Apple's U.S. MacBook sales came in softer than expected in December, according to NPD
MacBook Air. Photo: Apple Inc.
In a note to clients issued Tuesday, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster offered his analysis of the NPD Group's final PC retail sales data for 2011.
The news, as he sees is, is good and bad.
Domestic Mac unit sales were up 12% for the quarter, according to NPD, which isn't bad given that sales of Microsoft (MSFT) Windows PCs are shrinking.
But the Street was expecting Mac sales for December to be up 25%. Accordingly, Munster is shaving 300,000 units off his Mac estimate for fiscal Q1 2012, dropping it to 4.9 million from 5.2 million.
But at the same time, he's raising his iPhone sales estimate by 600,000 units -- to 30.6 million from 30 million.
The result, Munster says, is a wash for Apple (AAPL). His top and bottom lines remain unchanged: He expects the company to report earnings next week of $10.50 on sales of $40.187 billion.
See also: By how many billions is Wall Street low-balling Apple?
Biggest savings on Macs. Best deals on accessories. But beware the malware.
Apple Inc.
Apple (AAPL) posted its Black Friday sale prices at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time Friday and they were exactly as rumored.
The savings on Apple-branded products range from a high of 15.94% on $69 accessories like the Magic Trackpad to 7.02% -- less than the sales tax in 25 states -- on the $299 Time Capsule 2TB.
A guide to the MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 25, 2011 6:30 AM ET
Their PC shipments grew by double digits while the broader market fell more than 11%
Even without counting the iPad, Apple (AAPL) gained smartly on the major personal computer vendors in Europe last quarter according to a report issued Monday by Gartner, Inc.
While the broader market for PCs fell 11.4% in the quarter, Apple's Mac shipments grew 19.6%. Only Asus, which specializes in Microsoft (MSFT) Windows-based notebooks, grew faster.
Otherwise, writes Gartner's MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 14, 2011 12:14 PM ET
A project developed during the company's dark ages has much to teach us today
Truncated Dodecahedron created on Graphing Calculator by J. Snuszka
"I had been paid to do a job, and I wanted to finish it. My electronic badge still opened Apple's doors, so I just kept showing up."
So begins the bizarre story Ron Avitzur tells about how he managed to create a lovely piece of software called Graphing Calculator in MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Nov 1, 2011 3:31 PM ET
The voice of Windows in the enterprise discovers that Mac users are more productive
Click to enlarge.
That 41% of enterprises won't let Apple (AAPL) PCs anywhere near their computing services -- not even e-mail or the Internet -- should come as no surprise to the IT professionals who subscribe to Forrester Research's market research reports. After all, it reflects the advice that Forrester has been giving information technology departments for MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 27, 2011 8:00 AM ET
Gates looming over Jobs at Macworld 1997
Among the highlights of the excerpt from Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs in the current issue of Fortune is the story of how Jobs repaired Apple's (AAPL) relationship with Microsoft (MSFT) just in time to get Bill Gates to participate in his 1997 MacWorld keynote. Jobs waited until the end to introduce, after a dramatic pause, Apple's new partner and investor. Suddenly Gates' face appeared, to boos and MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Oct 24, 2011 12:40 PM ET
The company's annual meeting triggers a flood of bitter comments from current and former employees
The Microsoft (MSFT) blogs are having a field day mining the stream of comments left on Mini-Microsoft after Friday's annual employee meeting. The site has traditionally been a place for staffers to let off steam anonymously, but the tone and volume of the remarks made after this year's gathering suggest that morale in Redmond has hit a new MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Sep 27, 2011 6:19 AM ET
Especially if you throw in iPad sales, as yet another Wall Street analyst has done
Click to enlarge. Source: Deutsche Bank
If you look closely at the chart at right, taken from a note to clients issued Monday by Deutsche Bank's Chris Whitmore, you'll see that it has two entries for the second quarter of 2011.
Both show notebook computer sales as reported by the six largest vendors. The difference -- which MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Aug 8, 2011 7:09 AM ET
A well-documented piece of street art appeared Friday at a Hamburg construction site
Photo: Gerolf via ifoAppleStore.com
A group calling itself the .Wav Collective, after a Windows audio file format, has posted a video showing a pair of street artists disguised as workmen cordoning off a section of the Jungfernstieg in downtown Hamburg Friday morning, hoisting a ladder against the construction barricade at the site of Apple's (AAPL) newest retail in MORE
Philip Elmer-DeWitt - Jun 5, 2011 6:13 AM ET
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* Microsoft teased Windows 8 yesterday at All Things D's D9 conference, unveiling a versatile user interface heavily inspired by its Windows Phone 7 platform. While users will be able to access the classic Windows desktop experience they'll also experience the Start screen above, which presents users' apps MORE
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| Company | Price | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank of America Corp... | 7.95 | -0.16 | -1.97% |
| Intel Corp | 26.73 | -0.43 | -1.58% |
| Microsoft Corp | 31.27 | -0.17 | -0.54% |
| Ford Motor Co | 12.28 | -0.25 | -2.00% |
| General Electric Co | 19.39 | 0.17 | 0.88% |
| Index | Last | Change | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dow | 12,938.67 | -27.02 | -0.21% |
| Nasdaq | 2,933.17 | -15.40 | -0.52% |
| S&P 500 | 1,357.66 | -4.55 | -0.33% |
| Treasuries | 2.00 | -0.04 | -1.96% |
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