Apple Posts Loss For 4Q But Sales Gain For Fiscal Year

In the quarter, ended Sept. 28, the Cupertino-based computer maker posted a loss of $45 million, or 13 cents per share, compared with earnings of $66 million, or 19 cents per share, a year earlier.

Thomson First Call's consensus earnings forecast for Apple's 2002 fourth quarter was 2 cents per share. Apple said that excluding several non-recurring items, its earnings in the quarter would have been $7 million, or 2 cents per share. The items included write-downs of certain equity investments, restructuring and R and D charges, and an executive compensation expense adjustment.

Apple's fourth-quarter 2002 revenue was $1.44 billion, flat with the year-ago quarter, and gross margins were 26.4 percent, down from 30.1 percent a year earlier. For the fiscal year, the company reported earnings of $65 million on revenue of $5.74 billion compared to a loss of $25 million on revenue of $5.36 billion in fiscal 2001.

The launch of OS X 10.2, which shipped in late August, fueled business in fourth-quarter 2002, as did the popular "Switchers" ad campaign to lure Windows users to the Macintosh and healthy sales at Apple retail stores, according to Apple CEO Steve Jobs. "Though our industry continues to struggle, we had some bright spots this quarter," Jobs said in a statement. "Mac OS X 10.2 'Jaguar' is a big hit and on track to have 5 million users by the end of this year, our 'Switchers' campaign is very well-received and attracting a lot of new customers, and our retail stores sold over $100 million and hosted 2.25 million visitors this quarter."

During the fourth quarter of 2002, Apple shipped 734,000 Mac computers, down 14 percent from 850,000 a year earlier. The iMac desktop segment, which includes the all-in-one eMac model, led the way with 318,000 units shipped, up 8.2 percent year over year. PowerBook notebook shipments rose 1.8 percent year over year, to 58,000 units. Shipments in the iBook and Power Mac G4 (including servers) segments were down 27 percent and 29 percent year over year, respectively, in the quarter.

Apple's software sales climbed 30 percent in fourth-quarter 2002, to $156 million from $120 million a year before. Sales of peripherals and other hardware also increased in that period, up 50.1 percent to $193 million from $128 million.

For fiscal first-quarter 2003, Apple projects a small revenue gain and profit, CFO Fred Anderson reported. "Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2003, we expect revenue to be up slightly from the September quarter and expect a slight profit for the quarter before non-recurring items," Anderson said in a statement.

Business in the IT sector overall will be slow going forward, according to Jobs. "We do not expect our industry to pick up anytime soon, though we're hoping to help put a lot of iPods, iMacs and iBooks under trees this holiday season," he said.