Apple has a big quarter

Apple blew away the quarter with an EPS of 87 cents. They shipped over 10 million iPods (when is this thing going to slow down????) and...they shipped 1.5 million Macs. Representing 36% YoY growth. Gross margins were up 6.5% to about 35%. This is not because of the iPods but it's all those high priced notebooks they are selling.

Results

They grew their notebook shipments and revenue by about 80% YoY. Their notebook ASP is a little over 1500 USD. Considering the phenomenal pricing they must be getting from Intel and their other vendors, these guys are creaming the PC market. They are growing volumes and even ASPs on notebooks are up about 15% YoY.

Now do you see a reason for Apple to switch from Intel right now? While that doesn't mean Intel should become complacent, Apple is rapidly becoming a sizable and high value customer for them probably helping them maintain ASPs quite a bit. On the flip side, Dell and others are dragging AMD's ASPs down. I said before, Dell is sucking AMD dry by blocking their capacity and taking parts at throw away prices. AMD under-valued their technology to secure Dell and this was a mistake.