One day, and that day will never come, companies that carry these profit margins will be required to move some of those profits to end homelessness and poverty in the USA.
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Apple Reports 3Q 2024 Results: $21.4B Profit on $85.8B Revenue
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Companies are in business to make money for their owners. That is it.
Sure, companies should also provide better benefits to their employees and make them feel worth something too.
At the end of the day, though, the core principal of every company is to maximize shareholder profits.
Apple doesn't make iPhones to make the world a better place. Apple makes iPhones to make their shareholders richer.
You mean he is void of a personality?
I completely agree with you. Bring who you are to everything you do. Unless the stiff puppet act is the real cook.
The days of companies existing purely for profit is over.
Apple is about privacy, the environment and sustainability.
If Apple was polluting the planet would you still buy their phones? If Apple used your private data to make money would you buy their phones?
You could argue they do these things to make money.
But making money is a result of being good at business. Not the reason to go into business.
I don't disagree, and Apple so far has not been too bad. But it's a question of incentives. They didn't used to have an incentive to bug me to sign up for their services. Now they do. They didn't used to put Messi's face in front of me by surprise when I opened the only app I can use to watch the video content I purchased from them. Now they do.
If they made that services money through Pay and Maps and other things that both provide me a good experience and make them money, good. But increasingly they are giving in to the temptation to puts ads in more places, and to insert their own ads when I'm trying to do what I want to do.
It's the definition of enshirtification. Every time I do something I want to do, it's a missed opportunity to do something they wanted me to do. It's not strong yet, but it's a slippery slope.
I don't understand sentiments like this.
First off, you all make it sound like someone is pointing a gun to your heads and forcing you to buy Apple products at overly-inflated prices. What is instead happening is that millions of people around the world are happy throwing billions of dollars at Apple because they believe their products fill a need that they simply can't find anywhere else in the world. They could easily buy cheaper alternatives elsewhere, and yet they don't. There's clearly something about Apple that's worth voluntarily spending a little more money, and that is not naturally a bad thing.
And well, second, it is wonderful compared to the bloodbath of an earnings call that Intel just had.
Why? He's not trying to be a movie star. Thankfully.
As long as Cook keeps Apple's 160,000 employees happy and paid well with excellent benefits, and Apple's roughly 1 Billion active customers happy with outstanding products, and keeps iPhones being manufactured/sold/shipped at a rate of 600,000 per day (every day of the year, on the average), and keeps Apple being one of the most successful tech companies in the world, he's doing his job and worth every dollar he's paid.
Seeing Cook act like this guy just ins't going to happen:
I agree.
Jobs died in 2011. There is no comparison between the functionality of devices (iPhones, iPads, Macs, etc..) thirteen years ago and those currently available...... Touch ID, FaceID, Apple Wallet, Continuity/Handoff, iCloud, improved Battery life, M-series chips, faster more reliable SSDs, better cameras, etc..
Jobs did some amazing things, but he had his share of missteps too. Have we forgotten the iPhone 4 "you are holding it wrong".
As for price, Macs and iPads basically cost the same or less than they did thirteen years ago. In fact, base models are actually cheaper. iPad 10 $349 vs iPad. 2 $499. MBA 2024 $1,099 vs MBA 2011 $1,299. Do you remember the days when you had to purchase software updates for OS, iWork, iLife, etc.? Sure, iPhones were heavily subsidized by carriers when the infrastructure was being built-out, but that was a very unique time industry-wide.
I am not knocking Jobs. He was a true genius. But, we shouldn't pretend that he was not motivated by profits or that he didn't make mistakes.
Did you look at the chart? On what planet is services revenue volatile?
On iPhone, it’s their most popular product. Every company has a cash cow. Apple has meaningfully reduced its reliance on iPhone over the years, but a successful product is not necessarily a risk to the company. It’s just really popular still.
Im in that group. Im still using a 14 year old Mac Pro. Im saving for a Mac Studio but havent pulled the trigger yet as my Mac Pro does everything i need. Sure my software is out of date but theres nothing new that i really need yet. My mac is rock solid.
Oh no I agree, the iPhone is really popular and probably will be for sometime. But we have to take into account the overall market and how many people are looking for a new iPhone and will that increase or decrease drastically over time? Plus there is a lot of things really out of their control, supply chain distruptions, competition, the economy, etc. As we have seen in the past, it doesn't take much for the market to go haywire and consumers qucikly change their spending trends.
In regards to Service revenue being volitile, im referring to subscription based services. We can see today people are becoming tired of subscription based services and with companies including Apple raising prices, it doesn't take much for users to dump that service. Granted i know Apple's Services revenue is more than Apple TV Plus subscriptions. I just feel that is the first things consumer cut when expenses are getting to high. So you are probably right, in grand scheme of things, Apple's Service revenue is a large pot with many sources, so it might not be as volitile as say Netflix.
Clearly Apple knows what they are doing and there is no indication things are slowing down. I was just asking from a hypotheical point of view. I mean look at today... the markets are down by a lot, but Apple is rocking up 2.5%.
Lol. Those days exist more than ever. Not sure what world you're living in, but it's not the same as everyone else's.
Wearables is down?!? How can that be? Apple just launched the future of wearables!
Honestly, if it weren’t for the strong ecosystem of products/services that Steve created, Apple would be toast. Apple’s stock price has been kept artificially inflated by buybacks with almost no growth the past few years.
And their capex is growing because of increased investment in AI?? Seriously? Years after everyone else already leapfrogged them?? And the excuse that Apple was never first is getting old since when they did enter the arena, it was with something that leapfrogged the competition.
Honestly, if it weren’t for the strong ecosystem of products/services that Steve created, Apple would be toast. Apple’s stock price has been kept artificially inflated by buybacks with almost no growth the past few years.
And their capex is growing because of increased investment in AI?? Seriously? Years after everyone else already leapfrogged them?? And the excuse that Apple was never first is getting old since when they did enter the arena, it was with something that leapfrogged the competition.
Some investors are not drinking the apple juice/Kool aid any more. https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/03/business/berkshire-hathaway-apple-stock/index.html
"Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway cuts stake in Apple by nearly 50%"
"Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway cuts stake in Apple by nearly 50%"
I would buy a new Nano the exact Moment it will be released 😎
Warren Buffett always does this short term; The same person buys major Japanese trading house stocks and then sells them every few years. There is no real value in this story, especially being from CNN.
No, the iPad hasn’t JUST outsold the Mac. In terms of units, from the year it was released, the iPad has been outselling the Mac by at least 2:1 every year, even in what’s considered a “bad” year like last year. And you’re right, the revenue being slightly higher by dollars means a truly MASSIVE number of (on average, less expensive) physical units were delivered to customers in the last three months compared to the Mac.
No, the point they’re making is that they read roughly $20 billion, heard that Apple was getting roughly $20 billion from Google and, with no thinking further than that made a comment basically saying “These two numbers are SOOOO close!” without taking into account that one is quarterly and one is yearly. It happens every quarter, without fail. Which is fine, hot takes are not known for their accuracy. They just don’t like it when someone points it out.
21B in profit -- in one quarter
Yet seemingly with no good new ideas, it's so weird
Car - fail
Scuba Mask - fail (so far)
Some folks ask for Mini iPhones & iPads and Apple can't be bothered
Macs are kind of all over the map on what's been updated or not
iPads continue to have a Ferrari racing engine trapped on a go kart track of an OS
Siri still sucks
Dictation still sucks
Now wasting time trying to convince everyone AI is next (which they are super late to also)
Just twisting around in the wind, arms extended, with gazillions of dollars flying around with Tim at the center of the twister
A cash tornado with no real direction
Yet seemingly with no good new ideas, it's so weird
Car - fail
Scuba Mask - fail (so far)
Some folks ask for Mini iPhones & iPads and Apple can't be bothered
Macs are kind of all over the map on what's been updated or not
iPads continue to have a Ferrari racing engine trapped on a go kart track of an OS
Siri still sucks
Dictation still sucks
Now wasting time trying to convince everyone AI is next (which they are super late to also)
Just twisting around in the wind, arms extended, with gazillions of dollars flying around with Tim at the center of the twister
A cash tornado with no real direction
Or…it’s not weird and your statements are just wrong. Others see plenty of value or Apple would not make said profit.
