From: Brian Pearce (bpearce_at_cloud9.net)
Date: Sun Apr 18 2004 - 08:52:58 PDT
> ...iPod is presumably as profitable as a low-end computer, and
> certainly as
> profitable as a competitively-priced Newton would be had development
> continued,
> and it's shifting more than that.
It's actually the /high-end/ computers that carry the highest margins,
and are most profitable. The low-end, consumer models, although they
lack features, are under the biggest pricing pressure.
I recall reading somewhere an informed estimate of what the margins
were on the iPod, but I can't recall what it was at this point (and the
information applied to the original iPod, anyway). But since Apple's
overall margins haven't changed much since the iPod was introduced
(they seem to hover around 25-27%, from what I recall of the Quarterly
reports), I don't think the margins on an iPod are all that far out of
line with the larger Macintosh family.
I think it's a stretch to say that the margins on the MessagePad would
have been that good had the product not been discontinued; the market
is much, much different now. It's likely the MessagePad would have been
redesigned to make it less expensive to manufacture (not just smaller,
but less expensive).
BRIAN/bpearce_at_cloud9.net
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