Dennis, I come from retail and I am in Canada and the best sales here are the Christmas season and the first quarter. This holds true in the USA as well.
If you look at all the markets Apple is in. Schools, Niche(grafix. printing, audio, video) Business and consumer.
Business is downwards, , but is a straight line gradual decline, as businesses buy spread over the year.
Schools are declining, but have seasonal patterns, Heavy summer sales for the fall. Heavy sales just before end of budget period in April, and just maintenance the rest of the year.
The Niche is also OK, steady sales all year, but declining.
Consumer. heavy buying for Christmas and first quarter and then down and flat until next christmas season.
In to this you add the New OS and the new G3 products. The OS sales are very high margin, in addition the new os sales will spur niche sales as well as consumer sales.
I suspect that the old adage that this is Apples worst season is going to be in error and profits will be up in Q2.
Of course, I am no guru, but with all the excess baggage shed and a few higher margin products and no clones(even though there should be), there will be more $$ sticking to the bottom line in Q2.
Bill |
