| Friday, July 15, 2005 |
17:29 - Being dooooomed is a pretty sweet gig
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0507q305.html
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Hey, this is interesting:
Apple Computer reported a $320 million profit for its fiscal third quarter on revenue of $3.52 billion, the highest in company history. Revenue growth was up 75 percent year-over-year, while profits more than quadrupled.
Apple shipped 1.182 million Macs during the quarter, the highest quarterly figure in four years and a testament to the iPod's "halo effect." iPod sales came in at 6.155 million units.
Laptop sales at 495,000 were the highest ever, despite a lack of iBook and PowerBook revisions during the quarter. PowerBooks were modestly updated in February, while current iBook models are almost 10 months old.
Record laptop sales, even with old models with no G5s? Record Mac sales, even with Intel Macs on the horizon and depressing sales? What is this?
Apple's music business generated 38 percent of the company's revenue for the quarter, or $1.344 billion. The iTunes Music Store operated above break-even during the quarter, as Apple approaches nearly 500 million songs sold.
38 percent. Thirty-eight percent. A segment of their business that didn't exist a little over two years ago, and now it's more than a third of their revenue. True, this is mostly iPod money (since the iTMS is still the closest thing to a "loss leader" that appears in this stellar lineup of numbers), and iPods have been around since late 2001, but still—even that's pretty remarkable for a company so laser-focused on an unchanging message over the years. With any other company, analysts would be falling all over themselves trying to come to terms with the schizophrenia of a company achieving startling breakout in a segment of its business that for twenty years had simply not existed. But with Apple, somehow, it all just seems to fit together.
Now all we need is for their stock to tank, as it always does when spectacular financial news is released, and all will be well with the world.
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Brian Tiemann
