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Strategies & Market Trends : The New Economy and its Winners -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (39207)	1/22/2008 6:01:52 PM
From: Bill Harmond	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 57684

Listened to Apple CC. No mention of softening economy, and the analysys REALLY tried. Expect sales to increase in Q2 this year faster than last year. They have no experience with iPhone seasonality, so my hunch why the relativly conservative guidance. 18:03 AAPL Apple Conference Call Summary -Update- Operating margin for the quarter was higher than expected at 22.1% resulting primarily from higher than anticipated gross margin and revenue... says sales of iMac continue to be robust... says Leopard launch has been very successful... iPod market share in U.S. remained steady with previous year results; saw market share gains in European and Asian countries... Total company gross margin was 34.7%; stronger than expected due to a more favorable commodity environment, stronger software sales, higher overall revenue and a weaker U.S. dollar... expects gross margins to be at 32% for Q1; expect to be down due to sequential decline in software sales and sales in general due to seasonal weakness... Asked why outlook suggest worst seasonality- Co says that guidance they provide they have reasonable confidence in achieving; says they remain positive in products and strategy; says guidance at 29% is actually up from a year ago MarQ when they grew 21%... says ended quarter below Mac channel inventory target (also started the quarter below it)... says generally the Macintosh business has 'been on fire'... co remains confident in hitting the 2008 10 mln iPod goal... Mac shortfalls- says targets for Mac is between 4-5 weeks of inventory; they came in below that; says that Mac sales were higher than expected... says they view the iPod market as bigger than simple music players (this is in reaction to a question on whether the market is saturated); does not believe it is a saturated market... says it is difficult to see if there was cannibalization of the iPod by the iPhone... co is not forecasting ASP so not included in guidance... Co says leaving forecasting of the economy to others while they focus on their business... says traffic growth (especially in U.S. stores) has been amazing... asked what co plans to do with all the cash on hand- co says likes keeping a strong balance sheet to provide them with flexibility to make strategic investment or acquisitions (co now has approx $18 bln in cash and no debt)... co says they are 'thrilled' with results they have seen from Best Buy... says orders are very strong for the Mac Book... call has ended... stock trading at $139.11 in after hours.