Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#21

Post by korzun » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 10:22 PM UTC

ykl wrote: post #9

Sometimes just to wrap my head around really large numbers like this, I like to put things in units of aircraft carriers. The US Navy's last finished carrier cost $6.2 billion[1], meaning that $74.6 billion[2] is enough to buy Apple 12 nuclear carriers, a.k.a. a nuclear carrier fleet larger than that of the US Navy. Of course this is an inaccurate and very silly comparison[3], but at least for me it does give some se…

> Meaning that $74.6 billion[2] is enough to buy Apple 12 nuclear carriers

You can't buy a single operational carrier for that price.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#22

Post by k-mcgrady » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 10:22 PM UTC

pdknsk wrote: post #19

It shows that margin on Apple products is too high. This leaves plenty of room for some company to come into the market and steal their customers. That it hasn't happened shows the strength of Apple. They make products people will pay premium for.

>> "It shows that margin on Apple products is too high."

How does this show that in any way whatsoever? If their margins were too high they'd be leaving money on the table. Short term they probably are but lowering prices would also dilute the brand.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#23

Post by zak_mc_kracken » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 10:22 PM UTC

fidotron wrote: post #6

Truly phenomenal. But then when no one else is making decent laptops this is what happens. If anything the gap has grown thanks to Windows 8. I'm not a fan of Yosemite by any stretch, but it is very much the least bad of the available options. And on mobile, iOS is very clearly in for the long haul now. There was a time a couple of years ago when Android looked like it might gain enough momentum to sweep them away, b…

I have the opposite impression. Regardless of the bug aspect, I find that Windows 8 looks much more advanced, polished and sophisticated than Mac OS, which has been stagnating for several years now and is still riddled with mindboggling inconsistencies (e.g. why can I rename a file in the Finder but not in an open file dialog, which looks exactly like a Finder?).

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#24

Post by archagon » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 10:23 PM UTC

pdknsk wrote: post #19

It shows that margin on Apple products is too high. This leaves plenty of room for some company to come into the market and steal their customers. That it hasn't happened shows the strength of Apple. They make products people will pay premium for.

It would be hard for another company to imitate Apple's hardware/software integration. One of the reasons I've bought Macbooks for my last two laptops was that I knew that the OS and most of its software was designed with my hardware in mind.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#25

Post by baddox » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 10:24 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #16

ykl wrote: post #9

Sometimes just to wrap my head around really large numbers like this, I like to put things in units of aircraft carriers. The US Navy's last finished carrier cost $6.2 billion[1], meaning that $74.6 billion[2] is enough to buy Apple 12 nuclear carriers, a.k.a. a nuclear carrier fleet larger than that of the US Navy. Of course this is an inaccurate and very silly comparison[3], but at least for me it does give some se…

Buying aircraft carriers is the easy part. Maintaining and staffing them is the hard part but it's a nice unit to use right next to libraries of congress and stationwagons full of tapes.

I'd say that getting away with building a huge navy would be the hard part.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#26

Post by coralreef » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 10:24 PM UTC

arrrg wrote: post #8

Cookingboy wrote: post #2

This is pretty insane, I think $18 billion in quarterly profit is the largest ever for any corporations. Also the revenue from iPhone business alone now exceeds Microsoft and Google combined.

Introducing a larger device was exactly the right move it seems … I wonder how that interacts with their iPad business (which isn’t even just stagnant, it’s shrinking). Maybe it’s one of the reasons why the iPad really didn’t do this well this quarter? Not that it really matters all that much, though, if the iPhone 6 Plus is eating (part) of the iPad pie. Better that than a competitor.

Bigger phone sales are definitely eating iPad sales. And people upgrade tablet devices less often anyway, I'm still on an iPad 2 for example. Should be interesting with the rumored iPad pro, which will be much larger (12" retina possibly w/ stylus).

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#27

Post by potatolicious » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 10:24 PM UTC

fidotron wrote: post #6

Truly phenomenal. But then when no one else is making decent laptops this is what happens. If anything the gap has grown thanks to Windows 8. I'm not a fan of Yosemite by any stretch, but it is very much the least bad of the available options. And on mobile, iOS is very clearly in for the long haul now. There was a time a couple of years ago when Android looked like it might gain enough momentum to sweep them away, b…

More than Windows sucking, the OEM laptop industry has largely fumbled hardware. For a while it looked like Dell and/or Samsung might actually give Apple a run for its money in terms of design and quality, but that fell flat on its face.

I'm a pretty biased sample, but honestly I know more people running non-OSX on Apple laptops than I know people running non-OSX on non-Apple laptops. Apple's laptops beat the rest of the industry even without the OS.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#28

Post by seanmcdirmid » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 10:24 PM UTC

jusben1369 wrote: post #7

I think these results are amazing. Kudos to Apple. And now I'm going to be "that guy" on HN. iPad is off 18%. So now Apple really is living and dying by a single product? I mean it's amazing how well they are doing with "just" one product but technology tastes seem so fickle that it's an interesting predicament to be in.

iPads are mature, no compelling reason to buy one every 2 years like a phone. It's not like the other tablet manufacturers are doing much better (or good at all). Apple still makes a lot on iPads, many companies would kill for that business (including large ones...).

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#29

Post by zak_mc_kracken » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 10:24 PM UTC

Tetraviolator wrote: post #5

This is great to see. As an Apple fan, it was fun to watch Google's Android quickly steal everything from the iPhone, and then fail to make as much money as Apple on the endeavor. Apple has been a great leader in consumer-ready touch devices.

Thanks for the clarification, I would never have guessed you're an Apple fan.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#30

Post by ykl » Tue, Jan 27, 2015, 10:24 PM UTC

korzun wrote: post #21

ykl wrote: post #9

Sometimes just to wrap my head around really large numbers like this, I like to put things in units of aircraft carriers. The US Navy's last finished carrier cost $6.2 billion[1], meaning that $74.6 billion[2] is enough to buy Apple 12 nuclear carriers, a.k.a. a nuclear carrier fleet larger than that of the US Navy. Of course this is an inaccurate and very silly comparison[3], but at least for me it does give some se…

> Meaning that $74.6 billion[2] is enough to buy Apple 12 nuclear carriers You can't buy a single operational carrier for that price.

Of course you can't actually get an operational navy, you'll just have 12 empty carrier shaped hunks of steel. Hence why I noted that it's a silly comparison.