Apple Reports Record Results: $18.4B Profit on $75.9B in Revenue for Q1 2016 on 74.8M iPhones

[toke lahti]

I think they make enough profit to have Flash storage standard in all their computers, don't you? But that's the problem when you pander to the shareholders - consumers end up suffering.

Fusion is the optimal choise. If they get rid of that thinniness obsession. Fusion is fast like ssd and big like hdd. Very few people need to transfer tens of gigabytes of data aat once with speed over 200 MBps.

Btw, ipads are plummeting double rate compared to tablet industry overall. Will Apple react to that? Slowly lowering the price? Maybe msd-slot...? Naah...

 

[Rogifan]

Completely disagree. He’s doing a great job. Ultimately, people want Apple to keep reinventing the wheel every 2 years and it’s not possible to do that.

Could Apple do better? Yes, of course. But every tech company drip-feeds new ideas and technology into their products instead of going all-out with a massive revamp every 1-2 years.

I wish people would stop comparing Cook to Jobs. It’s ridiculous.

People are just projecting their feelings on to Jobs. They don't like what Apple is doing so they say Steve wouldn't have done it or if only Steve were still around it wouldn't be happening. The biggest difference between Jobs and Cook IMO is Jobs was a master showman and salesman. He could get up on stage and make anything sound like the greatest thing ever. Being able to command the stage, tell a great story and be a master salesman is a big deal. Cook doesn't have that gift.

 

[MacBH928]

I wonder how Michael Dell feels

 

[Steve121178]

I wonder how Michael Dell feels

He's doing just fine since Dell went private. He's not the fool people think he is.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Apple is doomed. Obviously.

They really and truly are. 77% of their total revenue is from iOS DEVICE sales. Another 8% is "services", a large part of which is related to iOS sales. When over 80% of your total revenue comes from ONE basic product, of which you only have around a 20% worldwide share, ONE bad product and you're in big trouble.

All the people that think Apple can't fall like in the 1990s again are blinded by the fact that the iPhone has had consistently profitable sales for many years now, but one break in that chain and Apple is in deep crap. Microsoft could afford to have a Vista and a Windows 8. They had over 90% market share. They had more Windows 10 users come into being in one MONTH than the entire Macintosh user base since 1984!!! You need that kind of market share to buffer BAD PRODUCTS without majorly affecting your market value. Apple is far too reliant on a product that is based as much on fashion accessories and "image" as any sort of usability factor. Android holds 80% of the smart phone market and while several companies fight for profits, the OS itself is in no danger of going anywhere (i.e. Google is sitting pretty and doesn't have to worry about volatility like Apple does in that regard). If Apple's market share drops to 10% or less, they will have problems retaining Apps in the future.

That is Microsoft's biggest hurdle is getting the Apps past the small market share. It's not that their phones are "bad"; I just bought a Lumia 640 for $48 and it runs like a champ and doesn't feel "that" different from an iPhone other than some major brand name apps missing. An iPhone would have cost me at least 5x that for an older 5 model (that has had problems running iOS9 at a pace faster than a snail) and has no expandability (16GB is all you get for the $250 model whereas the Lumia 640 can easily be expanded to 136GB with an SD Card) and a sealed battery (I can easily pop off the back cover in a few seconds and swap out the battery in the 640 if needed). If Microsoft had more quality Apps, it would be a no brainer, IMO. You're paying 5x or more the price to run thousands of more "fart" apps. That doesn't make fiscal sense to me.

Macs might be overpriced, but it's more like a 1.5-2.0x ratio at most (higher-end comparisons are far closer to parity). The biggest problem on that front I see is that Apple doesn't OFFER any high-end GPU models and so it cannot hope to take any significant share of the market for things like gaming until it corrects that, which is one of the reasons it remains a tiny 7-10% market share at MOST despite being able to run Windows as well. Contrary to popular belief in Mac-land, a LOT of people like to game and despite being able to run Windows with Boot Camps, no Macs have very good GPUs so it doesn't freaking matter if you can run the games or not since they will run like CRAP compared to a $1000 Windows box. So what are you supposed to do, then? Buy a 2nd computer? Buy a Playstation? Why should you have to? There's no reason a Mac couldn't do those things with proper hardware and a better API (say Metal?)

THAT is why so many Windows people HATE Apple. It's not that Apple's products are 'bad'. It's that they are a rip-off in many market areas for what you get or can't run the things they need to run (whether lack of software or lack of hardware capability to run it). I would have preferred an iPhone over a Windows phone since I already have a lot of iPod Touch apps, etc. and it would integrate so much better with OS X, but I'm not paying $1000 more a year to get that functionality! Apple offers NOTHING on the low-end and often represents poor value even on the high-end. Not everyone needs or can afford a Porsche Boxster when a Subaru WRX will do just fine and can run better in winter weather. Porsche can afford to sell relatively few cars compared to Subaru or Ford or whomever because that's all their selling is the car. Apple's "car" (phone) has to run APPS and without 3rd party Apps, that "car" isn't going to do much (whereas a real car can be driven anywhere regardless of software) and that means Apple has to care about market share whether it wants to or not.

 

[s2mikey]

I think they make enough profit to have Flash storage standard in all their computers, don't you? But that's the problem when you pander to the shareholders - consumers end up suffering.

Not only consumers but employees too. In the good old days, the "pecking" order for who got taken care of first was: Employees, customers, THEN shareholders. This is how it should be. Sadly, now, the order is: Shareholders, shareholders & shareholders. Why or How so? Look at tech support and how bad its gotten at most companies(althogh Apple is pretty solid here, Ill give them that). Look at how cheesey many products are. Bare bones parts used, outsourced slave labor, etc, etc. Every single decision made has to go through the tax-evading, never-happy Wall Street gorillas. Once they determine if said ideas fit their profit requirments, which are always obscene, only then does anything happen.

It sucks, to be honest. A very small percentage of people benefitting versus a larger majority just seems wrong to me. Oh well, it'll only get worse.

 

[Lankyman]

I can save you some time...

The BBC have already decided the answer to that question and they will attempt to justify their flawed "logic"

Hmm! seems lots of other respected analysts are running the same story today. Perhaps you could inform them they are wrong and that you know better.

 

[BillyMatt87]

Wasn't Forstall Jobs' guy? When all that went down I got a distinct Sculley/Jobs deja vu. Didn't Jobs kinda put Cook in charge because he was the "adult" who knew how to run things and Forstall was the young heir apparent who needed guidance to grow up and take over eventually?

Forstall was as much a protege of Jobs as Ive was and Apple needed both of them to continue Jobs's vision. I truly believe that Jobs would be spinning in his grave if he found out that Forstall was fired by Cook.
[doublepost=1453912212][/doublepost]

Completely disagree. He’s doing a great job. Ultimately, people want Apple to keep reinventing the wheel every 2 years and it’s not possible to do that.

Could Apple do better? Yes, of course. But every tech company drip-feeds new ideas and technology into their products instead of going all-out with a massive revamp every 1-2 years.

I wish people would stop comparing Cook to Jobs. It’s ridiculous.

Nobody is asking Cook to keep reinventing the wheel. I think Cook needs to have Apple be focused on making top-quality products again instead of trying to branch off and take over the world by doing everything. Is Apple a tech company or a conglomerate?
[doublepost=1453912983][/doublepost]

Why? What was so great about Forstall? iOS stalled on his watch and Federighi has basically been playing catch-up ever since. Plus I'm not aware of any sort of grand vision he had for the company. if Forstall was the guy why did Jobs pick Cook instead?

I think what was great about Forstall was he was in charge of Apple's software when you could truly say "it just works" The amazing quality, look and performance of iOS and OS X was clearly felt with him and Craig Federighi doesn't seem to be as skilled or competent as an engineering and executive. I also think skeumorphism gave Apple's OSes a fun and distinct identity but Jony Ive and co stripped all of that away and now it's cartoonish and sterile, not very Apple-like. Definitely not the same software that attracted me to Apple in the first place. Sure Forstall might've been an ******* to deal with, but that's why he was so much like Jobs and we don't have anyone with the Jobs-like personality at Apple anymore. I think that's an even bigger loss than the declining quality of iOS. Again, we don't know what Forstall would've done with iOS 7+ since he was booted off when they were only roughly halfway started with it.

I don't think Federighi was ready for the challenge and Ive and team should stay away from UI design. It still bothers me that Alan Dye, a guy previously known for designing packaging, is somehow qualified to be the leader of human interfaces. Who makes these decisions?

 

[toke lahti]

He's doing just fine since Dell went private. He's not the fool people think he is.

Mr Dell should buy Macs from Apple. That way macs could become industry leaders again without disturbance of shareholders and Ive.

 

[toke lahti]

I can save you some time...

The BBC have already decided the answer to that question and they will attempt to justify their flawed "logic"

Do you have any argument why now wouldn't be peak-iphone? Screen size is the biggest change since iP1 and now people have changed to bigger screen. Market is saturated, even almost in China. Only thing for widening the user base is lowering the price, but that's not easy for Apple's pride...

 

[navaira]

Wow, the stock drop.

I think what was great about Forstall was he was in charge of Apple's software when you could truly say "it just works" The amazing quality, look and performance of iOS and OS X was clearly felt with him and Craig Federighi doesn't seem to be as skilled or competent as an engineering and executive. I also think skeumorphism gave Apple's OSes a fun and distinct identity but Jony Ive and co stripped all of that away and now it's cartoonish and sterile, not very Apple-like.

That's my biggest problem with Ive's designs. THEY LOOK LIKE OTHER STUFF. Android is flat. Windows is flat. iOS is flat. OS X is flat. When I fell in love with Mac OS X it wasn't because it looked so similar to Windows.

I disabled SIP, installed cDock, installed XtraFinder with colourful icons in sidebar, switched on dark mode, replaced a few stock icons and now I can pretend El Capitan looks like Mac OS X I want.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

i'm placing a lot of faith in iphone 7. i can honestly say iphone 6 line is the only iphones i have ever said wow that does not look good.

 

[Dmunjal]

The other OEM's are not doing well in sales. Most of them are bleeding money and many are fighting to stay in the business. So obviously Apple are doing something right and they are doing things very wrong.

You have to include Microsoft when you include the OEMs. The Mac is software and hardware so a fair comparison is to include both OEMs and Windows. By that metric, they're comparable.

 

[MRrainer]

Firing Scott Forstall was Cook's biggest mistake and it has negatively impacted the quality of Apple's software after he was let go.

I'm not sure if that is really true.
As far as the public is concerned, he was fired over the "Maps-debacle".
True, he might have had a copy of a memo to Tim tucked away somewhere where he asks for more funds, more people, more time to "make it great". But IF that is the case, he bet too much on such a get-out-of-jail free card.
When Jobs overplayed his cards, he had to leave, too.

Based on some of the recent products we've seen such as: iPad Pro/Apple Pencil, Apple Watch, iPhone 6 Plus and the Retina Macbook not too mention a bunch of the new accessories, Tim Cook comes across as a complete yes man in regards to giving new products his ultimate blessing.

That is just an assumption.
Though that mouse-charger leaves a bit a sour taste, I admit.

That said, a company like Apple (being nothing resembling the Apple that Steve Jobs returned to in the 90s) would be incredibly difficult to lead, simply due to its size and the kind of persons needs to attract to actually keep it alive.
Steve did a hell of a job on that - but I'm pretty certain we all know that it couldn't have gone on like it used to go for much longer anyway. Illness or not.
Tim Cook is at the moment the right guy for this job (as much as I can see from my armchair here).
Not sure if Forstall - him being a bit too hard-trying in imitating his mentor for my taste - would actually excel at the job. A job, he apparently was rooting to get.
At least, Tim is Tim. He's no Jobs and doesn't lose a minute trying to be.

 

[BillyMatt87]

I'm not sure if that is really true.
As far as the public is concerned, he was fired over the "Maps-debacle".
True, he might have had a copy of a memo to Tim tucked away somewhere where he asks for more funds, more people, more time to "make it great". But IF that is the case, he bet too much on such a get-out-of-jail free card.
When Jobs overplayed his cards, he had to leave, too.



That is just an assumption.
Though that mouse-charger leaves a bit a sour taste, I admit.

That said, a company like Apple (being nothing resembling the Apple that Steve Jobs returned to in the 90s) would be incredibly difficult to lead, simply due to its size and the kind of persons needs to attract to actually keep it alive.
Steve did a hell of a job on that - but I'm pretty certain we all know that it couldn't have gone on like it used to go for much longer anyway. Illness or not.
Tim Cook is at the moment the right guy for this job (as much as I can see from my armchair here).
Not sure if Forstall - him being a bit too hard-trying in imitating his mentor for my taste - would actually excel at the job. A job, he apparently was rooting to get.
At least, Tim is Tim. He's no Jobs and doesn't lose a minute trying to be.

I honestly feel like Cook is actively trying to do everything opposite of what Jobs would've which is just as bad as trying to emulate his predecessor. Idk if it's spite or anything, but it definitely seems like Tim Cook is deliberately pulling 180s just for the sake of it.

As for Forstall, Maps was just the breaking point for him. Compared to iOS 7 and everything else that went down software-wise after he left, I would gladly take iOS 6 any day! In fact, I believe iOS 6.1 to be the best version to date, the absolute peak of everything that we came to know and love about iOS, then iOS 7 soon came along and ruined the look and feel. iOS 6.1 had everything: looks and performance, very refined and polished. All the executives and many employees did not like him but that doesn't change the fact that iOS was his baby and it was taken from him and given to people who no idea how to take care of it.

 

[SusanK]

Firing Scott Forstall was Cook's biggest mistake and it has negatively impacted the quality of Apple's software after he was let go.

Yes. My purchases of Apple products declined since then because I just don't want to deal with buggy software. There was a time when the only thing that limited my purchases was my budget. Now I don't want a hassle.

Maps is a disaster. Last week I looked for a business on iPad. Maps launched and dropped the pin two counties away from the correct location.

If Cook wanted to fire Forstall there was no reason to make it the public spectacle that it was. Cook's ego is too big for Apple.

 

[kdarling]

Anyway, they grew channel inventory by 3.3 million. In the year ago quarter channel inventory had shrunk by .2 million.

Moreover, they had already grown inventory by almost two million the previous quarter, for a total gain of five million.

Increasing unsold iPhone inventory that much, two quarters in a row, is unusual.

So on a sale-through basis iPhone sales declined by over 3 million.

Yeah, even though this time (as has happened occasionally in the past) Cook seems to have stuffed the channel to get a YoY retail sales increase, the actual end user sales dropped.

Ah well. So it goes. YoY increases could not go on forever. Same thing had already happened to Samsung. Apple's downturn got delayed a bit because of their belated phablet size release.

Now Apple seems to be casting around for a backup mainline product. If the Apple car doesn't work out, I'd love to see them get into home robotics.

 

[MRrainer]

I honestly feel like Cook is actively trying to do everything opposite of what Jobs would've which is just as bad as trying to emulate his predecessor. Idk if it's spite or anything, but it definitely seems like Tim Cook is deliberately pulling 180s just for the sake of it.

As for Forstall, Maps was just the breaking point for him. Compared to iOS 7 and everything else that went down software-wise after he left, I would gladly take iOS 6 any day! In fact, I believe iOS 6.1 to be the best version to date, the absolute peak of everything that we came to know and love about iOS, then iOS 7 soon came along and ruined the look and feel. iOS 6.1 had everything: looks and performance, very refined and polished. All the executives and many employees did not like him but that doesn't change the fact that iOS was his baby and it was taken from him and given to people who no idea how to take care of it.

I don't think the faux leather and the green felt would have a place in any phone, in any market right now.
I can't remember iOS 6. I think my old 3GS, which is used by my GF now still has it.
I don't miss it.
Even though, yes, iOS9 is dead slow on my iPhone 4S. But still, it has nice features. And it's up to date.
I can't really see why so many people are so negative about Tim Cook.

Of course he's not a visionary. But he never claimed to be and never acts like he is.
In your opinion, should re run around campus, randomly yelling at people in elevators, firing them on a whim like Jobs?
And besides, just because nobody at Apple is talking about a vision doesn't mean that there isn't one.

 

[Rogifan]

Wow, the stock drop.


That's my biggest problem with Ive's designs. THEY LOOK LIKE OTHER STUFF. Android is flat. Windows is flat. iOS is flat. OS X is flat. When I fell in love with Mac OS X it wasn't because it looked so similar to Windows.

I disabled SIP, installed cDock, installed XtraFinder with colourful icons in sidebar, switched on dark mode, replaced a few stock icons and now I can pretend El Capitan looks like Mac OS X I want.

So really this is all about so-called "flat" design? Because some people long for the days of Microsoft Bob? Or faux green felt and leather stitching? Seriously?

 

[BillyMatt87]

So really this is all about so-called "flat" design? Because some people long for the days of Microsoft Bob? Or faux green felt and leather stitching? Seriously?

Apple went too radical in both directions (flat and skeumorphism). Instead of the complete (and IMO unnecessary) redesign which we got starting with iOS 7, Apple should've taken a page out of OS X Mavericks (which was released around the same time) and by that I mean just simply removing the excessive skeumorphic textures and leave everything else as is appearance-wise. The only issue with the previous iOS UI that most had was that they did go overboard with the textures but the overall UI template could've been retained. We didn't need new icons (just remove the extra gloss maybe), buttons (or lack thereof), etc. This way, Apple could've cleaned up the appearance iOS while still having a distinct visual identity that has since been lost.

I'm really hoping iOS 10 will be the beginning of a return to form but this is Apple we're talking about so I'm not getting my hopes up anytime soon.

 

[Dmunjal]

Apple went too radical in both directions (flat and skeumorphism). Instead of the complete (and IMO unnecessary) redesign which we got starting with iOS 7, Apple should've taken a page out of OS X Mavericks (which was released around the same time) and by that I mean just simply removing the excessive skeumorphic textures and leave everything else as is appearance-wise. The only issue with the previous iOS UI that most had was that they did go overboard with the textures but the overall UI template could've been retained. We didn't need new icons (just remove the extra gloss maybe), buttons (or lack thereof), etc. This way, Apple could've cleaned up the appearance iOS while still having a distinct visual identity that has since been lost.

I'm really hoping iOS 10 will be the beginning of a return to form but this is Apple we're talking about so I'm not getting my hopes up anytime soon.

It's 2016. You'd think Apple would allow skins so people can choose whatever design suits them.

 

[BillyMatt87]

It's 2016. You'd think Apple would allow skins so people can choose whatever design suits them.

They should have a classic theme that comes preloaded (but optional) and that would please a lot of people (including me)

 

[navaira]

So really this is all about so-called "flat" design? Because some people long for the days of Microsoft Bob? Or faux green felt and leather stitching? Seriously?

What is a Microsoft Bob?

It's not ALL about flat design. It's about icons that don't represent what the applications do. It's about me having to spend 30 seconds trying to find what is now a button because almost nothing looks like one YET IT IS. It's about teeny tiny text on huge white squares. It's about whatever they did to the dock. It's about me cringing every time I look at the salmon-tinted iTunes icon because it's HIDEOUS. It's about Photos having no interface whatsoever ("white" isn't an interface) and me still being unable to drag an original photo to Photoshop because apparently it's SUPER HARD to introduce. It's about the inability to increase font size in the left panel of Mail. It's about me having to routinely use TrashIt because the trash won't empty once a week or so. It's about the tiny grayscale icons on gray background of Finder's sidebar that neither look good nor are helpful in any way whatsoever. It's about –

– sorry, I just realised I'm wasting both your time and mine. I can do this in pictorial form much easier.

http://cheerfulsw.com/2015/destroying-apples-legacy/

 

[Lankyman]

The thing is this - lots and lots of people love their iPhone 6/6s of that there is no doubt. However, a number of my work colleagues who have the iPhone 6/6s have said to me - for reasons they can't explain the 6 just doesn't feel 'special' the way their previous iPhones have.

I have read and heard similar stories both online and from friends of friends. Obviously, how widespread this is no one can really say. It does however make it really difficult for a company to respond to this sort of thing, it's almost unquantifiable. If as an example people don't like the bezel etc. then a company can respond, but if it's emotional then they are struggling.

If I was asked to choose I would pick the 5 over any 6 model, every time, it just feels 'right'.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Forstall was as much a protege of Jobs as Ive was and Apple needed both of them to continue Jobs's vision. I truly believe that Jobs would be spinning in his grave if he found out that Forstall was fired by Cook.

It reminds me of what they did to Jobs himself back in 1985 and that was a huge mistake too. Jobs was right about the direction of computing and the rest of Apple thought "good enough". It's not good enough and a flat look makeover that causes all kinds of new bugs and issues is not "good enough" either. Apple purposely holds back iOS features and hardware goodies so they can offer it on next year's model. The problem is the other makers have figured this out and don't hold back and suddenly the iPhone has a crap camera compared to just about everyone else. A $750 phone should have a better everything than a $300 phone, let alone a $48 one (sorry, but this Lumia 640 is pretty awesome for $48 and I just ordered a 200GB Sandisk Class 10 memory card for it for only $99. A $150 phone with 200GB of storage, 1GB of ram and a quad-core snap-dragon CPU with a fully user-removable battery (oh yeah it's nice to have the option of a back-up battery or not have to worry about your battery ruining your phone. Apple's replacement battery program costs more than this phone does by a factor of 2!)

It's sad to say, but I'm wandering further and further from Apple all the time. If they can't put out a decent hardware solution for Macs in the next year or two, I won't be buying a Mac next time either. I want a good GPU for once. If they can offer me Thunderbolt III on a notebook and I can get an external hub with a good graphics card, that will work. If not, I'll find a solution from someone else (Hackintosh or not). I've been buying 95% of my games on Steam and I get the Windows and/or Linux versions for free as well so I'm not tied to this computer or OS like in day's past. My older Macs will still run Logic Pro. I don't need a new one just for that. Apple needs to either start offering better value for your dollar or start putting out truly class leading products once again to justify their high prices. My 2008 Macbook Pro was the fastest computer in that class of notebook to run Windows own Vista operating system. That said something about its quality, not to mention it had a removable battery, upgrade slot (I can put USB3 in it) and more ports than I could shake a stick at. It's been an awesome machine (I never had any problems with the NVidia GPU either) but it's getting old. I won't buy a Mac without Thunderbolt III and USB-C so I'm set for the next few years. A good GPU is priority #1 for me next time. Without it, I'll build my own desktop instead.