Live data from Hacker News

Apple reports second quarter results

apple.com

41–50 of 112 posts

Re: Apple reports second quarter results

#41

Short version: Reported quarterly revenue: ~$111 billion, so a 17% year-over-year increase. Diluted earnings per share: ~$2. 22% increase compared to the same quarter last year. Operating cash flow: surpassed $28 billion. Record for a March quarter. iPhone: Record March-quarter revenue of ~$57 billion, heavily supported by demand for the iPhone 17. Services: Hit an all-time high revenue record of ~$31 billion. Capita…

The capital return program was a massive own goal in my humble opinion. It will work for now but soon Apple will go through their Intel years because they spent too long sweating their (admittedly incredible) assets. Something like Harmony OS is going to eat their lunch and they will only have themselves to blame.

I imagine you're saying the capital return program is a mistake because they should reinvest the money in R&D etc.

I think the issue is there's diminishing returns to spending, and in some cases it can be outright negative. For example, one major thing you can do with money is hire more people. Hiring more people than you can handle is a great way to grind everything to a halt. You're basically making a bet when you hire that the additional capacity outweighs the danger of coordination failure.

Perhaps you could invest more money in fabs or something like that. I don't know, I'm a software person. But I did work at apple on software for 15 years, and I do not think throwing more money at software is particularly effective. The biggest teams at apple are often the least functional.

Re: Apple reports second quarter results

#42
post #25
post #15

All this while passing on the leap of faith everybody else is taking in the form of crazy AI investments. If the bubble bursts, Apple with its mountain of cash will be ready to buy the carcasses of whatever is left.

If the bubble bursts why would Apple buy any AI companies?

For the same reason that Yahoo should have bought Google after the dot-com bust. AI is useful and will eventually change the world. Many companies won't be able to provide sufficient returns, but will still have useful assets that Apple could buy at a discount.

Re: Apple reports second quarter results

#43
post #7

I subscribed to MacAddict in the mid-90s, back when Gil Amelio was Apple’s CEO, the company couldn’t ship software (Copland, Dylan, Gershwin, etc.), & they could barely afford to acquire NeXT. It still blows my mind that this is the same company.

The joke is that NeXT acquired Apple and got paid to do it. There’s a lot of truth to it. A huge amount of the software stack is inherited from NeXT. Steve Jobs was inherited from NeXT. Modern Apple is vastly more successful than NeXT ever was, but there’s a lot of continuity there as well.

In fairness to all concerned, the MacOS to MacOS X transition was brilliantly executed. These days we take VMs for granted, but back then it was a novel idea to run MacOS 8 as a process inside of MacOS X (the "blue box"). For most users it was seamless.

Re: Apple reports second quarter results

#44

Decent even though Google, OpenAI, Anthropic eating their lunch on AI.

That's the case for now, but I get this feeling that in 3 years we're all likely to just be running local models on Apple Silicon and they're gonna be having the last laugh.

Re: Apple reports second quarter results

#45

Short version: Reported quarterly revenue: ~$111 billion, so a 17% year-over-year increase. Diluted earnings per share: ~$2. 22% increase compared to the same quarter last year. Operating cash flow: surpassed $28 billion. Record for a March quarter. iPhone: Record March-quarter revenue of ~$57 billion, heavily supported by demand for the iPhone 17. Services: Hit an all-time high revenue record of ~$31 billion. Capita…

They really need to build their own fabs at this point. AI is going to kill their ASIC and DRAM supply chain if they don't. "Real men have fabs." - Jerry Sanders, first CEO of AMD. Actually, AMD, Nvidia, and Apple need to build their own fabs. Maybe Google, Amazon, and Meta too.

Perhaps something that Ternus can add to his legacy-building exercise, given that he led hardware.

Re: Apple reports second quarter results

#46
So I really wanted to understand the different kinds of margins. Yes, this was made with the help of an AI, with lots of iterations to make it applicable to Apple and easily understandable. I attempted to verify the numbers manually fwiw. Now please roast me.

Net profit margin: 26.6% ($29.58B / $111.18B) — what the company and its shareholders keep after taxes and everything else. (edited)

Operating margin: 32.3% ($35.89B / $111.18B) — left after the product and running the company (staff, R&D, marketing, stores).

Gross margin: 49.3% ($54.78B / $111.18B) — left after paying suppliers and contract manufacturers. Shows how much more customers pay than it costs to build.

Re: Apple reports second quarter results

#47
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I am personally saddest to hear about the discontinuation of the Vision Pro I'm more sad they cancelled their EV project. We need more healthy competition there than public spying VR ski goggles.

The competition would have been at the luxury end. Apple would have been competing with Mercedes, BMW and Cadillac, not with Hyundai and Kia.

Why luxury? Apple is mass market not luxury.

Re: Apple reports second quarter results

#48

Short version: Reported quarterly revenue: ~$111 billion, so a 17% year-over-year increase. Diluted earnings per share: ~$2. 22% increase compared to the same quarter last year. Operating cash flow: surpassed $28 billion. Record for a March quarter. iPhone: Record March-quarter revenue of ~$57 billion, heavily supported by demand for the iPhone 17. Services: Hit an all-time high revenue record of ~$31 billion. Capita…

The capital return program was a massive own goal in my humble opinion. It will work for now but soon Apple will go through their Intel years because they spent too long sweating their (admittedly incredible) assets. Something like Harmony OS is going to eat their lunch and they will only have themselves to blame.

That is absurd. Nobody is arguing that Apple should deplete its war chest. Steve Jobs's infantile stance against dividends has fortunately been replaced by a proper return to the company's OWNERS.

And "Harmony OS" is going to threaten their ecosystem of hardware, software, services, and developers?

Re: Apple reports second quarter results

#49

If they’re going hard in on services maybe they’ll finally go up against Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace, proper. Between the two someone needs to disrupt it with a cheaper stripped down alternative (from a big player) because the prices are going through the roof.

Unless they change their tack, Apple is unlikely to go head to head against Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace because they only target their own ecosystem (macOS/iOS). For MS and Google these Apple-owned platforms are not their primary user base.
Post reply on HN