Apple CFO Fred Anderson yesterday led a corporate update at the Smith Barney Citigroup Tech Conference. Anderson said that Apple was in an incredibly strong financial position with over $4.5 billion in cash and only $300 million in long-term debt, which is due in February of next year. Apple has managed to survive the downturn by using innovation, he said. Also, Apple’s consumer market share rose from 1.5% in June 2001 to 3.5% in June 2003, while its US education market share went from 15% to 16%. Read the two-page report at MacNN.
On a similar note, a few days ago a stats firm announced that Apple is No5 in the laptop US market with 7% laptop market share.
This is really great news!
Another interesting report that came out today is that Apple ranked in the top five “cool companies” among young consumers:
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,60287,00.html
Couple that with the fact that Apple is currently trading at a 52 week high, and this is all *before* profits roll in from the G5 and the upcoming Panter AND the upcoming WIndows iTunes…
http://www.macdailynews.com/comments.php?id=P1716_0_1_0
all I gotta say is that this is a very exciting time to be a Mac user!
Its good to see a R&D company grow. I’m tired of reading all the doom’n’gloom news during the last 2-3 years. Go Apple, go!!!
I expect that it will go even higher with the release of the G5 powermacs. I think a lot of people held off waiting for their release. I’ve also seen a lot of comments about people switching if MS really starts pushing DRM. I’m not sure what it’s like to work for Apple, but it seems like it would be an awesome company.
I agree that everyone has always been digging into Apple and their status financially. It’s good to hear that Apple is starting to shape up, despite the low sales. I guess it was a smart move to finally open some retail stores, I believe that helped greatly!
But they aren’t out of the woods yet, I don’t think the G5 are the true answer.
Retail stores: Why, in New Zealand, are we paying significantly more for Macs than (say) the US? I have been told it is because they have to go US->Singapore(?)->Australia->New Zealand. I would love to buy a Powerbook, but not at NZ prices! Come on Apple NZ, import direct from the US and give us a chance. Yesterday my friend bought a Toshiba laptop and never even considered Apple.
An example: 17″ Powerbook from Apple.com is $3299. Convert this to Australian dollars is $5132. Cost in Australia is $6142 at http://shop.centre.net.au/index.html?cat=0005WZ0006260006ND&prid=00…
So why the huge difference?
Seriously, I want a G5, but not at those prices.
I will hold my G4 for a while until G5s drop.
Apple is looking for other sources of revenue, which is good. But they need to lower some of the CPU prices so people don’t have to spend $2000 ever 2 or 3 years
While I know what you mean, Steve Jobs is not coming to your house to force you, at gunpoint, to buy a G5. It’s true that Apple’s development schedule, in both software and hardware, has recently made the old “we’re keeping our Mac for a decade” line much harder to hold, but for every person who complains about OS X’s speed on a G4, I’ve encountered someone who’s quite happy with it on a G3. (For a month, in fact, I did development with 10.2 on a PowerMac G3/266 desktop that was literally the earliest Apple capable of running it, and it worked surprisingly well.) The usable lifespan of a Mac, presuming you’re happy with it to start with, can still easily meet five years, and despite all the “Apple screws their customers!” posts people are wont to spew, I’d be surprised if the MacOS of 2008 isn’t compatible back to the G5.
And look at it this way–if you <em>do</em> spend $2000 on a computer every three years, that works out to under $60 a month. (I may get a top-end G5 if I can wangle it, and I damn well plan to keep it for at least five years. For all the angst Apple’s prices cause, IIRC, I spent about $2500 for my Pentium/166 when it was a top-of-the-line PC, and it wasn’t a bad price. All things are relative.)
But they need to lower some of the CPU prices so people don’t have to spend $2000 ever 2 or 3 years.
Don’t forget resale value; I hear selling old ones on eBay gets pretty good offers.
Of course, when you have high prices relative to your salary, like in New Zealand, forget about it… the investment’s upfront cost is probably too high.
i’m saving up for a g5 too; i’ll just wait for the 1. or 2. price drop (i.e. when a new model appears). my 1600XP does probably serve quite well till then.
Retail stores: Why, in New Zealand, are we paying significantly more for Macs than (say) the US? I have been told it is because they have to go US->Singapore(?)->Australia->New Zealand. I would love to buy a Powerbook, but not at NZ prices! Come on Apple NZ, import direct from the US and give us a chance. Yesterday my friend bought a Toshiba laptop and never even considered Apple.
An example: 17″ Powerbook from Apple.com is $3299. Convert this to Australian dollars is $5132. Cost in Australia is $6142 at http://shop.centre.net.au/index.html?cat=0005WZ0006260006ND&pri…
So why the huge difference?
I just don’t know why it even goes near Singapore considering that the Macs in the Asia-Pacfic region are assembled in China. Why not just air freight them directly from the assembly plant to the respective country? IIRC, most countries in the Asia-Pacific region allow parallel importing.
Regarding the price difference, that is pretty normal, however, I am surprised that they haven’t adjusted them yet. SUN has already adjusted their Australian pricing to reflect the Australian dollars appreciation against the US$, for example, the Blade 150 went from $2850 to $2550.
Apples relatively new ‘COOL’ and ‘DIGITAL’ image works properly. I’m not surprised, since Apple’s focus on making the Macs a digital hub for all your other devices, is a lot more up to date, than the previous Mac image (what image???).
Also, the “new” really great design and focus on making design that stands out on its own, and the beauty of the new operating system contra the older ones, also adds a lot to the cool-factor.
Singapore may be wrong. This is why I put a question mark there. Anyhow, the point is we are paying way above the exchange rate here in New Zealand (and Australia). Do Macs have international warranties…..eg. if a friend brought one back from the US for me, would the warranty cover it here in NZ?
Apples relatively new ‘COOL’ and ‘DIGITAL’ image works properly. I’m not surprised, since Apple’s focus on making the Macs a digital hub for all your other devices, is a lot more up to date, than the previous Mac image (what image???).
Also, the “new” really great design and focus on making design that stands out on its own, and the beauty of the new operating system contra the older ones, also adds a lot to the cool-factor.
It is rather funny, ever since I bought this eMac, every man and his dog who has visited me couldn’t get over how cool it is and where he/she can buy one from.
Hopefully with a bit of work by the new Apple Australia Grand PooBah and the newly partnership with David Jones, instead of people needing to see their friends Mac before they buy one, they can simply look at one in David Jones.
iPod is selling well becuse it is marketed well. I’ve picked up 4 music orientated magazines and there are HUGE ad’s running for the iPod. Is is seen by the teenagers as the “cool”, “hip” and “groovy” thing to have.
BTW, about the Ipod.
Noticed the long introsequences in 50 Cent’a and Mary J. Blige’s new videos, where they are seen clutching and Ipod fullscreen?
Singapore may be wrong. This is why I put a question mark there. Anyhow, the point is we are paying way above the exchange rate here in New Zealand (and Australia). Do Macs have international warranties…..eg. if a friend brought one back from the US for me, would the warranty cover it here in NZ?
Yes, they do go through Singapore. Singapore is the regional distribution hub.
Regarding warranties, the warranty is only regional not international, the reason why is because NZ and Australia (and a few others) have stronger consumer protection laws than some other countries, meaning, in some areas, Apple can reduce their price as the liability is much lower and thus can pass the so-called “savings” onto their customer.
The thing I would like to know is what will you use it for? I keep getting people (not necessarily you) who think they need a PowerMac when in actual fact an iMac or eMac would do the job quite nicely. The only thing stopping them is their arrogance and assumption that because it isn’t in seperate boxes, some how, it is “inferior”.
I am running Office X, Studio MX, Corel Graphics Suite 11, Painter 8 and Adobe InDesign 2 without any issues. The only thing I would suggest is upgrading the standard memory on the eMac to 1GIG and buy it from a third party vendor as it tends to cost less for higher quality memory.
So why the huge difference?
I would have guessed Value-Added Tax, assuming you have one, but that would be a nearly 20% Value-Added tax if so. Ouch.
Maybe the employees of Apple New Zealand need to make the monthly payments on their new boats. 🙂
Ok, I’m not a financial genius or anything (far from it, actually), but if I had $4,500 in the bank, and $300 of long-term debt, I’d pay off the debt to avoid paying interest on it.
In other news, I have no idea why corporations do the things they do, especially Apple. 😉
– chrish
Just a hint, the report did stay that the debt was due in January so I beleive Apple will pay it in full at that time.
If the debt is in the form of bonds, then there are penilties for paying it off early. Since Apple’s long term debts are due, it sounds like they’re talking about bonds; also note that all the debt is due in January, thus Apple hasn’t issued bonds in some time since they are normally issued in 4 to 5 year terms.
money can make you money. invest until february and then pay off the debt when you have to. if you pay the debt off, you’ve lost your investment. of course they’re risks associated with such a move, like you could lose money on your investment, but these are calculated risks and usually the smart investor could find a way to make money. a good investment could easily outweigh the interest stacked up against a loan.
for the consumer it’s great to pay off debt right away because most consumer’s wouldn’t divert that money to investments to gain money, instead, they’d probably blow it on some other unnecessary materials. businesses and consumers have different stakes.
what if the scenario were like this: premium/jacked-up computer prices for the next 3 years, and then when they’re even more financially stable and have won more of the market share in terms of users and application vendors, start to lower prices to squash competitors (like the dell model). i think apple isn’t in such a great financial position, lord knows how easily a tech company could squander 3.5 billion usd. microsoft has like 70 billion usd in its cash reserves–that’s comfort…
believe in apple, it is planting the seeds of tomorrow, so be patient and get an emac or ibook for now.
have a nice weekend all!
Great news, is this really new news? It’s good news
Unless you are running that all at the same time while actively using all the applications you listed, I think 1gb would be an overkill. I would suggest 192-256mb for the average Mac consumer, that way at least 95% of the time, they wouldn’t go swap.
Actually, the main story – yeah, it is new. The numbers was just recently released.
The reasons:
a) Shipping to New Zealand is quite expensive, being the most geographically isolated nation in the world.
b) Extremely strong consumer-rights laws force prices to go up.
c) Supply-Demand issue. USA is Apple’s biggest market, hence bigger supply there.
d) Taxes.
As for Singapore (and Malaysia), the prices is around the same as USA, plus a dozen US$ or more. But remember, this is the ultra-cheap market, the average computer in Malaysia goes around for US$500, and pirated software runs most computers over here and there isn’t much pirated software for the Mac.
It’s not just NZ, Canada gets royally screwed by Apple also.
And there’s absolutely no reason for it. Dell doesn’t have a problem. I priced out the same system from Dell USA and Dell Canada. It turns out the Dell Canada PC was CHEAPER if you factor the US price by the exchange rate.
It’s complete BS. Contrary to popular belief, the US is not the centre of the universe. If Apple seriously wants to expand it’s market share they need to stop taking foreign markets for granted.
To the people of Canada, NZ and the rest of the former Commonwealth countries, get rid of your expensive laws and you’ll get cheaper gear, end of story. Stop bitching at the US for your own stupidity in retail taxes and consumer “protection”. The protected consumer is an intelligent one, no law will prevent the stupid from getting screwed.
Answers to questions asked above…
I want a Powerbook for portability. An emac does not fit in my bag.
Tax is included in the prices I provided above. We are STILL paying 20% extra all things (except delivery) included.
In New Zealand, we have a “Consumers Guarantee” which I think just means that a consumer can expect a reasonable use from a product. It is not at all “stupid”.
Lastly, I could personally import a Powerbook directly from the US much cheaper than I could buy one here, however then there is the international warranty issue. My friend just bought a Toshiba Laptop (sorry, he did not even consider Apple) and it has an international 1 year warranty as standard.
Byron is just plain wrong. THe fact is Apple is ripping us off. Period!
There is one good reason why things are more expensive in certain countries (like Canada, New Zealand, Australia, etc.) and not in others. The simple explanation is it is market forces. That is if demand is high and supply is low, you get high prices, because vendors can.
Many think that there are other reasons and there are. Here are some comments:
First off, shipping cost are totally negligble. Typical wholesale airfreight costs are about $0.5-0.7/kg, depending on location. Flowers are airfreighted around the world to get them fresh to YOU, and I don’t pay $10 per flower on the transport charges.
Second, often this works through exclusive contracts with subs in those countries. These subs charge enormous amounts of money, without adding any value to the product.
Third, there is nothing that keeps you from buying a MAC from an Amercian (or other cheap) retailer and importing it to your country. You have to pay taxes of course, but that still gives you significant savings.
And thus there is the key: If you get enough competition to established expensive channels, your prices WILL be cheapter or they will COME DOWN. For instance, a couple of years ago (many couple of years I should say :-), I bought a MAC powerbook in Japan, as it was way CHEAPER in Japan, because of a punitive 100% import taxes on color LCD screens, which are fabricated in Asia (and were thought to be dumped on the US market). Apple was passing on the 100% tax to the consumer in the US, but if you imported that powerbook under certain conditions (personal use), you only had to pay the normal import tax, which was way cheaper.
I had a Japanese warranty and had to use it once, sent it back (with all the paperwork), got it fixed in Japan, and returned to me. The cost? About $60 with insured FedEx shipping, at a cost savings (incl. all the import taxes paid) of well over 30% of the price of the computer.
Now here is a business model for you… 🙂
The simple explanation is it is market forces.
Yup, and Apple have no competition so they rip us off. I think it’s called greed. Hell, for the price differences I could almost fly to the US to get one.