Apple’s third quarter conference call is currently taking place. Readers can listen in to the call themselves with QuickTime, or stay tuned to MacMinute for the latest updates from the call.
- Apple reduced channel inventory by 46,000 units, resulting in a total sell through of $1.525 billion for the quarter. [17:02 ET]
- Apple shipped 827,000 Macs during the quarter, including 182,000 new iBooks. All told, a record 36 percent of total units were portables [17:05 ET]
- Apple plans on opening 10 new Apple Stores in the near future, and 23 more by the end of the year: Plano, TX; Bloomington, MN; Shaumburg, IL; Peabody, MA; Palo Alto, CA; Columbus, OH; Tampa, FL; Albany, NY; Germantown, TN [17:05 ET]
- Apple’s education sales have increased 7 percent year over year, despite “tough economic environment” [17:06 ET]
- Online Apple Store accounted for 40 percent of total sales, up from 34 percent in the year-ago quarter; growth is attributed to international Apple Stores [17:06 ET]
- Gross margins came in at 29.4 percent for the quarter — relatively high — due to lower component costs (DRAM, flat panel displays) [17:07 ET]
- Apple closed the quarter with $19 million in inventory, or 2 days worth of inventory [17:07 ET]
- Apple expects earnings and revenue to increase slightly next quarter; gross margins should be similar [17:08 ET]
- Analyst Q/A session begins [17:09 ET]
- 200,000 copies of Mac OS X shipped during the quarter [17:11 ET]
- Consumer segment was weakest this quarter, Apple is not counting on any seasonal recovery too boost the segment [17:19 ET]
- US/Japan were strongest regions, Europe was weakest (down 32 percent) [17:20 ET]
- Apple continues to expect retail stores to be near break-even in the December quarter, becoming profitable next year [17:35 ET]
