Surprisingly high numbers for this quarter for Apple, but even more surprisingly, Tim Cook seems to think next quarter won't have a drastic drop-off due to the Intel transition. I could be misreading this WSJ interpretation of what Cook actually said, but if not, wow! I know that in my company, we have put on hold our thought of purchasing a new G5 dual chip machine in the fall so as to wait for a new machine. Unless the price drops to a fraction of the current list price, of course.
WSJ -
Apple Computer Inc. continued a growth streak driven by strong sales of the iPod digital-music player and Macintosh personal computer, posting a five-fold increase in net income on a 75% jump in revenue.The Cupertino, Calif., computer maker reported net income for its fiscal third quarter ended June 25 of $320 million, or 37 cents a share, up from $61 million, or eight cents a share, in the year earlier period. The results exceeded the company's earnings forecast of 28 cents a share and analysts' consensus estimate of 31 cents a share, according to a survey by Thomson First Call....
The company's Macintosh computer business shined strongly too. Propelled by a new version of the Mac operating system called Tiger and new computers like the Mac mini, Apple sold 1.2 million Macs in the quarter for revenue of $1.57 billion, compared with sales of 876,000 Macs, and revenue of $1.26 billion, in the year-ago period.
The results suggest that Apple has reversed a decade-long slide in its share of global PC sales. Apple sold 35% more Macs in the quarter than it did a year earlier. That's about three times the growth rate of the global PC industry, according to Apple and analysts.
Investors said strong Macintosh sales seemed to demonstrate a “halo effect” from the iPod, which Apple executives have said is attracting new customers to try Mac products. “If there was any concern that the halo effect was real, this quarter finally put that to rest,” said Mike Sansoterra, a portfolio manager at Principal Global Investors, an asset-management firm in Des Moines, Iowa, that owns Apple shares.
For its fiscal fourth quarter, ending Sept. 24, Apple said it expects revenue of $3.5 billion and earnings of 32 cents a share. That would represent no change in revenue, and a decline in earnings, from the just-completed quarter. Apple executives said the forecasts reflect a more muted impact from Tiger, which was released in the third quarter, on Mac sales and software upgrades on the fourth quarter.
So far, Apple doesn't appear to be suffering a slowdown in sales due to its planned shift to microprocessors made by Intel Corp. from chips made by International Business Machines Corp. and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. Apple believes the change will allow it to design a new line smaller, but more powerful computers.
When Apple announced the transition to Intel chips last month, some industry executives and analysts speculated that some potential customers might delay Mac purchases until the new machines are released, starting next summer. Apple executives said they saw no obvious reduction in Mac sales following the Intel announcement, but they conceded it's too soon to determine the full impact of the move.
“We expect to learn more in the current quarter,” said Timothy Cook, executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations at Apple.
Perhaps, closer to September, these numbers will get revised downward, and it might be a good time to purchase some Apple stock like we've talked about.
