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Apple boosts iPod orders for current quarter, trims Macs slightly

Apple has increased orders for most of the members of its iPod family over the past month or so while trimming Mac orders only slightly — a sign the company's business is standing its own amid a weakening economy, one Wall Street analyst says.

FBR Capital Markets analyst Craig Berger in a note to clients Wednesday said his latest round of checks into the Apple supply chain show the electronics maker to have revised its second-quarter (ending June) iPod build numbers positively by 15 percent since his last check in late March. Looking ahead, he now sees iPod builds growing 35 percent quarter-over-quarter.

"We see greater Shuffle, Classic, and Nano, builds slightly offset by fewer Touch builds, with greater Shuffle builds accounting for most of the increased iPod builds.," the analyst wrote.

Though he did not offer an explanation for the decline in iPod touch orders, some consumers may be delaying new purchases of the touch-screen players as they await pricing details of the next-generation iPhone, which will in all likelihood include all of the functionality of the iPod touch.

Berger's checks also show Apple have cut its second quarter iPhone build volumes by less than 10 percent versus checks from late March. Going forward, however, he expects iPhone build volumes to ramp considerably by about 250 percent to 3 million units, as Apple builds 3G iPhones ahead of its likely June launch.

"Apple's June, September, and December total 3G order fell by 500,000 units versus our prior checks to 11 million units, although our contacts still say Apple will likely reduce this forecast over time," he wrote. "This suggests Apple could sell 11 million iPhones in total in 2008, including its March actual shipments."

Meanwhile, Apple's second quarter Mac builds are said to have fallen only modestly since Berger last checked, with the most pronounced cut affecting the company's more costly professional MacBook Pro line.

"Apple used the seasonally slow March quarter to replenish inventory of notebooks, and to build the initial wave of MacBook Air products, thus making second quarter build comparisons difficult," he explained. "For the second quarter, we see total PC build volumes declining about 15 percent sequentially due to Apple's inventory build in 1Q."

"Big picture," he added, "these checks show that consumer spending, at least at Apple, has not meaningfully deteriorated over the past two months."



21 Comments

amac4me 20 Years · 282 comments

Many potential MBP buyers have put off purchasing with the hopes of an update (possible case redesign?) at WWDC . With the recent news that Intel has delayed the release of Montevina, it will hurt MBP sales in the short term.

solipsism 19 Years · 25701 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by amac4me

Many potential MBP buyers have put off purchasing with the hopes of an update (possible case redesign?) at WWDC . With the recent news that Intel has delayed the release of Montevina, it will hurt MBP sales in the short term.

It shouldn't. There is no way that Montevina production would have been ramped up to accommodate what Apple would need for new MB and MBPs. Also, it's only been 92 days since the last MBP update; the mean average is 194 days. These rumors of updating their notebook line at half the normal interval have absolutely nothing but wishful thinking holding them together.

randomthot 18 Years · 15 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism

It shouldn't. There is no way that Montevina production would have been ramped up to accommodate what Apple would need for new MB and MBPs. Also, it's only been 92 days since the last MBP update; the mean average is 194 days. These rumors of updating their notebook line at half the normal interval have absolutely nothing but wishful thinking holding them together.

Seeing how wwdc is supposed to be a software thing, the only reason I can see Jobs introducing the updated iPhone is because the developers will use that along with updated OS X and the SDK.

Otherwise, it's about software, and simplicity...one big announcement, smaller updates.
I think the MB & MBP will see a rather major update, but later this year.

nothowie 19 Years · 23 comments

As much as I'd like to believe this report, reports on Apple's orders have been unreliable. Remember all the
reports of Apple cutting orders that came out in January and February? Turned out the March quarter was spectacular. Reports of MAC sales in April were spectacular also, so any cut in orders by Apple of MACS is
hard to believe...and more importantly, do they usually order a lot and then usually cut back on the order
as the quarter progresses? If this is so, then it would be the amount of cut back in orders, not if they cut back
that would be important to watch. Thirty Five percent growth in builds of ipods are hard to believe, unless they
are building for the usual "Student buy a Mac get a free ipod" promotion which should happen in the next few months.

cameronj 18 Years · 2355 comments

Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Apple has increased orders for most of the members of its iPod family over the past month or so while trimming Mac orders only slightly -- a sign the company's business is standing its own amid a weakening economy, one Wall Street analyst says.

Holding its own? Standing strong? Pick one or the other, but not both