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Apple Businesses

Apple Reports $19 Million Profit for Q3 106

Posted by pudge from the i-want-my-cut dept.
pinqkandi writes "Apple released it's quarter three results today, which revealed a $19 million net profit ($0.05/diluted shared). Revenue reached $1.545 billion as 771,000 Macs were shipped. CEO Steve Jobs called it 'a great new product quarter', citing the new generation of iPods, iTunes Music Store, and the PowerMac G5."
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Apple Reports $19 Million Profit for Q3 More

Apple Reports $19 Million Profit for Q3

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  • It has been a good year. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dr Reducto ( 665121 ) on Thursday July 17, 2003 @10:44AM (#6461674) Journal
    Apple has turned their business around and generated a lot of mainstream press this year. They finally made their Powermacs top of the line, they made the 17in laptop, the new iPods, and it now looks really good for Apple. They should hive themselves a pat on the back.

    And on an unrelated note, this may be a First Post.
    • I must agree. While I have always been a strong PC advocate, Apple is looking more and more inviting- especially that Dual G5. Apple has been advertising strongly to push their innovative new products. When is the last time you saw an Intel or M$ commercial (what did happen to those funny Intel guys in cleanroom suits?) The PC world is getting faster, and linux is making huge headway, but not many people seem all that excited about it. Digital video, I-pods, mp3s online, and large LCD screens seem to be t

      • Re:It has been a good year. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Dr Reducto ( 665121 ) on Thursday July 17, 2003 @12:03PM (#6462637) Journal
        Yeah, that is a good point. Apple comes out with something uber-cool, and the PC world just sits back and says: "We just increased our processor speed by .5 gHz" or "The New version of Windows will be out in 6 months". Apple works on getting things done that haven't been done before, or done at all, consequences be damned.

      • When is the last time you saw an Intel or M$ commercial (what did happen to those funny Intel guys in cleanroom suits?)

        They got laughed off the TV from all the non-Intel zealots. The only thing more embarassing than a white guy doing the Hustle was a white guy wearing a dorky cleanroom suit doing the Hustle.

        And calling them "bunnymen" certainly didn't help.

      • Re:It has been a good year. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Graff ( 532189 ) on Thursday July 17, 2003 @01:43PM (#6463753)
        linux is making huge headway, but not many people seem all that excited about it

        It's all a matter of who Linux is suited for and targeted at. Linux is a great operating system that kicks ass as a server platform and is great for many tasks but it is not really an operating system for the masses, no matter how great the strides have been in attempting to make it so. It is because of this that there aren't droves of non-technically inclined people rushing to it. This doesn't make Linux any less great, it just means that you won't see it pushing other operating systems off the desktop just yet.

        As for MacOS, it is designed especially for the non-techs with the addition of a stable BSD and Mach core for the techs. It tries to give the best of both worlds to its users without sacrificing much of either and it succeeds fairly admirably. In addition Apple seems to be smart enough not to try to compete with any of the other minor platforms but instead tries to work with and even enhance them by giving back code and working on free (speech, beer...whatever) projects.

    • Re:It has been a good year. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by chia_monkey ( 593501 ) on Thursday July 17, 2003 @01:11PM (#6463420) Journal
      It's been a very good year indeed. The interesting thing to note is how different Apple's products and services are now as to how they were a few years ago when the only thing you could read about Apple was how beleaguered they were and close to death.

      For example...Apple then:
      They sold computers. Sure they sold the OS and a few other things (monitors, other software, etc), but that was it.

      Apple now:
      Computers. And laptops which are definitely helping them gain some market share again. And MORE software such as Safari (even though it's free...who would have guessed they'd do something like that?), Keynote (you brave bastards), FinalCut Pro (do I really need to talk about their high-end software?), everything in their iLife bundle.
      Better yet...the iPod. Shnikeys! They're making some good money off that. It's new hardware that's not a computer. And good money.
      iTunes Music Service...for something that only serves 3% (who knows what the real number is...it changes daily) of the market, they're doing DAMN good with that. Imagine when it comes out for the PC.

      It's funny to compare the Apple of today to the one of yesterday. Worlds apart.
      • That's not totally true. Apple previously (including the "beleagured" days) sold a much wider variety of hardware.

        Remember, Apple used to sell its own Monitors, printers, scanners, digital cameras, PDAs, external hard drives, external CD drives and more.

        What they're really done is move out of the over-populated peripherals markets (such as scanners and printers, which they didn't manufacture anyway, the printers were just rebranded Canons or HPs) and focus on key innovative hardware (the iPod), and softwa

  • 1) Listen to users
    2) Give them what they want
    3) Profit!

  • Profit for 1 reason (Score:5, Insightful)

    by BigBir3d ( 454486 ) on Thursday July 17, 2003 @11:10AM (#6461988) Journal
    $4billion cash reserve that makes nice interest as it sits in the bank.

    • Re:Profit for 1 reason (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Your misinformed. To save face, you should check out this artical from foxnews: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,92121,00.html

      Your comment is so unintelligible, it makes me sick.
    • Um, according to this page [nfsn.com], *nothing* is making a nice interest *anywhere* right now. The prime interest rate is 4.00%. That's kindof low.
      • Prime is what banks charge their best customers if they have perfect credit. Interest on cash (required by accounting rules to be in things that mature in less than 1 year) is around 1.0%-1.5%. The idea here is to spur companies in to investing thier cash in something that generates economic returns (new business assets) becuase their cash give them so little or conversely because they can borrow at a very low rate. The scary part is when it doesn't work (see Japan) because everyone is too scared of losi

    • Re:Profit for 1 reason (Score:5, Insightful)

      by GlassHeart ( 579618 ) on Thursday July 17, 2003 @11:48AM (#6462452) Journal
      Your point is valid, but Apple is one of only a few companies doing anything interesting in this field right now. Within the past year or so, they have release several new software products (Safari, Keynote, Final Cut Express, and most recently Soundtrack), a new line of desktops featuring a new CPU, and at the same time updating just about every existing software title except maybe Appleworks, and every hardware product that I can remember. On top of that, they built an on-line music store.

      Each of these take significant investments. The G5 line has not made a single dollar of profit yet, but must have consumed a lot of NRE dollars. This is precisely the stage where companies lose money developing new products, so Apple is just lucky that they have huge reserves to still turn a small profit.

      All in all, your observation is rather cynical. It's almost as if you're suggesting that Apple would be a better company if they just laid everybody off, and turn a nearly guaranteed profit each quarter from bank interest.

    • That was *last* quarter (Score:4, Informative)

      by overunderunderdone ( 521462 ) on Thursday July 17, 2003 @12:36PM (#6463009)
      This did in fact happen last quarter (the profits being all in interest on the $$ in the bank while the business otherwise would have shown a loss). THIS quarter however they did in fact run a profit off of their business of selling computers. Also to be fair they are doing some things this quarter that cost a fair amount of $$$ that are investments that will reap rewards in future quarters. Opening new stores and opening the iTunes music store - which is actually supposed to turn the corner as soon as this next quarter, and may be a real cash cow when it comes out for windows.
    • If you read their Financial Statement [akamai.net], you will see they made $17 million in interest, so interest is not the sole reason for their profit.
    • $4billion cash reserve that makes nice interest as it sits in the bank.

      And than goodness for it - they might not otherwise be able to plow so much dough into R&D.

  • Low revenue? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SoCalChris ( 573049 ) on Thursday July 17, 2003 @11:15AM (#6462040) Journal
    Isn't $19 million in profit awfully low for $1.545 BILLION in revenueThat gives them a profit margin of about 1.25%.

    • Re:Low revenue? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Yeah... their money spent (R&D, adverts, salaries, etc) is about the same as Dell. Only thing is, the sales are _much_ less than Dell's sales are.
      • their money spent (R&D, adverts, salaries, etc) is about the same as Dell.

        I was gonna call bullshit on you, seeing as how Dell does far less R&D than Apple, but, on second thought, you're probably right - Dell must spend as much money on 'Dude, get a Dell' ads as Apple does writing OSX.

    • Re:Low revenue? (Score:5, Funny)

      by pmz ( 462998 ) on Thursday July 17, 2003 @12:31PM (#6462937) Homepage
      Isn't $19 million in profit awfully low for $1.545 BILLION in revenueThat gives them a profit margin of about 1.25%.

      I'd say we should be ecstatic that the number was positive, regardless of magnitude. This means, at a minimum, Apple is stable in the near-term and won't disappear in a vapor in a bankrupcy court anytime soon. As long as they stay afloat, they can keep sticking irritating glass fibers into Microsoft's pale skin.
    • According to these figures, Apple is DYING. The company's beleaguered, I tell you!
    • But when you consider the ammount of money that has gone into R&D over the past while, the profit isn't as high as one would like it to be.
  • they've still got a lot of work to do. $0.05 per share isn't much profit. That being said, I think things might be going in the right direction this time. Apple has always innovated, but the problem has been mass appeal. With things like the iPod and iTunes music store, it's easier to get people hooked with a small purchase and then reel them in to a new computer that works better with the iPod that the PC they have now.
    • Profit is sales - costs. Costs include R&D, in which Apple obviously invests heavily. and $0.05 isn't a bad EPS, especially since they exceeded expectations.

      • And don't forget... (Score:3, Insightful)

        by rjung2k ( 576317 )

        ...the economy. A lot of people are tightening their belts, and are not in the mood to buy anything from anyone. For any tech company to be making any sort of profit in this climate is a minor miracle in and of itself.

  • Mac Units? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by TechnoPope ( 516563 ) on Thursday July 17, 2003 @11:48AM (#6462457) Homepage
    What exactly is a Mac unit? Is it just a computer, or does it also include the always popular Ipod? I'm not saying I doubt that they sold 771,000 PC's in a quarter, but it seems a little weird. Especially since apperently profits were actually down. I'd assume they make less profits on the Ipod then other things. Just wondering.

    • Re:Mac Units? (Score:5, Informative)

      by tenton ( 181778 ) on Thursday July 17, 2003 @12:22PM (#6462844)
      You can see the breakdown [yahoo.com].

      The iPods are considered "Peripherals & Other HW"

      The 771,000 doesn't include iPods...it's only PowerMacs, Powerbooks, iBooks, and iMacs (the eMacs are part of the iMac numbers, the server units, ie XServer is part of the PowerMac units).

      The breakdown is like this (in the thousands, of course):
      iMac: 256
      iBook:133
      Power Mac G4: 156
      PowerBook: 166

  • Them iPod Snobs (Score:3, Funny)

    by inertia187 ( 156602 ) * on Thursday July 17, 2003 @12:04PM (#6462645) Homepage Journal
    About them iPod Snobs,
    don't it make you sick?
    Goin' all around,
    enjoyin' they music.
    They listen on the bus,
    they listen on the plain.
    Showin' off for all to see,
    ain't it just a pain?
    Look at all those iPod Snobs,
    owning one is wrong.
    They can load enough to play
    three weeks worth of songs!
    How to be a iPod Snob,
    it's not very hard.
    Go to Apple's Store,
    and charge it on your card.
  • According to Infoworld [infoworld.com] there were 32.8 million computers shipped in calendar Q2; I don't know how that overlaps with Apple's fiscal Q3 but assuming it does then it gives Apple a 2.3 percent market share.

  • OS X and Apple Stores are working... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by metamatic ( 202216 ) on Thursday July 17, 2003 @01:04PM (#6463340) Homepage Journal

    From Investor's Business Daily [yahoo.com]:

    Apple's share of U.S. consumer PC unit sales rose to 3.4% in the first quarter, up from 1.9% two years earlier. Its share of dollars spent on consumer PCs rose from 2.3% to 5.2%.

    Things are brighter in the U.S. consumer notebook PC segment. Apple's unit market share rose from 0.3% to 6.8% in the two years. And its share of the market based on dollars spent rose from 0.2% to 8%.

    This says to me that xServe isn't managing to push the Mac into the business server market, but OS X and nifty hardware have lead to a major jump in consumer sales.

  • From the article:
    These results compare to a net profit of $32 million, or $.09 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

  • Errors in posting (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    That should be "Beleaguered computer company Apple ..."
  • In the first quarter, Apple was the No. 7 PC vendor in the U.S., IDC says.

    Remember that 10 years ago Apple was the #1 PC maker, with about 20% market share. That's where they need to reach again before the calls of "beleagured" will stop.

    • According to this [pegasus3d.com] in 1993 apples share was 10%. While this chart gives no idea on actually installed base we do know the PC market is MANY times larger today then it was 10 years ago resulting with a small % that apple can serve.

      But you are very right in apple still has a LONG road ahead, hopefuly apple from one side, Linux from the other and the PC market can be broken into three dominant platforms.
      Hey, I can dream can't I? ;)

      • 1. Linux for people who like inexpensive.
        2. Apple for people who are willing to pay for that extra TLC.
        3. ???

        That's two. What's the third dominant platform?

        It can't be BSD. BSD is dead. I know that because I read it in the Slashdot postings. (That was sarcasm. I doubt the home consumer will move to the major variations. Apple has the ease-of-use version, and Linux has the mindshare. Where's the RedHat and SuSE companies pushing the other BSDs?)

        If you've read my other posts, you'll see rational reas

  • Music is Apple's Future (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jamesmrankinjr ( 536093 ) on Thursday July 17, 2003 @05:31PM (#6466132) Homepage

    Apple's growth prospects are all wrapped up in Music.

    • iPod sales way up, especially with Windows version.
    • 6.5MM songs sold WITHOUT a Windows version. Huge growth potential here, and scales nicely (marginal cost of selling a song is roughly 0, compared to computers which have large fixed costs).
    • iTunes Music Store for Windows should create even more iPod sales, completing the virtuous circle.

    So outlook for growth in Apple profits is tied strongly to its music business, much more so than computer sales.

    Best,
    -jimbo

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