Apple momentum

Wow, “Apple”:http://www.macrumors.com/2007/10/22/apple-4q-2007-results-conference-call-6-22-billion-revenue-904-million-prof/ announced really impressive July-September 2007 results. They did $6.2B vs. $4.8B for the same quarter a year ago. To me the most amazing thing are Macs sales. They are up 34% sequentially (2.2M vs. 1.8M a quarter ago) and most interesting, their direct through retail store sales rose from 57% up from 53% for the same quarter last year. Controlling their retail channel really does work.

I think they are right by the way that Leopard (OS X 10.5) is a really big step. With Microsoft a year old with Vista and probably five years away from another release, Apple can really go to town on features. Personally, I think the momentum is quite amazing particularly the fact that 50% of the Macs sold at retail have never owned a Mac before.

And of course the big news is 1.4M iPhones shippped. I’m sure they thought they were going to do much better. Still think they can do 10M next year (that’s what I would say too). iPod sales rose 17% from a year ago, so decent momentum there. But, the high price points of the Mac means that a small increase in these sales is very significant.

Other interesting factoid is that “250K”:http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/10/22/apple_wont_pursue_circuit_city_250000_iphones_sold_to_unlockers.htmlof the 1.4M were sold to unlockers so it shows the steep mountain Apple has to climb and how high the desire is for an easy to use phone that is also a platform. I hope Apple listens and doesn’t lock it all totally down.