Apple's supply-chain sales took a slight month-over-month dip in April, according to a new analyst report. However, overall supply-chain sales remained strong.
Apple
experienced weaker-than-average supply-chain sales in April, according to a new
analyst report.
"For the
[Taiwanese] suppliers that make up our Apple Barometer, March is typically the
strongest month of the year, and this has generally been followed by a muted
April," Brian White, an analyst with Ticonderoga Securities, wrote in a May 11
research note. "This year, April sales declined more than average."
How much more
than average? Unconsolidated April sales declined 7.5 percent month-over-month,
coming off an unusually strong March-a notable contrast to April 2010, when
sales rose 4 percent.
Despite that
decline, April 2011 sales were up 113 percent year-over-year. "Despite a weaker
than normal April this year, the Apple Barometer can deliver average sequential
sales growth performance in 2Q11 versus historical metrics," White added. "We
also believe it is important to remember that Apple's outlook for the June
quarter called for a sequential sales decline of 7 [percent], much weaker than
the eight-year average increase of up to 5 [percent]."
Ticonderoga
creates its index from "various Taiwan-based suppliers that derive a
significant portion of their revenues from Apple," but doesn't disclose the
individual companies used in its measurements.
For the fiscal
2011 second quarter ended March 26, Apple reported revenues of $24.67 billion
and a net profit of $5.99 billion. That represents a significant rise from the
year-ago quarter, when the company logged revenues of $13.50 billion and a
quarterly profit of $3.07 billion.
Apple sold
3.76 million Macs, a year-over-year increase of 28 percent, and 18.65 million
iPhones, good for a year-over-year unit growth of 113 percent. Apple also sold
4.7 million iPads during the quarter, which saw the release of the
next-generation iPad 2. "We sold every iPad 2 that we could make during the
quarter," Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer told analysts and
media listening to the company's April 20 earnings call, while hinting that the
9.7-inch tablet appeals to both consumers and businesses. "Seventy-five percent
of the Fortune 500 are testing or deploying the iPad," he said.
Apple topped
Google as the world's most valuable brand, according to research agency
Millward Brown's sixth annual BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands study.
Based on its own formula, the firm suggested that Apple's "brand value" stands
at $153.2 billion, followed by Google with $111.4 billion and IBM with $100.8
billion. Microsoft, with a brand value of $78.2 billion, found itself squeezed
in fifth place between McDonalds ($81 billion) and Coca-Cola ($73.7 billion).
Apple's current ranking represents an 84 percent uptick in brand value since
Millward Brown's last survey.
Apple finds
itself entangled in a wide-ranging battle with Google in the tablet and
smartphone arena, while its Mac OS continues to hold a small portion of the
operating-system market dominated by Windows.
Nicholas Kolakowski is a staff editor at eWEEK, covering Microsoft and other companies in the enterprise space, as well as evolving technology such as tablet PCs. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Playboy, WebMD, AARP the Magazine, AutoWeek, Washington City Paper, Trader Monthly, and Private Air. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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