Apple (AAPL +1.18%) isn't messing around this holiday season. The tech company added to an already exhaustive lineup of new products this week, announcing new chips and Macs, including 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros in a new "space black" finish. The new devices build on a range of new product introductions headed into the holidays, including updated smartphones and smartwatches. Apple even brought to market a new Apple Pencil.
All of this positions Apple strategically to capture wallet share from increasingly strapped consumers who are pressured by inflation and high interest rates. More importantly, Apple's latest round of new products increases the odds of the iPhone maker returning to growth during a quarter in which it typically rakes in the lion's share of its annual net income.
NASDAQ: AAPL
Key Data Points
Apple's new space black laptop is key
On the surface, Apple's product event on Oct. 30 may seem unimportant. After all, it was a Mac-focused event, and Mac only accounted for about 10.2% of Apple's fiscal 2022 revenue. But investors shouldn't count out this product event as a key catalyst for the holidays yet. There are several reasons new Mac products could be important catalysts for Apple when combined with the already-robust lineup of new products Apple has going into the holidays.
First, other than Apple's move in the summer of 2022 to update its 13-inch MacBook Pro to include a new processor, the company's MacBook Pro lineup was an aging product line going into the holidays last year. For instance, the last major refreshes to its 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro devices were in October of 2021. With the help of these new products, Apple's Mac business grew 25% year over year during the calendar 2021 holiday quarter. Indeed, Apple management specifically credited the segment's growth to the "newly redesigned MacBook Pro" during the earnings call for the period. While 25% growth from Mac during the holiday quarter is unlikely, given the current macroeconomic backdrop, Apple's well-timed refresh of the MacBook Pro will almost undoubtedly help the important period's results in some fashion, particularly since Apple is going up against a period last year when the Mac lineup was aging.
Additionally, it's worth noting that Apple's MacBook Pro lineup commands some serious pricing power. The 16-inch MacBook Pro, for instance, starts at $2,499. Strong orders and shipments of the new product could really move the needle for not only Apple's Mac segment but its entire business.
Finally, something tells me Apple's new space black color will be popular with pro users. Call it speculation, but that's my hunch.
A healthy supply chain
There's also something to be said about an improving global supply chain. As the world recovers from COVID-19-related factory shutdowns, Apple is likely better prepared to build and ship more products going into the holidays this year than it was in the year-ago period. Indeed, this is likely one key reason why Apple has introduced so many new products leading up to the holidays. Chances are, Apple's new MacBook Pro will both solicit strong demand but also be followed up with good production volume -- at least compared to recent years, which often saw manufacturing interrupted by sudden and unplanned factory shutdowns due to China's zero-COVID policies at the time and some disruptions in other markets as well.
An easy comparison
Finally, it's worth emphasizing that Apple is going up against an easy comparison during the holiday quarter (the first fiscal quarter of 2024) particularly when it comes to Mac. Apple's total revenue fell 5% year over year in its first quarter of fiscal 2023 (the fiscal quarter coinciding with the fourth calendar quarter of 2022), with Mac revenue declining about 29% year over year.
Apple's new space black MacBook Pro, along with its refreshed iMacs, could be the determining factor for the company returning to year-over-year revenue growth in the holiday quarter.
Fortunately, however, Apple isn't entirely dependent on the MacBook Pro for a good holiday quarter. It has overhauled other major products going into the final calendar quarter as well. This loaded product pipeline will help Apple grab as much share from consumers' holiday-spending budgets as possible.
Investors may get some insight into what Apple expects from its holiday quarter when the company reports earnings for its fiscal Q4 after market close on Thursday, Nov. 2.
