This quarter is shaping up to be an amazing turnaround for Apple:
CUPERTINO, Calif., Aug. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Apple Computer, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) today announced that more than 1.2 million copies of Mac OS 8 have been sold since the product's retail introduction on July 26, quadrupling the Company's expectations. News of the successful sales figures were revealed by Apple director and co-founder, Steve Jobs, in a keynote address delivered this week at Macworld Expo in Boston.
Mac OS 8 is the latest operating system software release for the Macintosh and Mac OS compatible systems -- and the most significant upgrade since 1984. Several major retailers, distributors and catalog sales companies have sold out of their Mac OS 8 stock during the first two weeks of availability --resulting in the most successful sales performance ever for an Apple software product. Sales continue to surpass Apple's projections with the channel reporting strong demand and ordering substantial additional units. Apple hardware sales have also benefited from Mac OS 81s availability with dealers in certain locations reporting a more than 30 percent increase over the introductory weekend.
"The retail excitement around Mac OS 8 is outstanding and beyond our most optimistic plans," said Stuart Illian, director of Apple Software Marketing at Claris. "We're seeing strong demand from the entire range of Mac users, including home users, and the appeal of Mac OS 8 is propelling strong retail traffic for Mac hardware and software to high levels."
[I think this last point is most telling.] |