Apple Sells 216,000 iPods In December Quarter, Half To Windows Users

by , 6:45 PM EST, January 15th, 2003

Apple announced today that it sold some 216,000 iPods during the December quarter. Apple CFO Fred Anderson didn't offer a breakdown on which models sold in what quantities, but he did say that some 50% of those units were for Windows.

Looking at revenues, assuming an average selling price for Apple of about US$320 per unit for the company, and that is strictly an educated guess, iPod sales contributed some US$69,120,000 to the company's coffers. Half of that figure came from Wintel users.

Mr. Anderson specifically cited Apple's renewed sales agreement with retailing giant Best Buy as having contributed to the increased sales of iPod. Mr. Anderson made a point of singling out Best Buy's sales of Windows iPod units as having been particularly strong, the inference being that Mac iPod sales through the electronics store were not as strong. Considering Best Buy's traditional dismal performance when selling Macs, that comes as no surprise. Best Buy currently sells only Apple's iPod product line, for both Mac and Windows.

Conspicuously absent from today's press conference was a mention of Target, another retailer with whom Apple announced a deal to sell iPods in during the December quarter. Mr. Anderson also didn't mention CompUSA iPod sales, though he did say that overall sales at the computer reseller chain were higher.

The Mac Observer Spin:

The iPod has been a massive success. Slice it any way you want, and it comes out P-R-O-F-I-T. That's not so bad for a device derided as too expensive by critics. It would seem that no one remembered to tell that to consumers.