It's the talk of the town here this morning... -----
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/14387231.htm Posted on Thu, Apr. 20, 2006 Apple plans second Cupertino campus By John Boudreau Mercury News Apple Computer plans to build a second Cupertino campus on 50 acres, which would be large enough for up to 3,500 workers, Chief Executive Steve Jobs announced at a city council meeting Tuesday night. The growth plans became public just before the company announced earnings for the most recent quarter. After a record-breaking holiday season, Apple settled in with a more modest quarter during which it recorded profits of 47 cents a share, or $410 million, on revenue of $4.36 billion. The Cupertino company said it sold 8.5 million iPods during the quarter that ended April 1, down from the 14 million it sold during the period that ended in December. It shipped more than a million Macintosh computers. Analysts on average had forecast earnings of 43 cents a share on revenue of $4.5 billion, according to Thomson First Call. For the same period a year ago, Apple reported a profit of 34 cents a share, or $290 million, on revenue of $3.2 billion. Gross margin was 29.8 percent, same as the the year-ago quarter, the company said. ``We've generated over $10 billion in revenue and almost $1 billion in earnings in the first half of fiscal 2006,'' Jobs said in a statement. ``Our transition to Intel processors is going very well, and our music business just experienced another quarter of outstanding growth.'' Analysts generally expected lower numbers for the quarter due to a post-holiday slowdown in iPod sales, some problems stocking enough new Intel-operated MacBook Pros and a delay in purchase by consumers waiting for the Intel upgrades for other PCs, such as the iBook. ``There is a pause effect,'' said Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster. ``There is a delay in manufacturing. In some ways, the March quarter and the June quarter are a victim of some of the success they have had.'' Last quarter, which included the holiday season, Apple rang up more iPod sales -- 14 million units -- than its mainstay Mac computers. Analysts anticipated sales in the 8 million range for the Cupertino company's second quarter. ``I would say anything with an 8 on the front would be a positive,'' Jaffray said before the company announced its quarterly results. He also forecast sales of 1.1 million computers. Last month, Apple gained a bit more share in the U.S. digital music player market, climbing from 76.9 percent in February to 77.6 in March, according to researcher NPD Group. In February, Apple unveiled a lower-cost, 1-gigabyte $149 iPod nano and slashed the price of its iPod shuffle to $69 for the 512-megabyte model and $99 for the 1 GB version. ``The one thing that has impressed me more than anything else about how they have managed the iPod is how precise they have been in placing their products in a price-value range,'' Stephen Baker, NPD director of industry analysis. The company, he added, must be vigilant to price-sensitive consumers as the high-end markets gets tapped out. ``At some point, absolute price is an issue,'' Baker said. Apple, whose computers make up less than 5 percent of the total U.S. market, launched its new line of Intel-based Macs, which will run on Intel's news chip, the Core Duo processor, during January's Macworld convention in San Francisco. The first models to get the upgrade are the iMac desktops and the MacBook Pro laptop, which replaced the PowerBook. Earlier this month, Apple continued its campaign to woo customers from rival computer makers by offering up Boot Camp, free software that will allow the Windows operating system to run on its new Intel computers. tag Contact John Boudreau at [EMAIL PROTECTED] or (408) 278-3496. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TELECOM-CITIES Current searchable archives (Feb. 1, 2006 to present) at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Old searchble archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
