Mac sales fell 16% in February ahead of desktop refresh

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Apple saw double-digit declines in Mac unit sales last month but is nonetheless seen in good shape to pull off a March quarter that's fairly in-line with current Street estimates thanks to accelerated shipments of new desktop models this month.



NPD data released Monday shows Mac sales for the month of February fell 16% when compared to February of 2008. Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray, analyzed the data alongside tepid results from January and his expectations for March.



His conclusion: Apple will still manage to sell 2.0 to 2.2 million Macs for the combined period of January through March, which would represent yearly Mac unit growth of anywhere from -13% to -4%, or a rate that's likely to fall in line to slightly behind Wall Street's average expectations of -4% growth. Apple shipped 2.289 million Macs last March quarter.



"[We] note that year-over-year Mac performance faced aÂ*tough comp in the month of February 2009 due to the February 2008 MacBook Air launch," the analyst told clients in a research note. "That said, we expect Mac NPD data to rebound in the month of March due to the shipment of new iMacs, Mac minis, and Mac Pros in early March."



Therefore, Munster believes the data should be "perceived as a neutral or a slight positive" given the uncertainty surrounding the March quarter due to a pullback in consumer spending that's resulted from the grim state of the global economy.



Following a trend similar to that of the Mac line, iPod shipments also fell 16% year-over-year during the month of February, according to NPD. After applying some analytics, Munster said he believes combined March quarter shipments will come in anywhere from 9.0 to 10.0 million units, compared to Street expectations of 9.5 million units.



"ThisÂ*range implies year-over-year iPod unit growth of -15% to -6% vs. the Street at-11% year-over-year," he wrote. "Given concerns regarding iPod weakness, we believe the segment's in-line performance relative to Street expectations is a positive."



The analyst appears to have weighed a portion of his quarterly expectations for full-quarter iPod sales on expectations that "shipment of new iPod shuffles, announced onÂ*3/11, will likely drive improvement in the data in the month of March."



Piper Jaffray maintained its Buy rating and $180 price target on shares of Apple.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 92
    ouraganouragan Posts: 437member
    March sales should reflect the March upgrades: poor.





  • Reply 2 of 92
    zunxzunx Posts: 620member
    How to increase Mac sales: place at least one Firewire port on Macbook and MacBook Air (also with Ethernet port and at least two USB2 ports). No such ports, no purchase. That simple.
  • Reply 3 of 92
    ivladivlad Posts: 742member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zunx View Post


    How to increase Mac sales: place at least one Firewire port on Macbook and MacBook Air (also with Ethernet port and at least two USB2 ports). No such ports, no purchase. That simple.



    What. LOL i never use those ports why do I need them?
  • Reply 4 of 92
    The sales dropped because Mac users are smart and knew that new models where due out any day in March so refrained from purchasing until the new machines were released. You don't have to be the head checker at WallMart to figure that out.
  • Reply 5 of 92
    fullgazfullgaz Posts: 17member
    I'm not going to go into discussing details like firewire and processor speeds, but it is obvious to me that Apple should start updating their computer lines more often. The fall in number of iPod sold doesn't surprise me: the market is literally saturated with iPods and would-be iPods, from the expensive to the cheap kinds.



    Apple computers, however, will always be unique in design and performance. Let's not forget Apple Inc of today is in fact still a hardware company. All the other branches of business strongly rely on continued and increasing hardware sales. One can see from the success that Apple is enjoying now that people are ready to make the switch (and this despite Apple's premium and the economy). However, today's consumers are not as naive as they once were: they know what questions to ask and what answers to expect. The trick to keep selling hardware is to make sure that however impressing the package, the insides always stay ahead of the competition. The February update was long overdue and, on the face of the incredible success of the new Mac Mini, I'm not the only one to think this way. In my opinion, all of Apple computers should have revisions every 3 to 4 months to keep the specifications of the machines as high as technologically possible in their respective price point. Also, they should introduce a major product upgrade as soon as a new architecture is available (or sooner if Intel and Apple keep being good friends as today).



    On another note, Apple's success could easily be tripled by a simple trick: proper support of right-to-left languages in their leading iLife and iWork applications - and I imaging other ones too. For the moment, these programs are a nightmare to work with for those who want to use Hebrew or Arabic (BTW, MS Office for Mac also doesn't work well with RTL languages). Should they fix that, they could open new doors to a level of success they haven't enjoyed so far.



    Wishful thinking?
  • Reply 6 of 92
    tenobelltenobell Posts: 7,014member
    Here we go with all of the arm chair prognosis. We all know Apple's sales are going to decline year over year. Every one expects sales declines. Every electronics company's sales have declined, it has nothing to directly do with Apple or firewire, or copy and paste, or MMS, or any gripe people have with Apple.



    It has everyone thing to do with the recession that is effecting everything and everyone.
  • Reply 7 of 92
    tenobelltenobell Posts: 7,014member
    Apple doesn't make much money from iWork or iLife, tripling sales would do little to help Apple over all. I seriously doubt Hebrew and Arabic specific software would do much to increase sales to any significant degree.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by FullGaz View Post


    On another note, Apple's success could easily be tripled by a simple trick: proper support of right-to-left languages in their leading iLife and iWork applications - and I imaging other ones too. For the moment, these programs are a nightmare to work with for those who want to use Hebrew or Arabic (BTW, MS Office for Mac also doesn't work well with RTL languages). Should they fix that, they could open new doors to a level of success they haven't enjoyed so far.



    Wishful thinking?



  • Reply 8 of 92
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TenoBell View Post


    Here we go with all of the arm chair prognosis. We all know Apple's sales are going to decline year over year. Every one expects sales declines. Every electronics company's sales have declined, it has nothing to directly do with Apple or firewire, or copy and paste, or MMS, or any gripe people have with Apple.



    It has everyone thing to do with the recession that is effecting everything and everyone.



    Not to mention even with recession Apple has kept sales going well - almost the only company in the tech sector to do so. Not too shabby (despite Cramer and RBC).
  • Reply 9 of 92
    nace33nace33 Posts: 94member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ouragan View Post


    March sales should reflect the March upgrades: poor.



    I just picked up my first iMac after having my black macbook for about 3 years. I am absolutely thrilled with it and in no way could classify this as a poor upgrade.
  • Reply 10 of 92
    I don't know what you people are griping about.



    I bought the 2.26 mini with 4 GB RAM-Was it overpriced for what you get? YES-absolutely.



    That being said, it is MUCH BETTER than the 1.83 it replaced. I can actually watch streaming video now without artifacts or "hiccups". Can't wait to have time to get a game installed on it (work is keeping me hopping right now).



    In my opinion, this is the most substantial upgrade since the mini was released. The value of the Nvidia 9400 can NOT be overstated.
  • Reply 11 of 92
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Enigmafan420 View Post


    I don't know what you people are griping about.



    I bought the 2.26 mini with 4 GB RAM-Was it overpriced for what you get? YES-absolutely.



    That being said, it is MUCH BETTER than the 1.83 it replaced. I can actually watch streaming video now without artifacts or "hiccups". Can't wait to have time to get a game installed on it (work is keeping me hopping right now).



    In my opinion, this is the most substantial upgrade since the mini was released. The value of the Nvidia 9400 can NOT be overstated.



    what streaming video?



    my 1.6 mini can "stream video"



    and PLEASE provide the link to a 2.26Ghz mini available from Apple, I can see none on either the US or UK store pages
  • Reply 12 of 92
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Walter Slocombe View Post


    what streaming video?



    my 1.6 mini can "stream video"



    and PLEASE provide the link to a 2.26Ghz mini available from Apple, I can see none on either the US or UK store pages



    The 2.26 is a build to order from the online Apple Store-choose the high-end mini and then change the processor to 2.26-think it was an extra $150.



    As for streaming video-my 1.83 chokes on HD video watched from the web (i.e. ABC.Com, FOX.Com) etc. Trying to watch Lost in HD, for example, was downright ugly at times.



    Watched "lie to me" on fox.com last night-not ONE artifact. Must say I LOVE the new video-MUCH BETTER than the Intel 950.



    UPDATE-Just Checked the Apple Store Online-either model can be upgraded to 2.26.
  • Reply 13 of 92
    orion99orion99 Posts: 11member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by FlashmanBurgess View Post


    The sales dropped because Mac users are smart and knew that new models where due out any day in March so refrained from purchasing until the new machines were released. You don't have to be the head checker at WallMart to figure that out.



    Apple Mac sales have actually slowed two quarters in a row, this one will make it three in row and the culprit has been the lack of desktop updates. Apple FINALLY came to their senses with the iMac, Mac Pro and Mac mini refreshes!



    Insightful analysis worth a read:

    Evidence of slowing Mac growth - 2 consecutive quarters of deceleration
  • Reply 14 of 92
    backtomacbacktomac Posts: 4,579member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ouragan View Post


    March sales should reflect the March upgrades: poor.









    Hell has frozen or is close to doing so.



    I actually agree with ouragan.
  • Reply 15 of 92
    zunxzunx Posts: 620member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by iVlad View Post


    What. LOL i never use those ports why do I need them?



    Yes, you need it. The day you require Firewire Target Disk Mode to repair your Mac.
  • Reply 16 of 92
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Enigmafan420 View Post


    I don't know what you people are griping about.



    I bought the 2.26 mini with 4 GB RAM-Was it overpriced for what you get? YES-absolutely.



    That being said, it is MUCH BETTER than the 1.83 it replaced. I can actually watch streaming video now without artifacts or "hiccups". Can't wait to have time to get a game installed on it (work is keeping me hopping right now).



    In my opinion, this is the most substantial upgrade since the mini was released. The value of the Nvidia 9400 can NOT be overstated.



    The mini was a great upgrade, no question - except that part of the reason it was a great upgrade is because how extremely lame the mini was not being upgraded for 2 years, so yeah, by contrast this upgrade seems HUGE. Even so, still it was a good upgrade.



    Meanwhile the iMac was a super lame "upgrade" - laughable CPU, and NO UPGRADE OF THE MONITOR - why didn't they go LED??!? Frankly, if I had an iMac today, I would never consider upgrading to the new one, there literally is no reason to. Meanwhile, with the mini - I have the old mini - there is definitely an incentive to upgrade.



    Overall however, I'd say there is one thing that is going to slow the upgrade numbers for all hardware, IMHO (and that is not even talking about the economy). It's the fact that Snow Leopard is 6 months away. May as well wait for that and then buy your hardware with the SL already on it. I bet you many people think like I do. I'm even worse, because I'll wait a few months for the first point update to SL. That means I'll be buying hardware sometime Feb/March of next year. At that point Nehalem should migrate down to the mobile segment, which means both iMac and the mini might start sporting chips that actually are an improvement... as is, it seems to me, in the real world, the chips have seen minimal improvement the last 2 years (as in actual performance) - I think it will be different with Nehalem. So, bottom line, I expect 2010 to be a banner year for hardware sales for Apple, because that's when I'm buying
  • Reply 17 of 92
    hillstoneshillstones Posts: 1,490member
    The previous generation iMac 24" 2.8 GHz is a steal on clearance for $1,399, or $1,299 education discount. That should boost those sales numbers.
  • Reply 18 of 92
    nano_tubenano_tube Posts: 114member
    The only major gripe I have with the current Macs is that the Price is too high for all of them.

    There are other technical gripes regarding the lack of Firewire 400, the lack of mat screens, the 8GB RAM limit on the Quad Mac Pro, the lack of Blue-ray drives, slow refreshes across the line, etc.



    Though these are nad decisions taken by Apple, non of them is a show stopper.

    Usually, Apple's hardware rocks, but it really all comes down to pricing. In the state of the world economy I can't see how Apple will keep selling with such prices.

  • Reply 19 of 92
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zunx View Post


    Yes, you need it. The day you require Firewire Target Disk Mode to repair your Mac.



    If you have two Macs and cable with standard FW connectors on each end. I find that a much easier solution is to just boot from an external USB drive. I have a Time Machine drive that I carry and a small partition of that has OS X installed on it. I only to have one Mac with me to fix anything. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
  • Reply 20 of 92
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zunx View Post


    How to increase Mac sales: place at least one Firewire port on Macbook and MacBook Air (also with Ethernet port and at least two USB2 ports). No such ports, no purchase. That simple.



    Maybe for you...for a lot of people (first time buyers)...they couldn't give a rats ass about a FW port. If it were only as simple as putting those ports on those models.



    You people need to let the damn FW thing go. It is what it is! There are as many people who couldn't care about FW as those who do.



    I don't have FW on my Unibody MacBook and I've never ran into any issues where I needed FW, nor have I wished I had FW. I'd rather have more USB ports to be honest.



    Target Disk Mode isn't the end all of repairs...There are other ways to fix a Mac, transfer information, etc...



    I'd say sales were down because the economy is in the crapper, this time of the year is Apple's worst for sales, and a lot of people knew Apple was about to release new Macs. The uni-body MacBook and updated MBA has been selling since October. If you remember correctly, that was one of Apple's best quarters in its history. So it has nothing to do with the lack of ports. Pure BS right there. Also, don't forget that Apple still sells the white MacBook with the updated NVIDIA chipset and a FW port for $999. They even still have them demo'd in stores.
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