Revenue in billions; earnings in dollars/share; unit sales in millions; Gross margin in %. Source: Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Posted on 10/20/2009 9:51:13 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Everybody failed to predict Cupertino's blowout quarter, but some failed worse than others
"Well, that was quite embarrassing!" writes "deagol," a widely read amateur analyst whose estimate of Apple's fourth quarter earnings fell 16% short of the record profits the company reported Monday.
...
Once again, the amateurs and independents out-performed the professionals in our quarterly Apple analyst bake-off. The color-coded spreadsheet is pasted below the fold.
But first, some general comments about why everybody failed to predict that Apple's profits would grow 46% or that the company would sell a record 3 million Macs — up 17% in a quarter in which its competitors, selling cut-rate Windows boxes at razor-thin profit margins, grew an anemic 2%.
The key misses:
(Excerpt) Read more at brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com ...
Revenue in billions; earnings in dollars/share; unit sales in millions; Gross margin in %. Source: Philip Elmer-DeWitt
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
The fake economy picked up due to the 0bama crew pumping trillions into the corpse. So people in need of ego-affirmation and ego-boosts took their stimulus checks and 0bama-bucks and bought a relatively affordable luxury. Apple computers. I would never blow money on one but the women and the artiste types, the gays and the Free Republic Megan McCain contingent and the homos love this mutual admiration society and back slapping and razzmatazz
Sure, FR techie/fanboys like Apple but lets get real....
Apple thrives on the non-brainer sectors of America who will slavishly pay double so they don’t have to use any brainpower to install a few security measures. That are 100% free anyway. And that Microsoft would have built into the OS ages ago if it were not for anti-trust laws. That Apple can trample over with ease due to its 10% market share
My broker called AAPL for a good stock a few months ago, and I went back in significantly (for me). He's still bullish at $200/share because of foreign sales in general and China in particular. I've put in a buy below the market for a little more AAPL.
Where’s my stimulus check? I never got one. Also, I was unaware of the Megan McCain contingent on FR. What is that all about?
I take it that you are the type who thinks a Kia is just as good a machine to drive as a Mercedes or a Lincoln because it can get you to all of the same places.
How many people’s 401K’s have taken a big hit? Remember that most of these are managed by professionals and they had no clue that stock market was going to bomb. No one should have any confidence in stock market analyst.
Tell us what you really think bro :)
Me thinks I detect a bit of “puter” envy!
Apple, It Just Works!
Dennis - first of all, have you tried decaf?
Second, the stimulus checks more likely went to rims, bass speakers and lottery tickets. A mac is not a "luxury" item. It's a tool, just like a PC (only much less painful to use).
Third, while you still have health insurance, see if it covers therapy so you can put that Apple trauma behind you, whatever it was. I'm series.
Macs are double the PC price (http://www.gotapex.com/deals/category/1/5.htm) so it’s fair to call them luxuries. Mac buyers are gluttons for punishment though the ego affirmation (I’m in with the cool artistic types) is part of it all
I’ll never understand why windows supporters feel the need to get so nasty and personal when the words Apple or Mac enter a discussion. Says a lot more about them than the object of their senseless rage.
Don’t worry about not owning a Mac DW. I have you covered with the 4 I currently own and the 3 in my daughter’s family but I won’t hold it against you when you get lucky and trade some of your food stamps for a lottery ticket and reach parity...
Macs are for people whose time is worth more than the moderate difference in price.
Maybe you’re just cheap.
Which two systems at that link were you comparing?
Blow your cash on Macs so you feel better and get to tell yr friends you have Mac. Doesn’t bother me a bit.
I have other ways to feel good
I have posted a zillion times that a perfectly adequate and good Windows PC will come in at half the price of Apple entry level products. IOW I can get a good PC+LCD+Windows7 on sale for $400 or less
Mac mini is your entry level system and by the time you buy an LCD monitor and bear the insult of having to blow more $$$ on speakers mouse keyboard.....
The Mac Mimi will cost double
I don't play the game of comparing mid level or high level computers. Macs lose there too but not as much
Take laptops
Perfectly good 15.6 inch laptops on sale at Best Buy for $320-$400 if you look for a sale.
What is the least expensive Mac laptop?
$1200?
And then you are or were insulted by a 12 or 13 inch LCD screen
Apple has snob appeal and little else
Plus Windows 7 is going to impact hard.
Windows is cool again!
Maybe you’re just cheap......
I don’t squander cash when I can conserve it
If it turns you on to shop for expensive overpriced Macs, it is a free country. Go to town
You still need to give a specific feature set to compare. Generalized claims are meaningless.
ENTRY LEVEL DUDE!
I am comparing Apple entry level items versus WinPC entry level prices
You know darn well 90% of computer users don’t need or ever use all the razzmatazz features on Apples
For getting on the internet, doing email, instant messaging, word processing and other basic/average tasks entry level PCs and laptops are 50% of Apple highway robbery prices
No sane person blows $1000 getting Grandma an Apple laptop. You get her a Toshiba or Dell or HP etc at half the price
Plus Mac laptops used to be 12” on the entry level. Grandma can’t read such a small screen. Is entry level now 15” for Apple laptops?
That's a BS comparison. Are you mad because Apple doesn't sell down in your market?
No sane person blows $1000 getting Grandma an Apple laptop.
I guess my family was wrong to blow over $30K on a new Honda Accord for my grandma. I guess we should have gotten her a $12K entry-level Kia. After all, the Kia accomplishes the same "basic/average tasks" as the Honda. But she likes her Honda. I don't think she would have liked a Kia.
That's not an example. That's actually what we got her.
Well that all depends on how much not doing regular tech support for grandma is worth doesn’t it. After getting all of my family and many of my friends to switch to Macs, they are much happier and I have to help them a lot less. Sounds like everyone wins.
You wouldn’t be so bitter because your prognosticating about the year in Apple sales has been so far off would you? You shouldn’t be, the whole point of the article is that most were wrong.
Thanks for the clarification. Now we can see that dennisw is of the
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| I'm a PC | I'm a Mac |
school...
That MAC bathroom is so gay.
BS, Dennisw! You always want to compare a nicely appointed mid range Mac to a bargain basement strippy Windows PC. Apple does not sell crap.
As for Grandma, not too many grandmas who need someone to select her computer for her, is going to want to use any size laptop. I got my 93 year old mother a used G4 iMac with a 17" screen. Cost? $375. Works great running OS X.4.11 Tiger. That's the entry level on Macs.
http://www.apple.com/mac/whichmacbook/compare.html
13.3” LAPTOPS! Apple is still selling tinker toy laptops for top dollar! At least that’s up from 12” of a few years ago. What stinginess and cheapness. It would cost at most $100 more to make that 13 inch laptop into a 15 incher. And some of the posters here called me cheap. It is Apple/Steve Jobs who are the real cheapskates
Still kind of a ripoff but at least a 15” Macbook laptop for $11oo could be somewhat justified
LOL LOL LOL LOL!!
I thought for sure that Apple was treating you flagellants better than that but it seems the entry level MacBook is a measly 13.3”. I thought for sure Apple would copy the PC buisness and have 15” entry level laptops by now
You guys are gluttons for punishment. Only Apple has that grip on its mesmerized mush headed minions where they willingly blow $999-$1199 (base prices) on up for 13.3” laptops. Just for the ego-boost and bragging rights.
To get a 15” Macbook you need to squander $1699 (base price)
What a laugh!!!
You can find tons of 15.6” Windows laptops at $350-$500 that will be more than adequate for 90% of computer users. I had no idea the rip off factor was so high
He’ll!my son sets the resolution for his computer so high that you’d need the Hubble Space Telescope to read the text.
When I look at his screen I wonder if I’m going blind.
You have Freepmail! :)
Why should they? They are selling all the laptops they make at the prices they are asking for them. The public is buying all the laptops that Apple makes at the prices they are willing to pay for them. They are, therefore, under all rules of economics, are priced just right.
If Apple laptops were sitting in inventory, then you might have an argument... but better than 50% of Mac Laptop buyers are ex-Windows users buying their first Mac. They already know what they don't want. They are willing to pay for what they do want.
I bought my last Macbook Pro four years ago. It is still plugging away, A friend's daughter bought an HP laptop for $1200 at the same time. Since then she has had to buy two more to replace the HPs as they crashed and burned... and that does not include two replacement motherboards because of failed power connectors that shorted them out on two of the laptops. She's had problems with keys popping off, a screen spontaneously cracking, and a hard drive failure, My Mac keeps on working... and its aluminum case looks as good as the day I bought it. Her plastic cased HPs have gaps where the joints are and are warping. The HP prices have come down since she bought her first one, but she has expended almost $2400 for her three laptops (but still has only one working one) plus almost another $1000 on repairs. That's is being a glutton for punishment. She refuses listen to me when I tell her to upgrade to a Mac because her boyfriend tells her that Macs are "toy computers." Right.
Nope.
Dell has some computers in the range of Apple systems too. The argument was bargain-basement vs. higher-end computers, not specific brands. Dell actually makes an all-in-one that's less of a value than an iMac, but I don't see you trashing that.
Four years is a lifetime in the computer biz and quality is way up for everyone from Apple to Dell to HP. She would not have that HP laptop problem today
The kinks have been ironed out. The market is moving towards laptops
Taiwanese are laptop masters and the engineering, design and manufacturing process gets more comodified and rationalized every year
So you don’t have to buy the best or an Apple to get a great laptop these days. The same applies to desktops
Not everybody wants the size and weight that comes with a bigger screen. If you want bigger, then get the bigger-screen models.
You can find tons of 15.6” Windows laptops at $350-$500 that will be more than adequate for 90% of computer users.
They're also generally throw-away crap. Apple not making that is a reaon why Apple has consistently topped customer satisfaction surveys. You may be happy about the cheap price at the store, but you become less happy once you realize that you get what you pay for. The survey also assigns high importance to "do you think you got your money's worth." In fact, the main thing propping up the PC OEM ratings is overall positive netbook ratings. They'd be lower just comparing notebooks.
BTW Apple still holds the record for the highest customer satisfaction rating ever.
Well, she bought her last replacement only two months ago... so far, it's not failed. But the previous replacement lasted just a little over a year.
Ah, to have the eyes of youth again...
BTW Apple still holds the record for the highest customer satisfaction rating ever. ....
After these bi-coastal types and artistes and hippies blow a wad what else do you expect them to say? That they paid double for doorstop?
Well, she bought her last replacement only two months ago... so far, it’s not failed. But the previous replacement lasted just a little over a year. ......
THE FORCE is with her not Steve Jobs
Dennisw, it appears that your simple-minded amusement consists of being rude and obnoxious. I found your other favorite website...
This is overall purchases, which more and more includes a large number of Windows users switching to Mac. I bet much of the increased satisfaction comes from them as they're surprised at the quality and service they get as opposed to the cheap hardware and unintelligible Indians on support they get with PCs.
The people most critical of Macs tend to be long-time Mac users because they expect even more. Years ago there was an absolute furor over small visible seam lines from the injection molding manufacturing process in one of Apple's cases. PC users wouldn't even notice that.
Went to my local Apple Store yesterday and configured a new 27” Imac! Wow, you can add all kinds of power, memory, speed, etc to it. Comes standard with wireless keyboard and and their new Magic Mouse. The 27” replaces the 24” and is mountable.
It is enough for me and with all kinds of add-ons is like half the cost of the Mac-Pro start point. Has 6 USB ports as well as 2 on the keyboard. It has a backlit LED monitor at 1440 HD which puts the 1080 to shame. The 21.5 inch and 27 are the only sizes available.
I don’t like the idea of replacing my system now as it is sill working for me. Had a PC for 5 years before getting my Mac in 2003 and will not go back to all of the problems I had with a PC. At work always had Dell’s and they had to be replaced every 2 years!
I am using an HP Deskjet 895 Cse Printer with my 1998 Gateway 19” invar shadow mask monitor along with my PowerMac G4 I bought in 2003. Everything has worked beautifully on my Mac! (actually I hate to get rid of my Gateway monitor).
My favorite Mac is the long departed 12” laptop. I like it because I just throw it in my purse ... take it anywhere.
I still think the cheap angle is your forte. I pay up for quality ... I do that with cars, homes, clothes, furnishings, food, etc ...
Mac people are very satisfied customers so they are doing something right. The people who don’t like them are people like you. A cheapskate.
Well all I can say is that I got my first Macbook last Nov. I think I got a very fair price, with rebates, and free stuff from Mac Connection.
I will never ever look back. I have been able to do things easily, videos, presentation etc, that would have had me pulling out what hair I have left on my “bargain PC”.
I really do not understand the Hate that PC folks have for Macs. The product just works, and works, and I can get my stuff done better, quicker, and with a more professional looking product in the end.
I was once asked why I ride a “Goldwing” instead of a “Harley” like all the other cool people. My answer is the same for my Mac, I would rather Ride/Use it than constantly work on it.
The fool and his money are soon parted
Apple is cheap. They are being cheap with you, Not giving you enough computer for the money. Selling 13.3" laptops for those jacked up $1000+ prices and getting its mesmerized mush head minions to go along with it. Steve Jobs is a Svengali
I pay up for quality ... I do that with cars, homes, clothes, furnishings, food, etc ...
Verse two of "I buy Apple for the ego boost and ego affirmation"
Not really, Apple makes the hardware and software. One of the HUGE perks.
You take your lowly Dell. I’ll take my Mac. I’m not afraid to pay up for quality. some people are just cheap. I feel for your wife.
If you want to blow money on Apple’s frivolities be my guest. It’s a free country. I build my own desktops and have no Dell computers. But they are good buys. Have a 15” Compaq laptop that serves me well at 40% the price of a 13.3” Macbook
Not everybody want to build their own desktops. You need to get real. You’re cheap, admit it. You are this way in other areas not computers.
You like to waste money. Makes you feel better. By now we get the picture.
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