Record-breaking quarterly sales of the Mac are putting Apple into the running for a top computer-maker spot!
Sure, Apple Computer (AAPL) sold a lot of iPods in the September quarter. But unlike in past periods, when surging sales of the iconic digital-music player grabbed headlines, this time around, the Mac was the belle of the earnings ball.
In fact, Apple sold more of its Macintosh computers—1.61 million—than in any other quarter. Mac sales were clearly the high point of the quarter and the year, accounting for $2.2 billion, or 45%, of revenue. Apple had made a point to emphasize the Mac following the transition to using chips from Intel (INTC) from using chips made by IBM (IBM) and Freescale Semiconductor (FSL). Apple completed the switch when it released the MacPro earlier this month.
NICHE PLAYER NO MORE
“They delivered in spades,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster says of Apple’s Mac sales. “It’s a sign that Apple has turned the corner from being a niche player to being a player that is starting to make a run at bigger players.”
Indeed, Apple came within spitting distance of overtaking Gateway (GTW) as the third-biggest U.S. computer maker, according to Gartner figures released on Oct. 18, the same day as Apple’s results. Last quarter, Apple sold a mere 38,000 fewer units than Gateway, which trails Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Dell (DELL).
And within Mac sales, portables were far and away the favored product of Mac buyers. Apple sold 986,000 of its MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers, which accounted for $1.3 billion, or 27%, of revenue at an average price of $1,363 per unit during the period. Desktop sales, at 624,000 units, were slower, in part because the Mac Pro was the last Mac in Apple’s lineup to include an Intel chip, accounting for $869 million, or just less than 18%, of revenue. Desktop prices sold for an average price of $1,392.
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