Apple Sets a New Record For iPhone Sales (theverge.com) 131
Apple has reported strong financial results for the first quarter of 2017. According to CEO Tim Cook, the "holiday quarter results generated Apple's highest quarterly revenue ever, and broke multiple records along the way." The company took in $78.4 billion in revenue and sold 78 million iPhones. The Verge reports: Apple reported a profit of $17.8 billion, and said its earnings per share were boosted by the high demand for the larger models of its iPhones, which have higher margins. On the earnings call, Chief financial officer Luca Maestri said that customer satisfaction with iPads, and the new iPad pro, was very high. He predicted strong growth in that category. But the sales figures don't reflect that optimism, with unit sales and revenue from iPad both down around 20 percent year over year. With over a billion iOS devices active around the world, Apple has been able to shore up its flagging hardware sales growth with an increase in revenue from services to those devices. This includes money from Apple Pay, iCloud storage, Apple Music, and App Store sales. It was by far the fastest-growing segment of Apple's revenue this quarter, climbing 18 percent to $7.17 billion since the same period last year. Cook said Apple is aiming to double service revenue over the next four years. Maestri said Apple's App Store had double the revenue of Google's Play Store in 2016. Apple has more than $200 billion in cash parked overseas. Cook said on today's call that he was optimistic about tax reform in the U.S. happening this year, and that this might allow Apple to bring a lot of that money back home. "With our toe in the water, we're learning a lot about the original content business," Cook said, hinting at one way Apple might deploy all that capital.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Has anybody thought that maybe Samsung was trying to make a new form of Internal Combustion Engine?
Nah, pretty sure they are developing a new skin grafting technique and wanted to jump-start the market.
Re: (Score:1)
That wouldn't be good luck (Score:3)
I'm sure this has nothing at all to do with the Note 7 exploding
Why would it? Maybe some small number moved to Apple as a result, but if someone had an Android phone is it not a lot more likely [cnbc.com] they would get another Android phone?
good luck making those numbers again.
Good luck would be making more next year. Making the same numbers is kind of blah.
Funny how Apple seems to have years and years and years of "luck".
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
sadly I think you may be right. Here's hoping Droid companies don't imitate all that shit.
Queue the headphone jack comments (Score:5, Insightful)
According to slashdot, the iPhone 7 should have failed, just like the iPod.
Re:Queue the headphone jack comments (Score:5, Funny)
No headphone jack. Less combustible than a Samsung. Lame.
Re: (Score:2)
Nerds are crappy at marketing analysis. That's not news. Marketers have to know how people work, and pretty much ignore logic, math, efficiency, and parsimony because customers ignore those.
Re:Queue the headphone jack comments (Score:4, Insightful)
According to slashdot, the iPhone 7 should have failed, just like the iPod.
Meanwhile in the real world, losing an obsolete port was considered a small tradeoff for the water resistance everyone wanted.
Re:Queue the headphone jack comments (Score:4, Informative)
You know, that's a hard argument to make when a) plenty of people (including myself) have explained use cases for that port and b) there are devices with higher water resistance than iphone 7 and which DO include that jack.
Re: (Score:2)
Meanwhile in the real world, losing an obsolete port was considered a small tradeoff for the water resistance everyone wanted.
Meanwhile everyone else is offering full IP68 rating on phones with headphone jacks, while Apple only manages IP67.
If anything it looks like they are struggling with their industrial design, and were forced to remove the headphone jack because they couldn't copy other company's IP68 rated headphone jacks, and even then couldn't get their Lightning port to IP68 anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
According to slashdot, the iPhone 7 should have failed, just like the iPod.
Meanwhile in the real world, losing an obsolete port was considered a small tradeoff for the water resistance everyone wanted.
Meanwhile, an ounce of common sense tells everyone else who isn't brain-washed that a headphone jack can be made water-resistant just like any other connector.
iPhones are a Veblen good. That's why they will always succeed with their target customers, no matter what.
Re:Queue the headphone jack comments (Score:5, Informative)
the more-expensive iPhone 7 Plus made up a “higher portion of new product mix than we’ve ever seen with Plus models in the past,”
A direct comparison with products like the iPhone 6/6s are specifically excluded. All we can say from that comment is that the ratio of iPhone Plus models was higher than previous iterations, not that the iPhone 7 sold more.
Then again, Cook is no Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs brought "Gorilla Glass" to the masses. Tim Cook tried and failed with "Sapphire Glass". Steve Jobs was the iMac, iPad, iPhone, iPod - Cook was iWatch and iBuds - and dwindling sales of computers, iPads, and loss of market share for iPhones.
Jobs could have made the masses buy this bs thanks to his RDF. Cook - nope.
Re:Queue the headphone jack comments (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not an Apple fanboi (feel free to read my years of posts, many of which are not Apple friendly) but if you look at the numbers, Mac sales went up not down. I'm also fairly sure Apple couldn't give a shit about the market share of iPhone considering they make like 100% of the profits, with what marketshare they have.
I don't really feel inspired by Cook, either - but to say he's failing at making Apple a profitable company is just your own Reality Distortion Field. Apple is the most profitable company on earth and it has been pretty much since Cook starting running it. It's making more money than ever. He's doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing - making a shit tonne of money. That might not be cool for people who really love tech - but he's tasked with making Wall Street and investors happy, not geeks.
Re: (Score:2)
In the long run if your product isn't good enough you'll lose in the overall computing market. It doesn't necessarily mean your company won't be profitable. IBM has been with us for God knows how long and Microsoft is headed the same way.
Re: (Score:2)
IBM is older than Ford thats how long.
Re: (Score:2)
If you look at the numbers, Apple sales went up because the last quarter was a statistical fluke - a calendar quarter with 14 weeks instead of 13. Take out the 14th week, and sales were down YET AGAIN.
Remember back when it was called APPLE COMPUTER? Now it should be called APPLE IPHONE - and they don't have anything in the pipeline to take over when the iPhone gets too long in the tooth.
Re: (Score:2)
What does Microsoft have when Windows & Office are "long in the tooth"? What does Google have when search / ad revenue is long in the tooth? What does Exxon have
Re: (Score:2)
Cook was instrumental in taking Apple from a level where they could make a nice product that they could sell at a higher price to afford the production costs necessary to meet their
Re: Queue the headphone jack comments (Score:2)
You are absolutely correct. Lots of people forget the days when Apple would announce some great product that was made out of unobtainable bits, resulting in massive delays and ridicule. "Hey look, we have this great new computer which trounces the competition in performance, but you won't be able to actually touch it for six months, by which time the competition will have caught up at lower prices!"
Tim Cook fixed that by straightening out the supply chain. He also helped with getting profitable by managi
Re: (Score:1)
A direct comparison with products like the iPhone 6/6s are specifically excluded. All we can say from that comment is that the ratio of iPhone Plus models was higher than previous iterations, not that the iPhone 7 sold more.
Not sure that's accurate. ASP went up to its highest ever: http://www.theverge.com/2017/1... [theverge.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Other deceptions:
- The growth is from expansion into China, not improved sales in the West.
- The average spent on an iPhone went up by $4, which is less than inflation and...
- A lot of the sales were for the larger screen models, which are more expensive and which Apple was reluctant to do until other manufacturers proved there was a market for them
- Sales of 128GB models are up, because no SD card for you
Re: (Score:2)
China sells were down....
https://www.ft.com/content/474... [ft.com]
- The average spent on an iPhone went up by $4, which is less than inflation and...
As opposed to every other phone manufacturer who is seeing ASPs decline -- especially Samsung.
Every indication is that the
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The "extra fluke" of Christmas didn't just happen last quarter. There is a reason that they compare yoy (year over year) sales they are comparing sales to the same quarter the year before.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You also mentioned the Christmas quarter as being a fluke that spiked sells. They always compare same quarter sales year over year just like everyone else does. Mentioning Christmas was completely irrelevant.
So where is the "extra" coming from? There was only one "fluke".
Re: (Score:2)
The extra is the 53rd week in the year because it's a leap year - so their last financial quarter had 14 weeks instead of 13. That was the fluke. Take that extra week out, and sales were down again on a quarter-to-quarter bases - despite it being the quarter where Christmas should have given them a big additional boost.
Re: (Score:2)
You realize that none of those things would have been successful without the supply chain management strategy of Cook right? Also as far as the iPhones "loss of market share", you can''t take market share to the bank.....
Re: (Score:2)
You realize that Gorilla Glass (1960) has been around longer than Apple (1976-1977), right? It was only a matter of time before one of the manufacturers latched onto it. It's also why Apple doesn't have exclusivity. It was even used in racing in 1968 for 100 Dodge Darts and Plymouth Barracudas (you need a minimum number of cars with an option, such as Gorilla Glass, to be considered "stock"), and having "stock" cars with lighter window glass was an advantage.
And if it weren't for the calendar oddity of App
Re: (Score:2)
So gorilla gas being around since the 60's negates that under Cook's supply chain management improvements that Apple was able to ship mass numbers of iPhones? You realize that Apple has over 200 suppliers, right?
And besides there is a big difference between using glass in a few dozen specially made cars and using it in 230 million mass market phones.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Wrong again. Apple is not #5
In total sells its number #2.
https://cdn.ampproject.org/ii/... [ampproject.org]
And do you really think that every phone that Samsung sells including the cheap $50 phones uses gorilla glass?
https://www.corning.com/gorill... [corning.com]
Making a car is not "harder" they don't have to do it mass quantities and they can devote man hours and thousands of dollars to each car. Doing something repeatable and at scale is harder.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Open the purse strings (Score:1)
Good now maybe they will pay their contractors more than 74 Dollars an hour. Cost of living is going up
Say what now? (Score:3)
Good now maybe they will pay their contractors more than 74 Dollars an hour.
Where do you get that info from? There is no way Apple has a cap that low on contractors or they wouldn't have any willing to work for them.
Re: (Score:1)
I once worked a gig where the contract was coming to an end and the manager told me how much the agency charged them for my time. I told them how much I myself got: it was around 1/4 the agency fee. We stood staring at each other in mutual dumfoundedness.
"Damn, we should be in the headhunting biz!"
Re: (Score:2)
Those days are long gone. Nowadays at Apple Infosys and Wipro are actually losing money on the contractors they have on site. They make it up by making 300% on the folks offshore. The business model needs that for every person onsite they have 2 offshore.
They are kind of ectatic about Trump cracking down on H1Bs. They will either get to raise onsite rates with Apple or get to add more people offshore instead on onsite (claiming the lack of available people). Either will improve their bottomline
Re: (Score:2)
They paid me this much and charged this much is an argument by workers who fail to understand the proportionate value of having and keeping the customers.
Re: (Score:1)
That's why we go with head-hunters, they (hopefully) do the slimy braggadocios sales for you so that you don't have to wade in the swamp: your own personal Trump.
"So, I hear you are Yuuuuge with MS-DTS!"
But I thought the headphone jack was all-important (Score:3)
I thought everyone NEEDED a headphone jack and this OBVIOUSLY AWFUL change that EVERYONE IN THE WORLD HATES was going to DOOM APPLE.
Time marches ever forward. People use the headphones in the box. Apple sells a zillion phones. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Re: (Score:2)
It's just like saying Brady wins another Super Bowl.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
According to the BBC the iPhone 7 is only making up about 17% of iPhone sales [bbc.co.uk]. In other words 83% of people want one with a headphone jack.
What we need are US like-for-like sales numbers, showing US only sales compared to the iPhone 6S at the same time last year. For some reason those don't seem to have been released.
Re: (Score:2)
Those numbers are speculation, and you should probably be able to guess that they're bad or incomplete speculation by the ASP numbers that Apple released. I suspect that at best, the 17% number they cite is for iPhone 7 units and not iPhone 7 Plus.
Also, how would that stack up historically? Is that normal? 17% on its own is a useless number without context.
But it seems incredibly unlikely that Apple would be able to pull down such a monstrous profit by selling the older phones.
Someone lost a lot of money over this (Score:1)
This article [marketwatch.com] from MarketWatch talks about a 30-something who was going big or going broke betting on Apple's earnings. In his case he had been listening and posting to the Reddit forum dealing with stock trading. At one point in time he had amassed a small fortune but was reduced to a mere $240,000 which he was placing on his final bet that Apple would substantially miss its earnings and as a result, Apple's stock price would take a nosedive. He had bought options for such an event which would net him mill
Re: (Score:2)
Rminds me of 2004 when I had 15000 USD to invest. I had two choice Apple at 9 dollars (split adjusted) or AMD at 13 dollar. I put it all on AMD. Wish I had put it on Apple. Today Apple is 125 so I would have had 200K. Stock trading takes a strong stomach
Re: (Score:3)
Stock trading takes a strong stomach
Next time, try investing your money instead of gambling with it. You had $15K to invest and you put all your eggs in one basket? Hope you've learned about diversification since then.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Any day ... Any day now ... (Score:5, Funny)
Sometime soon, I swear.
The company is balanced on a tiny wire, with all its appeal based on fashion and the whims of teenagers, and soon it will trip over itself, and totally bungle it's designs and delivery, on such an epic scale that the whole business will collapse like a soufflé and the stock will tank and huge layoffs will happen and everyone will walk away. And that prediction of demise that I made fifteen years ago will be COMPLETELY ACCURATE. The fact that they've had the most profitable year of any company in recorded history is just another nail in the coffin; you'll see...
If that were true it would be long gone (Score:4, Insightful)
The company is balanced on a tiny wire, with all its appeal based on fashion and the whims of teenagers
If that were true Apple would have come and gone, blown away by the whims of fashion as all who walk that write are.
Instead Apple is like a Turtle, a very determined Turtle - not on that wire, but moving forward on solid ground. Many claim the Turtle is slow or lacks fancy features but it always seems to get where it is going despite many attacks that bounce of its pretty shell.. for the strength of the turtle is not in the beauty of the shell, but in the relentless motion forward protected by many layers or hardened experience from those that would attempt to stop it.
You keep hoping, but the turtle keeps moving... you keep waiting for the turtle to fall, but where is it to fall from solid ground?
Meanwhile the turtle finds ever larger ponds to explore, each time you claiming the pond they have found will dry up... that may be true, but the Turtle Moves.
Re: (Score:2)
Try spending more time understanding what you're commenting on, rather than commenting.
Ah hah!! (Score:2)
A Pratchett fan I see!
What happened to Logo? (Score:2)
Instead Apple is like a Turtle, a very determined Turtle [...] the Turtle Moves.
Does this turtle move with FD 50 RT 90? It used to [youtube.com].
Re: (Score:2)
I knew the original was not for real. What makes you think my reply was written in full seriousness? It was subtle I grant you, but come on - I likened Apple to a Turtle. I thought that alone would give the game away.
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft? MICROSOFT? (Score:2)
In my day we used to dreaaaaam of having a big gorilla tech company like Microsoft, whose demise we could foretell. We had to content ourselves with big oil, and big coal, and THAT'S if we were LUCKY. Most people had to hate on the auto industry. And those poor buggers were almost proven right!! You kids, with your tech hardware juggernauts and your defense contractors, you don't know easy you have it...
Re: (Score:2)
Bah, Microsoft.
This story is about Apple, a company that's been going out of business for just over 40 years now.
Back to the future ... (Score:1)
Apple has reported strong financial results for the first quarter of 2017.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple's fiscal year starts 4th calendar quarter.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes
bad news for this guy (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
AAPL is, as I type, down by $0.28
Someone commented above Nerds are crappy at marketing analysis.
Well yes and also crappy at understanding the stock market.
Back in the day, when I worked at Cisco (in the 90's), I'd often get asked by my fellow engineers "why has the stock gone down when we beat expectations this quarter?"
Because you buy on the rumour and sell on the facts.
The market had anticipated a good quarter and had adjusted prior to the results today.
Now that those results have been confirmed there's t
Re: (Score:2)
AAPL is, as I type, down by $0.28
AAPL is, as I type, soaring past $128. Per the article, this man is now bankrupt.
Whelp... (Score:1)
Say goodbye to your headphone jack. The other manufacturers will take this to mean nobody wants one.
Pokemon Go (Score:1)
I read somewhere that they were on track to make $3 billion just from Pokemon Go app store sales.
Re: (Score:2)
make multinationals actually pay their taxes.
Moderated flamebait? I wonder if my sin was to criticize tax law, or to note Apple exploits it.
Fudging the Math (Score:5, Interesting)
Apple had a 14 week Quarter as compared to a 13 week quarter and grew revenue 3.9%. So for a 7% longer period a 3.9% higher revenue looks like a drop . No wonder the profit dropped as 14 weeks means 7% more costs but only 3.9% more revenue so profit has to fall.
"Informative", but wrong. (Score:2)
From the conference call Q&A:
"We had the benefit of a 14th week, but this was offset by several factors including less channel fill than last year and a one-time $548 million patent judgment receipt last year."
Re: (Score:3)
In Q1 2016, Apple made $75.872 billion in a 13 week period or around $ 5.836 billion a week. In Q1 2017, Apple made $78.361 billion in 14 weeks or $5.597 billion per week. A difference of $2.489 billion year over year or a 4% decline in average weekly revenue.
As far as iPhones, they sold around 3.971 million units a week in 2016 and only 3.884 million units a week in 2017, or a decline of around 2%.
Then there's the quarterly earnings per di
Re: "Informative", but wrong. (Score:2)
You are simply offering a different spin on what are still enormous numbers. The fact that you can spin them to make this look like the _second_ most profitable quarter in the history of any company, relative to the quarter that same company had a year ago, does not matter much.
Another "more accurate" comparison would be to look at a week-by-week year-over-year breakdown of profits, and subtract off only the profits for that _specific_ extra week. Wouldn't you agree? What's a dull week in October, compar
Re: (Score:2)
The extra week was the week between Christmas and New Year. Definitely not a dull week as all Apple gift cards given as gifts are redeemed during this week and the revenue recorded
Re: (Score:2)
Got numbers and a reference? Otherwise I'm just gonna say that that gift card revenue is not recorded that way, because it does not make accounting sense to do so. That week could just as easily be defined by massive returns of unwanted gifts ;)
Re: (Score:2)
Diluted earnings per share for Q1 2016 was $3.28 and Q1 2017 was $3.36 or a difference of 2.43, showing yet another hidden decline.
From $3.28 to $3.36 doesn't look like a decline to me. Care to explain ?
Re: (Score:2)
For example, a company that made $100,000 at the end of 2015 has 1000 shares at the beginning of the year for $100 earnings per share. The com
Re: (Score:2)
So, no. You are either not paying attention what they are reporting or out-right lying.
Livestream of the conference call from an Apple friendly source if you don't believe me:
http://www.macrumors.com/2017/... [macrumors.com]
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
[It would] be fucking awesome if everybody stuck to being snide about electronics/technology instead of politics.
You must be new here. You should prepare for several years of butthurt from all parties. Frankly, I'm looking to the poopflinging that a presidential impeachment will bring!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: I guess it's like Trump (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
no one cares what geeks think and the toys they worship. most people have a life outside of worshiping tech
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)