Apple Q2 Results

Post by tonyedgecombe » Wed, May 01, 2019, 8:33 AM UTC

hangonhn wrote: post #51

ancorevard wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Remove China from their numbers, and they are growing. China's economy is still cratering.

Uh... have you checked the news lately? https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-growth-beats-expectations... "China’s economic growth held to a 6.4% rate in the first three months of the year as factory production picked up significantly amid signs authorities worked forcefully to stabilize business following months of weakness." If Apple isn't doing well in China it isn't because of the economy.

Post by andrekandre » Wed, May 01, 2019, 1:29 PM UTC

sytelus wrote: post #107

gigatexal wrote: post #92

They’re fine. But stock buybacks and dividends are a waste. I’d rather that money (I’m a shareholder with not enough shares to matter but oh well) be used to purchase companies like a Netflix (too late now of course) or a Disney (also too late) or making bigger purchases to control more of their supply chain like buying a Qualcomm or increase the R&D budget by double maybe. 75B in buybacks just juices the EPS numbers…

Many times buybacks is not in the best interest of company but they are forced upon by "activist investors". This is how Icahn netted $2 billion in just 32 months from Apple: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/carl-icahns-2-billion-appl...

Post by scarface74 » Wed, May 01, 2019, 2:09 PM UTC

sytelus wrote: post #108

__blockcipher__ wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Apple is a very capital efficient company and already spends a tremendous amount on R&D. Just like the concept of the mythical man-month, the marginal utility of investing additional money in r&d goes down as r&d spend goes up. Or to put it a simpler way, Apple is running out of effective avenues to invest their money. The correct move in that situation is to return the capital to shareholders, and stock…

> marginal utility of investing additional money in r&d goes down as r&d spend goes up This would be true if there are no new products with huge potential to explore. I strongly believe any company's future depends on diversification. Your old products will eventually start becomming commodity with margin race to the bottom. Companies like Apple needs to come up with new product line every two years. To get one new p…

Post by ksec » Wed, May 01, 2019, 2:30 PM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #116

ksec wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree on stock buybacks and dividends are a waste, and big bet like Steve era. Disagree on buying companies. At least not Netflix and Disney, both are content companies and does not fit into Apple's business model. Not to mention a gigantic company like the two requires lots of human resources to integrate as the 2nd reply mentions. It is all about value. Apple has always been extremely good at value creation. That i…

The iPhone wasn’t a “big bet”. The mobile phone market was already growing like crazy and everyone saw the writing on the wall that the mp3 market would be consumed by the phone. The TV set market has long life cycle, negative margins and the main way that TV manufacturers make money in 2019 is by selling user information through the apps. The router market is minuscule. Most people use routers bundled with their ISP…

Post by Godel_unicode » Thu, May 02, 2019, 12:19 AM UTC

__blockcipher__ wrote: post #96

Godel_unicode wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirPods have plenty of viable competitors. They also sound bad, and aren't water-resistant to speak of. Their main competitive advantage is they come in Apple white and are conspicuous enough that people see them. Add in that they were near the end of the release cycle and it's definitely weird how much they went up.

I think this is a totally naive viewpoint. Despite the memes, Airpods aren't just a mere status symbol (and as status symbols they are very poor ones, which I think is the whole joke about airpods => rich). What makes them incredible is their seamlessness. They do have occasional bluetooth fuckery but they felt like the first wireless earbuds that just worked^TM.