A series of pre-Christmas product launches will take its toll on Apple ’s gross margins for the three months ended December. Speaking at the conference call for the tech giant’s fourth quarter (ended 29 September) results, finance director Peter Oppenheimer warned gross margins would drop to around 36 per cent in the run-up to Christmas from 40 per cent during the fourth quarter.
As well as unveiling the iPad mini this week, Apple launched the iPhone 5 in September. Together with revamps to the iPad, MacBook and iMac, manufacturing costs have soared. Apple says it will improve manufacturing efficiency later on in the new product cycles. Anticipated first-quarter earnings per share, guidance was at $11.75, is nevertheless well down on analyst expectations of $15.41.