Sure, Shannon. This is Tim. Last quarter was the quarter of the portable. Up 35% year-over-year compared to IDC at 9% and so we really had a blow out quarter for portables, and it's the result of the lineup that we announced in June and as you know we had backlog entering the quarter on that line. Also, the Mac was helped by the back-to-school, which was the strongest back-to-school we had ever had, as Peter talked about, and the launch of Snow Leopard, which occurred later in the quarter, and so there was a group of things that came together to push us to a level above 3 million, which was beyond our own expectations internally, or even some of our stretch targets.
From a channel inventory point of view, we started the quarter between three and four weeks. We ended the quarter between three and four weeks. And to be specific on the inventory change, so there's no misunderstanding, the inventory changed less than 15,000 units from beginning to end. And so, we had very minor growth, particularly when you compare that to the growth in sales from a sequential point of view.
Shannon Cross - Cross Research
Great. And then, just any idea of the penetration of Snow Leopard right now out in the installed base? I think you mentioned, you expect, Peter mentioned fewer shipments of box sales in the coming quarter. But any idea where you're at?
Tim Cook
The upgrade sales of Snow Leopard, which we include the family in the box set were more than double what we experienced from Leopard over the same five-week initial sales period. And so, this doubling was much more than we had planned and was very pleasantly surprised by it.
Shannon Cross - Cross Research
Great. I guess the price cut worked. So, thank you.
Tim Cook
Yes, it did. Thank you.
Nancy Paxton
Thanks, Shannon. Could we have the next question, please?
Operator
From Credit Suisse, we'll hear from Bill Shope.
Bill Shope - Credit Suisse
Okay, great. Thanks, guys. Last year, you provided some commentary around longer-term gross margin trends. Do you have any thoughts on this for fiscal 2010 or at least how we should think about this longer-term?
Peter Oppenheimer
Sure, Bill. I'll give you some qualitative thoughts. For the December quarter, I guided to about 34%. I don't want to make forecast today for future quarters on a quantitative basis, but I think there are two things that you ought to be aware of. First, for some key components, costs are rising and that's visible to, to you. And second, we are continuing to focus on delivering state of the art products at price points that our competitors can't match. And we are going to continue to provide ever increasing value to our customers.
Bill Shope - Credit Suisse
Okay, great. Thank you. |
