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Analyst: Apple seems ‘unfazed’ by sluggish U.S. economy; ships 2.3 million Macs in quarter

Thursday, April 24, 2008 - 12:47 PM EST

"Apple said Wednesday it shipped nearly 2.3 million Macs in the first three months of the year, boosting sales by 51% over the same quarter in 2007 — its biggest year-to-year gain in almost two decades," Gregg Keizer reports for Computerworld.

"The numbers impressed Ezra Gottheil, an analyst at Technology Business Research (TBR). 'The downturn in the U.S. economy, which might be expected to affect high-end consumer products like Macs, had no discernable effect on Apple,' said Gottheil, who added that the company seemed 'unfazed' by the sluggish American economy," Keizer reports. "'Totaling its Americas revenue with that of its retail stores, more than 80% of which are in the U.S., revenue increased 43% year to year, and units sold increased [by] 52.5%,' Gottheil said in an e-mail. 'TBR believes Apple has established itself as a real and often better choice for consumer purchasers of higher-end PCs.'"

Keizer reports, "Worldwide, Apple sold 856,000 desktops during the quarter, the second in its 2008 fiscal year, and 1.4 million notebooks — year-to-year increases of 37% and 61%, respectively. The total of 2.29 million Macs was just slightly less than the record 2.32 million sold during the last three months of 2007."

More in the full article here.