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Apple Set to Meet Economic Projections

J Keirn-Swanson — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:45:46 -0600

Recession? What recession? In October, Apple posted its best quarterly sales figure ever with 3 million Macs out the door and 7.4 million iPhones.

With December's quarterly projections aimed squarely at 2.85 million Macs, Apple's gearing up for the holidays.

While October's iPod sales were down 16% over last year's figures and September's figures saw Mac desktop sales fall by 16% compared to 2008, Gene Munster, analyst for Piper Jaffray, is expecting an end of year spike in both categories. The month of December accounts for most Mac products sold in that quarter, and 27" quad-core iMacs are backordered several weeks.

On the cusp of Black Friday, with new Macs out on the market, it's possible that the lower September figures were customers holding out on purchasing a Mac until the latest releases hit the stores. If Apple meets these estimates, Mac sales will have grown 14% over last year.

Now just imagine what'd be happening if the tablet were dropped into the holiday mix.

iPhone Captures 17% of Smartphone Market

Brian Proffit — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:48:41 -0600

Gartner research shows the iPhone now has 17% of the smartphone market worldwide. That’s a huge jump from only 12.9% a year ago. Nokia is still on top with 39%, but that’s down from 42% last year. Research in Motion is in second place with 20.8% of the market. Interestingly enough, however, Internet Ad Sales reports that the iPhone has passed RIM in western Europe. HTC is fourth, but showed a strong gain over last year. Apple’s numbers should be even stronger in the fourth-quarter reports as Apple begins sales in China and 16 other countries.

Gartner research director Carolina Milanesi said, "The third quarter of 2009 saw the announcement of many new mobile devices, including several Android smartphones ready for the holiday season in the fourth quarter, but hardware commoditization and the growth in open platforms will make it harder for them to stand out."

Gartner said the average selling price of the iPhone was expected to hold firm, which is good news for Apple since the average selling price indicates a predominance of high-end 3GS models. From an operating system standpoint, Android is still only at 3.5% and Windows Mobile numbers continued to decline.

Gene Munster Predicts Ginormous iPhone Sales Numbers

Arvind Srinivasan — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:55:58 -0500

Either Gene Munster, senior Piper Jaffray analyst, has an insider at Apple, sees the glass as overflowing instead of half empty, or just really believes in Steve Jobs, because his predictions always tend to be on the, well, optimistic side. And that would be the understatement of the year. His latest report predicts that Apple will sell 7 million phones during Q3 09.

Well, to be fair, our reaction may just be a case of sticker shock: the 3GS has been doing incredibly well (take that, you who says we’re in a recession), and even though we had the urge to put a pinky to our mouths when we heard 7 million, Apple sold 5.2 million and 6.8 million handsets in the last quarter and Q4 08, respectively, so it would be a semi-natural increase; it’s not like he said the Palm Pre was going to sell 7 million units next quarter. However, if Apple managed to meet these numbers, they would be beating last year’s holiday sales, meaning that this year’s holiday sales should be nothing short of epic.

It then goes without saying that Munster recommends you buy Apple stock.

Via AppleInsider

iTunes Gets 25% Share of US Music Sales

Cory Bohon — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:43:05 -0500

Just when you thought Vinyl and CDs were the "bees knees," iTunes came along and stole the market place. Today, the NPD group announced that iTunes has reached a US music sales share of 25%. That's right, iTunes now accounts for 25% of all music purchased in the U.S.

Considering that only 35% of music purchased is downloads, iTunes is clearing making its mark in online distribution of music. NPD believes that music downloads and CD purchases will equal out later next year. Could CDs end up like their Vinyl cousins?

"Apple iTunes leads in the U.S. with 25 percent of music units sold, which is up from 21 percent in 2008 and 14 percent in 2007. Walmart (including Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads) remains in second position with 14 percent of music volume sold at their stores and Web sites with Best Buy ranked third," NPD said on their website.

Via MacRumors

Apple Retains Third Place in Smartphone Sales

J Keirn-Swanson — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:58:28 -0500

Despite being a late player to the mobile phone market and the typically higher prices charged for Mac products, Apple's iPhone has managed to move into third place globally behind Nokia and Research in Motion.

While Nokia retains a commanding 45% of the market in smartphone sales, the manufacturer is also the oldest currently selling and has seen its market share shrink. Blackberry manufacturer RIM's models make up 18.7% of the market with Apple hot on their heels with 13.3% of the market. The 5.4 million iPhones in sold in 2009's second quarter represents a sixfold increase over the 892,000 sold during the same quarter of 2008.

These figures don't reflect Apple's introduction of the 3GS iPhone nor the price reduction of the 8GB model down to $99. Continued expansion into the international market will likely add to these improvements. It seems almost a sure bet that Apple's position in Q309 will continue to look solid or show better growth than their rivals. Could a move into second place be in the cards?

3GS Launch was Best Day Ever for AT&T

Arvind Srinivasan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:01:17 -0500

A leaked AT&T memo uncovered by MacDailyNews says that 3GS day was the:

Best-ever sales day in our retail stores 
Second-largest traffic day in our retail stores 
Most transactions processed via our IT systems in a single day
 Most upgrade eligibility checks in a single day 
Largest order day in att.com history 
Largest features sales day in att.com history

Uh, duh. What other launch day was going to be the best in AT&T’s history, the Motorola EM330 with built in FM Radio? Ooh la la. (But seriously, Apple, we kinda want an FM radio built in to the iPod and iPhone.)

The only surprising thing about this is that the 3GS, considered by many as a mere spec bump, beat out both the iPhone 3G and the original iPhone. Kudos.