing to see that the numbers reported tonight are very troublesome is myopic to say it nicely. Now, if Apple were an airline or a cruise line and reported numbers similar to the same quarter of last year, that would have been very impressive. But Apple is not an airline. The Pandemic was created for the companies like Apple, Microsoft, Zoom, etc. to bag unimaginable growth in sales and profits.
Look at tonight’s Amazon sales numbers, profits, etc. They totally blew the lid ooff everything that anyone could imagine. That’s what Apple was expected to do. There will NEVER be another opportunity like the last two quarters. At this point, everyone is stocked with gadgetry that will last them for years to come.
I bought my son an iPad Mini in 2013, which he is still using. So, the extra iPads that were bought in tens of millions in the past two quarters will last kids for many years. Parents won’t be buying new ones any time soon. The Macs that parents got their kids to learn from home will last for many years.
My son is using a 2012 Mac Mini that I took out of the box on March 14. It sat in the box unused for years. The Mac Mini is doing great as my son’s portal into the online school, and I don’t expect to buy him a new Mac for years. He didn’t have a personal computer before March 14 at all, but the 8-year-old Mac Mini he is using is more than capable to do all the computing tasks he needs.
Those who didn’t have spare computers sitting in a box had to buy computers or tablets for their kids to attend school via distance learning. One of my friends bought his 9-year-old daughter a brand spanking new Mac Mini to attend school remotely. That was the only reason. Had it not been fir COVID, that purchase would not have been made. When will he be buying her another Mac? Never. She will be buying her next Mac herself when she moves out of the house in 9 years.
So, the analysts’ expectation is that in the prolonged pandemic, which will last for at least another year and a half - according to Fauci - the tech sales will start sagging because people will be concerned about overspending while all their tech needs have already been met during calendar Q2 and Q3 of 2020.
