Apple fortunes rise as Dell misses Q3 financial targets

Macworld ^ | 11/01/2005 | Jim Dalrymple

[Panerai]

As Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs leads his company to record quarterly revenue and earnings, competitor Dell Inc., led by Michael Dell, will miss its third-quarter revenue guidance. Dell company officials blame lower than expected sales for the shortfall, which will be the second straight financial quarter the company will miss its revenue projections.

In addition to dropping sales, Dell said that it would take a US$450 million charge to replace broken Optiplex desktops and restructure its workforce.

Dell now expects revenue for the company's third quarter, which ended last Friday, to be about $13.9 billion. In August, Dell predicted third-quarter revenue would fall between $14.1 billion and $14.5 billion. The shortfall was due to missed sales targets in the company's U.S. consumer business and its U.K. business, said Jess Blackburn, a company spokesman. He declined to specify exactly what portion of Dell's business was affected.

This will be the second straight quarter that Dell has missed its goals for quarterly revenue. Last quarter, Chief Executive Officer Kevin Rollins said the company failed to convince customers to upgrade their cheaper desktops to more profitable systems.

On October 11, 2005 Apple reported a profit of $430 million for its 2005 fiscal fourth quarter. The company posted revenue of $3.68 billion, the highest revenue and earnings in the company’s history.

Apple said it shipped 1,236,000 Macs and 6,451,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 48 percent growth in Macs and 220 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter.

[x5452]

To Hell with Dell.

[Red Badger]

replace broken Optiplex? Wha happen?.......

[RegulatorCountry]

Dell To Jobs: Shut Down Apple

(10/06/97; 4:00 p.m. EDT)

By David Braun, TechWire

ORLANDO, Fla. -- What would Dell Computer CEO Michael Dell do if he should wake up one morning as Steve Jobs, acting CEO of Apple Computer? Clearly a fate too ghastly to contemplate, Dell at first attempted to duck the question, put to him Monday by a panel of analysts here at the Gartner Group's conference on the future of information technology.

"I hope that will never happen to me," Dell said. But just pretend he WAS Steve Jobs, what would he do, the interrogators persisted.

"I would shut down Apple and give the shareholders their money back," Dell said, to a mixture of applause and boos from the more than 7,000 IT managers in the audience.

[Casloy]

Apples fortunes aren't rising because Dell's are sinking. Dells are sinking because Apple is wiping the floor with all PC manufacterers. Apple is making a high quality product that works, while the others are all still bogged down in the same old technology running the same old Microsoft, bug laden, virus inviting, tired operating system. Hold a Powerbook G4 in one hand and any other laptop in your other hand you can see the difference.

[Texas_Jarhead]

8 years is a long time to hold a grudge.

[jalisco555]

To Hell with Dell.

My Dell from Hell turned me into a Mac user, and I've never looked back.

[jalisco555]

Hold a Powerbook G4 in one hand and any other laptop in your other hand you can see the difference.

They'd have to pry my Powerbook G4 out of my cold, dead fingers.

[Casloy]

"I would shut down Apple and give the shareholders their money back," Dell said, to a mixture of applause and boos from the more than 7,000 IT managers in the audience.

This is why Apple wins. Dell doesn't even recognize their competition as having something worth competing against. You can't win until you recognize what your competitor has and try to do it better.

[RegulatorCountry]

"8 years is a long time to hold a grudge."

Hell, who's holding a grudge? Here we have a thread, eight years later, with the tables nearly completely turned. I thought it was a pertinent quote to include, myself.

[Banjoguy]

See my tagline...so much for outsourcing service. I was screwed out of my 24/7 support fee.

During my last problem, phone techy said I needed a new sound card and insisted he send someone over to install it. What showed up at my door was an unshaven Indian national who smelled like a perfume factory....(turns out I didn't need the card.)

I recently talked my son out of buying one of these pieces of crap. I think I will return to building my own.

[Casloy]

They'd have to pry my Powerbook G4 out of my cold, dead fingers.

Now that's product loyalty! But, I totally agree. They didn't have to pry my Dell from my hands, I tossed it before I went out and bought a powerbook G4.

[N3WBI3]

TO be fair 8 years ago Apple was not Dells primary competition, I don't even think they are today... Dells competition in those days were other PC devisions like Compaq and IBM..

[jalisco555]

They didn't have to pry my Dell from my hands, I tossed it before I went out and bought a powerbook G4.

LOL. That's exactly what happened to me. After 18 months of dealing with what Dell so hilariously calls "tech support".

[Texas_Jarhead]

My comment was somewhat in jest but I will disagree with "the tables nearly completely turned". Dell earned $14B in reveneue as opposed to Apple's < $4B.

[oceanview]

indeed, that is what is killing them. offshored tech support.

[1L]

I hate to tell you, but I bet if you crunch the numbers, its Apple's iPod and iTunes store sales that are fueling it financial numbers, not the computer sales. My Thinkpad runs as well or better than any Apple powerbook ever made, and I bought the TP after extensive comparisons with the PB. And the knock on Microsoft is tiresome.

[RegulatorCountry]

"And the knock on Microsoft is tiresome."

Tiresome it may well be, but undeserved it's not.

[1L]

You can't name one problem I've had on my PCs running Windows in the last 5 years that you haven't had on your Mac.

NOT ONE.

[VeniVidiVici]

its Apple's iPod and iTunes store sales that are fueling it financial numbers

Shhh! Don't feed the bears!