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There's one thing that has me worried here. And it has nothing to do with EPS and profit margins and the like, let Wall Street worry about that, what I'm worrie

There's one thing that has me worried here. And it has nothing to do with EPS and profit margins and the like, let Wall Street worry about that, what I'm worried about has little effect on Apple's bottom line these days. It is that Apple sold just 4.1 million Macs, missing the estimates badly. General-purpose computing is starting to look more and more like a profitable hobby for Apple. That it is in retreat over the whole industry only makes it worse. Maybe the day when most everybody has been herded into a walled garden isn't too far away.

jonknee 14y ago
Not having iMacs to sell for most of the quarter certainly didn't help the situation (not that it's an excuse, Apple is to blame for not having iMacs to sell).
elemeno 14y ago
At least for Apple it seems to be a profitable hobby which is more than can be said for some PC makers. It certainly seems like there's a downtick in computer buying as a whole - perhaps because its a fairly saturated market that's now driven by upgrades rather than new users combined with it's taking longer for a computer to be really out of date.
ghshephard 14y ago
Apple is going to have a problem on it's hands selling Mac's moving forward - I have a 13" 2010 MacBook Air, that is currently running 27 applications (including VMware w/Windows XP). I don't really feel any pressing need to upgrade, and will likely wait another year at least. For non-gamers, the Mac's that Apple sells are now lasting three, four, and in the case of the iMac, 5+ years. That's going to kill their sales to existing customers - so they'll need to rely more on their mobile platforms (not that they don't already)
- xentronium 14y ago
  > I don't really feel any pressing need to upgrade Retina displays could be a driving force for selling more airs.
  - hnriot 14y ago
    possible, but unlikely. When I ask friends with Airs they never complain that the screen is lacking in any way. I think "retina" displays are a marketing gimmick, and in some cases actually cause problems until all the apps know how to work with them.
    - kevinpet 14y ago
      No one ever knows how badly they need something until they see it. When you see a retina display, then go back to normal resolution, you notice a slight difference. And that can be enough to push people from "I'll upgrade when it breaks" to "hmm... this is several years old."
      - glenra 14y ago
        I've seen retina displays (in the store, anyway) and couldn't really tell the difference. But maybe I'm just old. Size and weight and amount of disk/memory all matter to me but screens have already been "good enough" for years.
  - OGinparadise 14y ago
    Retina displays could be a driving force for selling more airs. Retina is great, but it depends on the price. But still, what next after the retina? People are working more and more online and even old computers are perfectly fine. Not the fault of Apple or Microsoft, in fact they may have done a too good of of a job.,
    - skrause 14y ago
      > Retina is great, but it depends on the price. But still, what next after the retina? An LTE/3G connection would be nice.
hkmurakami 14y ago
It just might be worse news for Intel than for Apple, since both PC and Mac general computing sales are down (meaning that truly, the industry as a whole is shrinking).
nirvana 14y ago
It appears that this was due to supply issues for the new iMac. A bad situation- they've announced the new product, so the old product is less desirable, yet they can't supply the new product during Christmas. They kinda osborned themselves. While the large PC industry is declining (according to Tim on the conference call) and Macs are generally doing better- growing or declining less, depending on the quarter- I don't think Apple's Mac business is destined to become a hobby. Speaking of hobbies, the AppleTV device is selling more every year.... pretty soon it may not be a hobby at all.

jonknee 14y ago

Not having iMacs to sell for most of the quarter certainly didn't help the situation (not that it's an excuse, Apple is to blame for not having iMacs to sell).

elemeno 14y ago

At least for Apple it seems to be a profitable hobby which is more than can be said for some PC makers. It certainly seems like there's a downtick in computer buying as a whole - perhaps because its a fairly saturated market that's now driven by upgrades rather than new users combined with it's taking longer for a computer to be really out of date.

ghshephard 14y ago

Apple is going to have a problem on it's hands selling Mac's moving forward - I have a 13" 2010 MacBook Air, that is currently running 27 applications (including VMware w/Windows XP). I don't really feel any pressing need to upgrade, and will likely wait another year at least. For non-gamers, the Mac's that Apple sells are now lasting three, four, and in the case of the iMac, 5+ years. That's going to kill their sales to existing customers - so they'll need to rely more on their mobile platforms (not that they don't already)

xentronium 14y ago
> I don't really feel any pressing need to upgrade Retina displays could be a driving force for selling more airs.
- hnriot 14y ago
  possible, but unlikely. When I ask friends with Airs they never complain that the screen is lacking in any way. I think "retina" displays are a marketing gimmick, and in some cases actually cause problems until all the apps know how to work with them.
  - kevinpet 14y ago
    No one ever knows how badly they need something until they see it. When you see a retina display, then go back to normal resolution, you notice a slight difference. And that can be enough to push people from "I'll upgrade when it breaks" to "hmm... this is several years old."
    - glenra 14y ago
      I've seen retina displays (in the store, anyway) and couldn't really tell the difference. But maybe I'm just old. Size and weight and amount of disk/memory all matter to me but screens have already been "good enough" for years.
- OGinparadise 14y ago
  Retina displays could be a driving force for selling more airs. Retina is great, but it depends on the price. But still, what next after the retina? People are working more and more online and even old computers are perfectly fine. Not the fault of Apple or Microsoft, in fact they may have done a too good of of a job.,
  - skrause 14y ago
    > Retina is great, but it depends on the price. But still, what next after the retina? An LTE/3G connection would be nice.

hkmurakami 14y ago

It just might be worse news for Intel than for Apple, since both PC and Mac general computing sales are down (meaning that truly, the industry as a whole is shrinking).

nirvana 14y ago

It appears that this was due to supply issues for the new iMac. A bad situation- they've announced the new product, so the old product is less desirable, yet they can't supply the new product during Christmas. They kinda osborned themselves. While the large PC industry is declining (according to Tim on the conference call) and Macs are generally doing better- growing or declining less, depending on the quarter- I don't think Apple's Mac business is destined to become a hobby. Speaking of hobbies, the AppleTV device is selling more every year.... pretty soon it may not be a hobby at all.