Apple’s latest financial reports show that the company moved about 711,000 computers during its third financial quarter, which ended in March. A breakdown of the numbers shows bad news for some products, but good news for others, especially on the PowerBook front.
Apple moved about 256,000 iMacs during the quarter — that includes flat-panel iMacs, CRT-based iMacs, and eMac systems. That’s 14 percent fewer units than they moved during the first quarter, and 31 percent less than they moved for the same quarter last year. Demand for iBooks was also weak — Apple moved about 133,000 consumer laptops during the quarter, a six percent decline in the number of iBooks Apple sold during the same quarter a year ago. Apple CFO Fred Anderson attributes the weak demand for Apple’s consumer machines partly to the restricted spending of public schools around the country.
Power Mac G4 sales, meanwhile, remained tepid at 156,000 units for the quarter — almost staying level with sales during the first quarter (1 percent less) and dropping 26 percent from the second quarter of 2002. During his conference call with financial analysts to discuss the quarterly results, Apple’s Anderson blames sluggish Power Mac G4 sales on a combination of factors, principally a weak economy and the lack of a Mac OS X-native version of QuarkXPress. When pressed, Anderson also volunteered that performance issues might be a problem as well. He expects that there’s “pent-up demand” for Power Mac G4s from Mac-using professionals, however.
News was considerably better on the PowerBook front, however — Apple’s pro line of laptops surged for the second quarter of Apple’s FY ’03. January’s introduction of 12 and 17-inch PowerBooks led the wave, with strong demand continuing for Apple’s venerable 15-inch PowerBook as well. All told, Apple moved 166,000 PowerBooks during the quarter — 64 percent better than the first quarter of FY’03 and a stunning 87 percent better than the same quarter a year ago.
All told, US$353 million of Apple’s $1.475 billion in quarterly revenue was generated from the sales and delivery of PowerBooks, the single largest revenue-generating segment of Apple’s product line. iMacs were a close second with $302 million, with Power Mac G4s’ premium price tags raking in $293 million. iBook sales put $151 million into Apple’s coffers, and the remaining $376 million was the result of peripherals and other hardware, software and miscellaneous products.