News from the Mac world

Apple has just revealed its latest year-quarter revenue: US$9.87 billion (over $14 billion NZD) and a net quarterly profit of US$1.67 billion, or US$1.82 per diluted share.
In the same year-ago quarter, Apple's revenue was almost US2 billion lower, at $7.9 billion, with a net quarterly profit of US$1.14 billion.
Apple's gross margin was 36.6 per cent, up from 34.7 per cent in the year-ago quarter. Of course, Apple's stock went up.
Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's Chief Financial Officer, also mentioned Apple's full year results: "For the full year, we grew revenue by 12 per cent and net income by 18 per cent in extraordinarily challenging times."
The profit took many analysts by surprise. Bob O'Donnell, IDC's vice president of clients and display, said last week that everyone was guessing at Apple's numbers.
"Here's the interesting thing. Last month we called Apple [sales] low, and we got it wrong. I take full blame for that," O'Donnell admitted. "I thought, 'How can they possibly maintain share?' But they defy logic."
Apple's share of the US PC market has also grown. According to IDC, Apple accounted for 9.4 per cent of all US computer sales in the third quarter. In the period prior, Apple had just 7.6 per cent of sales.
It's never easy to get much detail on where Apple sells what, but it appears international sales accounted for 46 per cent of the quarter's revenue. AppleInsider has posted that Apple Americas accounted for 1.252 million Mac sales (US$4.297 billion). That's a 12 per cent year-over-year increase, and an additional 20 per cent in revenue from the same frame a year prior.
Apple Europe represented 761,000 Mac sales (US$2.491 billion). That's a year-over-year increase of 25 per cent in sales.
Apple sold 79,000 Macs in Japan (US$4.34 million). That was only a one per cent increase year-over-year for the region.
Other segments, including Asia Pacific and FileMaker Inc, which includes New Zealand, saw a 42 per cent increase in shipments and 39 per cent growth in revenue based on 291,000 Mac sales generating $7.81 million in revenue.
Overall, Apple's latest profits came from sales of 3.05 million Macs (up 17 per cent year-on-year).
Meanwhile the sales of 10.2 million iPods represent a decline as the iPhone eats into the popularity of the music player. iPod sales were down 8 per cent down year-on-year.
Indeed, year-on-year, iPhone sales were 7 per cent up (7.4 million iPhones sold).
It looks like even the US government is starting to look seriously at Apple gear. The US Army has four video surveillance installations based on Apple OS X, and using Apple servers. A "large US government entity" had just initiated an all-Apple installation, according to Security System News.
But what of the future? New iMac rumours are still going around. Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, said at the earnings call "We've got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010."
Mysteriously, Apple execs noted they were expecting increased air freight costs that were "nothing to do with iPhone", and "are about getting units into the channel for the holiday."
Units of what? Cult of Mac has more info on this little teaser, which to me once again points to new iMacs (but once again, my hope may be tipping the balance of reason). And in the pipeline for 2010? Maybe some tablet thang.
Needless to say, Apple still feels pretty confident about the future. Unlike Dell. Michael Dell last week criticised both his own products and Microsoft, for Vista, although he praised the imminent Windows 7.
The Dell CEO largely dismissed netbooks as a category and said a "fair amount" of buyers were unhappy with them for both their smaller screens and performance issues. Existing notebook owners in particular feel disappointed as they lose what they liked about their larger portables. Does this surprise anyone? I mean, great that you can carry a netbook so easily, and great it may have cost you peanuts, but if all you can do is surf the net and read email, I can imagine the fun palling pretty quickly. Of course, and despite Michael's critique, Dell offers many netbook models.
Windows PC builders have been keen to tout increased shipments of the little laptops but have often suffered revenue drops due to general low prices and the belt-tightened profit margins. These margins have mostly failed to make up for recession-related losses in regular notebook sales.
Apple has been criticised for not offering a netbook at all, and has been one of the few major computer brands to actively resist entering the category. Apple reckons netbooks are slow, small and uncomfortable, reports Electronista.
Meanwhile, Apple made Number 3 on the AT Kearney Global Champions list.
Nintendo is top, followed by Google. No other PC companies made the list. Now, where shall I put that new iMac?
- Mark Webster mac.nz http://web.me.com/mac.nz
As usual the PC users have jumped on my comments. The point of my original post and the point I was trying to make a windows users seem to never understand is all this stuff comes out of the box. There is plenty of open source free software for the mac too. Not everyone wants to spend there life searching for the good stuff, there is plenty of rubbish out there.
People who don't want all that hassle can get it all out of the box and going with no prior knowledge of computers. Thats what I did 10 years ago on one of the early imacs, without ever doing much more than write an email previously I tried a friends imac, and in one weekend, with no prior training or help I had edited my first film using imovie.
Just plugged in the camcorder started imovie and I was off. This wasn't about it being a pretty box or marketing or anything like that, I had never even heard of the imac and thought Apple wasn't even in business anymore, this was pre the ipod. I've been a fan ever since. BTW can you please show me the free version of Garageband for windows complete with all the loops, according to all the windows people I know it doesn't exist.
Jason, have a look at Gimp, does about 80% of what photoshop can, but it's open source and free.
Adobe also make Photoshop Elements, which often comes free with many cameras, scanners etc, or is only a couple of hundred bucks to buy. It's a very powerful bit of software, again doing much of what Photoshop CS does with regards to photo editing.
For web design, try one of the freeware sites like tucows, otherwise most web hosts have very good website builders as part of the package (and they won't drop an apple logo at the bottom of each page).
Yes, a good IPS monitor is expensive, but Dell has some great deals on a 24inch model at the moment that is better quality than the Apple Cinima display (which uses an older panel).
Video editing can be done quickly and easily with Windows Movie Maker (I didn't believe it until I tried it, but it actually works really well with a simple drag and drop interface (and again, it won't stick and Apple logo into your movie).
Music stuff I don't know, I don't have a musical bone in my body. But, the software is out there, you just have to look for it.
@butters Read your post about open source software to "edit photos, web pages, edit video or make music" I would love to get my hands on some of this free software, could you point me in the right direction? thanks
@Moppie I know I said I didnt want to join the topic about pricing but I couldn't find a equal hardware to match the 27inch IPS monitor. Just wanted to know if you allocated that to the price =) IPS monitors at the higher resolutions gets a bit nasty
I was excited to see Apple finally using the Core i7's as I been running one since launch but I been using it to just check email and chat as there hasnt been any new games out this year that really push hardware. I contemplated selling the system and living with just my Macbook pro however I could not get myself to sell a system I hand built and actually won a build competition for(thats another story). I had a look at installing OSX on my i7 but found the motherboard was not fully supported.
The only thing that disappoints me (I wont mention price cause theres enough post here and every other Apple related article) with the i7 iMacs is its use of dual channel memory instead of triple channel. The iMac does appeal in many areas as I been looking to upgrade from my S-PVA panel to an IPS panel for photo editing.
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