iLounge

By Charles Starrett

Senior Editor, iLounge
Published: Tuesday, January 22, 2008
News Category: Apple

During Apple’s Financial Results Conference Call, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer and Apple COO Tim Cook made several comments concerning its music-related products, which accounted for 50% of the company’s total revenue in the first fiscal quarter. The average sale price of the iPod during the quarter was $181, up 17 percent year-over-year, largely due to the launch of the iPod touch, which the execs enthusiastically described as a success. More specifically, the iPod touch was described as a product that “has the potential to grow the iPod beyond being just a music player, into the first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform for all kinds of new mobile applications.” Although iPod unit sales were flat year-over-year in the U.S., the company saw the highest revenue growth for iPod in a year, thanks to the iPod touch, which was also a “big hit” in Japan. iPod market share was roughly flat compared with a year ago according to numbers from NPD, but was up internationally.

The Apple TV and iPhone accounted for $1.44 billion in deferred revenue, and total iPhone revenue booked during the quarter came to $241 million. Apple said that although it saw no evidence of the iPhone cannibalizing iPod sales in the UK, France, or Germany, it did admit that the phone “could have been a factor” in the relatively small year-over-year iPod unit growth in the U.S. Additionally, it said that a “significant” amount of iPhones were sold during the quarter with the intent to unlock, but that it doesn’t have a precise number, and considers it “indicative of very strong interest in iPhone globally.” Finally, the company reiterated its intentions to expand the iPhone to more European markets and to Asia in 2008, and that it remains “very confident” in its ability to hit the goal of 10 million iPhones sold by the end of 2008.