Apple will be holding its Q2 Conference Call this afternoon at 2:00 PM PST. The company is offering a Webcast of the event, but if you canit tune in to that or get a Stream for whatever reason, tune in to this page for our live coverage of the event. We will be providing text coverage of the event that is updated every few minutes. Bookmark this page, or look for the updated headline on our home page once the conference call begins.
[2:06 PM PST] Fred on stage. Profits of US$43 million. Channel inventory down by 100,000 units.
[2:25 PM PST] Hmmmm... This may be coming to a close. It is, in fact, over. Thanks for staying with us.[2:22 PM PST] Walter Winitzky asks about trimming guidance and looking at potential demand from education. Asking about gross margins compared to the Wintel world which has vowed to use price to gain market share. Does Apple need to accept lower gross margins goals. Fred: We are comfortable with 27%. Apple doesnit have to pay Microsoft for the OS, and their gross margins should be 3 points higher right there. Apple is not in that game. Apple will have good education sales.
[2:21 PM PST] Charles Wolf asks about iMac buyers. Fred says that 28% are new Mac users. Windows users are 13%. Charles is asking about FlowerPower and Dalmation Blue. Fred says it is 20% of total iMac sales.
[2:18 PM PST] David Bailey asks about education sales: Fred: Apple brought in Jim Marshal and Cheryl Bedoe (sp?). The company also bought PowerSchool. He is touting that companyis product and features. Says it brings together students and teachers. Apple is taking a more solution oriented approach to education. Apple is going back to basics, committing more resources, to regain their position. Says that they have 600 sales people.
[2:16 PM PST] Didnit catch analystis name: Asking more about guidance. Fred says Apple lowered guidance to US$6 billion for the year earlier this year. Fred says they are taking the tough market into account with that guidance. In other words, they took that into account in the first place, thank you. Fred says Apple is not worried about double bookings.
[2:14 PM PST] Richard Gardner asks if there were sales of full reserved revenue. Fred says we had the strongest performance in US and Japan. YOY, all other regions were down. Europe doing well, but seeing early signs of softening. Fred says 20% of product in terms of revenue were "old products," meaning they were paid for in previous quarters.
[2:13 PM PST] Richard Shoe of SG Cowen Asks about direct business product mix. Asking about sell-through. Fred says that direct sales were 1/3 of Appleis revenue. Richard asks about guidance: Fred says that guidance for the rest of the year is good.
[2:12 PM PST] Gross margins will continue to be close to 27% target in second half of 2001. Sales expected to be US$3.2 to US$3.4 billion during same period. Fred is saying they feel good about the quarter and their ability to generate sales in the current offerings. Touting current offerings and Appleis direction.
[2:12 PM PST] Touted inventory, didnit get it all. Fred goes way too fast.
[2:11 PM PST] Apple acquired PowerSchool. This is in line with Appleis strategy to deliver compelling solutions. All stock deal worth US$62 million.
[2:10 PM PST] Gross Margins increased to 26.9%. Component prices softened in the quarter (Think RAM). OS X helped with gross margins too. US$89 million in revenue from sale of ARM shares.
[2:09 PM PST] Media has reacted positively to Appleis new products. OS X generated US$19 million in one week.
[2:08 PM PST] (AAPL currently trading at 25+ -- http://htmlgritch.island.com/SERVICE/QUOTE?STOCK=aapl )
[2:07 PM PST] New PowerMac G4, new PowerBook G4, new iMacs.For other stories regarding Appleis stock activity, visit our updated Apple Stock Watch Special Report. You can also check out our Apple Financial Boards, for discussion of AAPL and Appleis financials.