Apple Inc. today announced it had sold 1.1 million iPhones and 2.2 million Macintosh computers in the quarter that ended Sept. 29, with the Mac numbers setting a new record for the company.
Mac sales were up 34 per cent over the same quarter last years, enough to break the previous best by 400,000 machines. Apple sold 817,000 desktop machines and 1.35 million notebooks during July, August and September, a stretch during which Apple ran its usual back-to-school promotion and rolled out a refresh of its iMac desktop lineup.
“Everything is clearly falling into place for Apple,” said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research. “There’s a wave of acceptance of the Mac as a viable alternative, even outside the U.S.”
Apple’s data noted that sales of Mac computers had surged 46 per cent in Europe over last year, and 52 per cent in the Asia Pacific region, which includes China but excludes Japan. Although the numbers of systems sold in the latter remained small — just 155,000 for the three months — Apple sold nearly half a million machines in Europe, slightly more than the company sold in all its retail stores.
The exchange rate played a part in those sales, said Gottheil, but the weakness of the dollar against other currencies, especially the euro, wasn’t the only reason. “The Mac’s becoming a reasonable choice because of the switch to Intel, the fact it runs Windows and [Microsoft Corp.’s] Vista kind of being a yawn,” Gottheil added.
