Apple CFO hints at possibly big "product transitions" before September
By Thomas Ricker 
posted July 26th 2007 9:55AM
posted July 26th 2007 9:55AM
Apple is notorious for providing extremely conservative guidance to investors. Still, with Mac sales on the rise, iPods doing their thing, and the ability to begin posting revenue from an expected 1 million iPhones in the new quarter don't you think that a guidance of just 65 cents per share (after a record 92) is just a tad, say, absurd? That point was certainly not lost on UBS analyst, Benjamin Reitzes, who kicked off Apple's Q&A yesterday with the following: "You just guided 66 cents and came up with 92. Why should we believe that this 65 cents this time when you've been so conservative? Are you really that worried about component costs or is there something else going on with regard to an upcoming price cut for a product?" Apple's CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, cited the following three factors as the reason: Apple's "expensive" back to school promotion which will run most of the quarter, higher component costs, and most intriguingly, "some product transitions." As Forbes opines, that could translate into the operating costs required to cover a pretty significant product shake-up this fiscal quarter. So don't be surprised when new iMacs, iLife and a touchscreen video iPod are announced in the next few months. And perhaps, if you're really good, you'll see a flash-based 12-inch MacBook Pro and new iPhone version(s) make their way to retail in the quarter ending September 30th -- ok, probably not but you can hope now can't you fanboy?
Beer of the month for me!!!
There's a few reasons I don't think he was talking about Leopard:
1. He said "product transitions which I can't go in to", but we all know about 10.5.
2. Leopard comes out in October, but the fourth quarter ends 30/09/2007 (or 09/30/2007 if you're being funny).
3. OS development costs the money, shipping a few DVDs isn't going to have a huge impact.
Personally I want a 12" ultra portable mbp, a new imac, a 3G iphone, an osx ipod and an iCe-cream maker.
My guesses about the meaning of "some product transitions" are:
1. new brushed aluminum imac with more couch potato features, such as bluetooth keyboard/trackpad combo
2. true video ipod, using iphone's better cpu and multitouch, and allowing digital connectivity to hd tv sets for photo and video shows
3. tiny macbook with ssd and led, fits in a large purse, weighs less than 3lbs
I had a dream last night. It was very vivid. I now know what it was about.
Apple is going to release a tablet....it is super cool. You can touch the web!
"plug-in" my iPhone into a tablet?
I want a tablet iMac, touch screen...no hard drive, in its space room to "plug-in" my iPhone...so the tablet is an extension of my
iPhone with speaker phone and much larger screen... running leopard/vista and my company's hotel rez admin package...so I can take calls and
reservations anywhere on my 9 acre property over my wi-fi.
I'd love this to have an office intercom thingie too; but then I maybe may be asking too much. So, no-mo macBook, rez-book, and a cordless phone to carry about no more!
let's try to remember that new iPhones will need 6 month FCC apporval periods.