MacBook seeing better response than MacBook Pro
More than half of the specialist resellers recently surveyed by PiperJaffray said they are seeing initial demand for Apple Computer's new MacBook that is greater than the interest they saw with the MacBook Pro when it started shipping in February.
Additionally, almost all of the specialists said initial demand for the chic consumer notebook has been similar or better to what they had been expecting prior to the product launch, analyst Gene Munster said. He believes pent-up demand for the new model has been the primary force behind strong sales.
"Several Apple specialist resellers indicated that they had been telling their customers not to buy iBooks over the last few months prior to the MacBook launch," Munster wrote in a note to clients. "These specialist stores are now seeing the result of this advice come back to them as pent-up demand."
In general, Apple resellers indicated that they are seeing stronger Mac sales during the current (June) quarter than they did during the March quarter. On the other hand, about half of the specialists said they feel iPod demand has slowed over the past two months, despite a small "bounce" in May and June due to graduation gift-giving.
"Our checks [...] reinforce our initial thesis on the June quarter, which assumes that lower-than-expected iPods will be offset by strong Mac sales that result from full availability of the MacBook Pro and the launch of the MacBook," Munster wrote. However, he cautioned that iPod numbers could fall below Wall Street's consensus.
Nevertheless, the analyst expects the Street will shift its focus to Apple's September quarter over the next few weeks. According to Munster, the company appears set for a "breakout" September quarter due to a number of factors such as the educational buying season, full product availability, Boot Camp and the new "switcher" ad campaign.
The analyst maintains a Outperform rating on Apple shares with a price target of $99.
Additionally, almost all of the specialists said initial demand for the chic consumer notebook has been similar or better to what they had been expecting prior to the product launch, analyst Gene Munster said. He believes pent-up demand for the new model has been the primary force behind strong sales.
"Several Apple specialist resellers indicated that they had been telling their customers not to buy iBooks over the last few months prior to the MacBook launch," Munster wrote in a note to clients. "These specialist stores are now seeing the result of this advice come back to them as pent-up demand."
In general, Apple resellers indicated that they are seeing stronger Mac sales during the current (June) quarter than they did during the March quarter. On the other hand, about half of the specialists said they feel iPod demand has slowed over the past two months, despite a small "bounce" in May and June due to graduation gift-giving.
"Our checks [...] reinforce our initial thesis on the June quarter, which assumes that lower-than-expected iPods will be offset by strong Mac sales that result from full availability of the MacBook Pro and the launch of the MacBook," Munster wrote. However, he cautioned that iPod numbers could fall below Wall Street's consensus.
Nevertheless, the analyst expects the Street will shift its focus to Apple's September quarter over the next few weeks. According to Munster, the company appears set for a "breakout" September quarter due to a number of factors such as the educational buying season, full product availability, Boot Camp and the new "switcher" ad campaign.
The analyst maintains a Outperform rating on Apple shares with a price target of $99.
Comments
Originally posted by SpamSandwich
I dunno... $99/share is looking less likely every day...
Well, the market falls. The market rises. The current state is not permanent. As long as Apple finds ways to innovate and profit, it can someday hit $99.
I think Apple should think about developing a dock for the MBP with accessories for this enviroment. This is where PC laptop vendors begin to differentiate their product. I love taking my HP laptop to work and docking the sucker in a few milliseconds. Apple could add some nice touches here.
Originally posted by TenoBell
What are you docking your laptop to?
Company network and my monitors. In fact HP just came out with a Dock that has a NAS (160GB) integrated and two of the USB ports are accessible over the network for printing.
What I'd love to see a way of running triple head because my dock doesn't seem to like running the DVI and VGA ports simultaneously.
I remember how cool the duo dock days were. Apple was ahead of its time then.
Company network and my monitors.
From what I've seen docking stations are used for functionality not built into the laptop.
The MacBook has the ability to be plugged into a monitor and onto a network. You can also plug a full sized keyboard and mouse to a MacBook and it will work fine.
Connected to monitor,keyboard, and mouse the Macbook lid can be closed and used the same as a desktop.
What more does a docking station do?
Originally posted by hmurchison
The MB is a great deal. Most people are finding that don't necessarily need a huge LCD screen and the discrete graphics don't impress everyone either.
I think Apple should think about developing a dock for the MBP with accessories for this enviroment. This is where PC laptop vendors begin to differentiate their product. I love taking my HP laptop to work and docking the sucker in a few milliseconds. Apple could add some nice touches here.
No offense, but this guy doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. The dock model that PC vendors use to "differentiate their product" is really the way they try to keep up with Apple's size and battery life-they remove all the functions except motherboard and harddrive and sell their computer as being sooo light and thin. Then you find out that the dock you have to attach it to in order to play a CD or connect to a network adds an inch and a half (at least; I've seen much worse!) and is heavy and bulky enough to render the "ultra-portable" unportable. Apple has a different and I believe superior strategy of creating laptop that are full-featured (what can reasonably be expected from a laptop of course) and balancing that goal with the goal of keeping it within the realms of portability.
By the way, kudos to Sony who are also catching on to this concept; it's about time!!
One thing that might have convinced me to get a PowerMac instead of an iBook was the fact that the PB could do extended desktops (dual monitors), but the iBook couldn't. The concern doesn't exist with the new laptops.
The initial results have shown that the integrated graphics aren't a big problem unless you are into intense graphics apps or gaming. I'm interested to see how the new features that are rumored to be coming in Leopard are affected by integrated vs dedicated graphics.
Originally posted by meelash
No offense, but this guy doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.
"No offense", but I feel the same about you.
I will sorely miss the dock when I transition from Dell to a MBP. With the Dell I can connect to my twin 24" monitors, USB hub (keyboard, mouse, USB keys, 3 DOF controller, etc), power and network easily. Slide into dock, hit the on button. Done.
With the MBP that's 5 connections (well 4 since I can't run dual 24" WS monitors) I need to make or unmake every time I want to go from "mobile" to "docked" or vice versa. That's more opportunities to break a connector somewhere.
My Dell dock also came with 2 PCI slots I ended up never needing but it was nice to know if I needed something odd they were available. I occasionally have the need for sync-serial cards but always had a desktop available for that.
Vinea
Originally posted by meelash
No offense, but this guy doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.
Hmurchison is one of the more knowledgeable posters hereabouts. Might want to get a sense of the lay of the land before you get carried away.
Originally posted by meelash
No offense, but this guy doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. The dock model that PC vendors use to "differentiate their product" is really the way they try to keep up with Apple's size and battery life-they remove all the functions except motherboard and harddrive and sell their computer as being sooo light and thin. Then you find out that the dock you have to attach it to in order to play a CD or connect to a network adds an inch and a half (at least; I've seen much worse!) and is heavy and bulky enough to render the "ultra-portable" unportable. Apple has a different and I believe superior strategy of creating laptop that are full-featured (what can reasonably be expected from a laptop of course) and balancing that goal with the goal of keeping it within the realms of portability.
By the way, kudos to Sony who are also catching on to this concept; it's about time!!
You sound like you're talking of the old Sony dockers used to provide CD, Floppy, and extra connectors because they wouldn't fit on the laptop itself. What I believe hmurchison is talking about now is a box to plug into that will save having to plug and unplug 3, 4, 5, 9 cables into the laptop every day.
Need to use an optical drive with your ThinkPad X series? You've got the little portable-dock thing that snaps on the bottom. For laptops that already have stuff like that built-in, like our ThinkPad T43, you can get a more desktop-oriented dock that provides all the legacy ports, DVI out, more USB ports, &. &c. The dock makes it a lot easier to just pick up the laptop and go without futzing around with disconnecting 7-8 cables individually.
Those Bookendz docks don't even compare in terms of convenience and functionality.
Originally posted by addabox
Hmurchison is one of the more knowledgeable posters hereabouts. Might want to get a sense of the lay of the land before you get carried away.
I was thinking the same thing, addabox.
Originally posted by macFanDave
I'm interested to see how the new features that are rumored to be coming in Leopard are affected by integrated vs dedicated graphics.
Indeed. Holding out for Merom and a better Intel chipset myself partly for that reason.
Originally posted by JDW
I personally am sick and tired of reading what PiperJaffray has to say on AppleInsider. Piper is simply piping off to itself because during the entire time it has maintained that ridiculous $99 price target, AAPL has fallen week after week. One must also keep in mind that most every other legitimate stock brokerage out there has a significantly lower price target for AAPL. Read the news about Apple sales in light of Wall Street expectations and you can see why. Apple is not in bad shape, but it's now where close to $99 -- any bum on the street can tell you that. One wonders where PiperJaffray finds its "analysts"! I therefore think AppleInsider should either stop writing articles about PiperJaffray statements, or at least post a disclaimer after stating something to the effect of: "Yeah, right!"
JDW - You might want to wait a while before really getting into your "I told you so!" A lot of people (myself included) are waiting for Leopard's release before buying their next Mac. Between that and the next gen iPod, I'd expect Apple sales to take a big boost next year. Patience, man!
Originally posted by TenoBell
From what I've seen docking stations are used for functionality not built into the laptop.
The MacBook has the ability to be plugged into a monitor and onto a network. You can also plug a full sized keyboard and mouse to a MacBook and it will work fine.
Connected to monitor,keyboard, and mouse the Macbook lid can be closed and used the same as a desktop.
What more does a docking station do?
I agree. How the Thinkpads and Sony's and other companies tend to market is
Port Replicator- One easy connection but no more ports than what came standard on the laptop.
Dock- Somewhere you're going to get extra functionality. Maybe another optical bay or hard drive bay or modular components. My dock has 4 more USB so it acts as a hub. I can add a second optical as well if I had an ultralight portable with no internal drive.
I'm keenly interested in the new 3-1 NAS with a 160Gb drive just because it comes with backup software and the ability to store data that I normally don't need when i'm mobile.
A few months ago I would have agreed that docks are overpriced but after living with my laptop it's nice to make one connection/disconnection. The NAS dock has a SATA 160GB 3.5" drive so I could see myself adding a larger drive as long as the controller permits it which it should.
Silencio- I'd say our attach rate for docks and Thinkpads is %25-33 percent unless you're talking about a huge rollout. People do love the simplicity of a dock.
No offense, but this guy doesn't have a clue what he's talking about.
None taken we're all sharing our opinions here. I think a subnotebook dock option is a must. However even full featured laptops benefit from advanced docks with more functionality.
I will sorely miss the dock when I transition from Dell to a MBP. With the Dell I can connect to my twin 24" monitors, USB hub (keyboard, mouse, USB keys, 3 DOF controller, etc), power and network easily. Slide into dock, hit the on button. Done
Ok we need a green with envy emoticon. Damn that's my type of setup.
Addabox and Unfiltered thank you. Sometimes I hope my stubborness doesn't come across as too harsh.
Edit. The 15 in MBPs are the model that really is overpriced.