Actually, that's not news. For years, there have been cases of people underreporting Mac sales year after year after year - and never going back and admitting their error or correcting it. For example, here's one I did in the '90s.
My wife and I sold our computer stores in 1989, retired and just played for 7 years -- burn-out -- hardly touched a computer.
Missed that whole Internet thingie...
Anyway, somewhere in 1997, I fired up the old Mac II with 15" Sony Color display (the one with the horizontal line down the middle of the screen) and my old white LaserWriter. Using a 14.4 KB modem, I took the first tentative baby steps to go beyond the walled garden of AOL and into the www.
I had missed a lot and spent days trying to get current... I remember the SPA dustup very well -- and was happy and proud that a fellow Apple/Mac user had nailed their ass to the grass.
Thank You.... however belatedly.
The post and the attendant emails, links make for good reading!
None of them (I mean none) have pedicured Apple quarterly sales of MACs, iPhones, or iPads within any reasonable margin of error for years. They also tend to predict universally low. They all have a reliable track record of inaccuracy. Why do any of them still have jobs? Why do they continue to use the same flawed methods?
These people posting data collected by calling a few local stock clerks should be imprisoned (or heavily fined) for passing this off as research and analysis.
... The second issue is that the dropping of the Mac Book and pushing of the AIRs is extremely stupid. The problem is that Apple no longer has a full performance low end notebook. I actually believe Apple was trying to shore up sales of the AIRs by dropping the Mac Book. ....
I disagree.
Apple still has a full performance low end notebook, in fact it has the best one you can buy for the money. It's just that instead of being made of plastic and costing roughly 800 it's made of aluminium and costs 1,000.
Your statement about "shoring up the sales of Airs," makes no sense at all. Macbook Airs practically fly off the shelves now. It's one of the most popular products they make and doesn't need any "shoring up" at all.
I've gone from being an Apple hater to an investor and consumer in the last 2 years.
This is so funny and so true. I used to be a hater too (not actually hate but anti). I guess haters with taste are easy to convert than hater with no taste. :P
If sales are actually slowing perhaps it can be attributed to the 'yellow screen problem that some of the 21 & 27 inch IMacs are having.
In any case this can't beva plus for Apple and needs to be fixed
Speaking as someone who regularly deals with hundreds of iMacs (buying, installing, provisioning, etc.), I can say I've never heard of this "yellow screen" thing. It would have to be pretty widespread to affect global sales and while I don't disbelieve it may exist, it can't be affecting that many people or we would have all heard of it.
Apple still has a full performance low end notebook, in fact it has the best one you can buy for the money. It's just that instead of being made of plastic and costing roughly 800 it's made of aluminium and costs 1,000.
You kinda shot yourself in the foot here. You clearly indicate that their is a $200 + collars difference. That for a laptop that is a lower performing machine in many ways.When all is said and done the AIRs are very expensive for a college student.
Quote:
Your statement about "shoring up the sales of Airs," makes no sense at all.
Actually it makes perfect sense because AIR's weren't selling all that well after the early adopter rush. Mac books where still on Apples top seller list before they where cut, you can't say that about the AIR's.
Look at it this way the AIRs are excellent machines if you understand and can work with in their limitations they are not however replacements for the Mac Books. The additional capacity of the Mac Book makes it a much better buy for the average college student that needs to support 4 years of school with a limited understanding of what those 4 years might be.
Quote:
Macbook Airs practically fly off the shelves now. It's one of the most popular products they make and doesn't need any "shoring up" at all.
Rubbish. If this was the case they would have been on the top sellers list that sits right at the front of Apples store. At the time the Mac Books where cut the AIRs where nowhere to be seen. I see this as Apple trying to manipulate the market into buying the product it wants to ship, not what the market wants to buy.
Time will tell but i would not be surprised at all to find out this transition to AIR impacted education sales. The machine is a very poor buy right now.
Still things slip through. Sadly I've have had more than a few slip through myself. In the end you look at what has just came down from the web and you swear to yourself that wasn't what I just wrote.
On the other hand I look at what some of the autocorrections are trying to do and I think to myself, what the heck is going on, I'm only missing one letter here. Why is autocorrect completely rewriting my stuff. At times what autocorrect does makes no sense at all. In the end I wish there was a way for the user to adjust the performance or tweak autocorrect to better work with their writing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wovel
Lol, wow. I thought I found all of the autocorrects. I do kind of like that though.
I can't speak for anywhere else but only a few weekends ago during Tennessee's 'Tax free weekend', my local Apple store had put up roped lines and were assigning numbers to keep the crowd in the store down. Given the number of people I saw walking around the mall with large Apple boxes, I would never imagine there had been a slowdown of any type.
Actually it makes perfect sense because AIR's weren't selling all that well after the early adopter rush. Mac books where still on Apples top seller list before they where cut, you can't say that about the AIR's.
Rubbish. If this was the case they would have been on the top sellers list that sits right at the front of Apples store. At the time the Mac Books where cut the AIRs where nowhere to be seen. I see this as Apple trying to manipulate the market into buying the product it wants to ship, not what the market wants to buy.
Time will tell but i would not be surprised at all to find out this transition to AIR impacted education sales. The machine is a very poor buy right now.
Apple doesn't release sales data for specific models, and the top seller list on its website isn't much of a gauge since we don't know how accurate it really is, nor does Apple release any information as to how it is compiled.
We'll know for sure next quarter when Apple releases its sales figures. They slightly underperformed estimates on Mac sales, but iOS now accounts for more revenue and profits than OS X, so it may not matter, and Apple may be willing to let a few MacBook sales fall by the wayside, figuring that between iPad, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro, enough of those lost sales will be made up elsewhere. If we see a $999 MacBook Pro emerge, a price cut on the $1199 4/128 Air, or the return of the actual MacBook, then we'll know that Apple is reversing course.
Also, as others have pointed out, if the analyst went to stores comparing traffic the weekend of 7/23 with subsequent weekends, it will be skewed because of the pent up demand for MacBook Air and Mac Mini models, both of which were newly released that week (and whose releases were widely expected). Other analysts try to glean information from supply chain sources, including press releases and regulatory filings of known suppliers of Apple. If they see Toshiba or Samsung placing huge orders of NAND, it's safe to say much of that is going to Apple, for instance.
From Apple's perspective, it may be better to replace 500,000 MacBook sales with a smaller number of incremental MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iPad sales. Margins on the MacBook probably weren't as good as the other models. They have kept it alive for now in the education market, but that to me is more akin to them keeping the eMac line alive a little while longer after they converted the iMac line to LCD screens.
Zandros has it right here - about the rest of the discounts pointed out by others being always available and this year's seasonal one being "not as valuable" parts at least - the actual sales results may be another matter with a) all of Apple's momentum on one side arrayed against b) anxiety about economies and markets and c) the iPad effect noted above). So we'll just have to see on that score. However....
Actually, I want to clarify that I didn't mean it would be strictly worse, but instead that it might not be as good as the growth rate might have suggested it would've been. Which, in some ways, could be interpreted as a slowdown.
Comments
I've gone from being an Apple hater to an investor and consumer in the last 2 years.
Actually, that's not news. For years, there have been cases of people underreporting Mac sales year after year after year - and never going back and admitting their error or correcting it. For example, here's one I did in the '90s.
http://web.archive.org/web/199904270...agosta/spa.htm
Ahh.... That was you...
My wife and I sold our computer stores in 1989, retired and just played for 7 years -- burn-out -- hardly touched a computer.
Missed that whole Internet thingie...
Anyway, somewhere in 1997, I fired up the old Mac II with 15" Sony Color display (the one with the horizontal line down the middle of the screen) and my old white LaserWriter. Using a 14.4 KB modem, I took the first tentative baby steps to go beyond the walled garden of AOL and into the www.
I had missed a lot and spent days trying to get current... I remember the SPA dustup very well -- and was happy and proud that a fellow Apple/Mac user had nailed their ass to the grass.
Thank You.... however belatedly.
The post and the attendant emails, links make for good reading!
...everything old is new again!
None of them (I mean none) have pedicured Apple quarterly sales of MACs, iPhones, or iPads within any reasonable margin of error for years. They also tend to predict universally low. They all have a reliable track record of inaccuracy. Why do any of them still have jobs? Why do they continue to use the same flawed methods?
These people posting data collected by calling a few local stock clerks should be imprisoned (or heavily fined) for passing this off as research and analysis.
Damn you autocorrect!
... The second issue is that the dropping of the Mac Book and pushing of the AIRs is extremely stupid. The problem is that Apple no longer has a full performance low end notebook. I actually believe Apple was trying to shore up sales of the AIRs by dropping the Mac Book. ....
I disagree.
Apple still has a full performance low end notebook, in fact it has the best one you can buy for the money. It's just that instead of being made of plastic and costing roughly 800 it's made of aluminium and costs 1,000.
Your statement about "shoring up the sales of Airs," makes no sense at all. Macbook Airs practically fly off the shelves now. It's one of the most popular products they make and doesn't need any "shoring up" at all.
2) What does Kathryn Huberty think?
I've gone from being an Apple hater to an investor and consumer in the last 2 years.
This is so funny and so true. I used to be a hater too (not actually hate but anti). I guess haters with taste are easy to convert than hater with no taste. :P
If sales are actually slowing perhaps it can be attributed to the 'yellow screen problem that some of the 21 & 27 inch IMacs are having.
In any case this can't beva plus for Apple and needs to be fixed
Speaking as someone who regularly deals with hundreds of iMacs (buying, installing, provisioning, etc.), I can say I've never heard of this "yellow screen" thing. It would have to be pretty widespread to affect global sales and while I don't disbelieve it may exist, it can't be affecting that many people or we would have all heard of it.
Unless your classes are unusual, about 4-6% of the laptops are Macs.
What planet do you go to school on? You clearly have no actually experience and are trying to base your numbers on market share.
Damn you autocorrect!
Lol, wow. I thought I found all of the autocorrects. I do kind of like that though.
I disagree.
Apple still has a full performance low end notebook, in fact it has the best one you can buy for the money. It's just that instead of being made of plastic and costing roughly 800 it's made of aluminium and costs 1,000.
You kinda shot yourself in the foot here. You clearly indicate that their is a $200 + collars difference. That for a laptop that is a lower performing machine in many ways.When all is said and done the AIRs are very expensive for a college student.
Your statement about "shoring up the sales of Airs," makes no sense at all.
Actually it makes perfect sense because AIR's weren't selling all that well after the early adopter rush. Mac books where still on Apples top seller list before they where cut, you can't say that about the AIR's.
Look at it this way the AIRs are excellent machines if you understand and can work with in their limitations they are not however replacements for the Mac Books. The additional capacity of the Mac Book makes it a much better buy for the average college student that needs to support 4 years of school with a limited understanding of what those 4 years might be.
Macbook Airs practically fly off the shelves now. It's one of the most popular products they make and doesn't need any "shoring up" at all.
Rubbish. If this was the case they would have been on the top sellers list that sits right at the front of Apples store. At the time the Mac Books where cut the AIRs where nowhere to be seen. I see this as Apple trying to manipulate the market into buying the product it wants to ship, not what the market wants to buy.
Time will tell but i would not be surprised at all to find out this transition to AIR impacted education sales. The machine is a very poor buy right now.
Chowdhry Head
Or, maybe.... Gruber's "Claim Chowdhry"
Aren't I a great one to ridicule someone's name
On the other hand I look at what some of the autocorrections are trying to do and I think to myself, what the heck is going on, I'm only missing one letter here. Why is autocorrect completely rewriting my stuff. At times what autocorrect does makes no sense at all. In the end I wish there was a way for the user to adjust the performance or tweak autocorrect to better work with their writing.
Lol, wow. I thought I found all of the autocorrects. I do kind of like that though.
Analyst's To Do List:
1.) Sell Apple stock. Check
2.) Come out with negative news on Apple. Check
3.) Watch stock price fall.
4.) Buy stock back at lower price.
5.) Come out with positive news on Apple.
6.) Watch stock price rise.
7.) Laugh all the way to the bank.
8.) Repeat.
True except with short sales they never have to buy the stock and can make more with less.
Analyst's To Do List:
1.) Sell Apple stock. Check
2.) Come out with negative news on Apple. Check
3.) Watch stock price fall.
4.) Buy stock back at lower price.
5.) Come out with positive news on Apple.
6.) Watch stock price rise.
7.) Laugh all the way to the bank.
8.) Repeat.
Analysts are not legally permitted to own or trade stock that they cover.
Analyst's To Do List:
1.) Sell Apple stock. Check
2.) Come out with negative news on Apple. Check
3.) Watch stock price fall.
4.) Buy stock back at lower price.
5.) Come out with positive news on Apple.
6.) Watch stock price rise.
7.) Laugh all the way to the bank.
8.) Repeat.
Precisely
Y
Actually it makes perfect sense because AIR's weren't selling all that well after the early adopter rush. Mac books where still on Apples top seller list before they where cut, you can't say that about the AIR's.
Rubbish. If this was the case they would have been on the top sellers list that sits right at the front of Apples store. At the time the Mac Books where cut the AIRs where nowhere to be seen. I see this as Apple trying to manipulate the market into buying the product it wants to ship, not what the market wants to buy.
Time will tell but i would not be surprised at all to find out this transition to AIR impacted education sales. The machine is a very poor buy right now.
Apple doesn't release sales data for specific models, and the top seller list on its website isn't much of a gauge since we don't know how accurate it really is, nor does Apple release any information as to how it is compiled.
We'll know for sure next quarter when Apple releases its sales figures. They slightly underperformed estimates on Mac sales, but iOS now accounts for more revenue and profits than OS X, so it may not matter, and Apple may be willing to let a few MacBook sales fall by the wayside, figuring that between iPad, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro, enough of those lost sales will be made up elsewhere. If we see a $999 MacBook Pro emerge, a price cut on the $1199 4/128 Air, or the return of the actual MacBook, then we'll know that Apple is reversing course.
Also, as others have pointed out, if the analyst went to stores comparing traffic the weekend of 7/23 with subsequent weekends, it will be skewed because of the pent up demand for MacBook Air and Mac Mini models, both of which were newly released that week (and whose releases were widely expected). Other analysts try to glean information from supply chain sources, including press releases and regulatory filings of known suppliers of Apple. If they see Toshiba or Samsung placing huge orders of NAND, it's safe to say much of that is going to Apple, for instance.
From Apple's perspective, it may be better to replace 500,000 MacBook sales with a smaller number of incremental MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iPad sales. Margins on the MacBook probably weren't as good as the other models. They have kept it alive for now in the education market, but that to me is more akin to them keeping the eMac line alive a little while longer after they converted the iMac line to LCD screens.
Even better would be $200 off an iPad when you buy a Mac.
Zandros has it right here - about the rest of the discounts pointed out by others being always available and this year's seasonal one being "not as valuable" parts at least - the actual sales results may be another matter with a) all of Apple's momentum on one side arrayed against b) anxiety about economies and markets and c) the iPad effect noted above). So we'll just have to see on that score. However....
Actually, I want to clarify that I didn't mean it would be strictly worse, but instead that it might not be as good as the growth rate might have suggested it would've been. Which, in some ways, could be interpreted as a slowdown.