Q2 2005: A Closer Look at the Numbers

When you drop a profit number of $290 million on folks that sounds very impressive. And that’s plenty of info for most folks, the Mac remains viable and Apple’s financial future looks bright. Others need a little more so let’s take a closer look at just what Apple reported yesterday:

iMacs:
Before the iPod came along and for a good time after the diminutive players introduction iMacs were Apple’s bread and butter product. The numbers for this quarter:

467,000 units sold bringing in $483,000,000.

Generally this would be a fairly fantastic showing since the previous quarter saw 456,000 iMacs sold and the second quarter historically features a 10% drop in sales. However it is important to note that the iMac numbers include the low-priced Mac Mini. This changes the equation a bit and makes the result less impressive. Further investigation reveals that the revenue per unit has dropped from $1,333 per unit to $1,034. Apple doesn’t separate the sales of the iMac, eMac and Mini but it is a safe bet that the largest reason for the decrease in the revenue per unit figure is the presence of the Mini.

iBook:
The iBook sales were solid. Apple managed to get 251,000 units into the hands of eager consumers in exchange for 278,000,000 greenbacks. That is roughly $1100 per machine (unsurprisingly nearly unchanged from the previous quarter). Sure Q1 2005 saw 271,000 of the sweet portables move but, as noted earlier, the ten percent drop from the Holiday quarter is anticipated.

PowerMac:
Not much news here. The expected drop and continued sluggish sales. Some had hoped for a large surge in Xserve sales but if there was one it came at the expense of the towers. In any event Apple sent 141,000 units to eager folks around the world and they sent Jobs and Co. $320,000,000 in exchange. This was down from 167,000 units in the previous quarter. Revenue per unit stayed nearly the same with each sale averaging $2,271.

PowerBooks:
A very bright spot for Apple with no qualifiers needed. Sales popped markedly from the usually strong Q1. The most recent quarter saw 211,000 happy new PowerBook owners. The ecstatic folks lined Apple’s coffers to the tune of $413,000,000. The previous quarter saw a mere 152,000 of the aluminum clad computers of coolness leave the hands of Apple. The PowerBook just keeps on giving as the revenue per unit was up $150 to a tidy $2269.

iPods
Finally iPods are considered. Apple sold a fairly stunning 5,311,000,000 which was way up from the Holiday quarter number of 4,580,000. Unfortunately revenue on the only player that matters actually dropped to 1,014,000,000.  Which is a lot of cash but a full $197,000,000 less than the previous quarter. No trouble assigning causality in this case: the iPod Shuffle increased the units but cut into the final wad of cash. This is further evidenced by the change in revenue per unit. Q1 2005 featured Apple depositing $265 for every iPod sold while in the second quarter that number dropped to $190.

That’s your complete earnings wrap up. Long story short: iPods are still a major hit and the Mac is slowly, very slowly, gaining momentum.