2008: Apple's 10 Million Mac Year?
The third quarter hasn’t been an easy one for Apple from a public relations standpoint. But from a financial one it’s been a resounding success. Despite MobileMe’s failure to live up to Apple’s standards, voice and data reception issues plaguing the iPhone 3G and reports of iPod Nanos sparking like Roman candles, Apple’s third quarter Mac sales numbers are expected to be impressive and largely unaffected by any sort of developing iPhone 3G halo … defect, if you will. In fact, they’re expected to be record-breaking. RBC analyst Mike Abramsky predicts that “massive back-to-school Mac sales” in excess of three million will see Apple (AAPL) reporting year-over-year growth of 44 percent for the three-month period ending September. And if it does, 2008 is going to be a very good year for the company. Apple shipped 2,319,000 Macs in Q1 2008 and 2,289,000 in Q2. If it ships the 3.04 million Abramsky predicts for Q3 and a similar number in Q4, 2008 may well end up being Apple’s 10 million Mac year.