Live data from Hacker News

Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

nytimes.com

291–300 of 527 posts

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If one of these major launches is a MacBook Pro with the same (or better) specs (esp video graphics) as their latest MacBook Pro, but without a TouchBar, they will get at least $2,500 from me. If one of these major launches is an iPhone X-like phone with a thumbprint reader (home button or otherwise), they will get at least another $1,000 from me.

As a shareholder, thank god you are not a decision maker.

Hilarious to see you wispering this comment into the hurricane force winds of techies leaving Mac for these very reasons.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#292
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet another lesson that stock pricing is about predicting the future, not reacting to quarterly reports.

I can argue that in the last 10 years, the stock price for non-payers of dividends is no longer a function of KPIs. Take for example Pinterest. It was offloaded to the stock market when KPIs have been dropping for a very long time [1]. The company is likely doomed. Yet the stock is above the IPO [2]. 1. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=p... 2. https://robinhood.com/stocks/PINS [1Y]

What makes you say that Pinterest is doomed?

In my anecdotal experience it seems like every suburban mom curates several boards near-obsessively.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#293
post #8

And the stock increased over 4% in after-hours trading, as increases in non-iPhone hardware sales and services overcame the decrease in iPhone sales. Earnings per share slightly beat the consensus forecast. An interesting quote from Cook in the press release: "The balance of calendar 2019 will be an exciting period, with major launches on all of our platforms, new services and several new products"

AAPL is still undervalued compared to stocks like AMZN. Apple's P/E of 17 is amazing compared to Amazons 78. I'm not really sure why their stock isn't traded with the same enthusiasm that other tech companies see.

Stock values aren't only about earnings. Amazon continues to be a growth bet, and their low earnings are because their income has historically been reinvested productively to access new markets. A quick google shows their 2018 revenue was up 31% over 2017, which was up 31% over 2016, which was up 27% over 2015. You don't buy Amazon for a share of the amount they're making today, you buy them for a share of the much bigger company they'll be tomorrow.

Apple, on the other hand, sells boutique products into a rapidly commoditizing market, and is having a terrible time with growth right now (the numbers today show less than 1% revenue growth). So profit is the only reason to buy AAPL right now. And the profits? Down almost 13%.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#294
post #262
post #233

NY Times made a mess of this story and slanted it toward their agendas. Horrible reporting. Apple beat most estimates. Revenues grew. All time high revenue from services. Forward guidance was raised. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/07/apple-reports-third-q...

That's a bit spun too, though. Revenue is up just .93%. Net income is down 12.7%. And they beat the estimates because the estimates were expecting bad news, as the overall trend has been stagnant for about two years. Those just aren't good numbers for a company that, over the past decade, has been literally the most profitable in history. They aren't "bad" numbers, but for Apple they're sort of a disaster. The iPhone…

When are we going to stop expecting exponential growth though? Or should the exponential growth just continue indefinitely? Is there no value in having a nice S-curve, ending up as one of the most profitable companies in history, and then just staying insanely profitable for a long time in a sustainable way?

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FaceID had zero issues unlocking the phone It will let a sibling in too, or at least at a point in the past.

Honest question, when you say "sibling", do you mean an identical twin? Because if yes, then fingerprint sensor won't save you from that either. After googling for a bit, I think I found what you have been referencing. Turns out, FaceID learns as it goes, even from non-successful attempts. So if every time your non-identical-twin sister tries to unlock your phone using FaceID, fails, and then you immediately unlock i…

Identical twins have different fingerprints. Though they may look superficially similar, they would definitely be different enough that it is extremely unlikely to be able to unlock each other's phones.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#296
post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you disable Location Services, which is an option presented on initial setup of the device, apps can still request the GPS permission directly (the default behavior in most location libraries), not sending your location to Google. This is not possible on iOS. Every location lookup will send your location to Apple.

How do you know iOS sends all location lookups to Apple?

Because Apple says so.

"By enabling Location Services for your devices, you agree and consent to the transmission, collection, maintenance, processing, and use of your location data and location search queries by Apple and its partners and licensees to provide and improve location-based and road traffic-based products and services."

It will also send your location to Apple when no app is requesting your location:

"If Location Services is on, your iPhone will periodically send the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple, to be used for augmenting this crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower locations."

Unlike on Android, you cannot get your location without sending this data to Apple:

"To use features such as these, you must enable Location Services on your iPhone"

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207056

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#297

Apple needs new sources of revenue. Anything marginal like cheaper iphone models won't cut it. I like the recent wave of acquisitions. Smart cars? Smart homes? Iterations of Apple Watch - deeper connection to the body itself? What's next for them?

Does there have to be something else? What are the implications of a company growing forever? In 500 years are there going to be only 3 companies because they acquired everything and nothing else makes products?

I don’t think there has to be something else. They had $2.18 per share in profit this quarter. Presumably some of that could be used to up the dividend if they really wanted.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If one of these major launches is a MacBook Pro with the same (or better) specs (esp video graphics) as their latest MacBook Pro, but without a TouchBar, they will get at least $2,500 from me. If one of these major launches is an iPhone X-like phone with a thumbprint reader (home button or otherwise), they will get at least another $1,000 from me.

I don’t even mind the touchbar. Just give me back the Escape key!

And take the escape key off the TouchBar. I hit it all the time by accident. I really wanted to give the TouchBar a fair shake but after two months I still think it’s beyond useless.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#299
post #294
post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a bit spun too, though. Revenue is up just .93%. Net income is down 12.7%. And they beat the estimates because the estimates were expecting bad news, as the overall trend has been stagnant for about two years. Those just aren't good numbers for a company that, over the past decade, has been literally the most profitable in history. They aren't "bad" numbers, but for Apple they're sort of a disaster. The iPhone…

When are we going to stop expecting exponential growth though? Or should the exponential growth just continue indefinitely? Is there no value in having a nice S-curve, ending up as one of the most profitable companies in history, and then just staying insanely profitable for a long time in a sustainable way?

> Is there no value in having a nice S-curve, ending up as one of the most profitable companies in history, and then just staying insanely profitable for a long time in a sustainable way?

Not to investors that want a quick ROI quarter-over-quarter on that share price.

Re: Apple Reports Declining Profits and Slowing Growth Again

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very easy to remap caps lock to escape.

That's not the point. You shouldn't have to map caps lock to escape.

There will always be other potential physical keys that aren't on your laptop keyboard. You could just as easily say that you shouldn't have to use modifier keys to trigger Page Down on a Macbook Pro keyboard. Where's my Print Screen SysRq key?
Post reply on HN