苹果很忙，iPad没货这种小事先放一边

在iPad推出的第15个月后，苹果仍然无法满足人们对这款平板电脑的需求。 “这是一个很好的现象 - “需求”这个东西简直太棒了，”苹果公司首席运营官Tim.Cook,在宣布季度收入和利润的发布会上说。 但它仍然是一个问题，只是忙于其他事物的苹果暂时不会理会。苹果还提到“未来的产品转型”，这是为什么它预测秋季季度的销售会下降的原因之一。 好消息是，苹果在过去的3个月共售出925万台iPad，是上一季的2倍，更是去年同季度的3倍。坏消息是，它们原本还能卖出更多——如果有货的话。 “在我们将在七月的第一周对供应链做一些改善，以满足一些国家和地区的SKU供应/需求平衡，”Cook表示，但他拒绝预测什么时候能够满足全球需求，“我们会尽全力满足客户的需求量。”他说。 Cook还回避了是否会选择富士康以外的大型中国代工厂的问题。供应链管理是“我们的秘密武器的一部分，所以这事不能说得太细。”他说。 事实上，富士康中国工厂的爆炸确实对iPad的出货量造成了冲击。 平板电脑正在蚕食笔记本电脑的销售份额，但Cook并没有量化这一数字。 “我们相信，一些客户选了iPad而放弃了Mac，但更多人是选择了iPad然后放弃了Windows PC ，因为世界上可以被蚕食的PC比Mac要多得多。”他说。 Apple在忙些什么？ 展望未来，苹果预计其下一季度收入将从280亿美元减少到250亿美元，而毛利率从41％下滑至38％。苹果预计，iPhone，iPad和Mac电脑的销售将继续上升，但提到“现在不能说的未来产品转型”，却有可能成为预计销售额和利润的拖累。 今年秋季利润率下降的三分之二将来自“不同的产品组合”，苹果首席财务官Peter Oppenheimer表示。他说，下降的其余部分将来自未来的产品转型，以及学生返校期间的市场宣传费用。 产品转型，可能包括在今年秋天的某个时候升级到iOS 5。如果推出时间太晚，可能会降低iPhone和iPad销售，直到它们版本的iOS 5??发布为止。 苹果Mac电脑也面临着一个新版本的操作系统的更替，就是7月20日发布的Lion。 鉴于销售额下降了两位数，苹果也更新了其iPod产品线。现在家族的最新成员iPod Touch，占该到该地区一半以上的销售。 在那看似遥远的地平线另一端，是一个已经成熟的从Apple互联网电视产品。迄今为止，它已经发布了两个版本的Apple TV机顶盒，可以播放流媒体网络视频，但目前还没有自己的电视产品(iTV)。 “苹果电视现在越做越好，但我们仍然称它为一个业余爱好，因为我们不希望任何人认为它对苹果来说像iPhone那样重要。”Cook说,“我们将继续在此投资，因为我们觉得有那么点意思。”他说。 对苹果来说最好的消息是iPhone销量的持续增长，在过去3个月已达到2034万。苹果上一个季度在15个国家增加了42个iPhone运营商，整体销售增长大多来自新兴市场，如巴西，中国，墨西哥和中东。 “这些都是苹果以前一直没有得到的大市场。”Cook说。 大中国区包括香港和台湾，苹果的市场继续迅速扩大，最近一个季度销售额38亿美元，相比去年同期增长达6倍。Cook说，苹果该地区的销售额在过去的三个季度增加了88亿美元。 “这对苹果来说是个重大机遇，我坚信，目前我们只看到了冰山一角而已。”库克说。 苹果零部件供应链看起来也状况不错。 “大多数零件处于积极的供应状态，除了硬盘价格下降较少外，其他零件的价格都下跌到历史新低，。”Cook说。 编译：Luffy Liu 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 参考英文原文：Apple still can't keep up with iPad demand，by Rick Merritt

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{pagination} Apple still can't keep up with iPad demand Rick Merritt SAN JOSE, Calif. – Fifteen months after the iPad was launched, Apple still can't keep up with demand for the popular tablet. "This is a good problem--demand is fantastic," said Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer in a conference call announcing record quarterly revenues and profits. But it's still a problem, one of a handful Apple would not talk about in detail. The company also alluded to "a future product transition" which is one reason why it is forecasting a decline in sales for its fall quarter. The good news is Apple sold 9.25 million iPads in the last three months, double the number of the previous quarter and three times as many as in the same quarter last year. The bad news is it could have sold more if it could have made them. "In the first weeks of July supply improved so that some SKUs in some countries are now in supply/demand balance," said Cook, refusing to forecast when the company would be able to meet global demand. "We are working very hard to get as many units to customers as we can," he said. Cook also dodged a question about whether the company was diversifying its base of manufacturing partners beyond Foxconn that operates city-sized factories for Apple in China. Supply chain management is "part of our secret sauce, so I don’t want to share too much about it," he said. An explosion at a Foxconn plant in China was expected to impact iPad manufacturing. Tablets are cannibalizing notebook sales, but Cook did not quantify the effect. "We believe some customers chose an iPad instead of a Mac, but even more chose an iPad over a Windows PC and there's more Windows PCs to cannibalize than Macs," he said. Scattered showers ahead? Looking ahead, Apple predicts its revenues will fall from $28 billion this quarter to $25 billion next quarter while gross margins slip from 41 to 38 percent. The company expects iPhone, iPad and Mac sales to continue to rise, but alluded to a "future product transition which we are not going to talk about" expected to be a drag on sales and margins. Two thirds of the margin decline will come from "a different product mix" in the fall quarter, said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. The rest of the decline would come from the future product transition and increased marketing expenses for the back-to-school quarter, he said. The product transition may come from the shift to iOS 5, due sometime this fall. If the launch comes late in the quarter it might slow iPhone and iPad sales until systems supporting it are released. Apple also faces a Mac transition with a new version of its operating system, dubbed Lion, coming July 20. The company may also be due for a refresh of its iPod line which continues to decline in sales by double digits. The newest member of the family, the iPod Touch, now makes up half the sales in the area. Still on the distant horizon is a full blown Web-connected TV product from Apple. To date it has released two major versions of Apple TV, a set-top box for streaming Web video, but no iTV product. "Apple TV continues to do well, but we still call it a hobby here because we don’t want anyone to think it's another leg of the stool like the iPhone.," said Cook. "We continue to invest in it because we think there is something there," he said. The best news for Apple is iPhone sales continue to grow, hitting 20.34 million in the last three months. Apple added 42 iPhone carriers in 15 countries in the last quarter, with much of the overall sales growth coming from emerging markets such as Brazil, China, Mexico and the Middle East. "These are markets that Apple historically has not been strong in," said Cook. Greater China—including Hong Kong and Taiwan--continues to expand rapidly as a market for Apple, growing six-fold to $3.8 billion in sales in the current quarter compared to the same period last year. The region added $8.8 billion to Apple's sales in the last three quarters, Cook said. "This has been a substantial opportunity for Apple, and I firmly believe we are just scratching the surface," said Cook. Component supply also looks rosy to Apple. "Most components are in a positive supply situation with prices falling at or above historical trends except hard disk drives that are constrained and thus facing less price declines," Cook said.