Riding a quarter of strong Macintosh sales, Apple Computer reported Oct. 18 that its fourth-quarter revenue grew 31 percent compared to the same period last year. The computer maker reported revenue of USD 4.84 billion compared with USD 3.68 billion in 2005. The company said this year’s quarterly net profit in the fourth quarter stood at USD 546 million or 62 cents a share, compared with a profit of USD 430 million or 50 cents a share last year. Overall, profit increased about 27 percent compared to last year. The 2006 fourth quarter ended on Sept. 30.
This comes just in time to throw a pie or two in Gartner’s face…
http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=16224
Gartner would probably tell you that Apple’s profit could be even higher if they were primarily focused on software. Margins are simply higher.
lol, well, maybe Gartner can explain how Apple can provide drivers for every piece of hardware in existance, because I’m sure Apple would love to know how that would be possible.
lol, well, maybe Gartner can explain how Apple can provide drivers for every piece of hardware in existance, because I’m sure Apple would love to know how that would be possible.
While that is exactly why Apple will never sell OSX for beige boxes, it doesn’t preclude what Gartner suggested; namely letting someone else like Dell produce the hardware. That someone else could produce hardware with a few specific components, just as Apple does, and make it difficult to add in expansion cards, or only support certain cards, as Apple does.
I don’t think it’s something Apple should do, but they could do it without getting stuck in driver purgatory.
The alternative is to merge with the likes of HP, and provide machines with Windows and MacOS installed, so then atleast end users have the benefit of economies of scale, and thus cheaper machines, a large company who can fund the amount required to keep MacOS X up to date, whilst at the same time, having the contacts within the business community to deploy it on low profile corporate desktops.
“The alternative is to merge with the likes of HP…”
WHY?
“end users have the benefit of economies of scale,…”
End users ALREADY benefit from economies of scale!!!!
“a large company who can fund the amount required to keep MacOS X up to date, whilst at the same time, having the contacts within the business community to deploy it on low profile corporate desktops”
i dont understand this line at all!
End users ALREADY benefit from economies of scale!!!!
I don’t what to get into comparison’s but here is one:
Toshiba A100/PSAA9A
Core Duo 1.73Ghz
1 GB RAM
80 GB Hard Disk
256MB GeForce Go 7300
DVD DL Burner
15.1″ Screen
(Plus the usual sound card and built in speakers)
Windows XP Professional
NZ$2599
Compared to Apple, which one would purchase around the same price range, a MacBook, which has less memory, uses a graphics card with shared memory, a smaller hard disk, smaller screen, a dvd burner that lacks dual layer capabilities ( http://store.apple.co.nz/public/product/group.php?pgid=AP26 ) etc.
It isn’t about raw price, but price vs. features vs. bang, and for Apple, it just doesn’t add up – who cares if you have a ‘sub 1inch laptop’, as if the extra .5inchs I ‘lug around’ is going to be noticeable!
Kaiwai,
You are correct that you can get the Toshi cheaper than the Mac. The best I could do (for NZ$2672 (that’s buying for AUS$2354 at the Aussie Apple store)) was (after upping the HD and adding memory)
13.3-inch widescreen display
1280 x 800 resolution
2.0GHz Intel Core Duo1
1GB memory (2x256MB SODIMMs)
80GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive2
SuperDrive (DVD±RW, CD-RW)
So I would get a smaller screen (with the same resolution), and shared graphics memory.
But there are some interesting points, if I buy the MacBook I get a much faster processor and have a machine that can run OSX, something your machine cannot (and yes, I know about OSX86). For me, and many others we need to run OSX. We can also run XP too (I have Parallels (I even threw RC1 on there at one stage)).
So basically for NZ$73 I get the ability to run OSX (which comes with iLife (worth NZ$135) anyway and a machine I think looks pretty cool You also get a very nice set of dev tools, *nix and a host of other cool stuff etc. etc…
The interesting thing is that a checked out this model in Australia, and for NZ$2611 (AUS$2299) I get the model you describe above, but with only a 1.66Ghz and a 60Gb drive and 7300 with only 128MB (see http://www.continent.com.au/buy-3030.html)..
I’m sure I can get it cheaper thought…
So I would get shared memory still and a smaller screen
Hi again, I just followed the link to the Apple NZ store. The machine I speced will cost more than what I said in my previous post (I got the cost in Aussie dollars, then did a currency conversion), but the cost in NZ is a lot higer than that… Hmmmm..
Anyway, over here the value of the Mac v Toshi is pretty close. Out of the two, I would go with the Mac, maybe where you are the Toshi is better value (if you don’t need OSX anyway). I haven’t gone to any NZ sites to check out the price of that Toshiba laptop however…
I haven’t gone to any NZ sites to check out the price of that Toshiba laptop however…
I got it through Harvey Norman (Christchurch, Moorehouse) around 4 weeks ago; I would have bought the Mac on special as well; but the problem is, I couldn’t get the 20months interest free because they wouldn’t extend it; so not only did I get a cheaper machine with a dedicated GPU with 256MB of dedicated memory (256MB), I also got 20months interest free!
I know its different in Australia, but it seems that in New Zealand, Apple can’t even be bothered providing competitive deals to customers, its this attitude of ‘if you need to ask the price, you can’t afford it’ approach to business; Apple needs to realise that they aren’t Rolls Royce, they’re a computer company, and no one is going to pay a premium for the feel good factor, given that computers play a small roll in Joe and Janes averages life.
<snip>
Edited 2006-10-20 17:49
“and make it difficult to add in expansion cards, or only support certain cards, as Apple does.”
–how does apple make it difficult to add expansion cards? seriously? maybe on an PM8100…..
—and what does apple have to do with third parties not coding drivers for there product….. (3dlabs…for instance!)
please elaborate!
Apple’s 2006 earnings and unit sales information, Q1-Q4:
o Q1 (ended 12/31/05): revenue of $5.75 billion, net quarterly profit of $565 million, 1.254 million Macs, 14.043 million iPods
o Q2 (ended 04/01/06): revenue of $4.36 billion, net quarterly profit of $410 million, 1.112 million Macs, 08.526 million iPods
o Q3 (ended 07/01/06): revenue of $4.37 billion, net quarterly profit of $472 million, 1.327 million Macs, 08.111 million iPods
o Q4 (ended 09/30/06): revenue of $4.84 billion, net quarterly profit of $546 million, 1.610 million Macs, 08.729 million iPods
In total for FY 2006, Apple has posted revenue of $19.32 billion, net profit of $1.993 billion, and sold 5,303,000 Macs and 39,409,000 iPods.
For reference, Apple’s Q4 2005:
o Q4 (ended 09/24/05): revenue of $3.68 billion, net quarterly profit of $430 million, 1.236 million Macs, 06.451 million iPods
“The retail division also pulled its share of the weight, turning in sales of $936 million and clocking more than 20 million visitors to its 165 stores around the world. Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said internal surveys found that 50% of those who bought Macs in the retail stores described themselves as ‘new to the Mac,'”
I just bought a macbook and its the first mac for me. And I am seeing it with everyone in our university.
59 million units shipped worldwide, so about 2.7% market share in the last quarter. Taken from the Register’s account of the Gartner numbers.
Apple is doomed to failure. The iPod will will be smashed by Zune, and Macintosh cannot survife on 2%, oops I mean 3%,….. not wait 4%,….. oh never mind. I just don’t understand why Apple just will not roll over and die! What’s with these guys? Apple just doesn’t seem to understand.
70% market share with iPod. 6.1% share of the pc market in the US (not sure what world shipments are).
Apple are the 4th biggest computer company in the US now, from what I read on macrumors, and I reckon they will be number three after Christmas.
I just don’t understand why Apple just will not roll over and die!
Just because YOU think they should?
I don’t think you read his comment properly.
“I just don’t understand why Apple just will not roll over and die!
Just because YOU think they should?”
ahh… the first poster was… ahhh… being facetious!
but there are many others that still feel that way! hense… Gartners continuing analyzation that apple needs to get out of the HW biz to survive!
frankly… i would get a bit Sad, if all the apple haters of the world suddenly loved apple! then apple would no longer be the underdowg!
and we can’t have that!!!!!
You just wait until that “virus” gets spread in the wild that Sophos/Symantec warned us about . . . you know the one where you have to navigate to a website and type your password in for it when prompted (via an Aqua menu no less). Mac users will fall for exploits like this by the boatloads just as soon as these “security” firms can find more “exploits”. Just you wait, another virus or two like that and Apple will come crashing down!
Well, looks like Gartner has some explaining to do! My theory on computer hardware is that the difference between good and garbage is about $200 Au dollars. The Apple “tax” to become great is about $250. If I’m paying an extra $250 for a great product that’s fine by me, it’s just an extra on top of paying $200 to get a good quality product.
If you compare say, the Dell Inspiron 6400 vs the MacBook, the MacBook wins hands down on size, portability and aesthetics. It’s worth the extra $250 or so. I’d hate to think what would happen if Dell started mass producing Apple computers… they’d overheat, have nice chunky bits of plastic sticking out, lots of vents, etc.
People like aesthetically pleasing products, and saavy marketers know this and they know that they’ll pay more for products that “show off” to friends and family. That’s the market Apple’s in, as well as Sony. Not Dell.
yea know… if the so called “apple tax” applied in the auto or housing industries…. 95% of the population would be driving Kias and living in double wides!
Great for me, I do callcenter work for apple, tier1 tech support, and a good 90% of our issues we get called about are pretty simple.
How do I get my airport to see my router?
How do I stop iDVD from loading automaticly?
How do I turn on autologin?
When I worked for a dell callcenter tech support, it was always
“OH GOD MY DATA!”
“OH GOD, MY COMPUTER SMELLS LIKE IT’S BURNING!”
No joke. Theres good quality in 2nd gen mac products.
apple products have ALWAYS been good quality! sure there been some lemons…. VERY FEW though!
well I always buy first gen Macs and haven’t had any problems.
Just a quick thought…
Whilst Gartner is full of shit, in some ways Gartner is actually behind the times.
The manufacturing of most, if not all, of Apple’s hardware is these days outsourced to other companies. Apple are essentially only in the hardware design business, not hardware manufacturing.
Yes, this has to be right. Its very odd that Gartner thinks they should outsource what they already have outsourced. In practice, if they took the Gartner route, it would result in outsourcing marketing and distribution. Why doesn’t G realize this? There must be more in the study that we are missing.
Maybe Dell would design and make stylish computers like Apple instead of some box.
They might have posted strong sales but their products still suck.