Print - Apple Sells 2.5 Million Macs in Quarter

Maybe Apple should have left the word 'Computer' in its name after all: The Cupertino consumer electronics firm sells lots of iPods and iPhones, but once again the Macintosh computer line bolstered Apple's bottom line. Apple sold 2.5 million Macs in the most recent quarter, raising its worldwide market share to 3.5 percent. But Apple's share in the US is even more impressive, about 7.8 percent, though that number is harder to calculate because Apple doesn't break down sales in that fashion. Overall sales of the Mac are growing at over twice the rate of the wider PC industry.

"We're proud to report the best June quarter for both revenue and earnings in Apple's history," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs, in what is becoming a familiar refrain. "We set a new record for Mac sales, we think we have a real winner with our new iPhone 3G, and we're busy finishing several more wonderful new products to launch in the coming months."

Apple reported a profit of $1.07 billion on revenues of $7.46 billion in the quarter ending June 30. These numbers represent year-over-year growth of 31 percent and 38 percent, respectively.

While Apple was busy growing its Mac business at a healthy 41 percent increase in year over year sales, its other businesses were flat or maturing. Sales of the iPod portable media player grew just 12 percent to 11 million units, while sales of the iPhone were a paltry 717,000, due in small part to anticipation of the new iPhone 3G model, which went on sale in July. But iPhone sales had already been declining quarter over quarter.

As always, Apple offered a conservative outlook for the coming quarter, and it's unclear why financial analysts continue to fall for this well-oiled bit of fakery. But Jobs' comments about "wonderful new products" suggest that the company is getting ready to unveil some long-overdue product upgrades to its notebook computers especially. That could mean a big bump in sales, yet again, for the Mac in the coming quarters.

More problematic for the company, perhaps, are ongoing concerns about Steve Jobs' health. The mercurial CEO looked gaunt and sickly at a recent Apple event, raising new questions about whether his cancer had returned. After previously explaining away his appearance as a reaction to a common bug, the company this week tersely noted that "Steve's health is a private matter." But this statement has only caused more concern that something is wrong. Not to be crass, but Jobs is Apple's greatest asset and it's understandable that shareholders, fans, and analysts would want to know about the health of the company's cofounder and technological shepherd.

"ongoing concerns about Steve Jobs' health" Whatever. You wonked on about this for a bit last year. And the year before that. You know, at 6' even and 175 lbs, I could be considered "gaunt and sickly" looking. Instead I am perfectly healthy. Not everyone enjoys mowing down 20 oz steaks every night Paul.

Last time I checked, Apple Inc. made computers that run the Windows Operating System, wrote software that runs on Windows, makes products that work with Windows, and sells devices that utilize Microsoft software. Seems pretty relevant to me.

You would think so wouldn't you, but no, they are still irrelavant as ever... Maybe they will crack that magic 10% marketshare someday... sigh...

"You would think so wouldn't you, but no, they are still irrelavant as ever... Maybe they will crack that magic 10% marketshare someday..." Apple makes what, half of what Microsoft makes in one year with such low market share? Face the facts you troll, Apple is very very relevant. Now continue to keep tying like an immature moron by saying words like b00ble, Crapertino, etc. It only re-inforces the fact that Windows fanboys can be just as pathetic, if not more so than Apple fanboys who use the term "M$"

@Reflections: "Apple makes what, half of what Microsoft makes in one year with such low market share?" I'm not a math major, but... "Microsoft posted quarterly earnings 5.68 billion (up a whopping 42 percent year over year) on revenues of $15.84 billion (up 18 percent)." "Apple reported a profit of $1.07 billion on revenues of $7.46 billion in the quarter ending June 30." Right on revenues, wrong on profit.

Tee hee hee... Ouch - I forgot, you can't even make fun of sMacs on a Windoze forum - reverse troll!

Since when is 12% growth "flat." I'm sure most folks would be happy to see a 12% growth of their portfilio. And how the heck is 717,000 "paltry" when compared to the sales of same quarter last year (270,000); seems pretty healthy to me - I mean, really, "paltry"? As for Job's health, look, he told his board he is cancer-free but that he needs surgery later this year to address his body's mal-absorption of nutrients, a known side-effect of his previous delicate cancer surgery. Stop the ill-founded insinuations that something more is amiss. As for Microsoft's profitability, it's interesting that Apple spends less than 1 billion a year on R&D (2007 - $844 million, 2005 - $534 million) while Microsoft spends up to $7 billion a year on R&D (which, as a comparison, is how much the US Government spends on space research and technology per year), and can you point to one product that has not been a disaster for MS (Zune, Vista, even Xbox had horrid manufacturing problems based on bad design), especially given that MS spends 7x Apple. Vista not a disaster? It's spending $500,000,000 on a new PR campaign to say (no joke): "But we know a few of you were disappointed by your early encounter. Printers didn’t work. Games felt sluggish. You told us—loudly at times—that the latest Windows wasn’t always living up to your high expectations for a Microsoft product." Seven billion a year to only jettison most of the promised new technology, fail to get manufacturing partners to deliver drivers, overselling what was "Vista Capable," nakedly copy as least some from OS X. What is it spending that money on? And, really, the reason for those inflated profits given how relatively uninspiring are their products: m-o-n-o-p-o-l-y

"It's spending $500,000,000 on a new PR campaign" you're about $200,000,000 over and at least a few dozen IQ points short with that statement. XP

Congrats to Apple. 2.5 million computers is nice. I'm glad to see Apple's back. But that little old company up in Redmond sold 40 million copies of an OS called Windows. Thats about 37.5 million users still choosing that darn evil OS. Must be a hard pill to swallow. "We want to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose," Jobs said in 1997. Jobs doesn't care, he's getting his cut. I think thats all he wants.