COMMENT: Apple no longer a computer company

22 July 2009 3:35 GMT / By Stuart Miles

It may come as a surprise to some, but Apple should no longer be seen as a computer company.

Yep, I know what you are thinking, what about all those MacBook Pro laptops, the OSX operating system, and Safari its web browser?

If the latest results just in from Apple are anything to go by, Apple is no longer a company that makes computers, it's a company that makes mobile phones with the odd computer as a pet project.

Get past the nitty gritty of how much money the company made in the last 3 months, how it's bucking the recession, and how it's had its best non "Holiday" season in the company's history and you soon realise that of the 17 million odd units the company has reported as sold, only 2.6 million of that was Mac computers. The number, which has been presumably inflated by the buzz of its new 13-inch MacBook Pro and other MacBook Pro launches earlier in the year, suggests that without these launches the number could have been even lower.

Put that in a percentage term, that's just 11.7% of the company's volume based on Mac, iPod and iPhone sales.

Apple chose not to mention its AirPort Express range, accessories like headphones and its not-really-going-anywhere Apple TV product. It didn't break down laptop over desktop sales either, but based on the numbers provided, it's easy to see why Microsoft isn't scared of losing market share on the OS side of things, and why Apple isn't rushing to release an Apple netbook. I'll say it again. Apple isn't a computer company any more.

So what is it? It's a phone and MP3 player company with the latter of those two dwindling fast. That's not to say that it's going to stop making MP3 players anytime soon.

We will, without a doubt, see new iPod models in September, but the mobile phone is slowly starting to take its share of the music on the go listening business. Can you remember the last time a phone launched from Samsung, LG, RIM, Nokia or anyone else for that matter that didn't play up the music elements. Apple's own iPhone is just as to blame. I mean, why have both?

The Q3 earnings show that the iPhone continues to eat into the company's popular iPod line. While the Cupertino based company still sold over 10 million iPods (around 111,000 a day) the number was down 7% on the previous year. Tell-tale signs of a decline.

On the flip side, that move into becoming a handset maker, like HTC, is clearly working. While it is too early to tell what affect Android-powered handsets will have on the market, Apple still managed to sell 5.2 million iPhone and iPhone 3GS handsets in the last 90 days. A price drop for the iPhone 3G in the US and the launch of the iPhone 3GS certainly helped, but the demand for the time being is there.

The 3.0 software update, and the continued propulsion of the App Store are clearly answering the public's need when it comes to phones.

Through innovation and creating a market that didn't exist the company has, like Nintendo with the Wii, become a major player in the market in a short space of time. However you look at it, whether you like the iPhone or not, in 2 years it has changed the market.

So what's next for the computer, I mean handset, maker? Well with the iPhone 3GS now out, it's clearly working on the 4th generation device. No doubt to be released July next year so they can boast record sales against a quarter the year before that doesn't have an iPhone launch in it. There is no point competing against this years Q3 figures, they've been bumper enough.

In September there will be more iPods, again not a computer, and then at some point, no doubt in January, I suspect an announcement of a new product that will take the now almost defunct MacBook brand (only one model remaining).

It won't be a netbook as there isn't enough margin or profit in such a device for Apple, who like to appeal to the design savvy rather than the price wary customer. A tablet, and thereby creating a new market, is a logical step.

The netbook market is already crowded, and as I've said, Apple isn't a computer company any more.

It seems when it dropped the "Computers" bit from their name in January 2007 Apple weren't kidding.

I wonder how long it takes before you won't be able to buy a computer from them at all?

Via: apple.com

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Comment, Hardware, Laptops, Audio, Apple, Biz, Phones, iPhone, iPod