Why iPod Can't Save Apple

MadMirko writes "MacNN quotes an article from Money Magazine titled Why iPod can't save Apple, which says 'the buzz on the digital music player and "swank" storefronts are masking an ebbing bottom line, noting reduced CPU sales (resulting a shrinking marketshare), decreased profits (in part due to the lower-margin iPod and little-to-no profit at the iTunes Music Store), failure of the iPod to drive CPU sales, failure of the retail stores to increase marketshare, hidden retail store costs, no operational income, and little value in the stock.'"

Comments

Yes, yes, yes, Apple's dying, blah blah blah

[The I Shing]

Yes, yes, yes, Apple's about to bite to dust, we've been hearing that for years.

Check out the Apple Death Knell Counter for links to many, many other articles, dating back to 1995, all of which have experts predicting that Apple is about to go bust.

Re:Yes, yes, yes, Apple's dying, blah blah blah

[Nakito]

Indeed, the article cites the "failure of the iPod to drive CPU sales" as evidence of trouble. Have the authors of the article forgotten that Apple made a deliberate decision to make the iPod not dependent on the Apple platform? The ads tout that the iPod is compatible with both the Apple and Windows platforms. So here is a product that is successful in exactly the way that Apple intended: it is penetrating the market for Windows users as well as Apple users. Would the authors of the article be happier if the iPod was instead limited to the Apple niche?

Re:Yes, yes, yes, Apple's dying, blah blah blah

[LaCosaNostradamus]

Roger that. Only in America can we judge that a company selling a profitable product is a non-viable entity. This only means that we are used to Wall Street declaring a company dead if they made 6% this year instead of the 9% that their analysts predicted.

I'm sure that Steve Jobs wallpapers his office with all of the predictions of Apple's demise. If we keep going like that, we'll give him enough to wallpaper all of Apple's offices.

OSX

[mod_critical]

I still think OS X is going to save Apple. It may be a slower propegation than this narrow analysis on the iPod and iTunes, but from what I have seen it has been creating more and more demand for Apple products.

Just locally, I have been spreading a "Mac Fever" to many of my collegues. A friend of mine turned me Mac this past summer after leaving an iMac with Panther on it up in our office all summer. He was working out of town for several weeks, and I used it regularily. I would have never wanted a Mac running OS 9, but now that I've used Panther...

After he got back I had to return to my Winblowz box (as I cannot use StuidoMX or Photoshop on Linux =[ ). After that I was fevering for a Mac hardcore. I finally was able to pick up a new G5 around Christmas time.

Ever since, I have been estatic about its performance, beauty, and stability. This has lead to antoher PowerMAC for the office, and two iBooks between my friend and I. The other people we work with are seeing how well our Macs help us get our work done, and are now looking to buy Macs of their own.

At other places I have worked I see the same thing happening. Someone gets a Mac, and six months later four or five other people have gotten not just one, but usually two, for office and home.

Of course, a computer is more expensive than an iPod, so this growth will be slower, but I see it occuring in force all around me.

Re:OSX

[spamtrap]

Yep. Same here. My wife is the Tech for a Geology Dept. at Ohio U. Whe she started there was her and one other Mac person. Now half the department has G5 Macs.

She spends 98% of her tech support time with the windoze folks.

Every time another virus runs amok, she adds another Mac person.. Last time, she got all of the professors in one room and had the ones with the virus raise their hands. Then all of the Mac people raise theirs.. Her Quote. "You are smart people. There is a lesson to be learned here."

For me, the only only time I boot windows is in VirtPC to play poker. Otherwise, I don't even give it a thought

Like she says.. Mac OS X has none of the stability and security that you associate with Windows...

part of the comments are probably true

[Anonymous Coward]

CPU sales: the G5 may be popular, that is popular for a high end machine, but the more affordable machines, the iMac and the eMac, are in need of a serious upgrade (why not a G5) to make them attractive again - these machines don't sell that well anymore (I don't have inside information, but this could be learned from various reports).

Tom, happy owner of a 2x1Ghz PowerMac

iTunes may save them...

[MalaclypseTheYounger]

As a user of iTunes (mainly because I drink way too much soda during the day, and redeem free songs from Pepsi on iTunes) I have grown to really like their service. If it continues to grow (by adding on to their somewhat meager existing library) they will definitely have a new source of income online selling music. From me, anyhow.

And I may just have to go buy an iPod now to hook up to my iTunes service.

Kudos, Apple... you have got a hard-core Mac hater to use your products. I would call that an amazing success.

What they're basically saying is...

[phillymjs]

...Apple is nothing without the iPod, and the cash iPod sales bring in.

To which I say, where's the companion article about Microsoft's dire financial situation? I mean, if they didn't have Windows and Office income subsidizing all their money-losing products (which is almost everything else they make), they'd be hemmorhaging money in a way that would shame the Pentagon.

By the way, Apple's computer sales are down because the models are stale and a refresh is due (or overdue, in the case of the G5). I've got several thousand dollars sitting in the bank, just waiting for the new G5s to be announced, and I am far from alone. And the iMac and eMac lines were very recently EOL'd and should get updated soon as well.

~Philly

Apple seems to be coming back

[emacnabber]

I go to a major university and have always had the habit of seeing what types of laptops people use as I walk around. In the last 6 months I've noticed a huge increase in the number of Mac users. Yesterday while walking to class, I saw that about 2/3 of the students had Macs. When I started at the university three years ago I really don't remember seeing anyone who had a Mac. From my personal experience, Macs seem to be increasing in popularity.

Re:Apple is dying...again.

[thogard]

Apple may be dying but I know a large number of people that have recently bought new macs and I've been sending people off to buy macs because I do not answer window questions anymore. At the after meeting Pizza at the local lunix users group last month there were 10 people that had mac laptops out of the 30 or so people.

Of course I'm holding out on buying a new one till they come an Apple [tm] 3 button mouse.

My story, I guess.

[imag0]

I remember the 0.97-pre-1 days quite well when Linux stunk on ice, boys and girls. I've use Linux and UN*X for quite some time, helped write training manuals during the dot-bomb days and have enjoyed the Linux and UN*X communities thoroughly.

This year when it was time to upgrade to another computer, did I get a bitchin' dual processor rig with gobs of ram, all bone crushing speed and input jacks galore?

No. I got a (nice, used) Quicksilver 867 with a Superdrive and an iBook to take with me on vacation. I can develop software, scripts and all sorts of goodies in the shell or just jump and start up a nice game of Q3A, or UT2004, or whatever. These pieces of hardware to the job that couldn't be done by others for ideological, historical, or monetary reasons and I'm glad that someone put unix on the desktop in a fashion that is easy to use and has plenty of future still in it.

Unix has made it to the desktop, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for an excellent job, Apple.

I'll be back to buy more sooner than later.

I don't see it

[TheSwirlingMaelstrom]

I attend both astronomy and computing conferences regularly. In the last year or two (since Mac OS X and the new line of PowerBooks really started catching on) I have seen a dramatic change in the laptops being used at these conferences. A couple years ago, there would have been a handful of Dells, a few IBMs, some Sonys, and maybe, just maybe, an Apple or two out of fifty laptops. This has changed to point where 30%-40% of all laptops I see at these conferences are now Apple PowerBooks or iBooks running OS X.

I've never been a huge fan of Apple, but have always grudgingly admitted that their OS has always been better designed from a useability point-of-view than Windows (and, sadly, Linux desktops), and that their aesthetics in hardware and software design are way better than any other company's. And, despite what a few earlier commentors have posted, Apple's hardware is usually quite good (with the exception -- up until the introduction of the G5 -- of their processors which have largely sucked. Thanks Motorola!).

I'm a Linux user at work and at home and will likely be replacing my home computer sometime soon. I had been thinking that I would just build a PC (Windows free) and install linux, and helping my wife and son with the transition. I now think that my next computer will be a Mac. I still don't consider myself a huge Apple fan, but what they offer is way better designed than anything else out there at this time.

I really think that Apple has driven the thin edge of the wedge between some traditionally non-Apple users and the usual Windoze OS/hardware that they would normally buy. Apple has re-invented itself in the past and, I think, innovated way more than many other companies. I think that they just might succeed in driving that wedge in further.

I'm a "glass half full" kind of guy

[laird]

When I go to high-end tech conferences (TED, PC Forum, Pop! Tech, etc., the kind company CTO's go to) all I see are PowerBooks. Heck, and PC Forum the lone Vaio user taped an Apple logo to the lid of his computer in order to "fit in." So Apple clearly completely owns the "leading edge" tech user market, which is a good indicator of where the general market is heading. That is, if the people that build Yahoo, eBay, etc., all use Mac's, then (1) the things they build work on Mac's, and (2) they influence everyone around them to consider Mac's.

And on a more mundane level, Apple is also more profitable than almost any other personal computer company (most are losing money, Apple is profitable). Apple has figured out how to make a retail store chain work (unlike Gateway). Apple has the best brand in the computer business, the best customer loyalty, and highest customer satisfaction. Apple completely dominates the new, rapidly growing digital music sales market. And their platform is the basis for the best price/performance supercomputer on the planet. That's all got to be worth something!