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Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

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Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#51

Post by Osmium »

freshyill wrote: post #37

Remember, Apple needs to target the low end to succeed in China. They need to put out the crappiest, cheapest phone they possibly can otherwise Samsung and Xiaomi will eat their lunch. Edit: Obvious sarcasm is apparently not obvious enough.

They don't seem to be doing too badly in China. (Armchair opinion but: I think devaluing their brand in China would be the worst thing they could do.)

"74.5 million iPhones, 46% growth over last year. Unit sales up 44% in US, up 97% in BRIC countries. Sales doubled yoy in China, Brazil and Singapore."

and

"Performance of Greater China was particularly impressive with revenue up 70%."

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#52

Post by puranjay »

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 best UI of the bunch (sadly, it also had a shit app store and tons of bugs).

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#53

Post by ykl »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #33
korzun wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Do you mean that they're not for sale, which is obvious, or are you saying the true price is different? How different?

That number does not include things like airplanes and people and supplies that you need to actually make a carrier useful.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#54

Post by mrb »

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: @smackfu: I do not think it is weird to consider these metrics. They show what Apple, as a business entity taking its own decisions, manage to extract from their suppliers (expenses) and customers (revenues).

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#55

Post by ChuckMcM »

potatolicious wrote: post #27
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…

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.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#56

Post by sidko »

freshyill wrote: post #37

Remember, Apple needs to target the low end to succeed in China. They need to put out the crappiest, cheapest phone they possibly can otherwise Samsung and Xiaomi will eat their lunch. Edit: Obvious sarcasm is apparently not obvious enough.

Apple doesn't need to target the low end. They seem to be doing just fine, making the largest quarterly profit in history by not indulging in a race to bottom in search of market share.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#57

Post by byEngineer »

jacquesm wrote: post #18

Samsung will do their earnings announcements on the 29th, it will be interesting to compare those two side-by-side. Apple is doing extremely well on the margins but they have actually lost ground when going by the numbers (~30% market share now vs ~70% android).

Samsung have been loosing money on their smartphones divisions, haven't they?

I went iPhone -> Android -> iPhone

For the same reasons I can't imagine myself using Windows again, I can't see myself using android in the near future.

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#58

Post by colinbartlett »

jacquesm wrote: post #18

Samsung will do their earnings announcements on the 29th, it will be interesting to compare those two side-by-side. Apple is doing extremely well on the margins but they have actually lost ground when going by the numbers (~30% market share now vs ~70% android).

Do Apple investors care at all about market share if the lion's share of profits are going to them?

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#59

Post by loganu »

freshyill wrote: post #37

Remember, Apple needs to target the low end to succeed in China. They need to put out the crappiest, cheapest phone they possibly can otherwise Samsung and Xiaomi will eat their lunch. Edit: Obvious sarcasm is apparently not obvious enough.

Does Apple care about beating crappy Samsungs in market share? Probably not. There will always be a market for low end/ cheap/ burner phones. There's little room for margins, and those customers don't buy into the ecosystem as much. Comparing ecosystem revenue per user, Apple's doing fine. They sell a top-end phone to people that will pay a premium, and continue to buy apps and media. It's kind of like telling BMW that they need to compete with Kia.

Sure, more market share would be nice, but it's not necessary. If iPhone's are seen as a luxury item/ status symbol, then there's little advertising needed. Plus, Apple could still sell iPhone 4s and 5s to compete with lower end. (I think)

Re: Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

#60

Post by jusben1369 »

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?

Great point! How would you feel if they sold an iPhone as the old iTouch (ie wifi only no telco attached)?
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