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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1128
State of Mac Sales: Breaking Down the Figures
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
October 17th 2002
Bean counters and brass tacks.
Following IGM's earlier report on Apple's Q4 financials, it's worthwhile looking at
the breakdown of sales across the Apple product lines.
CFO Fred Anderson reported that 734,000 Macs shipped during the quarter, representing
a 14% decline on the year-ago quarter. Anderson also said that some of the quarter saw
declines in volumes due to reductions in channel inventory.
The numbers demonstrate that consumer demand is still fairly strong; the US economy
itself is still being kept afloat by strong consumer spending, while business is weak.
This was reflected by iMac sales of 318,000, with 76,000 of these being CRT 'classic'
iMacs. Anderson noted that iMac 17" LCD units had "exceeded expectations", with
113,000 shipped.
eMac units totalled 129.000, with the conference call citing lower education spending.
As ever, the iBook remains a bedrock of Apple's revenue stream, with 180,000 shipping
in the quarter, despite the fact the portable has seen few updates besides CPU speed
increases in its 16.5 month life. Combo drive sales are gaining strength in the
product mix.
Anderson was coy on pro Power Mac and PowerBook sales, not citing numbers, but given
the total Mac CPU shipments figure, it's not hard to work out they were pretty lousy.
The bottom line is that while most of us might like a Ti 800 or a DP 1.25GHz Power
Mac, relatively few of us can afford one. Anderson argued that pro customers were
holding off upgrading equipment in a weak business environment.
In response to a question on iMac 17, Anderson said it was likely to be cannibalizing
Power Mac sales, but that there were no problems on the supply side with the 17" model.
Channel inventory was scaled back by 1.5 weeks to normal levels of 4-5 weeks, more
quickly than usual, the CFO said. On a question regarding education market share,
Anderson said that ed market share was likely to remain stable.
The iPod is a success story in itself, with 140,000 shipped with around 40% (54,000)
of sales now made up by Windows versions. The iPod is a real hit in Japan, but its
real value probably lies in getting the Apple brand out there; its overall revenue
value per annum is probably only around $100 million - useful, but not mind-boggling.
Analysts were positive about the Apple Retail Store figures, which are looking a lot
better. Store contribution is positive for the first time, with revenues rising from
$63 million to $102 million for the quarter (an average of $12 million contributed per
store). The loss recorded by Retail is only $3 million, which is an exceptionally
strong result in a flat environment.
Jaguar (OS X 10.2) provided a much-needed revenue bump, with 280,000 copies sold
(excluding volume licenses). Anderson wouldn't give an exact figure on Jaguar's
benefit to the bottom line, but given that 10.1 provided around $19 million, it's fair
to say that a 'real' loss (as opposed to a 'paper' loss) would have arisen had 10.2
not contributed probably $20 million-plus.
For more numbers, we'll wait for web publication of Apple's K-10 filing with the SEC.
But the real questions raised are how to reinvigorate the pro line: do the Ti and PM
need more speed, more features and/or a lower price? Or is the market simply too weak
to sustain high volumes of these pricey Macs at present? It's worthwhile noting that
Dell is winning the price wars, but it's stealing share away predominantly from
HP-Compaq and other brand-name PC makers. But that shouldn't make us think that Dell
isn't stealing education share away from Apple, particularly as Anderson appears to be
merely shoring up a defensive position for Apple in education. We know that Ed
spending is flat, but, frankly, I'm surprised the eMac hasn't made a bigger splash,
seeing as it really is extremely good value.
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