1:38 p.m. PT – Jason Snell: Hi everyone. We’re digesting the numbers now in advance of the call in 20 minutes
Comment by biggsjm: Here’s a time-saver. They are great.
1:40 p.m. PT – Matt Deatherage, MacJournals: Hello from MacJournals as well; we’re doing the same
1:41 p.m. PT – JS: Indeed they are. Days like this I wish I had three 27-inch monitors…
1:42 p.m. PT – Dan Moren: You know, you really shouldn’t liveblog for an hour after digesting financial numbers.
1:42 p.m. PT – DM: But we like to live on the edge here.
Comment by RatioTrader: Will we be able to hear the conference call here?
1:43 p.m. PT – JS: @RatioTrader: No, but you can get to it from apple.com/investor/ as a QT stream
Comment by stephenchan: Works on iPad? I though this was a flash app
1:43 p.m. PT – JS: Nope, Cover It Live is all DHTML.
1:43 p.m. PT – JS: Except for a lame flash animation.
1:43 p.m. PT – JS: Dan and I are joined by the embodiment of MacJournals.com, the excellent journal of all things Mac related. And a very smart embodiment it is too.
1:44 p.m. PT – JS: So, some first takes: I’m actually kind of stunned at the iPod number, which is actually down only 1.2% year over year, while the three previous quarters were between seven and eight percent down YOY.
1:44 p.m. PT – JS: I’m gonna guess that’s grazy good iPod touch sales, but it will be interesting to see if Apple can lend more detail there.
Comment by ubercool: Already been on CNBC, hurry up! 🙂
1:45 p.m. PT – JS: Oh, sorry, details coming on the site, but in here…
1:45 p.m. PT – JS: $3.33 earnings per share on revenue of $13.5 billion
1:46 p.m. PT – JS: Mac sales: 3.36 million. iPhones: 8.74 million. iPods: 10.9 million
1:47 p.m. PT – JS: Here’s the release
1:47 p.m. PT – DM: Sadly, we won’t see much about iPad sales, since Q2 ended on March 27, before the iPad shipped on April 3.
1:48 p.m. PT – JS: More number crunching: Mac sales were up year over year. But that year-ago quarter was the weakest quarter for Mac sales in the previous 9. This one is good, but down from the last two quarters.
Comment by biggsjm: Wow. 3.36 million. Expectation was 2.9 million macs and 10 million iPhones. Soft on iPhones but really strong on Macs.
Comment by jeffrichardson: Odds of Apple discussing the “lost” iPhone? I doubt it, but it would be interesting if they did. An analyst could ask whether the Gizmodo story is expected to have an impact on future iPhone sales to try to make the question seem relevant.
1:48 p.m. PT – JS: @jeffrichardson: I think they might mention it. When prompted.
1:48 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: I’ll be a bit slow since I’m tweeting this stuff as well, at least for now, but here goes some:
1:48 p.m. PT – JS: MacJournals, I can feed your tweets in here too.
1:49 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: All sales fell from holiday quarter somewhat, but iPhone average selling prices and music revenues were both up, surprisingly
1:49 p.m. PT – JS: Or not.
1:49 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Ah, OK Jason, please do. Makes less cut and paste 🙂
1:50 p.m. PT – JS: Okay, we should be auto-feeding MacJournals tweets in here.
1:50 p.m. PT – JS: Everyone, we’re moderating comments and won’t approve all of them (sorry) but we are reading them! (Hi to John Welch and Dave Zatz…)
1:51 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Mac sales were up from a bad year-ago quarter, but average selling prices fell for portables (9%), leading to 4% overall decline in ASPs
1:51 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: The ASP trend is useful, but not specific numbers since the price Apple gets varies wildly depending on whether a reseller sold the CPU.
1:51 p.m. PT – JS: I’m impressed by the iPhone unit sales. That’s actually the most iPhone units sold in any quarter, EVER. And a non-holiday quarter. Some serious and maybe unexpected momentum for the iPhone.
1:52 p.m. PT – JS: As MacJournals says, the average selling price of a Mac laptop dipped to $1240 this quarter, down about $56 from last quarter. I assume the new laptops just introduced will boost those numbers next quarter.
1:52 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: At $5.445 billion, iPhone sales accounted for 40% of Apple’s revenue. All Mac sales were 28%, all iPod/Music sales were 24%.
1:52 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Apple received, on average, about $620 per iPhone sold in the quarter. About $170 per iPod sold, about $1275 for each Mac.
Comment by zweigand: You said 3.6M Mac sales …it was 2.94M
1:52 p.m. PT – JS: correct, sorry, total Mac sales are 2.943M – revenue of $3.76M
Comment by BrianCGillespie: Their iPhone comment will probably go along the lines of, “we can’t comment while there is a criminal investigation going on.”
1:53 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: That $1240 is just for portables, Jason. $1336 for desktops, for an average of $1278. Probably only significant to 2.5 figures or so,
1:53 p.m. PT – JS: (I said laptops, MacJournals.. .:-) )
1:53 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: But if you pay $1000 for a Mac, Apple gets $1000 if you buy it from Apple or an Apple Store, but only about $820 if you buy it from a reseller, so using ASPs to predict *Mac* product mixes is a fool’s errand.
1:54 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: (this is Matt, btw; we just use the publication name so all the credit and searching is right 🙂 )
Comment by GadgetDon: I know iPad sales won’t show up yet, but will they be listed as laptop sales, iPod sales, or iPhone sales?
1:55 p.m. PT – JS: My guess is that Apple will add an iPad category next quarter, though it’s possible they could roll it in to another category. Probably not.
1:56 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: “Other Music Products” revenue (iTunes Store, caes, accessories) was up 14% sequentially, 27% year-over-year. Perhaps loading up new iPods?
1:56 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Historically, Apple will wait to break out iPad sales until they are a significant percentage of revenue (2% or 5% or something like that), and until then they’ll be “other.”
1:57 p.m. PT – JS: So, iPhone sales in year-ago quarter were 3.8M. Since then: 5.2, 7.4, 8.7, 8.75.
Comment by John Welch: they’d almost have to add the iPad as a separate category.
Comment by alexbrooks: Wow, AAPL just jumped 19%!
Comment by biggsjm: What’s the % of Revenue for each of the three legs of their business? iPod/iPhone, Computers, Music Sales? Mac revenue was 3.3 Billion of $13 Billion?
1:58 p.m. PT – JS: 28 percent Mac, 14 percent iPod, 40 percent iPhone.
1:58 p.m. PT – JS: Mac has been 28 or 29 percent each of the last three quarters.
Comment by John Welch: i understand why they don’t, but i really wish Apple broke out their products more, although i doubt Xserve sales are anything to crow about. The Xserve is almost as much a hobby product as the AppleTV
Comment by jscarlton: Where are the ASP numbers that MacJournals are reporting?
1:59 p.m. PT – JS: @jscarlton: You have to do the math, it’s taking total sales and dividing by revenue
1:59 p.m. PT – JS: So the average desktop was $1336, and laptop was $1241.
Comment by biggsjm: Thanks, Jason . . .and I thought AT&T was dependent upon the iPhone! 😉
Comment by moshmutant: watching a liveblog for an earnings call. what’s wrong with me? and for that matter, what’s wrong with all of you?
Comment by chockenberry: Say Apple sold 500,000 iPads at an ASP of $600. That’s $300M of revenue. Which category did it get filed under?
1:59 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: We have a spreadsheet set up for it. It took extra time because we can’t use year-ago numbers for comparison; Apple restated all those numbers to eliminate subscription accounting.
2:00 p.m. PT – JS: CHOCKLOCK: I imagine all iPad revenue was deferred until the products shipped, which was April 3 (not in this financial quarter)
Comment by GlennF: Demand|media doesn’t use Twitter OAUTH for authentication. Requires Twitter password. Booo.
2:00 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Since “Other Music” includes App Store revenues (all iTunes Store revenues), that could be part of it too
Comment by besologic: is app store revenue included in the iphone numbers?
2:00 p.m. PT – JS: @besologic: No, it’s in Software and Services, I believe.
Comment by John Welch: The other number i’d love to see that they’ll never break out are enterprise support agreements. It’d be small overall, but i’m always curious as to how much they really make from them
Comment by chockenberry: @jsnell Oh duh.
Comment by jscarlton: Couldn’t find the data…just found it here.
2:01 p.m. PT – JS: You can read our news story about this here.
2:01 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: I don’t _think_ they break out App Store revenue from iTunes Store, Jason. I’m willing to be wrong.
2:01 p.m. PT – DM: Here we go.
2:02 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: The call starts shortly; we’ll be doing more comments at the @macworld live blog with just more breaking news here.
2:02 p.m. PT – DM: We’ve got Nancy Paxton for opening remarks. We’ll have Peter Oppenheimer and Tim Cook.
Comment by John Welch: It’l be interesting to see how much of a bump portables see next year from the new models.
2:02 p.m. PT – DM: As usual, forward-looking statements may vary (no word on flash-forward-looking statements).
2:02 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: (you can stop live-feeding our tweets now, hehe)
2:03 p.m. PT – DM: And we’re over to Peter for intro remarks.
2:03 p.m. PT – JS: New record for Mac sales in March quarter.
2:03 p.m. PT – DM: Outstanding March quarter results that exceeded expectations. Best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings ever, best iPhone sales ever, new Mac sales in March record.
2:03 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: CNBC talking head (via closed captioning): “It’s over for the Mac.” (Think he means iPhone/iPad is the future.)
2:04 p.m. PT – DM: Very strong performance was due primarily to more than doubling in iPhone sales and strong momentum of Mac products.
2:04 p.m. PT – DM: Slower sequential decline than usual.
2:04 p.m. PT – DM: Operation margin was $4 billion. Net income was $3.1 billion, up 90% over year ago quarter. $3.33 eps.
2:04 p.m. PT – DM: Mac: Record March quarter sales of 2.94 million Macs. 33% year over year growth, compared to 24% growth for market overall during March quarter. Very pleased with Mac growth in all segments.
2:05 p.m. PT – JS: 30 percent growth year over year versus 24 percent IDC estimate
2:05 p.m. PT – DM: Updated MacBook Pro announced last week with faster processors and longer battery life. Between 3-4 weeks of Mac channel inventory.
2:05 p.m. PT – DM: In music, sold 10.9 million iPods, about equal to 11 million in year ago quarter. iPod touch units grew 63% year over year.
Comment by John Welch: sigh…yes, because a vibrant, growing product is something you want to kill.
2:05 p.m. PT – JS: unreal that they sold almost the same # of iPods in this quarter as in the year-ago quarter
2:05 p.m. PT – DM: Overall iPod revenue growth of 12%.
2:05 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: And with no promotions, Jason
Comment by John Welch: iPod sales not going down is really quite amazing.
2:06 p.m. PT – DM: iPod was also top-selling MP3 player and continues to gain share internationally and in Australia, U.K., Canada, and Japan.
2:06 p.m. PT – DM: $1.1 billion in sales from iTunes Store.
2:06 p.m. PT – DM: In February crossed the 10 billion mark for songs purchased and downloaded. More than 185,000 apps in App Store and over 4 billion downloads to date.
2:06 p.m. PT – JS: Sorry, year-ago quarter, not holiday quarter. But still.
2:06 p.m. PT – DM: Very excited to have launched iBookstore and over 3500 new apps for iPad.
2:07 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: I find it interesting that Apple is now keeping only 3-4 weeks’ worth of Mac units in the channel. It was 4-6 weeks’ worth for a very long time, and is still there for iPods.
2:07 p.m. PT – DM: 8.75 million iPhones in quarter, exceeding record set in most recent holiday quarter.131% year over year growth. More than 3x IDC’s estimate for smartphone market overall in quarter.
2:07 p.m. PT – JS: “This represents 131% year over year growth, and is more than 3 times IDC’s estimate of 41% growth of smartphone market overall.”
2:07 p.m. PT – DM: Recognized revenue was $5.45 billino during quarter.
2:07 p.m. PT – DM: Continued to expand iPhone’s reach in both carriers in country with 151 carriers in 88 countries.
Comment by biggsjm: @MacJournals . . . agreed. Jobs will pair down the Mac offerings (starting with the AIR) and slowly push consumer users to an iPad / iPhone like device. Keeping the pro offerings for media professionals.
Comment by Stuart McCann: Does Apple provide GAPP and Non-GAPP figures still?
2:08 p.m. PT – JS: Stuart, it’s all GAAP now. No crazy subscription accounting.
2:08 p.m. PT – DM: Also very pleased that customers ranked iPhone first in J.D. Powers wireless smartphone customer satisfaction survey.
2:08 p.m. PT – DM: Very excited about iPhone OS 4 this summer. Developer response very positive.
Comment by John Welch: I can’t wait to see how the highlander crowd will spin this to prove the Android/iPhone/Blackberry will utterly destroy the Android/iPhone/Blackberry
2:08 p.m. PT – DM: iPad, extremely pleased with sales results in the last few weeks and good reviews and customer feedback.
2:09 p.m. PT – DM: On track to begin shipping 3G iPad on April 30 and begin shipping both iPads in 9 additional countries at the end of May.
Comment by John Welch: iPhone OS 4 is S.O.P. for major iPhone releases, (here’s a list of requests. yes. you can have them all), so the excitement about it makes sense. From the IT POV, there’s a lot to like in 4
2:09 p.m. PT – JS: iPad news is basically, Up With People. Not a lot of detail. “People like it.”
Comment by Stuart McCann: magical and revolutionary! please not again
2:09 p.m. PT – DM: Apple Stores. Revenues was $1.68 billion compared to $1.38 billion in year ago quarter, up 22%. 606,000 Macs sold, compared to 438,000 Macs, increase of 38%. About half Macs sold were to those new to Mac.
2:10 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Not sure I ever understand CNBC. They’re asking where the growth is going to come from since all these products are “mature” (except iPad), but then note that people are buying them like crazy and then basically pretend their own question is irrelevant.
2:10 p.m. PT – JS: There’s my favorite stat: still about half of Macs sold in retail are to people who have never owned a Mac before. Crazy.
2:10 p.m. PT – DM: Opened 2 new UK stores and a Germany store, to end with 286 stores. Average revenue per store $5.9 million.
2:10 p.m. PT – DM: 47 million vistiors in stores during quarter, compared to 31.9 million visitors in the year ago quarter. Ended quarter with 600,000 members in One to One.
Comment by GlennF: @MacJournals They have to fill all this empty air. If they don’t fill it, it expires. Also, none of their viewers are paying much attention. It’s background news.
2:10 p.m. PT – DM: Over half of new stores will be in int’l locations including London, Paris, Shanghai.
2:10 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: I still think “new to Mac” means that they don’t have a Mac at home now, not that they never ever have, but I can’t cite a source.
Comment by John Welch: Well, given the still small marketshare of the Mac OS, that stat is a bit easier to maintain than it would seem.
2:11 p.m. PT – JS: They phrase it as “have never bought a Mac before.” But I do wonder if it means the last 5 years, last 10 years…
Comment by John Welch: True, most of the listeners are waiting to play analyst bingo
2:11 p.m. PT – DM: Positive factors drove: stronger product mix, including iPhones and accessory; lower costs; fixed-cost leverage.
Comment by chockenberry: GEZUS CHRIMINY ALL THESE FRICKEN NUMBERS WHEN WILL THEY PROVIDE A CHOCKLOCK OPTION
2:12 p.m. PT – DM: Cash + short term/long term securities $41.7 billion. Compare to 39.8 billion at end of Dec. quarter.
2:12 p.m. PT – DM: Cash flow from ops over $2.3 billion.
2:12 p.m. PT – JS: This is the dry part of the call. Unless you love numbers. Then it’s sweet, sweet nectar.
2:12 p.m. PT – DM: Continue to preserve capital and focus on short-dated, high-quality investments.
Comment by dportela: Gonna be a lot more revenue for the German stores if the story about the iPad pre-orders being in the order of 300,000 is true.
2:12 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: The next part is more like opaque jars of honey. It might be sweet nectar or it might be just one giant crystal, tempting but unreachable.
2:12 p.m. PT – DM: Looking ahead: Rvenue between $13 billino-$13.4 billion, compared to $9.7 billion. Gross margin: 36%.
2:13 p.m. PT – JS: 13B and 13.4B outlook, compared to 9.7B last year. Keep in mind, APPLE’S OUTLOOK IS CONSERVATIVE. And yet, that’s huge growth anticipated.
2:13 p.m. PT – DM: 25% of sequential gross margin decline is driven by first quarter of iPad sales. Very aggressive with pricing of iPad.
2:13 p.m. PT – JS: Did he just mention a future product transition?
2:13 p.m. PT – DM: Remaining three quarters of margin decline due to: stronger U.S. dollar, Mac portable transition, beginning of education buying season, and unannounced product transition.
Comment by lexfri: Love the focus on short-dated high-quality investments.
2:14 p.m. PT – DM: Taxrate to be about 27%. Target of eps is $2.28-$2.39 compared to $2.01 year ago quarter.
Comment by Stuart McCann: Global market share 4%, phonemail room for growth. With Apple’s margins it could soon be America’s largest corporation (current no.3)
Comment by nevenmrgan: “A future product transition”, he says.
Comment by biggsjm: What’s that about a future product transition that he mentioned / slipped in?
Comment by Nate Silva: “Goal is capital preservation” so I wouldn’t expect them to buy AMD for ~$10 billion.
Comment by Sam Penrose: iPod numbers: decline of “iPod” (2001->2008) masked by rise of iPhone that can’t make cell calls, misleading named “iPod Touch”.
2:14 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Saying they’re taking lower margins on iPads is saying “We could charge a lot more for these and we’re not. Take that, competitors.”
2:14 p.m. PT – DM: Looking forward to the release of both iPads in 9 countries in May, very enthusiastic about iPhone OS 4.0 this summer. Very confident in new product pipeline.
2:14 p.m. PT – DM: And we’re on to questions.
Comment by John Welch: Here we go
2:14 p.m. PT – JS: questions!
2:14 p.m. PT – DM: (My fingers are cold, so I’m not typing as fast as usual. Apologies!)
2:15 p.m. PT – DM: First question, Gene Munster: iPad is off to a fast start. Looks like it’s the “Mac of the masses.” What insight gained from U.S. market? Any cannibalization?
2:15 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Can Munster really think iPad sales would cannibalize Mac sales. YOU HAVE TO HAVE A COMPUTER TO SYNC AN iPAD WITH. You can’t have a stand-alone iPad.
2:16 p.m. PT – DM: Tim Cook: If you look at last quarter, we made the announcement in January. In our view, there was no obvious impact on either the Mac or the iPod. Going forward into April, don’t have enough experience to come to a judgment. We’ll see how it goes.
Comment by John Welch: in less than a month? that’s not statistically significant, much less how do you prove cannibalization?
Comment by chockenberry: Even analysts get confused when saying “iPod” (instead of “iPad”.)
2:16 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: Thrilled with sales of iPad.
2:16 p.m. PT – DM: Munster: Deceleration of growth rate in Mac during March; possibly holding off on buying a Mac for an iPad?
2:16 p.m. PT – JS: “We’re obviously thrilled with sales of the iPad, it’s far exceeded our expectations.”
Comment by besologic: Munster, always with the “keen” insight.
Comment by Dave Zatz: Gene Munster, the fabricator of Apple stats. iPad sales figure estimate was off by 100%. Ha!
Comment by Angry_Drunk: Trust one of the Munsters to ask a question about cannibals.
2:17 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: if you look at previous March, we announced a new iMac and new Mac mini, so compare point was to a month where we announced two new prodcuts to a month where we didn’t announce any new Macs. Can’t judge Mac business on a month-by-month basis.
Comment by lexfri: I hope they call on Gizmodo.
2:17 p.m. PT – DM: Munster: On mix between 3G vs. Wi-Fi iPad sales?
2:17 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Gizmodo, like all of us, counts as “press” and is not eligible to ask questions.
Comment by GlennF: Oddly, I just bought a MacBook Pro after buying an iPad. I believe there’s special magic consumption gas in the iPad’s case.
Comment by moshmutant: munster’s question was worse than my comment about the ipod sales.
Comment by scstrr: Looking forward: 36% is a fairly high gross margin. I remember in past years declaring 30%. Does this mean higher margin products coming out, or that their current catalog has higher margins?
2:17 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: Too early to tell. Only been selling 3Gs as pre-orders. Need to be selling both models side by side in an unconstrained environment to know what mix will be.
Comment by John Welch: Translation: Gene, we need real numbers before we can tell you what those numbers mean. It’s part of the whole “not making stuff up” thing
2:18 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Suman, I’ll bet a quarter someone asks about sustaining high margins
2:18 p.m. PT – DM: Barclays Capital: Can you talk about why you’re guiding down revenue sequentially?
2:18 p.m. PT – DM: (That was a rambling question.)
Comment by John Welch: Matt: you mean for a change?
2:19 p.m. PT – JS: Now is the time in these calls where analysts basically tell Apple that it’s sandbagging its guidance.
2:19 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: John: They usually ask if PO doesn’t give an explanation in his preamble
2:19 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: In coming up with guidance, factored in several things. Sequentially lower ASPs in beginning of education buying season, strong US dollar. Holiday gift cards are usually used in March quarter, so decrease there. Expect to see Mac sales go up due to refresh of MacBook Pros and education buying.
2:19 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: For iPod, it was better than last year. This year, would expect to see bigger sequential decline in June quarter than the 7% we saw last year. For iPhone, we don’t have much experience with seasonality with current country/carrier distribution.
2:19 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: To some asking: don’t expect any questions on any new iPhone (except maybe on the leak controversy), or if asked, don’t expect answers
2:20 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: For iPad, thrilled with customer response and will begin shipping both versions by end of April and additional countries by end of May.
Comment by John Welch: That’s a good point. predicting seasonality for the iPhone worldwide has to be a bear. China will ignore the xmas season rather a lot
Comment by GlennF: Barclays: “Why are you all so handsome?” No, I missed the question.
2:20 p.m. PT – DM: Barclays: More about iPhone. Why did it do so well this quarter? Staggering number due to expectations. Good strength overseas. What happened there? “How was China?”
Comment by marcoarment: He referred to having just refreshed “the Mac pro line”. Do you think he meant the Mac Pro line or the Mac professional line?
Comment by Stuart McCann: mac pro refresh? does he mean Macbook pro
2:20 p.m. PT – JS: My guess is it was a mistake.
2:21 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: Channel inventory was essentially flat from beginning of quarter to end. Geography: staggering growth rates, look at Asia/Pacific. Units grew 470% year over year. Japan grew 183%, Europe grew 133%.
Comment by John Welch: Simple Answer: Verbal type. Will be reported as a conspiracy
2:21 p.m. PT – JS: (By the way: great crowd here today. This may not be the same volume we get for an Apple event, but I love each and every one of you.)
Comment by biggsjm: Translation: “Why were the iPhone sales so good? Don’t these people know that new ones are usually released in June?”
2:21 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: While they’re talking about iPhone geographies, it’s interesting to note that sequentially, Mac sales were down double-digit percentages (both units and revenue) in every geography except Japan and Asia/Pacific
Comment by scstrr: And Matt, I’ll bet you the response to the margins question is “components are favorably priced”, but nothing about actual composition of or shift in product mix.
2:21 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: Incredible demand for iPhone. Led by adding 8 carriers in key countries, Vodafone in the U.K. and Ireland, as well as key countries in Asia. Strong performance from existing carrier partners as well. Widespread, just generally terrific results.
Comment by GlennF: Greater China: Does the PRC approve of that definition? “Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.”
2:22 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Mac Pro and Mac Mini units are not where Apple’s focus is; that’s now on “portable devices,” as they’ve made clear. Don’t expect frequent or stunning updates in those lines.
2:22 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: China has been interesting. Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan. iPhone units up year over year over 9x. Revenue through first half of fiscal year just completed: almost $1.3 billion. Up over 200% year over year.
Comment by gruber via twitter: The Japanese hate the iPhone. Unit sales in Japan are only up 180% year over year.
2:23 p.m. PT – DM: Cross Research: Talk a little point about data points for success of App Store. Higher ASP of apps related to iPad?
Comment by stephenchan: Nice shoutout for Ireland!
Comment by biggsjm: @MacJournals so do you see Apple continuing the push to drop prices to increase demand in Macs?
2:23 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: GlennF: since “Europe” includes Africa, I wouldn’t draw larger conclusions about political points of view 😛
2:23 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: Thrilled with App Store. Customers are loving it. Well over 4 billion downloads and over 185,000 apps. Now over 3500 for iPad alone. Just begun shipping iPad. We released some data early the first week.
2:23 p.m. PT – JS: Summary: “App Store: I’m Loving It.”
2:24 p.m. PT – DM: Cross Research: Tim, can you talk about production capacity on iPad side? Pushed out international launch, so are there any limiting factors?
2:24 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: @biggsjim: I would more anticipate that prices drop slowly as capabilities increase. Absent any huge major new capability (like Blu-Ray drives), I would be surprised to see prices on any model increase, and even then no more than $100, on a refresh
2:24 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: Done very well vs. capacity. Not a problem, per se. Good kind of issue: demand in U.S. was much, much stronger than predicted. Regrettably, had to push out int’l launch to launch 3G units in U.S.
2:24 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: Adding capability. We’ll see where this thing goes. It has shocked us, the level of demand.
Comment by chockenberry: Shocked by initial demand. They’re not alone…
2:25 p.m. PT – DM: Credit Suisse: Didn’t hear comment on component pricing on gross margin outlet. What are you seeing in component pricing trends?
Comment by GlennF: Nice to see Apple overwhelmed by demand. Would love to see some usage breakdowns from surveys or such. What *are* people using the iPad for? Everything?
2:25 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: The DRAM market is constrained. Do expect higher pricing sequentially, due to that. Bulk of other commodites are generally in supply-demand balance. Other components should remain consistent with historical trends.
2:25 p.m. PT – DM: Credit Suisse: How do we think about the economics of iAd? Break even or profit maker?
2:26 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: We’re putting our toes in the water, so don’t expect much from us this calendar year. We think we’ll learn a lot for the future.
Comment by GlennF: Great questions: Credit Suisse bundled three different kinds of questions into that one, but Peter responded to just one.
2:26 p.m. PT – DM: Credit Suisse: Where’s AT&T at on their network plans? Still happy?
Comment by GlennF: Credit Suisse asserted that iTunes (and App Store?) weren’t profit centers.
2:26 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: They’re working very hard and continue to improve. Think it will continue.
Comment by John Welch: someone has to ask about tethering
Comment by chockenberry: EVERYONE ON THE FRICKEN PLANET IS LOOKING FOR CONTINUED IMPROVEMENT
2:26 p.m. PT – JS: “They clearly made big strides in some areas as recent surveys have pointed out.”
2:27 p.m. PT – DM: Sanford Bernstein: Alluded to growth from new carriers vs. existing carriers. Quantify how much of year over year growth came from new carriers?
2:27 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: @chockenberry: it’s long been a source of frustration that wall street is never happy with profit, only with growth
Comment by biggsjm: @MacJournals Interesting. Still its curious that the Mac Pros went up $100 at the entry level with this last refresh.
Comment by dportela: GlennF: VNCing into my eMate.
Comment by marcoarment: None of those “big strides” happened in New York City.
Comment by John Welch: is there anything that isn’t looking for improvement? I mean besides Craig of course.
Comment by Stuart McCann: tim accepts itunes isnt profit maker?
Comment by nevenmrgan: Apple’s attitude toward AT&T seems like the way a polite teacher will never tell you your child is falling behind in school. “She tries very hard, she does. And she’s very quiet in class.”
2:27 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: We don’t break it out at that level of detail. Both very important to us, additional and existing carriers. We added 8 carriers, and out of 151 carriers at the country level, it’s a good number but not a significant number. Existing carriers performed very well.
Comment by GlennF: On tethering, i can only think that Apple doesn’t have a deal to split revenue from AT&T on it, isn’t hearing enough complaints to make it a required part of deal.
Comment by gruber via twitter: Tim Cook says level of demand in US for iPad “has shocked us”.
Comment by gruber via twitter: No questions on stolen iPhone prototype yet.
2:28 p.m. PT – DM: Sanford Bernstein: Trying to broaden distribution of iPhone? Can you update us on thinking of incremental distribution? Available to any carrier in any country?
2:28 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: There are three main countries where Apple has a contractual exclusive: U.S., Germany, and Spain.
Comment by GlennF: Alternative to tethering is Virgin Mobile’s broadband service, which you can pay for on demand, no contract, in small units, uses CDMA for better coverage (right now).
2:29 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: There are a few smaller countries where there’s an exclusive, but those three are the major markets. Over past year, have moved a number of markets from exclusive to non-exclusive. In each case, unit growth has accelerated and market share has improved.
Comment by GlennF: Had Apple previously acknowledge that AT&T was an exclusive provider under contract? I know it was a de facto exclusive provider.
2:29 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: But that doesn’t mean that we view that that formula works in every single case. That’s our learning so far, that’s the result we’ve seen so far. Think very carefully about each country invidivudally.
Comment by GlennF: Here it comes.
Comment by nevenmrgan: Folks, don’t forget to check AAPL… $259 right now.
Comment by GlennF: No, wait, it doesn’t. I thought SanBern was going to ask the stolen question.
Comment by nevenmrgan: …or not!
Comment by moshmutant: technically canada is still on that list of exclusive carriers
2:30 p.m. PT – DM: Sanford Bernstein: Gross margin is going to decline 600 basis points sequentially, a quarter of which is due to iPad. For that contribution to be true via guidance, iPad would need to be 15% of revenue, or $2 billion of revenue. (Wish I’d taken more math!).
2:30 p.m. PT – JS: I think this was a very careful statement by Cook re: AT&T. He said, yes, in other markets where Apple has gone non-exclusive, market share and growth have increased. But: that doesn’t mean it would work everywhere. So they’re still “learning” and “thinking very carefully.” A non-answer, but an interesting one.
Comment by GlennF: I nodded off there for a moment.
2:31 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: We don’t give out specific margins for products. That said, when we priced iPad, we priced it very aggressively in order to deliver tremendous value.
Comment by jonseff via twitter: Analysts talking numbers at Apple makes my head hurt.
Comment by John Welch: Well, in other countries, you have multiple viable GSM carriers. In the US, not so much, so over here, Apple is sitting upon Morton’s Fork with regard to expanding carriers
Comment by jscarlton: Great question by Bernstein
Comment by Stuart McCann: bestein is wrong, he’s basing the mix on $499 model
2:31 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: We think the market size for iPad is very large. Want to capitalize on first mover advantage. We have a good track record of writing down cost curves with volume manufacturing.
Comment by GlennF: I like the statement that it priced iPad “aggressively.” That reminds me a bit of the notion of forward margin increases: priced aggressively today, margins increase with volume every few months. (Unless component costs went way up or way down.)
2:32 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Keep in mind that historically, we’re discussing what has been Apple’s LOWEST quarter of the fiscal year. Q1 has holiday sales, Q3-Q4 have strong education sales. Q2 has neither.
2:32 p.m. PT – DM: Sanford Bernstein: To the degree that you want to drive volume, you will be open minded about price changes?
2:32 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: We have nothing to announce relative to those things today. Priced aggressively because we believe there’s a market for it.
2:32 p.m. PT – JS: Now we’ve reached the point where the analysts are trying to get Apple to announce things, like an iPad price drop. To which Cook says, “we priced this very aggressively.” Translation: It’s already as cheap as they want it to be.
Comment by biggsjm: @jsnell I think they’re saying, they are waiting for LTE rollouts (GSM) and exclusivity to end.
Comment by Stuart McCann: tim : costs will fall rapidly, prices will fall
Comment by jscarlton: Implication, re: Bernstein: We expect iPad to do gangbusters
2:33 p.m. PT – DM: Citi Group: Talked about headwinds on gross margin going into second quarter. Can you talk about tailwinds on gross margins going into June? Component pricing overall a headwind or tailwind?
Comment by lexfri: “We have nothing to announce” isn’t “No.” But if sales exceed expectations, I don’t know why Apple would bother dropping price any time soon.
2:33 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: Component pricing is not really a headwind or tailwind. Tim has already said what he thinks we’ll see in June quarter. Don’t think costs by themselves are necessarily a big factor.
2:34 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: We’ve introduced a new product, we’ve been very aggressive to take advantage of our first mover opportunity .We’ve got some other transitions, we’ve got a stronger dollar, and we’re moving into education buying season. That’s what’s gone into thinking on gross margin.
2:34 p.m. PT – JS: “Dear Apple, You are shocked by how well your sales are going. Don’t you think you should cut the price?” Hello analyst, this is Econ 101 calling.
Comment by GlennF: ed buying season coming up: Right, the iPads sold so far are for casual use, maybe for schools. August sales…
2:34 p.m. PT – DM: Citi Group: Deferring a portion of revenue for iPad software upgrades in accounting?
2:34 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: We’ll discuss that in July which will cover first shipments of iPad.
Comment by danielpunkass via twitter: So clever of Apple to time iPad release for Q3, knowing that the Q2 sales were fully juiced enough to stand on their own.
2:34 p.m. PT – DM: Citi Group: Can you talk about China plans and store openings?
Comment by jonseff via twitter: Tim Cook: The iPad is doing great — why in the world would we charge less?!
Comment by Stuart McCann: first mover opportunity… translation, we want to repeat our iPod model
2:35 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: Very excited about China for retail and Apple. Tim talked about success in Greater China, but as regards retail stores, will open two stores in Shanghai and target 25 stores open in China by end of calendar 2011.
2:35 p.m. PT – DM: UBS: If I look at iPhone units across 151 operators, 58k units per operator. Obviously some are smaller or larger carriers; how do you drive units up on a per-operator basis?
Comment by GlennF: Averaging unit sales per operator is fairly silly.
2:36 p.m. PT – JS: This analyst knows how to divide.
Comment by GlennF: On average, everyone on earth owns part of an iPhone.
2:36 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: No, it’s entirely silly. Next time: driving unit sales per Wi-Fi access point.
2:36 p.m. PT – JS: Cook: “That’s not a very meaningful number.” Diplomatic. Steve Jobs would say, “Are you nuts?”
Comment by ryanbooker: Hopefully that analyst is sent back to economics classes. Hmm… demand is outpacing supply. We should cut the price! That’ll fix it!
2:36 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: 58k is not a very meaningful number because of the variance from one particular carrier. Things we do to drive overall iPhone units is to focus on the products: software, for example. New iPhone software coming this summer, new hardware and new products, new distribution points, new carriers and geopgrahic expansion. All of those things and great marketing.
Comment by morrick: The priciest iPod touch is $399, the cheapest iPad is $499. How can anyone seriously ask about a future iPad price drop?
Comment by Stuart McCann: analysts translation.. please get my iPhone off AT&T
Comment by arcsine: Did, I understand the iPad price question right? If you start making more money than you’re predicting, will you drop the price to keep your prediction true?
2:37 p.m. PT – DM: UBS: Apple’s been a little more aggressive defending patent portfolio. Doesn’t look like we’re seeing an impact, but how do we think about legal expenses relative to legal expenses?
2:37 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: It’s factored into guidance for June, and we’ve reported it in March.
Comment by GlennF: Good gravy. That’s a twofer: legal expenses versus opex! How about hamster rental fees compared to hovercraft maintenance budget?
Comment by John Welch: Translation: our finances rock, we don’t have to lie about them or hide stuff
2:37 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Glenn: he’s trying to ask “how much are you spending on lawsuits” in ways they’ll answer. It didn’t work. Wouldn’t have worked bluntly either.
2:38 p.m. PT – DM: [Missed who]: iPhone upset expected last quarter happened this quarter, and international carrier partners represented a lot of that. How have the int’l markets ramped up vs. U.S. over past two years?
Comment by Stuart McCann: legal cost? … we will crush HTC
Comment by Angry_Drunk: Ooh, legal expenses…almost there.
2:38 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Apple has $41,700,000,000 in cash and short-term investments. What exactly is HTC’s market capitalization?
Comment by GlennF: @ MD/MJ: true. But legal expenses are miniscule compared to chilling effect produced by same!
2:38 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: Smartphone category is specfically a great market to be in. Very high growth rates from a market point of view, and Apple outgrew market by 3x. Those numbers were even better outside U.S. than inside. Learned a number of things and are trying everyday to take everything we’ve learned and do something better from a product, distribution, carrier relationships point of view. Won’t go into each of them on here because we don’t want anybody to copy them.
Comment by jemaleddin: Is there anyone on this call that wouldn’t have paid twice as much for their iPad? I would have.
2:39 p.m. PT – JS: Apple TV question!
Comment by Dave Zatz: “What exactly is HTC’s market capitalization?” Better question… What is Google’s?
2:39 p.m. PT – JS: “THIS PHONE CALL IS OVER.”
2:39 p.m. PT – DM: Q: With regards to Apple TV: any ambitions for the product? Broadband still lagging in quality/service…..
Comment by John Welch: ah, the apple TV question. two more and i have bingo
Comment by GlennF: Let’s get out our Apple Earnings Call Drinking Game BINGO cards.
Comment by GlennF: Mine says, “Apple TV -> break a bottle of whisky over analyst’s head”
Comment by chockenberry: I HAVE A HOBBY TO
Comment by John Welch: Glenn has the nice person cards
2:40 p.m. PT – DM: (Sorry folks, lost the feed for asecond).
Comment by stephenchan: Htc market cap is ~$10 billion
Comment by nevenmrgan: The only question more painful to Apple than the stolen iPhone: AppleTV!
Comment by marcoarment: I love that they asked about the Apple TV but not the Gizmodophone.
Comment by GlennF: “Steve’s other hobby is grafting wings onto horses, and we don’t discuss earnings on that, either.”
2:40 p.m. PT – JS: “Units up 34% y-o-y, but absolute number is still small, still classify the product as a hobby for the company.” Mac competes in marked of 300m units, iPhone of 1.2b phones a year, iPod market of 100m units per year. These are enormous markets. The market Apple TV is in is not nearly that large, as yet, and that’s the reason we classify it as a hobby.”
2:40 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: Apple TV market isn’t that large, so that’s why we classify it as a hobby, so nobody gets the wrong impression that it’s anywhere close to the other markets.
Comment by chockenberry: @dmoren No problem, they’re talking about Apple TV.
2:40 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: A number of us use the product, love the product, so we’ll invest in it.
2:41 p.m. PT – DM: Q: What you offer advertisers is a pretty compelling, so how about iAd?
2:41 p.m. PT – JS: Lots of toes are in the water.
Comment by GlennF: Apple TV rides the short bus.
2:41 p.m. PT – JS: Advertising toes.
2:41 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: “Will iPad cannibalize iPod Touch?” Do you want to work out with an iPad?
2:41 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: As I commented on a prior question, we’re putting our toes in the water, so not expecting a lot this calendar year, building foundation for the future.
Comment by John Welch: how can the iPad cannibalize a product Apple doesn’t make?
2:41 p.m. PT – DM: RBC Capital: Expect any cannibalization from the iPad on the touch or on competitive netbooks?
Comment by Stuart McCann: iAd’s translation, Google will fight us so dont expect profit
Comment by nevenmrgan: Whoa deja vu on that iAd answer.
Comment by John Welch: is that the “question because i forgot my real question” square?
Comment by jonseff via twitter: Breaking News: Tim Cook says people at Apple actually like *and* use the Apple TV!
2:42 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: On the Q2 we finished in March, although we announced the iPad in January, there was nothing obvious in iPod or Mac numbers to suggest cannibalization. Difference between announcing and people knowing it’s coming and when it goes on sale. Don’t know about that yet and will find out.
Comment by jonseff via twitter: All this talk about cannibalization is making me hungry.
Comment by GlennF: You can get a Double Down Apple TV: two roasted Apple TVs with an iPod touch in the middle. Plus bacon.
2:43 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: TC: “I couldn’t live without” my iPad. I gotta roll my eyes on that one.
2:43 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: GlennF: that sounds lower in sodium than the original, but Apple doesn’t copy others.
2:43 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: Probably saw MacBook Pro revisions, which are amazing. In terms of iPad competing for customers considering a netbook, I’m the wrong person to ask. For me it’s a no-brainer. iPad, netbook, it’s 100 to 0. I can’t think of a single thing the netbook does well, and the iPad does so many things so well, I’m already addicted to mine.
2:44 p.m. PT – DM: RBC: Can you elaborate on why you see it as such a big market?
Comment by Angry_Drunk: Hahah, traditional Tim Cook netbook smackdown.
Comment by lexfri: Single thing a netbook does well: Hold door open when no doorstop is available.
2:45 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: Steve positioned the product well as usual. If a product category were to exist between notebook and smartphone, it would need to be something better than etiher of those. From my personal use, there’s a variety of things I would put on it: email, browsing, music, watching videos, reading books, and the list goes on. Entire App Store: people who want to play games.
Comment by marcoarment: Why do you think the iPad can compete against the JooJoo which got terrible reviews, the various Windows tablets that don’t exist yet, or the tablets based on Chrome OS that don’t exist yet?
2:45 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: (Apple stock is up over $10/share in after-hours trading)
Comment by John Welch: I’m really not sure what the expected answer is on this. Apple doesn’t make a netbook, and i really doubt the people who DO are going to break out “sales lost to iPads”, even if they could prove such a thing.
Comment by jemaleddin: Netbooks are great to use as an iPad stand when you need to type something.
2:45 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: It’s early, but we really, really like what we see right now. We had what we though were high hopes, and it has exceeded those. That’s all I can offer now, but I’d love to talk again in July.
Comment by nevenmrgan: I wonder if this analyst is trying to sell his netbook to Tim Cook. $150, mint condition, just a small scratch on the back. Sudoku preinstalled and all.
Comment by chockenberry: But Tim, just think of all that great Windows accounting software you can run while sitting on the couch.
2:46 p.m. PT – DM: Morgan Stanely: In a previous question, you walked through the incremental demand drivers for iPhone, but you left out price. Apple’s done a good job lowering the price, along with the carriers. With the low-end at $99, it seems like the incremental demand would come from more affordable carrier plans. Any influence to get more aggressive on total cost of ownership for iPhone?
2:47 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: We do everything that we can to try to get the best deal possible for the consumer. Each of the carrier partners that we work with want to do the same, so I think everybody is focused on that. When we dropped subsidized price of the phone to $99 last year, we were surprised that the mix to the 3GS was very very high. That starts at $199.
Comment by lexfri: Now, see, Morgan Stanley, that’s how you ask a good question. I approve. Of course, like Dan Moren, I’m no numbers guy.
2:47 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: I think it’s important that price of the device is important, there are other things that people really want: extremely innovative product, the ecosystem, the apps, and the incredible hardware. It’s just one of the factors.
2:48 p.m. PT – DM: Morgan Stanley: One of the upsides has been aftermarket accessories, what do you think about attach rates of iPad relative to those seen for iPhone and iPod?
2:48 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: Accessory portfolio is good for us. Over 5000 accessories for iPod/iPhone largely work with iPad. We’ve come out with some great accessories in the first few weeks and developer community has rallied around as well. Give it some time.
Comment by John Welch: Hmm…that’s an interesting question…what is the rate of “doesn’t work with the ipad, just the iphone” for hardware gizmos?
2:49 p.m. PT – DM: Banc of Montreal: Ask about retail. Same store sales were up about 7 percent, total retail up about 22 percent in terms of revenues. Is retail number really driven by new store openings, or something unusual going on?
Comment by bcbishop: That’s at least the second time TC has dropped an “incredible hardware” reference w/ regard to iPhone …
2:50 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: Our retail stores had a great March quarter. Average increase of revenue per store was actully up 8%. Best we’ve seen in six quarter. Mac did incredibly well in the stores, up 38% overall; up over 20% in same-store sales. Phone did well. Store will be a great place to look at and buy iPads. very confident in our retail stores, experience that it’s giving customers. After 10 years of retailing, we are just ecstatic that roughly half of Mac sales are to new customers.
2:50 p.m. PT – DM: Banc of Montreal: Revenue growth in category is due to new store openings?
2:51 p.m. PT – JS: Oooh, where will iPad be categorized?
2:51 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: I’d seen good growth from new stores opening, but also stores that have been open for many years are doing well.
2:51 p.m. PT – DM: Banc of Montreal: Will iPad be categorized or as a new line item?
2:51 p.m. PT – JS: It will be its own line item on the data summary, and revenue will be for iPad units.
2:51 p.m. PT – JS: Answering a question many of you had.
2:51 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: Very similar to iPhone. It will be a line item on our data summary and revenue will be for iPad units and for ipad-specific accessories.
Comment by chockenberry: Yay! Line item = easier to characterize market for developers.
2:52 p.m. PT – JS: Next question is basically, are iPad apps selling for higher prices than iPhone apps?
2:52 p.m. PT – DM: Oppenheimer and company: iPad still very much in early days. Anything about app performance? Consumers buying different apps from iPhone? ASP panning out to be different from phone?
2:52 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: Very early days. Customers are loving the iPad, going to App Store, getting apps, getting books, and really been a great thing for customers, but we’ll talk more in future about how that goes. We’re not focused on trying to make a lot of money on App Store; run it a bit over break-even.
Comment by Stuart McCann: break even, iTunes and App Store? Profound honesty
2:53 p.m. PT – DM: Q: Europe has been performing exceptionally well; are you seeing a halo effect from iPhone there? Playing out at store: are more than 50 percent of buyers in Europe new to Mac?
2:53 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: We are thrilled, but don’t break it out that way.
2:53 p.m. PT – DM: Q: $600 ASP for iPhone: just hardware or software?
2:53 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: Doesn’t include anything from carrier payments, deferrals, or accessories.
2:54 p.m. PT – DM: JP Morgan: Apple was shocked about U.S. reception for iPad: any customers that are completely new to Apple?
2:54 p.m. PT – JS: Ah, so if I read this right, the iPhone ASP is based on the REAL price, including the subsidy the carrier pays for the handset. But not other carrier payments or other stuff.
2:54 p.m. PT – DM: Tim: Of course, but numbers right now are so preliminary, and based on such a small amount of time that we don’t read a lot into those, so we wouldn’t disclose them./
2:54 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Jason: that should be right. Carrier payments are not hardware, but a service, and should be accounted separately under GAAP
2:54 p.m. PT – DM: Q: You say there are other products in pipeline: new products or upgrades?
2:55 p.m. PT – JS: A new way to say they’re not going to announce anything on an analyst call: “We’re just not going to help our competitors. But we are very confident in our new product pipeline and very excited about the coming months.”
2:55 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: Can’t answer that for you, because we’re not going to help our competitors. Very excited about coming months.
2:55 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: That’s not a new way 🙂
2:55 p.m. PT – DM: Q: How much of margin hit for June driven by competitive dynamic vs. troubles still facing school markets out there?
2:55 p.m. PT – JS: Matt: I thought “Help our competitors” was a new spin. At least a bit.
Comment by nevenmrgan: Analyst: what are your new products this year going to be? Tim: LOL
Comment by GlennF: The “not help competitors” line reminds me of early dotcom phrase: “not going to write the business plan for our competitors.” We said that at Amazon.com a lot.
2:56 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Tonight you can get a replay online, and you can find a transcript from SeekingAlpha.com later tonight (done by computer)
2:56 p.m. PT – DM: Peter: You read the same things we do about state budget situations. School districts see a lot of pressure. Seen no evidence that we’re losing market share in education; really just a budget issue. We’ve now educated the education buying season. June tends to be K12 dominated; Sep. dominated by higher ed. This year, expect it to be competitive, but we look forward to competing.
2:56 p.m. PT – DM: And that’s it!
2:56 p.m. PT – JS: And that’s it from here. There’s a podcast for these calls by the way, if you’re a huge fan.
2:56 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: Also, Apple puts an MP4 file in a podcast in the iTunes Store, but the audio and the file are only available for about two weeks, so download them and save them if you want to keep them.
Comment by GlennF: Thanks, gents!
2:56 p.m. PT – JS: The podcast is here
2:57 p.m. PT – JS: Get it while it’s hot, analyst call fans!
2:57 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: They DELETE the files within two weeks, so grab it while it’s at least warm
2:57 p.m. PT – JS: Stay tuned to Macworld.com for much more on all this later this afternoon. (And head over to the home page now – we’ve got news stories written even now.)
Comment by alexbrooks: Thanks guys, great work as always.
Comment by JustinCampbell: Thanks!
2:57 p.m. PT – JS: Thanks to Dan Moren for his usual excellent job. And thanks to all of you folks for tuning in to the biggest spectacle in sport… no, wait, that’s the Kentucky Derby. Or is it the Indy 500?
2:57 p.m. PT – JS: In any event, this was Apple’s call with analysts. Good evening.
Comment by chockenberry: HUGS AND KISSES ALL
2:58 p.m. PT – MD/MJ: It’s the Mets. vs. the Cardinals. It’s still going!
Comment by morrick: Thank you all for your work and insights. Much appreciated!