What's Up with Apple's Numbers?

Apple's numbers were very impressive, with significant hikes in net revenue, gross margin, and net profit measured year-over-year. Nothing to complain about there. Except, some things in the results just don't seem to add up.

Specifically, look at the jump in net revenue of 24.9 percent. One honkin' leap. It means that unit sales had to be up as well, particularly as net revenue per unit prices have been slipping â€" clearly on the Mac end, but I haven't noticed prices rising particularly much in any of the product lines. However, check the unit volume increases that Apple reported:

• 17 percent for Macs
• 8 percent for iPods
• 7 percent for iPhones

But it also seems be that Apple has managed to turn back the tide of price slides, at least a little bit, and for now. Look at this graph, updating the average net sales per Mac unit, with both desktops and laptops added together:

If you do the math, average net revenue per Mac unit was up a touch over 1 percent. That's nothing to write home about, but at a time when Apple was introducing some lower priced equipment, it speaks to its ability to use product introductions to drive average sales and margin.

This appears again in the iPod category. Year over year, Q4 unit sales went from 11.052 million at $1.66 billion revenue (average net revenue per unit of about $150.20) to 10.177 million units at $1.563 billion revenue (average net revenue per unit of about $153.58). That's an increase of about 2.3 percent. Given the ubiquitous nature of the iPod, that is a remarkable achievement. It's a sign, I think, that Apple has been successfully negotiating its continued embracing of its consumer electronics positioning. Of course, the question is whether next quarter will see improvement, or if the uptick, like another one on the graph, was nothing more than a temporary respite.

Image via stock.xchng user flaivoloka, site standard license.