Apple outperforms

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 23 April 2009 06:09

Business IT - Technology

And as for cash holdings, Apple squirrelled away an extra $US800 million, bringing the chest to almost $US29 billion.

The dark lining of this silver cloud is Mac sales. Not only was there the expected quarter-to-quarter fall, there was also a year-on-year fall.

2Q09 saw 2.22 million Macs sold, a 12 percent drop from 1Q09 and a 3 percent decline on 2Q08.

It's been half a decade since Mac sales slipped (ignoring seasonality), so it looks like the tough economic times are affecting Apple's big-ticket products. Oppenheimer suggested that strong introductory sales of the MacBook Air in 2Q08 make comparisons difficult.

According to Apple, consumer sales are holding up better than the professional and education markets, so maybe the company was right to hold its nerve over the perceived threat from netbooks.

Apple COO Tim Cook claimed that Apple isn't losing its professional and educational customers, instead they are deferring their purchases. He reiterated the company's position that current netbooks are "just not a [good] consumer experience and not something that we would put the Mac brand on, quite frankly."

And if you think the 2Q09 slide has something to do with Steve Jobs' medical leave of absence, Oppenheimer said "We look forward to Steve returning to Apple at the end of June."