Cook's comments to analysts participating in the company's quarterly earnings conference call for fiscal Q4 2011 addressed sales of 4.89 million Macs, representing growth of 26 percent over Mac sales in the year ago quarter and setting a new quarterly record for sales of Macs.
While noting that some portion of the 11 million iPads sold in the quarter (a 166 percent increase in sales over the year ago quarter) have clearly replaced sales of some significantly more expensive Macs, Cook added that the iPad's growth is coming primarily at the expense of PCs.
Apple is "overwhelmingly coming out very well on that cannibalization," Cooks said. "With cannibalization like this, I hope it continues."
Tim Cook delivers the State of the Mac address in Cupertino in October 2008.
Apple's chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer had earlier noted that Mac sales grew particularly fast in the company's Asia Pacific segment, but added that Mac growth had occured everywhere.
Oppenheimer also pointed out that 74 percent of Mac sales are now portables, but added that Apple had also experienced record sales of desktops in the quarter, primarily from sales of new iMacs.
Big in Japan
Cook also noted that in Japan, quarterly revenue performance over the year ago quarter had been expected to take a major hit due to the fact that last year, Apple had enjoyed a very successful iPhone 4 launch, while this year's iPhone 4S wasn't launched until after the September quarter had ended.
iPhone sales in Japan are also a larger percentage of Apple's sales, given that the nation has largely shifted from conventional PCs to mobiles almost a generation ahead of other regions.
However, Mac sales are strong and growing even in that market, with Apple reporting 48 percent growth in Japan's Mac sales for the quarter "in a [PC] market barely growing at all," Cook said. Sales of new Macs largely balanced out the delayed launch of this year's new iPhone in Japan.
20 Comments
Tim Cook is off to a good start.
iPhones eat iPod sales. iPads eat MacBook sales.
But it's better to cannibalize your own sales than let someone else do it.
That's a lesson that DEC, Compaq, and many, many others never learned.
I came here to post the same thing!
iPhones eat iPod sales. iPads eat MacBook sales.
But it's better to cannibalize your own sales than let someone else do it.
That's a lesson that DEC, Compaq, and many, many others never learned.
You're absolutely right.
It's especially better if you are Apple, and you manage to maintain consistently high margins across their entire product range. Apple are cannibalizing one high margin product with another one - not many businesses have done that over the years.
Tim Cook is off to a good start.
to bad that Apples results are 10% under the Streets expectations and over 20% under the bloggers expectations.
Shares down 10% in after hour trading.
Wall Street is insane.
Profit up 54% and the shares tank.
PE 15 with 81 billion in cash. AAPL. The most undervalued company on the stock exchange.