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Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

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Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#201
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 vi…

> expected a hit game on iOS would magically translate in to a hit game on Android and that's really not the case. Why not? Shouldn't a good game sell well on any platform? > 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. Perhaps it won't sell as well on Android in relati…

[deleted]

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#202
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 vi…

> expected a hit game on iOS would magically translate in to a hit game on Android and that's really not the case. Why not? Shouldn't a good game sell well on any platform? > 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. Perhaps it won't sell as well on Android in relati…

“Shouldn't a good game sell well on any platform?”

It should see well on a platform where people pay for quality content, yes.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#203

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.

They have always lived and died by one product. First it was the Mac, then the iPod, now the iPhone. At the current scale, yes, the iPhone sustains 70% of the company. If the iPhone fails maybe the Mac will be the one product to sustain a smaller Apple. Maybe the iPad will rally and do the job.

It's not that weird of a predicament. Not all big companies are diversified. Microsoft has sustained itself for decades with only two products (Windows + office). Google is sustained basically by advertisement on search results. They have other revenue lines but not as important.

If these lines fall companies do the same any other complex organisms do. They adapt to survive, find new businesses, reinvigorate old ones... Or they die. It's really not that exceptional.

What makes Apple exceptional is the scale of it all.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#204
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't blame you. I'm not sure what I'd do in that situation. "Wait it out" is a good strategy if there is a design element in the new machines you don't like (I did that with the early glossy screens) but if your current machine is defective and basically can't be fixed I wouldn't blame you for jumping ship at all. It's too bad situations like this end up in court where even if you get made whole it takes years and…

The worst part - Apple has a great reputation for customer service, and as today's numbers prove, they could easily afford making me and my fellow owners of problematic 2011 MBPs whole, but they've kept their head in the sand about it. It's unfortunate, because I used to be a promoter of Apple products to people I know. These days, not so much. In fact, I typically don't have much good to say about them at all. This…

I know they pull the "you've been through enough' here is a new machine" thing to help customers. But how many more mobos do you have to go through to get to that point. How much time would you waste?

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#205

The best part of the report is that iPad sales are plunging. It's a victory for general purpose computing that that segment of the walled garden is in decline. Let's hope that open systems can gain a toehold in phones sometime too.

Define victory.

Yeah, iPad sales are shrinking but more than 20 million devices in one quarter is still a pretty impressive number.

Lenovo (largest PC manufacturer) sold only 16 million "general purpose computers" in the same period.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#206
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…

And consider The Monster: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WMT+Key+Statistics Just shy of half a trillion dollars in yearly revenue, which generated 15.4 billion in profit. That's $1.3B revenue per day, or $55M revenue per hour, $920K/minute. A million dollars of revenue, every minute. Compared to nominal GDP, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is larger than Taiwan, Austria and Thailand. Granted, that's revenue, which is 'easy' c…

> How can we not start looking at some of these organizations less as companies, and more as countries?

Because they are not. Similarities start and end right there.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the whole large ships argument is lost on Korean chaebols Especially when Samsung just built the world's largest: http://www.industrytap.com/worlds-largest-ship-ever-built-fi... :-)

Heh, funny that Apple would be forced to hire Samsung to build their carrier given where they are forced to source their processors.

wait - are they actually building aircraft carriers??

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is a big part of it. I would rather run Windows on an Macbook Pro than any of the other hardware (although the new Lenovo machines are getting closer). That said it is still the phone/tablet/media streams that dominate their income.

>> I would rather run Windows on an Macbook Pro than any of the other hardware I honestly don't get why people often say that Macbooks are the best Windows laptops. I have always found the Windows on Mac experience to be sub-par with respect to the key placement, driver behavior, and oversensitive scrolling with Apple mice. I far prefer running Windows on a similarly equipped PC laptop. On the two Macbooks that I hav…

That hasn't been my experience. I find the mouse experience equivalent to my Lenovo. The Lenovo maxes out with an HD screen (1920 x 1080) and has about 2/3rds the battery life. I will concede the keyboard point. I pretty much hate all laptop keyboards equally though.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#210
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_corporate_profi...

This list is weird. How did Fannie Mae hit the top list annually in 2013 with $84bn but not have a single quarter with at least $21bn (=84/4) that year?

Well we know they're not so good with numbers...
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