As the Apple Turns: Scene 2836: It's All About The Credibility (2/1/01)

It's All About The Credibility (2/1/01)

Oh, what, the spine-tingling, edge-of-your-seat drama of the "Wayne Incident" isn't enough for you, now? You say that since there's four solid hours of meeting audio out there, and obviously there was at least something noteworthy buried within, you've decided that you want actual substance from us? Geez, you people are pushy. Okay, well, let's go "broad strokes" mode, shall we? We're going to go out on a limb and say that the most important thing we took away from the analyst meeting is a greater confidence in Apple's own forecasts.

First and foremost, we're two weeks past Apple's last earnings statement, and as reported by Reuters, despite what Steve Jobs referred to as the worldwide "economic meltdown" (a classification slightly more dire than most would use, but hey, the man's a straight talker), the company's predictions for the current quarter's results still haven't changed. Despite last quarter's bone-chilling quarter-billion-dollar loss, reigning money dude Fred Anderson is quoted as saying "I really think we are positioned for returning this company to profitability in the March quarter." And as those who have been following Fred's career at Apple for the past few years are approvingly aware, Fred's not often wrong about these things. So here we are, believing that Apple might actually make a few bucks when the results get posted in April.

And if you're a big fan of the "reiteration or proof of earlier predictions" genre of announcements, you're in luck. In addition to Fred's take on Apple's imminent return to profitability, Steve chimed in with some encouraging words about hardware availability. As we've already mentioned recently, PowerBook G4s appear to have started shipping to customers as of a few days ago, and as reported by TechWeb, Steve confirmed that the titanium wonders are indeed now on their way to end users and dealers alike-- thus hitting his original keynote "end of January" ship date, and despite those worrisome "45 days" estimated shipping times reported by the Apple Store. Similarly, he claimed once again that Apple's higher-end Power Mac G4 systems will still ship in February, no matter what people are now saying about March being a likelier time frame. Based on the accuracy of the PowerBook ship date, once again, we find ourselves believing him.

Of course, this increased confidence in Apple's predictions cuts both ways. Most of you are probably aware that Apple is extremely likely to ship new iMacs this month, equipped with CD-RW drives in order to make iTunes more attractive and move forward with Steve's "digital hub" vision. But if any of you were holding your breath for a new high-end Special Edition iMac with one of those sexy new SuperDrives built in, you should probably exhale now; Steve made another forecast in response to an analyst's question, and that was that the DVD-writing SuperDrive won't filter down into Apple's consumer products until next calendar year. So if you're jonesing for the ability to burn your iMovies right onto your own DVDs, get your Power Mac G4/733 order in now. That is, unless you doubt Steve's prediction...

SceneLink (2836)

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The above scene was taken from the 2/1/01 episode:

February 1, 2001: Four hours of analyst talk-- and for the first twenty harrowing minutes, Steve was sans clicker. Meanwhile, Apple's forecasts gain a bit of credibility even as the company continues to predict a Q2 profit, and that profit may well stem from Macs sold to people who already own one-- people just like you...

Other scenes from that episode:

2835: "Wayne, How're We Doing?" (2/1/01) We admit it-- we didn't actually tune in to the mammoth four-hour analyst meeting yesterday. We know, we know; "bad AtAT, no donut." But it's one thing to hang on Steve's every word for, say, two hours during one of those awesome Stevenotes (especially when there's actually some video accompanying his spiel to satisfy our demand for eye candy), but four solid hours of audio geared solely for financial analysts?...
2837: Buy Three; They're Small (2/1/01) About that expected return to profitability... have you given any thought to how Apple intends to make money even as the economy is "melting down" and the personal computer industry as a whole is struggling with depressed growth?...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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