Fred Anderson and the iMac
I'm listening to the conference call, and Fred Anderson has been hammering home the point that Apple's gross margin on the iMac is worse than it was on the old iMac; that they expect it will never be as good; and that Apple is willing to sacrifice gross margin to grow market share.
Also, the CRT iMac will continue for as long as it's the only way to meet the sub-$1K price points.
Also, the CRT iMac will continue for as long as it's the only way to meet the sub-$1K price points.
Comments
<strong>Anderson said LCD prices went up in November and have since stabilized.</strong><hr></blockquote>Yes but G4dude is right that they're expected to, if anything, go up in the short term, partially because so many more people are buying them now.
But yes, I did think that was interesting that they're willing to make smaller margins on these iMacs. Now they just have to sell a ton. They really are betting the farm on this thing.
It won't make a difference if Apple has locked in at an LCD price. That way, regardless of whether price goes up or down, they have a set price for the LCDs.
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It won't make a difference if Apple has locked in at an LCD price. That way, regardless of whether price goes up or down, they have a set price for the LCDs.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I am sure they probably do infact have a locked in deal with the manufacturer.
And, as Fred pointed out, there are the usual gains in operational efficiency once a product is fully ramped up.
He sounded upbeat throughout the whole thing, and you could tell he was grinning ear to ear when he dodged a particularly clever attempt to pry a statement about a PowerMac rev out of him.
<strong>It won't make a difference if Apple has locked in at an LCD price. That way, regardless of whether price goes up or down, they have a set price for the LCDs.</strong><hr></blockquote>But if they got a locked-in price right now, it wouldn't have been a very good price, because they're expected to go up in price in the future.
I don't expect iMac CRTs to survive past MWNY, if that long. Why else would they be trying to sell them off to schools for clearance at 400 dollars a piece?
[ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: applenut ]</p>
Samsung about a year ago actually.
<strong>I'm not sure how you interpreted his comments as meaning the imac CRT will be staying.</strong><hr></blockquote>
He said that they were there to address price points that the LCD iMac couldn't reach, and they'd be there for as long as the LCD models stayed over $1K. He refused to proffer a time when they would be phased out, which is not surprising given the discussion about whether rising component costs would make the LCD models even costlier.
If the report is true, and Apple just ordered 800,000 CRTs from Hon Hai, then I don't think the CRT iMac is going anywhere soon. It'll stick around until Apple can push the LCD iMac down to $800 or so. MWSF 2003 maybe? or even later.
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He said that they were there to address price points that the LCD iMac couldn't reach, and they'd be there for as long as the LCD models stayed over $1K. He refused to proffer a time when they would be phased out, which is not surprising given the discussion about whether rising component costs would make the LCD models even costlier.
If the report is true, and Apple just ordered 800,000 CRTs from Hon Hai, then I don't think the CRT iMac is going anywhere soon. It'll stick around until Apple can push the LCD iMac down to $800 or so. MWSF 2003 maybe? or even later.</strong><hr></blockquote>
doubt it.
main reason to doubt that report.. 800,000 CRT imacs.
Apple hasn't sold that many iMacs since 1999 when the imac was a hit. why the hell would they expect to sell that many when it is now the runt of the product lineup and not even marketed by Apple anymore?
if true then apple is dumber than I thought
<strong>main reason to doubt that report.. 800,000 CRT imacs.
Apple hasn't sold that many iMacs since 1999 when the imac was a hit.</strong><hr></blockquote>No, they've been selling well over a million a year, even in the past year. This recent quarter was their worst iMac performance ever, I believe, and for the quarter it was still well over 200,000.
800,000 does seem high though, with the new iMac around now. If true, maybe they expect demand to really pick up over the next year, and they'll sell lots of both the new and the old iMac still.
<strong>No, they've been selling well over a million a year, even in the past year. This recent quarter was their worst iMac performance ever, I believe, and for the quarter it was still well over 200,000.
800,000 does seem high though, with the new iMac around now. If true, maybe they expect demand to really pick up over the next year, and they'll sell lots of both the new and the old iMac still.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I guess the eMac answers our doubts about the order