Apple Says Sales Reach $5.7 Bln, Exceeding Estimates
Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Computer Inc.'s first-quarter revenue reached $5.7 billion, more than the company expected, as iPod sales tripled and Macintosh computer purchases topped 1 million units for the fifth straight period.
The company's retail stores posted revenue of more than $1 billion for the first time, Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said today at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. Apple in October forecast $4.7 billion in total sales.
Apple sold 14 million iPod music players and 1.25 million Macs, Jobs said. IPod has driven renewed interest in Cupertino, California-based Apple, and analysts including Piper Jaffray & Co.'s Gene Munster expect new Mac laptops today with Intel Corp. chips, six months ahead of schedule.
``We had 26 million visitors during the holiday quarter in the retail stores,'' Jobs said. ``This is more people than live in any state in our union other than California.''
Shares of Apple rose $4.25, or 5.6 percent, to $80.30 at 12:53 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The stock more than doubled last year and tripled in 2004.
Apple has sold 8 million videos through its iTunes service since the online store introduced the feature, and the company has sold more than 850 million songs, Jobs said. Some ``Saturday Night Live'' shows will be available next, he said.
Jobs also unveiled an iPod remote control and an FM tuner at the show; they sell for $49. The company is adding software to create Web sites and share photos, and is releasing an update of its Mac system software today, he said.
He typically saves the biggest announcements for late in his speech. Last year, he unveiled the iPod Shuffle, Apple's lowest- priced music player, and the Mac Mini, a book-sized PC that sells for less than $500. The year before, he announced the iPod Mini.
Mac Shipments
Mac shipments already had been at a five-year high. Apple's shipments jumped 43 percent in the calendar third quarter, more than three times faster than the 12 percent posted by top-ranked Dell Inc., said Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner Inc.
The company accounts for 4.2 percent of the U.S. PC market, trailing Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard Co., Irvine, California-based Gateway Inc. and China's Lenovo Group Ltd.
Apple is the top-seller of digital music players in the U.S., with the iPod accounting for 69 percent of devices sold between January and November, according to NPD Group Inc. in Port Washington, New York.
SanDisk Corp. of Sunnyvale, California, Singapore's Creative Technology Ltd. and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. each had less than 10 percent.
Apple sold 4.58 million iPods in the fiscal first quarter a year earlier, when total revenue reached $3.49 billion.
Intel Switch
Jobs last June announced the switch to Santa Clara, California-based Intel, the world's largest chipmaker. The chips are faster and consume less power than Apple's old Motorola Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. products, he said.
All Macs will be built with Intel processors by the end of 2007, Jobs said in June.
An early introduction will also be a boon for Intel, which cut the top end of its sales forecast for the quarter on Dec. 8 amid increasing competition from Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
Apple may add more than $500 million to Intel's sales in 2006 and an additional $800 million in 2007, Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Michael Masdea in San Francisco said. He rates Intel shares ``neutral'' and said he doesn't own them.
The deal also means Intel processors are now used by all of the world's top PC makers.
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