TECHNOLOGY - IPod seekers become Macintosh believers - Apple's strong results show how the gadgets help sell computers.
SAN FRANCISCO — The more buzz Apple Inc. builds for its gadgets, the more computers it sells.
The company known until January as Apple Computer said Monday that it moved more Macintoshes during its just-ended quarter than ever before. The surge went counter to industry trends because Apple plans to release its fancy Leopard operating system Friday, and buyers normally wait rather than snap up new computers just before an upgrade.
A surge in iPods and iPhones also helped boost Apple's revenue by 28% to $6.2 billion, and its profit by 67% to $904 million. The strong results in the fiscal fourth quarter showed the power of the so-called halo effect: People enter Apple's stores to gaze at the new portable devices, but many leave with Macs, analysts said.
"The halo effect is real," said Gene Munster, senior research analyst with Piper Jaffray. "You used to have to explain why you bought a Mac two years ago. Soon you'll have to explain yourself for not buying one."
The question is whether the halo effect will push the mass consumer to view the Macintosh, once a fringe computer for a select few, as a viable alternative to Windows-based computers. Apple's computer market share reached 6.3% in the third quarter, up from 5.7% a year before, according to research firm IDC.
For its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended Sept. 29, Apple posted a profit of $1.01 a share, beating Wall Street's consensus estimate of 86 cents.
Apple's shares gained $3.94, or 2.3%, reaching a new high of $174.36, then jumped a further 6.9% to $186.35 in extended trading after the earnings report.
With Leopard going on sale Friday, Apple is poised to increase the Mac's appeal. For $129, the upgrade to the Mac's OS X operating system makes desktop programs easier to find through such features as Time Machine, which allows users to flip through old versions of the same document.
Sales of Windows-based PCs usually go dormant in the quarter before Microsoft Corp. ships a new operating system, as when it started selling Vista last fall. But analysts said Macintosh sales typically bucked that pattern.
The company, based in Cupertino, Calif., said it sold 1.1 million iPhones during the quarter, bringing the total to nearly 1.4 million. It plans to begin selling the phone in Europe next month.
