Apple Timed New Macs and HomePod to Boost Its Spring Quarter

Bloomberg2023-01-23

Apple timed the launch of the new MacBook Pro, Mac mini and HomePod to shore up its current quarter’s revenue — while preventing the recently ended holiday period from suffering supply headaches.Apple...

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nsk
2023-01-23
nsk
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The timing is notable since the company typically likes to launch new devices in the spring, summer and fall.And that was indeed the original plan: Apple had sought to debut these three products last year. That would have set up a fairly jam-packed schedule, with the M2 iPad Pro line, latest Apple TV, new MacBook Pro, updated Mac mini and revamped HomePod all coming during a post-iPhone fall flurry.Instead, Apple decided to roll out the iPad and Apple TV and hold off on launching the latter three products until this past week. The question is, why? I have two plausible theories:One answer is supply-chain issues. It’s possible that the company couldn’t produce the new MacBook Pro and Mac mini in necessary quantities until after it got the latest — and arguably more important — iPhones, Apple Watches and iPads out the door.The other possibility is software: The new HomePod needs its version of 16.3 to support new features like temperature and humidity sensing, in addition to things like updated ambient sounds and Find My support.Apple has previously released products with limited initial supply, but doing so in this case would create significant financial risk.Apple had already told investors and analysts that year-over-year holiday quarter revenue growth would slow, in part, because there wouldn’t be a major MacBook Pro update in 2022 (as there was in 2021). Launching a MacBook Pro upgrade with limited supply in the quarter would only compound that issue. Consumers would abandon old Macs in favor of new ones that they couldn’t get their hands on.With that context, not launching a new MacBook Pro in October could have actually helped Apple generate more bookable revenue. Postponing the launch until January, of course, also benefits Apple in the current quarter.Last year, Apple rolled out the 5G iPhone SE, Mac Studio and Studio Display during its fiscal second quarter, which runs through March. There is no equivalent stream of new products coming in Q2 this year. But releasing new Macs and HomePods in January will make that year-over-year comparison a bit less painful.Wall Street now expects revenue in the holiday quarter (Q1) to be $122.2 billion. That’s a slight decline from a year earlier, but not a disaster all things considered. And Q2 revenue is projected to be flat at $97.5 billion.But what about the products themselves? Let’s start with the Macs. These updates are all about speed increases and are reminiscent of the annual PowerPC and Intel Mac chip upgrades that would happen in the old days.With the new machines getting M2, M2 Pro or M2 Max chips, Apple is quoting speed gains of about 20%. They also get a sizable boost on the graphics side of the equation.But if you currently have an M1 Pro MacBook Pro or M1 Max MacBook Pro, I don’t see a major reason to upgrade. Now, if you have an M1 Mac mini from 2020, there’s a case to be made — especially if you’re jumping to the new M2 Pro version. That would be a leap from eight CPU and graphics cores to as many as 12 CPU cores and 19 graphics cores.Regardless, these new upgrades are important for the Mac business. In order for the company to maintain the momentum of Apple Silicon, it needs to keep making these enhancements.I see the M2 as a stopgap chip ahead of a better-performing M3 series coming late this year or early next year. It will be based on the more advanced, 3-nanometer production process. Apple is already working on M3 versions of the iMac and MacBook Air. And it’s developing a MacBook Pro revamp for 2025 with OLED screens and long-awaited touch support.The day after the new Macs, Apple rolled out its second-generation HomePod. The speaker is a more profitable version of the original model from 2018. It has the same $299 price tag as the old version but trades in an iPhone chip for an Apple Watch one, cuts out two microphones and has two fewer tweeters.The new model has essentially the same functionality and use case as the original, raising the question of why the 2018 version was discontinued in the first place. My take is that Apple never truly wanted to ax the previous HomePod but had no choice if the company ever wanted the lineup to be a success.By the time 2021 came around, supplies of the original device had begun to fill up warehouses, consumers flocked to competing products, and Apple loyalists preferred the cheaper $99 HomePod mini. Any momentum that the original HomePod had was gone.It didn’t help that the product was slower to launch than Amazon.com Inc. versions and was initially priced at an excessive $350. The software on the device didn’t support many third-party apps or any rival streaming music services, and the speaker didn’t play well with outside smart-home technology.That has all changed since then, giving the new HomePod a better chance for success. Another major factor: Amazon and Alphabet Inc.’s Google are reconsidering their approaches to hardware, spurred in part by the economic downturn. That gives Apple some room to make headway in the home market.And as I wrote this past week, the return of the big HomePod is only the beginning for Apple’s renewed smart-home ambitions.The BenchApple delays its AR-only glasses — a potential iPhone successor — and plans cheaper mixed-reality headset. The big headset news this past week: Apple has indefinitely delayed its push into AR glasses. The company’s plan all along had been to launch a high-end mixed-reality headset and then follow-up with dedicated augmented-reality glasses.Though Apple’s first headset will use both AR and VR — and is a technological feat — it probably lacks mass-market appeal. That’s where the AR glasses were supposed to step in.Imagine glasses about the size and weight of ones you may already be wearing, but that can make phone calls, show notifications, let you read your email and contextualize the world around you. That’s been the goal ultimate goal of Apple, Meta Platforms Inc., Google, Amazon and others, but — at least right now — it’s technically impossible.Instead, Apple is now working on a lower-end mixed-reality device — something that won’t carry the same sticker shock as its initial headset. While the first product will probably cost $3,000 when it goes on sale later this year, the cheaper headset may come in at closer to half of that, somewhere from $1,500 to $2,000.If Apple does ramp up work again on the AR glasses, I wouldn’t expect them to arrive before 2027. That could mean they won’t launch until about the same time as the Apple car. While the postponement news is disappointing, it may set us up for a pretty cool second half of the decade in terms of new technology.Apple plans a low-end iPad for the home and a faster set-top box. Now that it has the latest HomePod out the door, Apple looks to make further waves inside the smart-home market. The company is working on several devices, including a new Apple TV set-top box and a low-end iPad that’s geared toward HomeKit, FaceTime and video watching. It’s also considering making larger smart displays.It’s no secret that Apple has struggled to gain customers for smart-home products, and that probably needs to change if the company wants to keep users locked in to its ecosystem. While I don’t think the new HomePod will do much to move the needle (it’s essentially the same product as the one launched in 2018), the next slate of devices could fare better.The ScheduleFeb. 2: Apple to release quarterly earnings and discuss the performance of latest iPhones, iPads and watches. The company is set to reveal its fiscal first quarter performance on Feb. 2, giving investors a sense of how it’s weathering shaky demand. Apple’s iPhones had been faring better than rival models, but consumer jitters are expected to weigh on the tech giant. The holiday quarter is Apple’s biggest of the year, and analysts are projecting that sales dipped about 1% from the year earlier to $122.2 billion.March 10: Apple’s annual shareholder meeting. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and lieutenants such as General Counsel Kate Adams will take the virtual stage to field carefully selected questions from shareholders and give some company updates. Major news rarely breaks at these conferences, but there will be shareholder votes on Apple’s board, executive pay, labor and other matters.","kind":null,"is_publish_news":true,"is_publish_highlight":true,"is_publish_live":false,"is_publish_wemedia":null,"editions":null,"column":"","sentiment":"0","news_tag":"","news_rank":0,"symbols":[],"gpt_button":1},"commentList":[{"id":9952323389,"gmtCreate":1674472514541,"gmtModify":1676538941876,"author":{"id":"3566130979400930","authorId":"3566130979400930","name":"nsk","avatar":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/ca5161a1cfd9f69617bbe604d09aa849","vip":1,"crmLevel":2,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"idStr":"3566130979400930","authorIdStr":"3566130979400930"},"htmlText":"Yes","listText":"Yes","text":"Yes","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":2,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9952323389","repostId":1166114957,"repostType":4,"isVote":1,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false,"reportStatus":false,"tweetType":1,"langContent":"EN"}],"isCommentEnd":false,"newsSizeData":{"likeSize":99,"commentSize":1,"repostSize":0,"favoriteSize":1,"likeStatus":false,"favoriteStatus":false},"APP":{"userAgent":"Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)","isDev":false,"isTTM":true,"deviceId":"web-server-community-laohu8-v3","version":"4.29.1","shortVersion":"4.29.1","platform":"web","vendor":"web","appName":"ttm","isIOS":false,"isAndroid":false,"isTiger":false,"isTHS":false,"isWeiXin":false,"isWeiXinMini":false,"isWeiBo":false,"isQQ":false,"isBaiduSwan":false,"isBaiduBox":false,"isDingTalk":false,"isToutiao":false,"isOnePlus":false,"isHuaWei":false,"isXiaomi":false,"isXiaomiWebView":false,"isOppo":false,"isVivo":false,"isSamsung":false,"isMobile":false},"href":"/m/news/1166114957"}