Apple fights slump with Cube discounts

Apple has announced that UK customers buying its G4 cube will receive a discount of up to £250 until the end of the year, as it attempts to revive disappointing sales.

Apple has announced that UK customers buying its G4 cube will receive a discount of up to £250 until the end of the year, as it attempts to revive disappointing sales.

At the same time, the vendor released lower than forecast results for its fourth quarter, ended 30 September.

Apple missed its predicted sales target and posted turnover of $1.9bn. Profit touched $170m, compared with $111m last year. More than 570,000 iMac systems were sold last quarter, with 1.122 million total unit sales.

Andy Brown, a senior research analyst at IDC, said: "In the last two or three weeks all the hardware players have taken a downturn. But these companies are still getting great market results."

Fred Anderson, chief financial officer at Apple, put the slump down to three things: lower than expected September sales, a downturn in educational sales and the slow start of the Power Mac G4 Cube. The G4 has suffered from design problems and high prices.

To improve sales, Apple has also unveiled plans for new European sales teams. According to Pascal Cagni, vice president of Apple Europe, the team "will focus on serving consumers and educational institutions", and will take advantage of European growth in those areas.

Brendan O'Sullivan, Apple's European education director, said: "We had a reasonably good quarter. We brought in turnover of $1.9bn, and we were aiming in the region of $2bn. It was a smidgen under what we would have liked. Year on year we grew 40 per cent."

O'Sullivan added that the G4 Cube "hasn't been as fast a seller as we would have wanted. The price point is too high."