Apple delivered another financial results blowout quarter. How did the analysts fare? Phillip Elmer-Dewitt in CNNMoney.com:
- Macs. Apple was right and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Laptop Hunters ad campaign was wrong. Consumers — or at least enough of them — were shopping for user experience, not low prices or spec lists.
- iPods. Although Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster dismisses the iPod as “no longer an investable theme” due to cannibalization from the iPhone, iPod touch sales were up 100%, suggesting that there may be still be life in the category.
- iPhones. A record 7.4 million sold even though Apple couldn’t build them fast enough to meet demand. We won’t even talk about Jim Cramer, who told his Mad Money audience that because of this, Apple’s share price was going to fall — not explode as it did in after-hours trading.
- ASPs. Average selling prices actually went up a bit, rather than down as you might have expected after back-to-school sales and price cuts on iPhones and MacBooks. Deagol attributes it to 15” and 17” MacBook Pros getting “crazy popular” among college students.
- Taxes. For reasons I can’t begin to explain, Apple’s effective tax rate was 25.6%, not the 30% they had guided.
Worst analysis? Jim Cramer of Mad Money.
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