Apple iPod soars while Macs stall on Intel ports

Stan Beer
Thursday, 20 April 2006 07:50

IT Industry - Strategy

Apple Computer financial results for fiscal 2006 second quarter ended April 1, 2006, reveal soaring iPod sales while sales of its Macintosh computers have stagnated.
Apple shipped 1,112,000 Macs and 8,526,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 4% growth in Macs and 61% growth in iPods over the corresponding quarter 2005. Total revenue of $4.36 billion and net profit of $410 million compared favourably with the previous year's figures of $3.24 billion and $290 million, but the growth was on the back of iPod not Mac.

Apple has publicly admitted that its problems with moving Macs have stemmed from delays in ports from independent software vendors (ISV's) to run on the new Intel-based Mac OSX platform. Still unavailable are a number of software products from the two biggies Microsoft and Adobe. According to Apple, slow Mac sales were also due to customers waiting for the new Intel models to become available.

However, Apple boss Steve Jobs was natuarlly upbeat in his results announcement.

“We’ve generated over $10 billion in revenue and almost $1 billion in earnings in the first half of fiscal 2006,” said Jobs. “Our transition to Intel processors is going very well, and our music business just experienced another quarter of outstanding growth."

“We’re very pleased to report the second highest quarterly sales in Apple’s history, resulting in year-over-year revenue growth of 34 percent and earnings growth of 41 percent,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the third quarter of fiscal 2006, we expect revenue of about $4.2 to $4.4 billion. We expect GAAP earnings per diluted share of about $.39 to $.43, including an estimated $.04 per share expense impact from non-cash stock-based compensation, translating to non-GAAP EPS of about $.43 to $.47.”