Apple Reports $1.67 Billion Profit for Q4 2009, Most Profitable Quarter Ever

[BuddyTronic]

So I bought some Apple shares in January for $86. Good investment you think?




Only problem is that I sold them all in April for $113

Doh!

Don't feel bad dude, I sold about 10% of my AAPL at the end of February. I was thinking the sky was falling. Glad I kept the other 90% though - it's my life savings, and all I have been doing the last year has been watching AAPL every single day. It's nuts.

I'd like to sell above $200.00 but you know what? AAPL is one of the best safe haven stocks you can pick. If I take the profit, I get taxed heavily, so what to do - sell AAPL and buy GLD and wait for the USD to implode?

 

[Fastshutter]

Good job Apple.

 

[Howardchief]

I pressed *1 during the call and nothing happened

 

[BongoBanger]

Very good results - the 3 million Mac sales are particularly impressive and clearly demonstrate that the price cuts have boosted sales. iPhone sales are good too although it looks like the existing markets are topping out so Apple will need to move outward or diversify to keep things turning over.

iPods are slightly surprising. I know they've kind of saturated but an 8% dip is surprisingly big after a refresh.

Good stuff though!

 

[mercuryguy]

Time for the conference call. Listen here:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq409/

who is the girl in your avatar

 

[Peace]

New products will have lower margins and "air freight" will cost more in Q1 2010 that starts Tomorrow!.

Maybe that rumor of flying in new products is true.

 

[jaw04005]

Actually I think it's *consumers* who don't care about desktops anymore....and the Apple numbers are showing it. People want portables!

That’s great PR spin, but that’s contrary to their desktop trend numbers. If what you said was true for Apple their desktop shipments would have trended lower over time.

Customers didn’t wake up in 2009 and decide to quit purchasing desktops.

Essentially with Apple, they keep growing their customer pie. Even if desktops are making up a smaller portion of their Mac sales as a whole, with their increased customer pie — they should have shipped more desktops regardless.

Apple needs to adjust its desktop line.

 

[Shivetya]

Wow, people are still spending $1,000 + for computers?

well, for laptops that is.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Amazing numbers. My AAPL stock has served me well.

I find these number most interesting. Look at desktop and laptop sales. (First column is Q3 209, second is Q4 2008 and the third is Q4 2009)

What will be interesting is if Steve does put in a 3/4 size Tower to double or more the sales of Mac tower systems while not losing margins.

From our discussions on AppleInsider: This system with scaled down handles would sell rapidly:

 

[ericinboston]

Congrats Apple! Just gimme an iMac for under $999 and you'll be seeing even more Mac sales!

 

[zacman]

iPhone 7% increase is way below the industry average and quite disappointing. Seems people (especially overseas) are now starting to buy touchscreen smartphones with better features because the iphone "hype" has come to an end. The HTC Hero outsold the iPhone 3:1 in Europe for example.

 

[bbydon]

So I bought some Apple shares in January for $86. Good investment you think?




Only problem is that I sold them all in April for $113

I was going to buy apple when they were at $21 around 2001, i opted with my dads advice to go with a roth IRA.
Apple is up and split since then, my roth... is barely above what i put in.

 

[OllyW]

Not doubt, you, much like me could never live without a desktop machine. I'm not saying they should go away....I just saying for a large section of the Apple population (the ones that just use the machine to email, surf, iPhoto, etc), are clearly choosing the portables to be....well.....portable. Whether that be in the living room, in the bedroom, or away from the house.

I know what you mean.

I can't remember the last time any of my family or friends bought a desktop. Everyone wants a laptop these days and a lot of them are going for an Apple laptop.

 

[BongoBanger]

iPhone 7% increase is way below the industry average and quite disappointing. Seems people (especially overseas) are now starting to buy touchscreen smartphones with better features because the iphone "hype" has come to an end. The HTC Hero outsold the iPhone 3:1 in Europe for example.

That's not strictly true - Nokia were down 4% on smartphones.

 

[manu chao]

Looking at their cash position, they could have given away all their products for free in the last year.

 

[Howardchief]

I was going to buy apple when they were at $21 around 2001, i opted with my dads advice to go with a roth IRA.
Apple is up and split since then, my roth... is barely above what i put in.

Who did you go through to obtain a Roth?

 

[GeekLawyer]

I was going to buy apple when they were at $21 around 2001, i opted with my dads advice to go with a roth IRA.
Apple is up and split since then, my roth... is barely above what i put in.

And now you know you should have done both. Put AAPL in your Roth, which you can certainly do.

 

[jaw04005]

Looking at their cash position, they could have given away all their products for free in the last year.

Or given their investors a nice dividend (what a concept for a tech company).

 

[dernhelm]

This is what I wanted to know about. Thanks.

Did you take a look at the hardware and pricing? A quad core processor isn't some luxury item either. There are plenty of misconceptions and people that are not informed.

Or maybe it's just people like me and you that are simply not informed about what people really care about.

Myself, I would love to see quad core in an iMac (or heck, a laptop, for that matter), but that's only because I'm a computer geek that thumps his chest about such things. Not that I wouldn't use them if I had them (you can never apply a photoshop filter fast enough), but if the other cores are not there and the operation takes a few seconds or even minutes longer, it doesn't affect my quality of life.

Most students, their parents, or casual users don't notice either. The people who do notice are the people buying XServes or Mac Pros. They notice and care. Another set of people that notice are gamers who would like to put Lamborgini engines in Yugo bodies - and a superfast headless mac with lots of expandability would be perfect for them.

But Apple decided a long time ago that that is simply not a market that they care about. Years ago in fact. We can continue to mourn that fact or we can simply move on. For me, I just got old and no longer have the need for such a machine (my game playing days ended long ago). If you aren't there yet, you can generally get kit like that sub $800 running windows, and you should. Apple has decided that is not a market they care about, and will do very little to court your business.

 

[droz]

Doh!

AAPL is one of the best safe haven stocks you can pick.

Oh please tell me you don't have your life savings in apple stock and really truly believe that. There is no such thing as a safe haven stock. I love AAPL as much as the next guy but don't blind yourself dude.

 

[50548]

So, where are the ABSOLUTE MORONS that keep on criticizing Apple for selling the best products in the whole damn industry? Where are the PUNDITS that keep pronouncing the company dead, or proposing stupid lineups that 99% of the market don't want or need?

Once more and AS ALWAYS, Apple leads the way as the best, most profitable and most successful personal IT company EVER.

Thank you SJ, for blowing away any of the benighted analysts' predictions again, and for demonstrating once and for all that the company knows EXACTLY what people want, despite the ridiculous comments by some of your detractors here in this forum.

MS IS ABSOLUTELY DEAD. AND SO IS DELL. GO APPLE!

 

[Bonte]

Or given their investors a nice dividend (what a concept for a tech company).

Like what Microsoft does?
A yearly 100% profit dividend would give us 3.50% at the current trade, not that bad but not the reason to buy AAPL.

 

[Eidorian]

Or maybe it's just people like me and you that are simply not informed about what people really care about.

Myself, I would love to see quad core in an iMac (or heck, a laptop, for that matter), but that's only because I'm a computer geek that thumps his chest about such things. Not that I wouldn't use them if I had them (you can never apply a photoshop filter fast enough), but if the other cores are not there and the operation takes a few seconds or even minutes longer, it doesn't affect my quality of life.

Most students, their parents, or casual users don't notice either. The people who do notice are the people buying XServes or Mac Pros. They notice and care. Another set of people that notice are gamers who would like to put Lamborgini engines in Yugo bodies - and a superfast headless mac with lots of expandability would be perfect for them.

But Apple decided a long time ago that that is simply not a market that they care about. Years ago in fact. We can continue to mourn that fact or we can simply move on. For me, I just got old and no longer have the need for such a machine (my game playing days ended long ago). If you aren't there yet, you can generally get kit like that sub $800 running windows, and you should. Apple has decided that is not a market they care about, and will do very little to court your business.

I feel sorry for those paying so much for a Core 2 laptop on a stick then.

Why would I consider a Mac Pro or XServe again? You're looking at my perspective wrong as well. Apple's desktop days are numbered. Their notebook options are much better.

 

[bbydon]

Who did you go through to obtain a Roth?

It was a group with my credit union.... i have since moved it to vangaurd

 

[fpnc]

Apple hints at new products?

Q: Factors involved in guidance for next quarter. Why is sequential jump so far below previous years? Why gross margin low?
A: Gross margin will decline for the following reasons: 1) New products have lower gross margins, with greater value to customers, 2) More lower-margin iPod sales in holiday quarter, 3) More air freight costs, 4) Higher component costs.

I think the exact quote included a comment about new products in the next quarter. So, reduced margins from both existing products and new products this coming quarter. Wasn't this a hint that there will be new products before the end of the year?