Strong iPod Sales Boost Apple's Quarterly Revenues

[Kent Pribbernow]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/apr/13results.html' target='_blank'>http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/apr/13results.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2005 second quarter ended March 26, 2005. For the quarter, the Company posted a net profit of $290 million, or $.34 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $46 million, or $.06 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $3.24 billion, up 70 percent from the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 29.8 percent, up from 27.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 40 percent of the quarter’s revenue. Apple shipped 1,070,000 Macintosh® units and 5,311,000 iPods during the quarter, representing a 43 percent increase in CPU units and a 558 percent increase in iPods over the year-ago quarter."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/applelogo.jpg" /><br /><br />Good news for Apple. Both iPod <i>and</i> Mac sales are up, with iPod doing most of the grunt work carrying revenues forward. But you have to wonder what may (or will) happen if iPod starts losing steam in the face of increasing competition? :?

[aro]

Just watch and see...
Apple prepare something big for the iPod line products
before the end of the year. And the magic word is "video".

aro :lol:

[Mr. MacinTiger]

They'll do the same thing that they have done since the inital Apple computer...They'll continue to innovate and push technology forward while making it an enjoyable and creative experience for the user. I think the next major challenge for Apple is not going to be finding another revenue stream after the era of the iPod ends, it's going to be finding a sucessor to Jobs that has his passion and vision!

[Jason Eaton]

Can the iPod maintain its success? Who knows... we can all speculate on that one. Currently they have a lot of steam and forward momentum so I believe it will be some time before the iPod falters, that is IF it should falter.

However, the Pandora's box has already been opened. Looking at the sales for the year on the computers and one can see that the talked about 'halo' effect is taking effect.

Lots of rambling coming up...

Apple's biggest problem in my mind right now is getting noticed. The age of desktop computer impowerment has passed and the new age of desktop appliance that works is now here. E-mail isn't an exciting feature anymore but a norm for a lot of people, same with browsing and shopping on the web, composing a document for class.

Early computers cost alot and the PC world grew because it comoditized parts and pieces to lower the costs. This was a double edged sword however in that this multitude of diversity ment the supporting code for an operating system had to become more robust to handle the multitude of variations. Code grew larger and vendors fighting for the lowest prices pushed out low cost but low quality parts. The second attack on this front comes from how large the code is and the number of parts that make it up, thus creating holes for malicious coders to wreck havoc. The PC world is now hindered by fighting against these attacks and fighting incompatability. In short it has become too large and slow to react.

As customers change the market from emerging technology to appliance Apple was there. A smooth interface and a set of controlled hardware that makes it easy to use and reliable. The key points needed in an appliance.

So what is all this rambling? Apple became unknown and passed over by regular consumers as it battled pricing and obscurity. Then along came the iPod. Something clicked and the spotlight was cast Apples way... the iPod became the door to the Apple world. An option to move away from the PC world of incompatability, viruses, and a need for a large computer skillset to just keep the machine operating.

Question now is, do people make a change? Sales number show that some have taken the opportunity while the PC sales remain flat or slightly decline per the year. Has the pebble been cast that starts an avalanche? Time will tell.

The iPod isn't Apple's future, but a door into the homes of many people.