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- Apple Conference Call: Maybe, Just Maybe Cheaper Macs
Capping the most profitable quarter ever with the most Macs sold in a quarter, the conference call to discuss Apple’s fourth fiscal quarter for 2009 may have been the most boring ever, too. However, distilling the tedium into bullet points is more interesting.
iPhone
- Total sales for the year were 21 million, up 78 percent, average selling price around $600. There are more than 85,000 apps in the App Store, 2 billion downloads, 500 million in the last quarter.
- The iPhone 3GS, available in 64 countries last quarter, will match the iPhone 3G with availability in 80 countries by year’s end.
- China gets the iPhone on October 30 with approximately 1,000 points of sale to begin with. Plans will range from the equivalent of $18 to $85 per month, the phone being free at the higher end.
- Korea will be getting the iPhone soon, and there will be multiple carriers in Canada and the UK.
The iPhone 3GS shortage over the summer may have been the result of sales exceeding Apple’s expectations. Changing the inventory mix between the 3G and the 3GS may have caused component issues, but those were solved as of early October.
According to Apple, “people are trying to catch up with first iPhone,” so apparently no worries about Droid, Storm2, and the Pre. - In some instances, the benefit of exclusive carrier agreements allows for greater levels of innovation, like visual voicemail, and in some cases exclusive carriers “invest more.” Apple execs must be using jailbroken phones on carriers besides AT&T.
Mac
- 3.05 million Macs sold, up 440,000 YOY. For 19 out of the last 20 quarters, the Mac grew faster than the rest of the market. For the quarter, 74 percent of Macs sold were portables, up 35 percent YOY — wow.
- Snow Leopard has twice the upgrade rate of Leopard over its first five weeks. In response to a comment about the lower price working for Snow Leopard, the reply was, “yes, it did.”
- The Back-to-School promotion was the strongest ever for the Mac.
- Due to demand for the new portables last quarter and Snow Leopard being launched, it wasn’t quite hinted that sales of Macs might be down for the holiday quarter.
iPod
- The iPod controls over 70 percent of the media player market, and is gaining YOY in every country tracked.
- 50 percent of buyers are purchasing their first iPod.
- iPod touch sales were up 100 percent YOY — again, wow.
Finally, there were two interesting comments, the first being about the Apple Stores and Mac sales. For the first time I can recall, an Apple executive did not say “half or more than half” of Mac buyers were new to the platform. This time it was “about half.” Interpret freely.
Besides that, the most interesting comment came regarding expected margin declines. The rationale included the seasonality of greater iPod sales, fewer Snow Leopard sales than the previous quarter, higher component and other expenses, and this quote:
For the new products we have and will announce, we are delivering greater value to our customers, and these products have lower gross margins than their predecessors.
That would be in keeping with rumors about price reductions on some Macs, including the Mac mini. Start refreshing your browser window on the Apple Store tomorrow, early.
In Q3, NewNet focus turns to business models and search. Read the, "NewNet Q3 Wrap-up."
Переслать - Apple Q4 2009: 3M Macs, Record Profits
Reporting results for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2009, Apple sales and profits continue to defy a moribund economy, and for the first time in the company’s history ten million Macs have been sold in a fiscal year.
Apple reported revenue of $9.2 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 earnings per share (EPS), handily beating consensus estimates with the most profitable quarter ever. Apple CEO Steve Jobs issued the expected statement high-five.
"We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We've got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010."
While the great financial news is the primary indicator of the strength of the company, for the consumer the strength of a platform is in the number of units sold. For Mac and iPhone owners, the fourth fiscal quarter was great, but iPod numbers are more nuanced.
While the 3.05 million Macs sold was a record number for Apple in a single quarter, there is another milestone to ponder. For the fiscal year—and likely calendar year—of 2009, laptops account for two out of three Macs sold. Considering that it was only 2002 when that ratio was reversed, the conclusion that we are nearing the end of the desktop era, at least for Macs, seems inescapable. Another apparently inescapable conclusion is that the iPod has peaked.
Unlike the iPhone with vast arid wastes of China to sell to, and the Mac with vast arid wastes of Windows market share to take from, the iPod already owns somewhere over 70 percent of the portable media player market. Where do you go from there? Nowhere, hopefully. Even taking into account last quarter’s numbers, Apple will sell more than 50 million iPods in 2009, just like the last two years. One could even argue that potential iPod sales lost are becoming actual iPhone sales. In that scenario, lost iPod sales are actually a benefit to Apple, as the average selling price for the iPhone is higher than the iPod. If that is the case, there was much of such benefit to be had in the fourth quarter.
More than any other Apple product, iPhone sales rise and fall with new models. As the chart shows, after the introduction of each new iPhone sales surged, then dropped, albeit at significantly higher sales levels after each cycle. The question now becomes whether iPhone growth is leveling off, like the iPod, or whether the apparent plateau in sales is a pause before continuing the climb with the release of the iPhone in China.
Regardless, only the most pernicious of anti-Apple hater can see these results as anything but the staggering success they are for a company that nearly went out of business just over a decade ago. What’s more, 2010 is shaping up to be even better, with what was hopefully a thinly-veiled reference to the tablet by Steve Jobs. Expect analysts to futilely attempt to pry more information from Apple during the conference call, and TheAppleBlog to duly report the obfuscations.
Переслать - Twitter Co-Founder's New Project Revealed: iPhone Payment System
Jack Dorsey, who basically built Twitter from the ground up in its initial incarnation, isn’t on board with the social media site anymore, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been keeping busy. Recent evidence suggests that he’s responsible for a new iPhone payment system that could revolutionize the way we buy stuff.
By way of a new iPhone app and an accompanying hardware dongle that appears to operate via the phone’s headphone jack, the Square iPhone Payment system allows users to take on-the-spot credit card payments of any amount, at any time, so long as the phone has a valid network connection.
Square has previously been blogged about in the tech community, but Jack Dorsey’s involvement wasn’t revealed until Engadget spotted the domain name “squareup.com” on a receipt, and followed the breadcrumb trail via a WHOIS profile that revealed the domain is registered to someone with the contact email billing@paybysquirrel.com. Squirrel is the codename for Dorsey’s super secret follow up project that he’s tweeted about in the past. It’s not difficult to connect the dots from there.
The system definitely has lots of promise. It could mean that anyone with an iPhone could accept credit card payments quickly and easily, without a lot of expensive intermediary steps. It may not be the social media wildfire that Twitter was, but it could generate the same kind of excitement in the retail community, especially among small business communities. Theoretically, even people selling services and goods via Craigslist or Kijiji could accept credit card transactions using Squirrel/Square.
No information yet on when the software/hardware combo will be available for wide release, but the alpha testing was reported as being underway in August.
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