Sci/Tech Apples Recession Gains Comming To An End

[Prometheus]

Maybe it's time to start believing Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) conservative earnings guidance.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based consumer electronics giant customarily offers investors modest earnings forecasts and then regularly beats the target. Lately, it's defied the recession, selling slick laptops and smartphones at a premium to its rivals' products and continually expanding its margins.

But in discussing its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer told analysts the company's gross profit margin, which rose to 36.4% from 32.9% a year earlier, will come under pressure.

Unlike many of its rivals, Apple has benefited from the recession. As overall demand for electronics drops, the parts makers that supply the company with screens and NAND memory for its iPods and iPhone have lowered prices to clear out their inventory. While other electronics makers lowered prices to attract buyers, Apple stuck to its guns, positioning itself as a premium electronics brand. That allowed it to pay lower costs for the products it bought, while maintaining revenue on the products it sold.

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[Lord_Phoenix]

and yet they are still at least 2x more expensive for a equivilent PC.

And even more expensive comparitivly to building a pc yourself + linux.

 

[ReVolver]

The most I've ever spend on a PC was $500.00 (USD) I don't know why macs are so expensive (most of their computers have builtin mics and webcams) that can break and you can't replace them, unless you send the whole thing for repairs.

I hope they make better computers in the future, if not I'm sticking to building computers and installing XP/OSX or Linux