TMO Exclusive - Cagey Apple Sold 138,000 mini's in Q2, Analyst Believes
by , 3:00 PM EDT, April 15th, 2005
Despite not wanting to publicly say just how many Mac mini systems it sold worldwide in the first quarter of this year, one market analyst has determined Apple Computer moved some 138,000 of the newest Mac desktop -- more than double what most had predicted.
Using Apple's own data, Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster came to his conclusion based on the total number of flat panel iMacs, eMacs and Mac mini's sold, the total revenue of the group and the approximate average selling price of each model.
With only 69 days to sell the Mac mini in the fiscal second-quarter instead of 90 days, Mr. Munster called the results of the Mac mini a "remarkable" number.
"Apple has got to be very proud of these results for the Mac mini," Mr. Munster said. "This consumer Mac is selling well and I think Apple can call this a success."
Using the same type of numbers to calculate Mac mini sales, Mr. Munster also determined Apple sold 1.8 million units of the iPod shuffle worldwide in the quarter and 3.5 million iPod and iPod mini's.
Why oh why
So why wouldn't Apple want to tell everyone just how successful the Mac mini has been? "All I can think of is that while they might have wanted to show their excitement, they did want to look too happy and tip off their competitors who have been watching the Mac mini closely since it was launched," Mr. Munster commented.
During Wednesday's conference call with analysts to discuss its fiscal second-quarter earnings results, senior vice president and chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer refused to release sales figures on the Mac mini and refused to elaborate in-depth. Mr. Oppenheimer would only say, "we were very pleased with customer response and sales (to the Mac mini), and anecdotally, we think that existing Mac customers and Windows customers are buying the Mac mini."
Despite saying Apple would no longer offer in-depth breakdowns of individual product sales beginning at the end of the current quarter, Apple began the new policy a little early with the Mac mini and iPod models, giving no reason as to why.
The reason for the new policy: "We want to more closely align the reporting we provide for our Mac and music business," said Mr. Oppenheimer. "We believe this will provide consistency with a level of detail we provide for our music business as well as the level of detail provided by our major competitors in the personal computer industry."
A number of analysts, including Mr. Munster, told TMO that Mr. Oppenheimer was correct in saying many companies are switching to the much vaguer policy of releasing exacting sales numbers, but said such a policy makes it difficult for investors and analysts to determine what segments of Apple's business are doing well and which ones are not.
"It's going to get tougher and tougher to figure out how successful any one product is," Mr. Munster said. "We're going to have to estimate and our level of accuracy will be difficult to determine. Taking away this level of detail, while Apple might consider it wise, many will question if they have something to hide."
Power Mac units *declined* by 19% and iMac/eMac/Mac mini revenue *declined* by 22%. The Mac mini fad is fading fast, after the initial rush by Mac fanatics to replace their old iMacs with the Mac mini, the public isn't buying into an underpowered toy with a low quality hard drive that often dies after a few weeks.
Unit sales is not equal to revenue, so you're comparing kumquats to toadstools. Of course, you know that, and you're just trying to get a response. *yawn.*
Speaking of minis, none of my PC friends has bought one yet (my father got one though), they all switched to macs before the mini came out though -- next one in line is getting an iBook, guess they are all fads...
Even though I have a PowerBook & G4 Minitower, I bought a Mac Mini. It's sitting on top of my TV with an EyeTV Wonder USB 2.0 and an ATI Remote Wonder as a QTSS server, PVR, home media center, and DVD player.
As a long term window user (23 years), I was dying to get a Mac. Too many damn bugs, viruses, etc. Unfortunately, I couldn't justify the price since I had never worked on them.
Bought the Mac Mini and I love it. Sure it's a little underpowered, but for the average user it works just fine. Also, this has definitely given me the incentive to upgrade at a future time.
Apple knows exactly what they are doing. Don't kid yourself.
Quote
Stormbringer wrote: From RC
Power Mac units *declined* by 19% and iMac/eMac/Mac mini revenue *declined* by 22%. The Mac mini fad is fading fast, after the initial rush by Mac fanatics to replace their old iMacs with the Mac mini, the public isn't buying into an underpowered toy with a low quality hard drive that often dies after a few weeks.
I'm quite impressed. I didn't believe Apple could sell so many of these Mac Minis. I guess I've been wrong. Maybe I'll have to actually get one and check it out for myself.
Note that the username above is "RaelityCheck" and not "RealityCheck". If this had been the real RealityCheck, the post would have contained cynical remarks, and weak jabs at us "iLemmings".
Duh, Oppenheimer said he wouldn't report individual product line figures for *competitive* reasons. Apple doesn't want Dell to get a clue about how important decent design can be for a low-end machine.
CloseViewName:Guest Sat Apr 16, 2005 12:04 amSubject: Dell
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Guest wrote: Duh, Oppenheimer said he wouldn't report individual product line figures for *competitive* reasons. Apple doesn't want Dell to get a clue about how important decent design can be for a low-end machine.
Not to worry....all indications are that Dell has absolutely no clue about design whatsoever.
CloseViewName:Guest Sat Apr 16, 2005 6:29 pmSubject:
Quote
Stormbringer wrote: From RC
Power Mac units *declined* by 19% and iMac/eMac/Mac mini revenue *declined* by 22%. The Mac mini fad is fading fast, after the initial rush by Mac fanatics to replace their old iMacs with the Mac mini, the public isn't buying into an underpowered toy with a low quality hard drive that often dies after a few weeks.
it just *may* be because the powermac and emac is at the end of their "cycle" and it's well known those lines are very overdue for an update.
But that just might require a little more brain power to figure out than you currently seem to have.
Numbers without detailed analysis cannot be used to make much of statement especially when you cannot go back a quarter or YTD. I think one reason is so that when new products come out, they don't pale in comparison to X model - the iMac in its 1G version was important to establish that Apple was back - subsequent numbers are important to revenue but less important as rallying points or 'keeping score.' Since the first wave seems to have sold out, we do not know how fast retailers got replenished and I don't think Amazon is selling the SD version yet either ... PB sales are hard to determine since many might be holding off until June WWDC in hopes that the G5 PB is coming out - since eah revision is a speed bump but hardly worth trading in a G4 PB. iBook sales of course get a bump for back to school and holidays and unless it's a substantial bump, sales will naturally drop off after the other 6 months of the year so all and all, the four most important numbers that matter when it comes to the computer side - how many macs sold, margins, revenue & profits - the other numbers are interesting but less important.
Remember that some industry sources count units shipped and others count units sold and a company like Ingram can "stuff" their warehouses or their channels to help their own bottom line without Apple's knowledge so keep a grain of salt handy.
Please don't feed the trolls, they lack any kind of objectivity and or reason. The above poster is probably a 14 year old 1337 g@|\/|3R (elite gamer, ignorant term for someone who thinks their ability at video games means matters) who wouldn't know what productivity was if it fell on him/her.
I was shocked when I found out one of my friends, a stock broker, had purchased an iPod and was interested in getting a mini very soon, he's moving shortly and isn't buying anything of consequence until after the move. The friend in question is a pretty big PC gamer (as am I) who was never really used Macs much, and didn't seem too hip on them in the first place. He's not the typical home user, he is responsible for his department's website written in Cold Fusion and performs PLSQL queries (Oracle). He actually prefers PHP, but company policy forbids it's use....
Another friend of mine, a network administrator, bought one about a month ago. He has used Macs in the past, however is more of a Windows guy, MCSE 2000 and 2003 among other M$ certs.
In the circles that I run in, which is mostly Unix/Linux/Network admin types, the big thing is the PowerBook, which seems to be slowly replacing Inspirons and Thinkpads. I do find the mini interesting, as in how it affects uptake of the OSX platform and mindshare, however I have no desire to have one. I do want to get my hands on a G5 tower at some point, but it's been 313 days since last update, when the average is around 175 days between updates. The towers are unbelievably overdue for an update. I may instead decide that I want a Powerbook, but that kinda depends on how I feel when I am ready to upgrade my Mac. And that will come after my home network upgrades, an Athlon 64 for games, and some work on my Suburban project.
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