Apple on Wednesday offered results for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2004. The company posted a US$46 million profit on more than $1.9 billion in total revenue, moving 749,000 computers in the process.
iPods up, Power Macs down
iPods continued to represent a huge success for Apple, both sequentially and year-over-year. Apple sold 807,000 iPods during its second quarter, 909 percent more than the same quarter a year ago and 10 percent more than it did during its last record-setting quarter. That provided a total of about $264 million in revenue for Apple.
Power Mac sales, which includes Power Mac G4s, Power Mac G5s and Xserve boxes, did not quite match expectations. Apple had hoped when the Power Mac G5 shipped last year that it would be able to sustain about 200,000 units sold per quarter — they exited the quarter with 174,000 Power Mac units sold. Power Mac unit sales were up year-over-year by about 12 percent, although they dropped 19 percent sequentially. Apple attributes that low number, at least in part, to backlogged orders of the Xserve G5. If supply had not been constrained, it would have been closer to 190,000 units for the quarter, according to Apple — about 5 percent off its 200,000 unit goal.
PowerBook sales totalled about 157,000 units — $336 million all told. Forty-eight percent of the Macs Apple sold during the second quarter were portable units, between the PowerBook and iBook. Those PowerBook numbers did represent a 19 percent sequential drop, however, and a 5 percent year-over-year drop.
Consumer sales good and bad
Apple sold 217,000 iMacs and eMacs for the quarter, racking up about $252 million in revenue. That’s down four percent from the holidays and off 15 percent year-to-year. Apple’s hoping that its new eMac system — updated with a host of faster components and an improved architecture — will have a positive effect as the company begins to court the back-to-school market.
The iBook sold very strong for the quarter. Unit sales were flat sequentially, which is a victory, as calendar Q4 sales usually uptick with holiday and end-of-year shopping. That still translated into 201,000 iBooks sold for the quarter, worth about $223 million in revenue, up 51 percent year-over-year. Apple attributes the strong iBook market to continued demand for systems equipped with the PowerPC G4 processor.
Peripherals and other hardware not directly CPU-related contributed $272 million to Apple’s top line revenue, while software — Panther, iLife ’04, and Apple’s professional applications, including FileMaker — totaled about $213 million in revenue.
Where in the world … ?
Predictably, the Americas were where Apple saw the most units sold and revenue. Combining North and South American revenue figures, Apple made $881 million in that region with 361,000 units sold. That’s a seven percent unit sales uptick compared to the same quarter a year ago, and a 29 percent revenue improvement over the same time last year.
Europe was Apple’s second biggest regional market, moving 187,000 units and contributing $449 million to Apple’s bottom line. Unit sales grew seven percent compared to the second quarter of 2003, with a 33 percent revenue improvement.
Japan continued to slide, however — Apple sold 76,000 units in the region for the second quarter, worth about $173 million in sales. Sequentially, Apple’s sales almost stayed flat, but year-over-year the company saw a 29 percent drop in unit sales. Apple Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Operations Tim Cook told analysts that he’s not happy with those numbers and said that Apple’s taking steps to help sagging sales in the Japan region.
Apple’s retail operations pulled in 70,000 units for the quarter, contributing about $266 million in revenue. That’s 25 percent better unit sales than the same quarter a year ago, with 43 percent higher revenue for the same period. Apple will continue to open new retail locations throughout the year, bringing its total number of retail stores to 88, including a new location in London, England.