Re: [NTLK] OT macworld 04 pix

From: Brian Pearce (bpearce_at_cloud9.net)
Date: Fri Jan 09 2004 - 00:20:55 PST


> But I dont think they will, because they make no margin on the
> hardware.

"They make no margin on the hardware"?!

As a standard practice, Apple does not go into specifics on the gross
margins for different product categories -- but going by the quarterly
reports, margins tend to be in the range of 25%-27% (26.6% in the last
reported quarter), and tend to fluctuate the most depending on the mix
of (low margin) consumer product or (high margin) professional product
sold in a given period. (Expensive airfrieght costs for shipping out
new products tends to lower margins, as well.)

About 90% of Apple's revenue comes from hardware sales -- that's quite
a substantial amount for a product category with "no margin".

> Make no mistake, if Apple really decided to be purely a software
> company they'd port OS X to Intel commodity hardware and sell it like
> crazy.

And we'd soon find the company either drastically reduced or out of
business altogether. (In any case, the remaining revenue from "beyond
the box" sources wouldn't allow for much in the way of R&D.)

BRIAN/bpearce_at_cloud9.net

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