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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Barney Dunn who wrote (16637)	8/13/1998 9:31:00 PM
From: Eric Yang	Respond to of 213177

"[shifting of workers to making iMac] could be particularly problematic to production channels for the popular PowerBook portable and high-end desktop G3 systems. " That news.com article is not accurate. According to a couple of the sources that I've talked to, iMac production is not responsible for the reported PowerBook supply issues. That particular comment in the article seems to be based more on speculation than actual fact. As you know all the WallStreet G3 Powerbooks are being produced at the Cork factory in Ireland. Cork is expected to ramp up iMac production later this year but as of now it is not the source of iMac production. Initial supply of iMacs for the European market is suppose to come from Singapore. From what I've heard, most of the workers at the cork plant has been on their annual vacation. I was told by two different people that a week or so ago, only one line was running. It was making the G3 desktops at that time. This may partially be responsible for the PowerBook supply issue. Workers are expected to return on Aug 17th so things should be back to normal next week. The Sacramento plant is a different story. It was making some of the new speed bumped G3 Pro desktops but now all the major production lines are dedicated to iMac production. The source that passed this info to us also shared it with Monish of MacNN. You can read about the details there. macnn.com Eric

To: Barney Dunn who wrote (16637)	8/13/1998 10:09:00 PM
From: Andrew Danielson	Read Replies (6) \| Respond to of 213177

Forest for the trees: Powerbooks the key I was tossing around some numbers for Q4, and I came to one conclusion: it's the powerbooks that matter, not the iMacs. Even the relatively low-sounding numbers coming from the rumor sites of 60,000 launch and 20,000 weekly put the quarterly number around 150,000 iMacs. That virtually guarantees good unit shipment growth--at least 740,000 vs. 644,000 from last quarter. Great. HOWEVER, iMacs are lower margin, and lower unit priced than the rest of the G3 line. It's the Powerbooks, with their huge margins and unit prices that will make the ultimate effect on the Q4 revenue and bottom line numbers. On AAPL Investors, Eric Yang gave a preliminary number of 150,000 Powerbooks shipped this quarter at an AUP of $2,800. If shortages cause a mere 30,000 drop in shipments to 120,000 (still higher than the 103,000 from last quarter), we then have 84 million less in revenues. Enough to turn Eric's suggestion of 1,500 revenue back to a sequentially flat number of 1416. Therefore, the suggestion that AAPL may be sacrificing Powerbooks in favor of the iMac hype machine is a little bit chilling as an AAPL investor looking forward to a good quarterly report. Andrew