I have just sat in on the US analyst conference call where several analysts claimed that the whole consumer electronic sector was set to crash in light of a pending US recession.
Apple said during the call that second-quarter margins will decline worse than expected in a drop it blamed on a seasonally-weaker quarter and also on expected declining sales of its new Leopard operating system.
Sales of Apple's signature line of iPod digital media players, which is a good barometer of consumer spending, will continue to slow in the quarter, Apple said. Meanwhile, iPod sales in the U.S. during the just-concluded quarter were flat, Apple reported.
Nonetheless, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer defended the company's guidance, which would represent gains of 8% from year-ago earnings per share and 29% from year-ago revenue.
