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Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

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Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#91

Post by akrymski »

Having bought the iPhone 6, I have to say I miss the size of iPhone 5, being able to use it with one hand, being less slippery, and the sturdy design. Many months passed by and I still miss it - this has never happened before.

I won't be buying the Apple Watch because I have a real watch. And I simply don't see the point in having a watch that does a fraction of what my phone already does.

I have just bought some PUT options on AAPL, because I don't see the revenue driver for the future. There's no need for a more powerful or slimmer phone at this stage, any advancement will be increasingly marginal. All the possible sizes are already out. Desperate people have got their hands on the latest gadget. What's next for Apple? How can they continue to grow phone sales at this rate? I simply don't see it, nor do I see another product category being as big as the truly personal computer that is the smartphone.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#92

Post by Fomite »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #28
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...).

Seriously. I just upgraded from my original iPad to a new one, whereas even being a slow upgrader I tend to get new phones more frequently.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#93

Post by femto »

Does the "tax rate of 26.3 percent" mentioned refer to how much tax Apple actually paid, or its notional tax rate?

For example, here in Australia, Apple had $6 billion revenue and paid $80 million tax. Assuming the margins are at least as good as the US, the profit would be $2.4 billion, so Apple's actual tax rate in Australia is 3.4%. Compare that with the theoretical Australian corporate tax rate of 30%, which would put Apple's tax bill closer to $700 million.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/apples-803-million-australian...

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#94

Post by kbenson »

puranjay wrote: post #52
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…

Google's lack of oversight in the Play store (which is actually a core philosophy) is really holding back Android. There are countless really, really crappy apps and clones crowding the app store. Plus, since most people pirate, developers can't make money (Monument Valley saw around 95% piracy rate and just $250k in revenue from Android, vs. $5.5M from iOS). This sunk Windows Mobile, which I still believe has the be…

Well, if the paying 5% are worth $250k, then the they could have made $50m from Google Play! Then again, people grounded in reality realize that every pirated copy is not equitable to a sale without any piracy, and there are many, many things that could account for the difference in profit per market, such as quality of port, rating in market, exposure in ecosystem, inclusion in the top apps list, etc.

The numbers you gave are interesting, but there's very little to show how well they correlate.

Edit: Assuming you are going off the data from techcrunch[1], I'm thinking that 95% piracy rate is not quire right. First, it's mentioned as something they "revealed previously" which means we can make very few assumptions about it, and second, they state it was installed on over 10m total unique devices (including multiple installs from a purchase, family share and unlicensed copies). Considering they list over 2.5m licensed copies sold, with almost 800k of them being for android (and half of that being free amazon giveaways), I'm thinking that 95% number doesn't make much sense. Also, 400k plus free copies given away by Amazon? That may affect sales...

1: http://techcrunch.com/2015/01/15/monument-valley-team-reveal...

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#95

Post by dingaling »

hyperbovine wrote: post #76
okibeogezi wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple makes luxury products. People like luxury products. Luxury products have strong brand appeal so they can comfortably ask people to pay more for products. Any other company that sells like phones at Apple's price range will FAIL. You either make something extremely better for the same price or just as good at a lower price. Neither is a guaranty for success though.

They make luxury products and yet everyone owns one. That is the real genius.

> Any other company that sells like phones at Apple's price range will FAIL.

Vivo and Oppo ( subsidiaries of the same parent ) dominate the high-end on China and maintain their image by selling at ' Apple Prices'. Their Western models are often more expensive...

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#96

Post by IBM »

akrymski wrote: post #91

Having bought the iPhone 6, I have to say I miss the size of iPhone 5, being able to use it with one hand, being less slippery, and the sturdy design. Many months passed by and I still miss it - this has never happened before. I won't be buying the Apple Watch because I have a real watch. And I simply don't see the point in having a watch that does a fraction of what my phone already does. I have just bought some PUT…

I hope you aren't betting too much money.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#97

Post by prawn »

SG- wrote: post #43
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.

I think the bigger iPhones just ate into iPad sales. Have you seen how big the 6 Plus is in person?

I have an iPad 2. Since upgrading my iPhone 4 to an iPhone 6 Plus, I barely use my iPad. I doubt I'd bother taking the iPad on trips either, as the larger iPhone screen is fine using hotel booking sites or for general research.

They'll need to reinvent the iPad for me to buy another one.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#98

Post by jonknee »

mrb wrote: post #54
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…

"Sometimes just to wrap my head around really large numbers like this..." Personally I like to divide profits and revenues by the number of employees. They have 98 000 employees so they generated revenues of $761 000 and net profits of $184 000 per employee in Q4 2014. Think about this: if you work for Apple, on average you helped the company generate $0.76 million dollars in sales in the last 3 months. Edit: @smackf…

More than half of those employees are retail workers, the profit per knowledge worker must be immense.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#99

Post by super_sloth »

puranjay wrote: post #52
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…

Google's lack of oversight in the Play store (which is actually a core philosophy) is really holding back Android. There are countless really, really crappy apps and clones crowding the app store. Plus, since most people pirate, developers can't make money (Monument Valley saw around 95% piracy rate and just $250k in revenue from Android, vs. $5.5M from iOS). This sunk Windows Mobile, which I still believe has the be…

The problem with the Monument Valley numbers is that they expected a hit game on iOS would magically translate in to a hit game on Android and that's really not the case.

The two stores are completely separate, your popularity on either will not help you on the latter unless you're bringing a big marketing budget with you or have something truly unique and viral.

There are plenty of popular Android games that have virtually no player base on iOS.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#100

Post by threeseed »

akrymski wrote: post #91

Having bought the iPhone 6, I have to say I miss the size of iPhone 5, being able to use it with one hand, being less slippery, and the sturdy design. Many months passed by and I still miss it - this has never happened before. I won't be buying the Apple Watch because I have a real watch. And I simply don't see the point in having a watch that does a fraction of what my phone already does. I have just bought some PUT…

Pretty dumb move to bet against Apple.

Apple can and likely will release an iPhone 6s mini after they've exhausted their component supplies for the iPhone 5. But the very fact you bought the iPhone 6 (with its higher margin) just shows they know what they are doing. As for growth in smartphones they haven't even made a tiny dent in China, India or African countries.

As for revenue drivers. The Apple Watch and future versions will sell and they haven't really done much with AppleTV, Beats, Primesense etc.

So there's your 5 year roadmap.

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