Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple to Stop Providing Unit Sales Data for iPhone, iPad and Mac Starting With December Quarter

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
68,193
38,987



During today's fourth quarter earnings call, Apple CFO Luca Maestri announced that going forward, Apple will not provide unit sales of iPhone, iPad, and Mac during its quarterly earnings reports.

This marks a major change to the way that Apple reports data and it will make estimating iPad, Mac, and iPhone product sales a more difficult task. Apple is perhaps making this change because its unit sales are decreasing while revenue is growing due to rising ASPs.

iphonexipadpro-800x663.jpg

This quarter, for example, iPhone unit sales were flat at 46.9 million, but iPhone revenue was up 29 percent.

According to Maestri, Apple does not believe that unit sales over the course of a 90-day period are an indicator of the underlying strength of its business.

Apple also plans to rename the "Other Products" category to "Wearables, Home, and Accessories," a change that will also be made in the December quarter. This category will continue to include the Apple Watch, Apple TV, AirPods, HomePods, Beats headphones, and more.

Article Link: Apple to Stop Providing Unit Sales Data for iPhone, iPad and Mac Starting With December Quarter
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/11/01/apple-no-unit-sales-data-earnings/
NOT HIDING ANYTHING. There is no legal requirement to announce unit sales. It's a legacy from the Jobs days when Apple was a MUCH smaller company. The individual unit numbers are so huge now it's a useless metric. Earnings per share - that's all we need. Maybe the days of AAPL beating top AND bottom line and having the stock DROP because of a miss on "whisper number" unit sales are over.

Amazon has never announced unit sales on any of their products. We've never been told how many Kindles get sold, how many Prime members they have, how many Echos are in use - etc etc
 
  • Like
Reactions: CWallace, buststyles, Baymowe335 and 47 others
Quu said:
Apple can't wait to shout from the rooftops when things are "fastest selling iPhone ever" but when the sales are flat, lets hide all the numbers I guess.
Click to expand...

Or maybe they just don’t want their stock affected by numbers not meeting some ridiculous analyst estimates.

It’s a bold move in this industry but we know they sell enough and make enough.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rafark, MacsRuleOthersDrool, Mr. Skeleton and 11 others
CrapShack said:
NOT HIDING ANYTHING. There is no legal requirement to announce unit sales. It's a legacy from the Jobs days when Apple was a MUCH smaller company. The individual unit numbers are so huge now it's a useless metric. Earnings per share - that's all we need. Maybe the days of AAPL beating top AND bottom line and having the stock DROP because of a miss on "whisper number" unit sales are over.

Amazon has never announced unit sales on any of their products. We've never been told how many Kindles get sold, how many Prime members they have, how many Echos are in use - etc etc
Click to expand...

That’s a good point. Why give competition an unfair advantage? Focusing on an arbitrary number that isn’t comparable to anything else in the industry.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MacsRuleOthersDrool, gijoeinla, Eduardo1971 and 4 others
CrapShack said:
NOT HIDING ANYTHING. There is no legal requirement to announce unit sales. It's a legacy from the Jobs days when Apple was a MUCH smaller company. The individual unit numbers are so huge now it's a useless metric. Earnings per share - that's all we need. Maybe the days of AAPL beating top AND bottom line and having the stock DROP because of a miss on "whisper number" unit sales are over.

Amazon has never announced unit sales on any of their products. We've never been told how many Kindles get sold, how many Prime members they have, how many Echos are in use - etc etc
Click to expand...
Agree with all of this. Only problem is Wall Street won’t stop craving this information. Somebody will still provide whisper numbers out of the supply chain or they’ll use bogus figures from IDC or wherever.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RandomDSdevel and gijoeinla
keysofanxiety said:
Or maybe they just don’t want their stock affected by numbers not meeting some ridiculous analyst estimates.

It’s a bold move in this industry but we know they sell enough and make enough.
Click to expand...

I feel personally that they've reached a point where the products don't offer enough value. Their stuff has always been expensive but it's now reaching such a high level that for the first time in almost twenty years I'm considering alternative products and ecosystems, I'm talking Windows + Android.

I'm not saying Apple is doomed, I don't think they're in trouble. But I do feel like they are entering this phase of their life where they're pushing a boulder up a mountain (high revenue and profit margins) and eventually it's going to get to the top and quickly go down the other side as consumers exit the brand due to it being too expensive and not offering the things Apple had been known for in the past (ease of use, functionality, great design and intuitiveness etc).

To me the company now more than ever cares about profit beyond all else. In the past I really truly believed they cared about making great products. Now I think they only care about making great margins and everything else is secondary to that goal.

I am not currently an Apple stock holder but I have been in the past. I think they're probably 75% of the way up that mountain I just spoke about, but this is all just my opinion I'm sure many here will disagree with me and that's perfectly fine.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pmore, stafil, clauzzz203 and 32 others
CrapShack said:
NOT HIDING ANYTHING. There is no legal requirement to announce unit sales. It's a legacy from the Jobs days when Apple was a MUCH smaller company. The individual unit numbers are so huge now it's a useless metric. Earnings per share - that's all we need. Maybe the days of AAPL beating top AND bottom line and having the stock DROP because of a miss on "whisper number" unit sales are over.

Amazon has never announced unit sales on any of their products. We've never been told how many Kindles get sold, how many Prime members they have, how many Echos are in use - etc etc
Click to expand...
Amazon aren't primarily a hardware company though? Vs Apple where 59% of their revenue comes just from iPhone sales. thats the difference here.

keysofanxiety said:
Or maybe they just don’t want their stock affected by numbers not meeting some ridiculous analyst estimates.

It’s a bold move in this industry but we know they sell enough and make enough.
Click to expand...
Still, if you're someone who's looking to invest a significant sum of money into the company, looking and seeing that their iPhone revenue growth is currently largely dependent on ASP inflation on pretty static volumes is quite an informative piece of information on which to base your decision. Macs and iPads not so much because they are much smaller slices of the pie.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Val-kyrie, HacKage, MyMacintosh and 1 other person
Quu said:
I feel personally that they've reached a point where the products don't offer enough value. Their stuff has always been expensive but it's now reaching such a high level that for the first time in almost twenty years I'm considering alternative products and ecosystems, I'm talking Windows + Android.

I'm not saying Apple is doomed, I don't think they're in trouble. But I do feel like they are entering this phase of their life where they're pushing a boulder up a mountain (high revenue and profit margins) and eventually it's going to get to the top and quickly go down the other side as consumers exit the brand due to it being too expensive and not offering the things Apple had been known for in the past (ease of use, functionality, great design and intuitiveness etc).

To me the company now more than ever cares about profit beyond all else. In the past I really truly believed they cared about making great products. Now I think they only care about making great margins and everything else is secondary to that goal.

I am not currently an Apple stock holder but I have been in the past. I think they're probably 75% of the way up that mountain I just spoke about, but this is all just my opinion I'm sure many here will disagree with me and that's perfectly fine.
Click to expand...

Honestly... I’m with you. I’ve been an apple fan since like 2000. I’m now 27 years old and just can’t believe how expensive everything has gotten or remains to be.

I still think they’re an awesome company and the value is definitely worth it, but the prices are crazy. At the same time their prices have always been kinda high.

But you would think because they make money hand over fist that they wouldn’t want to alienate a huge segment of consumers.
 
  • Like
Reactions: zemsantos, phillytim and Quu
We've reached peak iPhone (and peak smartphones) and Apple realizes analysts are obsessed with unit numbers instead of overall financial numbers. There's going to be some pain for a little while and then WS will move on....and then concentrate on just the numbers...
 
  • Like
Reactions: ssgbryan, chabig, bwintx and 2 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back