11/17/2008, 3:45pm, EST
Monday, November 17th
Mac sales hold to expectations, iPods in decline
Data from the NPD Group backs up in-store checks on Mac sales, according to Piper Jaffray. The analyst group notes that October figures are up 28 percent year-over-year; this is being attributed to release of new MacBooks on October 14th, which may have satiated many Mac followers who had been waiting for an upgrade. Piper is now estimating between 2.5 and 2.7 million Macs for the whole quarter, which would represent 8 to 16 percent growth year-over-year compared to Street predictions of 13 percent, or 2.6 million computers.
Given the October influx, Mac sales are only expected to decline in November and December, though checks have so far hinted that Mac sales have not dropped precipitously. The 90 percent jump between this year and last year's in-store evaluations is said to be disconnected from reality, but at the same time, Piper argues that the figure would not arise if Mac sales were unsound. It is thus siding with the Street's 13 percent growth for the quarter.
iPod sales are said to be in trouble, by contrast, with October sales pointing to a possible 18.5 to 19 million units for the December quarter, a drop of 16 to 14 percent. The iPod is known to be an increasingly less important part of Apple's business however, and as the Street has leaned towards 16 percent, any chance of bettering performance is said to be a plus.
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Good Managment..
...it seems that Apple picked a very good time, with the economic troubles, to deemphasis the iPod in its work. The iPod's not going away, but a lot of other companies would, at it's success, made it a core of the business, even doing silly things like degrading PC performance. Meanwhile apple treaded it as the sub-section it should be. And it's proving a smart move.
new nanos nonos
I don't know about anyone else, but I really dislike the new nanos. The colors are too strong, and I like the fat nano shape much better, but the biggest thing is the curved display. It reflects way too much, having a much wider angle of reflection, and really annoys me. Too bad, because16 GB would be very handy.
It seems like Apple just wanted to do something different, so they went 180 degrees from the last model. It might not work this time.
Re: Good management
made it a core of the business, even doing silly things like degrading PC performance.
What kind of half-assed remark is that? Who would do this? Name one company.
The only company who would be stupid enough (and get away with it) to 'degrade PC performance' would be Apple. And Apple isn't stupid.
Apple has no competition for OS X computers. Thus they can get away with cutting features/performance (see new MacBook sans firewire) in order to push some other product (the MacBook pro).
The only other maker of computers AND devices is Dell, that I can think of. And Dell's not going to just start cutting performance of their PC business, because it would be taken by HP, Gateway (are they still around?), Lenovo, etc, in a heartbeat.
But, hey, make up scenarios in your head. That's fine.
oh...
The iPod is known to be an increasingly less important part of Apple's business however,
Could it be that the iPod is becoming increasingly less important because its sales are tapering off?
Or could it be that Apple finally realized the money is still in making the computers, not the fun little devices and digital downloads they've spent the last five years on?