Apple Reports Record $3.38 Billion Profit for Q1 2010 on Highest Revenue in History

[macintoshtoffy]

So iPhone sales didn’t meet street predictions.

8.7 vs. 9.1.

Time to open it up to Verizon.

Why don't Apple do what they do in New Zealand where they sell the iPhone through the store and leave it up to the customer to go off and purchase a SIM pack from their mobile phone carrier? What is so hard with such a concept? or are American mobile phone carriers still behaving like the mobile phone carriers did in New Zealand during the 90s?

 

[NT1440]

How much do you really think the people in China get paid to assemble Apple products? Probably very little. If Apple had to pay US style labor costs you would never see a profit like this. The mark-up is high, but if people are willing to pay it there is no reason to lower prices.

We are in a recession, but many times in a recession certain luxury items do well. I would say Apple products are luxury items because you really don't need any of them and if you want an MP3 player, phone or computer there are many lower priced alternatives.

I think Apple has done very well, but you have to remember their mark-ups are extremely high and rarely do you see an Apple product sale priced. I am sure the US automakers would be making record profits as well if they could outsource all of their labor to China.

Well thats al fine and dandy, but as you mentioned they are doing well in a recession because luxury items usually fair well. Thing is, their sales are increasing in this economic clime.

 

[theBB]

40.9% gross margin's, though, seems almost gross. I mean really? That kinda just means that apple products are overpriced. (not necessarily in terms of their value to us, but in terms of their costs, absolutely)

There is R&D, management overhead and marketing expenses on top of that. US tech company shares usually get hammered if gross margins go below 40%. FOr a short while, I worked for a supplier that targeted 70% margins for each of its products, even though they were usually priced lower than competitors.

Of course, that is true for modest size companies. Once revenue exceeds a few billion dollars, smaller margins might be more acceptable. I am not familiar with companies at that size.

 

[charliehustle]

And you don't think Apple sales will rise just as fast? During a recession, the premium box has been gaining marketshare - you think a recovery is going to reverse that? Sure, Apple hasn't caught up to MS in terms of profit or market share yet, but look at where they were five or ten years ago. They have made huge gains, and catching up doesn't seem as ridiculous or impossible as it once did.

I'd like to see earnings per share of MS versus apple for the past few quarters.



Well, if anyone who likes ipods is a "brainwashed apple freak" that means they make up about 70-80% of people who own mp3 players.

While the hardcore fanbois like BRlawyer are an embarrassment, it definitely is hilarious seeing a few people trying to spin a company's best quarter ever as a bad thing.



Considering I have bought in as low as eighty bucks a share, I think I'll be OK not getting a dividend. I'd rather they invest it for more growth anyway.



Well first, then it makes no sense that you own any of their products, and second, I'd have to wonder why you're wasting your time here.

And I have to agree that the vague "it all sucks" whining comes off as pathetic trolling.



http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=AAPL&t=5y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=MSFT

Sure...but only if you made those investments ten years ago or earlier. MSFT peaked in 2000 and hasn't reached those highs since.

1. EPS will obviously be lower, as Apple's average trading volume is around 18 million, while Microsoft is over 50 million shares per day. This shows how much larger MSFT is, and by that I mean there are more shares. There are under a billion shares outstanding for Apple, Microsoft on the other hand, around 7 Billion.

2. Again, it really doesn't matter what price you got your apple shares at, it's about the % gain, you have to look at opportunity cost. Bank of America for example has done better than Apple in the last year,(149% vs 126% gains) so you actually lost money (25%) by purchasing Apple shares instead of Bank of America.. and I could list many more companies, that was just one example off the top of my head.

3. Yes, I'm comparing Apple and Microsoft shares from IPO date, and Microsoft has returned much better gains to the present day. Now if you want to say "look at Apple from this date to this date after the IPO" I could show you multiple companies that have outperformed Apple in shorter periods of time. I already stated that Apple is in a different phase compared to Microsoft at the current time, so obviously their short term performance will be better.

I'm not attacking anyone here, just saying you have to look at things from an objective point of view. Just because Apple makes the best product (in your opinion) does not mean it's going to be the most profitable investment.

Hell, I've made more money shorting apple than going long on it, but just because it's too risky for my tolerance.

 

[rjohnstone]

Why don't Apple do what they do in New Zealand where they sell the iPhone through the store and leave it up to the customer to go off and purchase a SIM pack from their mobile phone carrier? What is so hard with such a concept? or are American mobile phone carriers still behaving like the mobile phone carriers did in New Zealand during the 90s?

There are only two national carries that use SIM cards in the US and one of them uses a 3G frequency that the iPhone doesn't support.
Choice of carriers is limited.
Apple would need to make a CDMA version in order to be on Verizon or Sprint.

 

[Eidorian]

What happened to the cat?

I wonder the same about AidenShaw but that's for another time. Gendo Ikari has been my avatar for some time but I think I'll change it back to another old one.

 

[macintoshtoffy]

There are only two national carries that use SIM cards in the US and one of them uses a 3G frequency that the iPhone doesn't support.
Choice of carriers is limited.
Apple would need to make a CDMA version in order to be on Verizon or Sprint.

But CDMA is being replaced world wide anyway, AT&T, Telstra and Telecom NZ use 850 and 2100, with 2100 used in urban areas for extra capacity with 850 for distance in the lightly populated areas.

 

[Speedy2]

And you don't think Apple sales will rise just as fast? During a recession, the premium box has been gaining marketshare - you think a recovery is going to reverse that?

Apple is active in the premium segment and has as such certain limits for growth in numbers.

A lot of it comes down to absolute numbers vs percentage. If the market rises 10% and Apple also rises like 10%, guess who will rake in more profit, Apple or Microsoft?

MS has the big advantage that they don't have to take part in the PC price wars, they'll sell their Windows for a certain price and that's it. No need to lower that price because the PC maker won't make a sale without Windows. Over the years, MS's profit for every PC sold has remained pretty stable, even if the prices for computers have come down A LOT, especially for notebooks. That's the good thing when you have a monopoly...

 

[Speedy2]

3. Yes, I'm comparing Apple and Microsoft shares from IPO date, and Microsoft has returned much better gains to the present day. Now if you want to say "look at Apple from this date to this date after the IPO" I could show you multiple companies that have outperformed Apple in shorter periods of time.

Taking the IPO as start date is a decision just as random as picking any other date. So your argument falls flat entirely.

If you compare two stocks, you ALWAYS have to pick SOME DATES, and it's ALWAYS an extremely easy way to make one stock look bad and another one good. In your case, you chose the IPO date to make MSFT look better than AAPL, which is exactly the sort of trickery you accuse others of.

It lies in the eye of the beholder, which start/end dates for a stock comparison you consider more relevant than others. However, it is a consensus that more recent numbers are more significant than numbers that are 20+ years old

 

[AidenShaw]

What happened to the cat?

I wonder the same about AidenShaw but that's for another time.

Wood's taking some time off - there's too much H8 here, so I hope people think about the fact that liking one thing doesn't require that you hate the alternatives.

 

[LagunaSol]

Wood's taking some time off - there's too much H8 here, so I hope people think about the fact that liking one thing doesn't require that you hate the alternatives.

Says the guy who has nothing good to say about Apple on an Apple-centric forum.

 

[LagunaSol]

How much do you really think the people in China get paid to assemble Apple products? Probably very little. If Apple had to pay US style labor costs you would never see a profit like this. The mark-up is high, but if people are willing to pay it there is no reason to lower prices.

I guess it was only a matter of time before someone threw the "Apple slave labor" card. Newsflash: almost everything you buy these days is made in China. Apple hardly has a monopoly on Chinese manufacturing. Take a look at your Zune, your Dell laptop, your Xbox 360. China. China. China. You think Stevie Ballmer is paying Chinese workers $15/hr with full dental?

Try to refrain from making Chinese manufacturing another anti-Apple call to arms. Weak.

 

[Surely]

Here is a good article detailing why giving dividends for the sake of it is not a good idea for Apple.

No, that article talks about why it's a bad idea for Apple to pay dividends with the cash they have and to borrow cash ($30 billion @ 5.5%) to pay further dividends. I don't think that they should do that either. I also don't think that they should clean out their accounts with their dividend distribution. I just think that the investors- the owners- should be provided with a return on their investment instead of Apple sitting on that cash. Even if they were to pay dividends, they would still have plenty of cash left over for R&D.

Here and here are articles detailing why Apple should declare and distribute dividends.

There are two sides......

 

[kernkraft]

Not just unacceptable labour practices, but quality control too.

I guess it was only a matter of time before someone threw the "Apple slave labor" card. Newsflash: almost everything you buy these days is made in China. Apple hardly has a monopoly on Chinese manufacturing. Take a look at your Zune, your Dell laptop, your Xbox 360. China. China. China. You think Stevie Ballmer is paying Chinese workers $15/hr with full dental?

Try to refrain from making Chinese manufacturing another anti-Apple call to arms. Weak.

Actually, I was thinking about the human cost of this high profit. But manufacturing in China does not necessarily mean unacceptable labour practices. Apple had a few worst-than-average encounters. I remember an employee committing suicide over releasing some secret details, for example. Of course, Apple washed their hands. But frankly, any company should have more control over subcontractors, labour force treatment and quality. Because the latter also went with this relocation.

Then you either have a legitimate complaint (but against *all* of them?), or you're blind, or have no taste.

But who is "we're"? Does that include you?

May I join? CPU whine on two Airs with overheating. Poor battery life on iPhone. late-2006 C2D plastic MacBook with cracked case, keyboard, bezel, bottom of case. Unibody MBs with crooked keyboards, overheating (and an unspeakably poor screen). Mid-2009 MB Pro with again, heat-problems, well less than half of the claimed battery life, constant fan noise, beach ball. 15" late-2008 unibody MB Pro with faulty Nvidia card. Will this list do? I can post evidence of returns and AppleCare repairs or verification that some of these problems are not uncommon and are quite normal, according to Apple. For example, with high-pitch CPU whine, my colleagues might ask me not to use my MB Air in the office, because it causes them a headache. When I take it to an Apple Store, those 'Geniuses' have no problem with it whatsoever. They can hear it, yes, but it is just an annoyance. I think that the lack of Firewire on a computer is annoying. Constant high pitched noise is unacceptable. Not just on a computer that costs £1000+, but even on a cheap netbook.

 

[flottenheimer]

Found this rather interesting user comment on WinSupersite...

daveinla said:
To put things in perspective:

Microsoft has approximately $14 billion revenue per quarter, and $ 5 billion in profit..., 93000 employees.

Apple: $15.7 billion revenue, 35000 employees...

 

[macnerd93]

And some of you guys (ok, just you) don't recognize that EVERY COMPANY IN THE WORLD has some problems with their products.

You can't sell millions of machines without some things going wrong, somewhere.

I'm sorry you've had bad luck. I'm also not sure how you've been so unlucky in trying to get Apple to fix or exchange your machines for you. But you're just playing dumb by pretending that ALL iMacs have problems. The facts (as well as other posters) clearly disagree with you.

Yeah I disagree with him my college got a shipment of 38 iMacs not one had a single defect. i got a 13'' MacBook Pro at christmas and put in my old hard drive, 7200RPM really helps . I think he's just stirring up trouble

 

[layte]

AH.. Yet another thread pulled down into sheer lunacy by the three trollketeers. Seriously guys, give it a rest. I am pretty sure everybody else is tired of seeing you ruin thread after thread. I know that this is a pro Apple site, and you have a burning need to defend the faith, but if you ignored those who as you point out strangely do nothing but attack Apple on a 'pro' Apple website they would soon get bored and go elsewhere.

 

[mrochester]

AH.. Yet another thread pulled down into sheer lunacy by the three trollketeers. Seriously guys, give it a rest. I am pretty sure everybody else is tired of seeing you ruin thread after thread. I know that this is a pro Apple site, and you have a burning need to defend the faith, but if you ignored those who as you point out strangely do nothing but attack Apple on a 'pro' Apple website they would soon get bored and go elsewhere.

Yeah why doesn't their pro-Apple trolling get warnings and banned? Seems to be double standards around here...

 

[gnasher729]

I personally hate having to use a windows machine, but I also can recognise that Microsoft are hugely successful company, without which we probably wouldn't even have Apple.

What?

You can hate on windows, but I think you have to respect Microsoft as a whole.

I see it quite the opposite. You can think what you want about Windows, but I think you have to hate Microsoft as a whole.

 

[Jaro65]

Amazing profits, so lower the price of the toys just a tad, eh Steve? You'll still have amazing profits and more people could afford the goodies.

I'm there with you! But they seem to be doing pretty good at the established pricepoints, no? So what incentive is there to change anything?

 

[agkm800]

Apple getting rich; users going broke.

 

[nick9191]

it might be a bad week for the windoz boys

http://www.winsupersite.com/alt/apple_tablet.asp

Too.. Much.. BS..

 

[mlblacy]

You sir, are an idiot.

Yeah why doesn't their pro-Apple trolling get warnings and banned? Seems to be double standards around here...

Or at least making an idiotic statement. This is an Apple forum. The trolls do nothing to add to the conversation, and usually when outed, disappear from the thread. I have no problem listening to those I disagree with, but it seems the goal is not of expressing a different viewpoint, but killing the discussion, or diverting into nonsense (like here and now). There are plenty of places where anti-apple rhetoric is the norm, and more readily accepted, perhaps they should go find one of them.

A Troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum (like here) to incite discord. An apple user who comes HERE for advice, information, and discussion cannot be a troll. You may go back under the bridge now.
cheers.

 

[mlblacy]

There is a place for you.... a place for you....

Too.. Much.. BS..

Oh, sorry. Was distracted while listening to my mp4s on my working iMac.

I was very happy not knowing about places like winsupersite, but it seems like a perfect place for some of "members". Filled with with nonsense spouted by an anti-fanboy. After reading a few pieces, and his "insight" on an Apple tablet, my thoughts were... "geesh, what an as@".

Washed my hands, felt cleaner already. Googled "thurrott jackass", and got this... good for a chuckle.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=thurrott+jackass&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

One of the links was for a "fake paul" blog, also funny.
http://fakepaul.blogspot.com/2007/06/idiot.html
---
Personally, I am excited to see what they have cooked up. Hoping the one-more thing is a Verizon iPhone, but if the tablet works with the big V, I will be happy with that. Just think, 2 days from now the boards will be filled with the howls of how this is/will be such a flop. Followed by the nuts who have one-dead pixel... or how the iTab won't turn on their microwave oven from their office. Imagine the horror of not being able to walk into your house greeted by the smell of fresh-popped kernels of joy. What a productivity killer.

 

[mrochester]

Or at least making an idiotic statement. This is an Apple forum. The trolls do nothing to add to the conversation, and usually when outed, disappear from the thread. I have no problem listening to those I disagree with, but it seems the goal is not of expressing a different viewpoint, but killing the discussion, or diverting into nonsense (like here and now). There are plenty of places where anti-apple rhetoric is the norm, and more readily accepted, perhaps they should go find one of them.

A Troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum (like here) to incite discord. An apple user who comes HERE for advice, information, and discussion cannot be a troll. You may go back under the bridge now.
cheers.

A troll is someone who deliberately stirs up trouble by repeatedly making comments that cause flame wars to break out. Regardless of whether the content is anti-, pro- or indifferent-Apple, the consequences should be the same regardless of content. By claiming pro-Apple Trolling is fine, and Anti-Apple isn't, it no longer becomes an issue about trolling, it is simply censorship. And you can't even begin to have a sensible discussion if one half of the argument is deliberately silenced because people don't agree with it!