Wednesday’s Apple Rumors — The Close of the MacBook

by Anthony John Agnello | July 20, 2011 10:50 am

Here are your Apple rumors and news items from Wednesday:

Goodbye MacBook: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL[1]) finally announced its new line of MacBook Air laptops during its second-quarter earnings call Tuesday. The new devices use new Intel (NASDAQ:INTC[2]) processors, have backlit keyboards and use the high-speed Thunderbolt I/O ports – which, in layman’s terms, means super-quick connections of peripheral devices like HD monitors to the laptop. With the arrival of the new, however, Apple appears to be doing away with the old. A Wednesday report at Apple Insider said Apple h[3]as removed the white, hard drive-based, entry-level MacBook laptop[4] from its website and online store, phasing out the successful product line after five years. While Apple hasn’t officially announced the discontinuation of the plain MacBook line, the writing is on the wall.

Second-quarter Eruption: Never doubt Apple’s ability to wow. The company reported its earnings[5] for the second quarter of 2011 after the market closed Tuesday and brought investors word of staggering revenue, profits and device sales. Revenue for the quarter totaled $28.6 billion, a year-over-year jump of 82% over the $15.7 billion from the same period in 2010. Profits totaled more than $7.3 billion, a 125% increase over the almost $3.3 billion in 2010. Those jaw-dropping numbers came thanks to massive growth in sales in international markets – Apple’s revenue from China grew to almost $4 billion, compared to more than $630 million during the same period in 2010 – and the popularity of its mobile devices. Apple sold more than 20 million iPhones during between April and June, and more than 9 million iPads. The company sold almost 4 million Mac computers. Shares in the company were trading around $390 by midday Wednesday.

iPhone Sea Change: Even with more than 20 million sold during the second quarter, Apple’s iPhone might not have had its best quarter in 2011 yet. According to a report at Apple Insider, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer indicated during Tuesday’s earnings conference call that his company is expecting a year-over-year revenue decline of 12% in the quarter that ends in September. The reason for this is that Apple has “a lot going on in the fall with iOS 5 and iCloud” including a “future product transition that we will not talk about today.” It has been rumored for months that Apple will release a new iPhone in September[6] and it’s been suggested that Apple will introduce sweeping changes to the product line, including a smaller, cheaper model of the smartphone. That “future product transition” almost certainly refers to the iPhone line and its role in the company’s debut of the iCloud service.

As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not own a position in any of the stocks named here. Follow him on Twitter at @ajohnagnello[7] and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook.[8]

Source URL: https://investorplace.com/2011/07/wednesdays-apple-rumors-macbook/

---