Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said that Mac sales for the December quarter set another quarterly record with sales of almost eight times IDC’s most recent estimate for the PC industry overall.
There was growth in each geographic segment grew; Japan and Asia-Pacific grew over 50%. Oppenheimer says growth was fueled by strong demand for the revamped MacBook Air as well as continued strong sales of MacBook Pro. “Macworld” (http://www.macworld.com) says 70% of all the Macs sold were laptops. However, it seems the iMac is still going strong, and is definitely Apple’s best-selling desktop.
The average selling price of Macs went up. Desktop Macs now have an ASP of US$1,410 and laptops have an ASP of $1,272.
Asia/Pacific led the Mac growth with 67% increase year over year. That’s 10x what the market there grew overall.
Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said that Apple has seen 19 straight quarters of Mac sales growth. Still, the Mac has a relatively small percentage of the personal computer market, so there’s plenty of room for growth. He says that there may be some cannibalization of the Mac laptop market by the iPad. He also thinks that there’s also a “halo effect” in which customers who buy an iPad like it and then buy a Mac.
“The iPad team is building the best iPads for the future, and the Mac team is building the best Macs for the future,” Cook says. “Both groups believe there’s room for growth, and I think they’re right.”
He adds that both product categories share the same DNA. There are lots of examples where a feature started on one of products, then went to another.
“The product groups aren’t competing,” Cook says. “They’re sharing to come up with great products that people really want.”
— Dennis Sellers
dsellers@applecentral.com