Anyone who thought the Mac is dead needs to think different(ly). Apple sold 3.472 million Macs last quarter, along with 3.270 million iPads to sync them with. Out of sync, maybe, were iPod and iPhone sales, but for Apple it was another quarter for the record books.
For the third fiscal quarter, Apple reported revenue of $15.7 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 EPS. It was a new record, besting last year’s holiday quarter of $15.68 billion, and nearly doubling the $8.34 billion from a year ago. Steve Jobs, no doubt rolling on piles of greenbacks, sent the expected exultant press release from his iPad.
“It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple’s history with iPhone 4,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year.”
Regarding the iPad, 3.27 million were sold last quarter, a staggering number when you consider that it may equal the combined sales of all Windows Tablet and Slate PCs in 2010. Even better, concerns that the iPad might negatively impact Mac sales appear to be thus far refuted.
Apple sold a record 3.472 million Macs in the third quarter, up 33 percent from 2.603 last year, nearly double the 1.734 million Macs sold just four years ago. Laptop sales, bolstered by new MacBook Pros and MacBooks, were 2.468 million, up 41 percent over last year. Desktop sales were 1.004 million, a positive change of 18 percent from last year. While the redesigned Mac mini was released late in the quarter, it will have negligible impact going forward. As Steve Jobs has said, Apple is a “mobility” company, and a 70/30 split between laptops and desktops last quarter exemplifies that trend.
Another clearly evident trend is flattening iPod sales. Apple sold 9.406 million iPods in the third quarter, versus 10.215 million last year, a decrease of 8 percent. Although unit sales were comparatively weak, change in revenue was up four percent. This is due to increased sales of the iPod touch with its higher average selling price, which is also good news for the viability of the iOS platform.
As for the iPhone, Apple sold 8.398 million, compared to 5.208 during the same period last year, a 61 percent increase. So much for the “Antenngate” controversy so far, though a real issue appears to be channel inventory weakness. With a shocking ship time of three weeks at the online store, and repeated delays of the white model, Apple appears to be having serious problems catching up with demand for the iPhone 4.
Expect that issue to come up at the conference call today, which TheAppleBlog will be covering. We’ll be bored, so you don’t have to.
Written by Charles Jade on July 20th, 2010 with no comments.
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When Apple redesigned its laptops earlier this month, most of the attention, including mine, was focused on the entry-level MacBook. That was because of its popularity, and because Apple managed to make over the machine in a way that added some oomph and lots of style while actually making it thinner and lighter and preserving battery life. But what about the MacBook’s big brother, the 15 inch MacBook Pro, a powerful, if pricey, laptop favored by many power users? My verdict on the Pro’s makeover isn’t nearly as favorable, because there were more tradeoffs.
The new MacBook Pro costs the same, high, $1999 price as the old one, and Apple (AAPL) does give you more for your money — a faster discrete graphics processor; the same radical new button-free trackpad that’s in the MacBook; bigger hard disks. It’s also a tad thinner.
But some of the new model’s design features that were a dramatic upgrade on the entry MacBook were already present on the older Pro — an aluminum case, a bright LED screen, and the ability to perform some iPhone-like gestures on the trackpad.
And the new MacBook Pro is actually a downgrade from the old model in a few areas. For one, it has grown slightly larger and heavier, with a 4% bigger footprint and a bit more weight (5.5 pounds versus 5.4 pounds for the old one.) These aren’t huge sacrifices, but I believe that when companies strive to redesign laptops without increasing screen size, they should try for smaller and lighter, not the reverse.
Much worse is the loss of battery life. When used with its discrete graphics processor, the natural mode for the kind of audience at which the Pro is aimed, Apple claims it will get just 4 hours of battery life, versus the 5 hours it claimed for its predecessor, which also used a discrete graphics processor. That’s a whopping 20% reduction in battery life.
To compensate, Apple built in a second, alternate, graphics system, the same wimpier integrated graphics chip that’s used in the lower-end MacBook. Only when you switch to this alternate chip — a clumsy process that involves changing a preference in software — can you hope to retain the old 5-hour battery life.
Because I didn’t do a full review of the MacBook Pro for my Wall Street Journal column, I didn’t run my own battery tests on it. But MacWorld magazine did, and the magazine declared that battery life diminished to a significant degree compared with the previous model.
In addition, Apple now offers the 15 inch MacBook Pro only with a glossy screen, having removed the option for a matte screen that is often preferred by pros who work heavily with photos and videos, because of the glare and fingerprints it can attract. This glossy-only choice is also present on the MacBook, but it matters less there, because that machine isn’t usually the choice of graphics pros.
My bottom line on the new MacBook Pro is that it still provides a satisfying upgrade for power users willing to spend the money to move up from the MacBook or from a less powerful, or similarly powerful, Windows machine running the inferior Vista or XP operating systems. But, for owners of the most recent prior MacBook Pro, the new model’s tradeoffs make an upgrade an iffy choice.
Written by Walt Mossberg on October 26th, 2008 with no comments.
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I’ve spent part of the weekend downloading and trying out dozens of the more than 800 new third-party iPhone applications that launched with the debut of Apple’s (AAPL) “App store.” The store is part of the new iPhone 2.0 operating system, which not only comes with the new iPhone 3G, but is also a free upgrade on older iPhones and a $10 upgrade on the iPod Touch.
These first applications range from serious programs for doctors and pilots to silly parlor tricks that take advantage of the iPhone’s motion sensors. One, called PhoneSaber, merely displays an image of a Star Wars-like light saber and makes varying light saber noises as you wave the phone in the air.
Here are ten apps I think you might enjoy checking out, in no particular order. These aren’t meant as full reviews, just pointers to interesting items. There may be ten others, or 200 others, you think worthier of attention. Feel free to add comments with your own suggestions.
- AIM. Finally, a native iPhone program for accessing one of the world’s most widely used instant-messaging networks. It lacks some of the more rarified features of the PC or Mac versions, but does the basic text-chat thing quite well. One downside: because Apple isn’t allowing third-party programs to run constantly in the background, you can’t receive new messages in AIM while doing other things. This will supposedly be remedied by new Apple server technology due later this year.
- MotionX-Poker. This is a simple poker game played with dice instead of cards. But it can be mesmerizing, because it makes full use of the iPhone’s graphics engine and motion sensors. You play each hand by shaking the phone to roll gorgeously rendered 3D dice, which even sound like dice. The $5 game comes from Fullpower, a company developing many motion-based programs that was founded by software industry pioneer Philippe Kahn.
- TruPhone. This is an Internet phone-calling program that works over the iPhone’s Wi-Fi radio, potentially saving you big money over using the device’s regular cell phone capability, especially when calling internationally. Biggest downside in my initial tests: it sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t.
- FileMagnet. One of the frustrating things about the iPhone is that it has no easy way for users to transfer files from their computers and store them on the phone, even though it is capable of viewing many types of files. FileMagnet, which costs $5, places a small program on your computer, and then wirelessly transfers any files you drag into it to the FileMagnet program on the phone. It works with Microsoft Word files, PDF files, images and more. Biggest downsides: it only works on Macs, but I’d bet a similar Windows program will come along soon.
- SpeechCloud Voice Dialer. This free program allows you to dial anyone in your contact list by simply saying his or her name.
- Movies. This is a free service that lets you find movies in your area, watch the trailers, buy tickets to them, and view a map to the theater.
- Remote. This free program, written by Apple itself, allows you to control any copy of iTunes, on any Windows or Mac computer, over a local wireless network. It also works on Apple TV boxes.
- Where. One of many new IPhone apps that attempt to provide information based on your location, Where, which is free, aggregates local content from services like Yelp and Eventful, which also have their own iPhone apps.
- Pandora. The new iPhone version of the wildly popular Pandora music-streaming program, is also free. It creates personalized radio stations based on artists you like.
- MLB.com At Bat. This $5 program lets you track games in progress, which is no big deal. The big deal is that you can actually watch video clips of key plays before the games are over.
Written by Walt Mossberg on July 13th, 2008 with no comments.
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I’ll have a full, detailed review of the new 3G iPhone in a few weeks, but here are some first impressions based on Apple’s (AAPL) announcement today.
The Biggest Pluses
Speed: Because the biggest problem with the original iPhone was the slow AT&T (T) network, moving the device to the much faster 3G network, while no surprise, will have a huge impact. This is especially true since data already show that it is by far the most heavily used smart phone for Web surfing. It means that you won’t have to search for a Wi-Fi network to do decent Web surfing.
Price: Less than one year after it was introduced at a hefty $599 price, the 8 GB model of the iPhone will now be two-thirds cheaper, at just $199.
Third-party programs: Until now, in order to get third-party programs on an iPhone, you had to hack it. Now, there will be hundreds of them coming soon, and the handful that were demonstrated by Apple looked impressive, from blogging-on-the-go, to news and sports, to games and even medical software.
The Biggest Minuses
Still locked to one carrier: Even though the greater speed is a huge deal, it only matters if you have good AT&T reception. If AT&T’s coverage in your area is poor, the iPhone is still a bad choice, because Apple, unlike its competitors, doesn’t sell it through multiple carriers in one market.
Still missing some features: They haven’t added a real way to cut and paste, or to save files, other than emailed photos. And there still isn’t any MMS capability–the ability to instantly send or receive media files over the phone network without resorting to email. There’s also no instant-messaging program, though third-party developers are likely to offer these.
Still has a wimpy camera: The original iPhone camera was OK, but, given the phone’s brilliant screen and tight integration with computer photo software, it could stand to be better. It isn’t in this new model.
Written by Walt Mossberg on June 9th, 2008 with no comments.
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Dueling reports from Gartner and IDC show Apple (AAPL) grabbing a larger slice of domestic computer market in the third quarter of 2007, although the reports disagree about just how large that slice is.
Gartner has Apple’s market share climbing to 8.1%, up from 6.2% a year earlier.
IDC also shows strong growth for the company, but by its calculations, Apple now commands a 6.3% market share, up from 5.7% last summer.
Their findings are summarized in the charts below.
Written by Philip Elmer-DeWitt on October 18th, 2007 with no comments.
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