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Apple Reports Results for Q2 2012: $11.6 Billion Profit on $39.2 Billion in Revenue
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Ironic since Samsung is spending a lot of that money more Apple. Could be that Apple just has a much better business model than Samsung.
You're all over the board. First, you say dump the iPhone, then you say don't dump it, then you say AT&T and VZW are losing money on the sale of the iPhone due to its high subsidy.
If Apple can pretty much force their profit in the eBook market, don't you think they can do the same with the carriers?
At this point, I think you're just waving your arms hoping to stay afloat.
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Doubt it. Consider Samsung is making different products than Apple. Apple uses Intel, Samsung, Toshiba, etc.
I'm sure my employer spends much less than Apple, but we're not in the same market either.
This should bring back some sanity in the whole "OS X and iOS are merging!" crowd. The OSes are merged, always have been. What we're seeing now is services getting shared by the OSes (what's wrong with both having Game Center ? iMessage ? Kinda convenient to share these kinds of services/protocols).
The UIs themselves, Springboard vs Finder, and the APIs to build applications on top of those UIs, UIkit vs AppKit, are not going to merge. That would require compromising the experience of both OSes and Apple knows better.
Let's hope hearing it straight from the source calms a few posters in that regard. I'm happy to read this from the horses' mouth.
So you're saying Samsung researches and develops in fields that Apple doesn't compete in? That may partially (entirely?) explain why their R&D budget and their number of patents are a lot bigger that Apple's.
Shouldn't you sell only feature phones then?
If your logic is correct, I can see carriers dropping the most expensive smartphones with highest subsidies but the reality is the exact opposite. More carriers are adding high end phones to their portfolio.
The reason is simple. Profit margin comes from the monthly billing and lower churn rate of the high-ARPU customers. Satisfying experience with expensive phones keep those valued customers which is why carriers are willing (or forced) to keep the iPhones.
Monitors don't and should not be refreshed as quickly as computers. While components such as a CPU becomes dated rather quickly in the tech world, the components in monitors last much longer at a certain standard suitable to most consumers. This is why many people shy away from 'all in one' desktops. The computer parts become obsolete much quicker than the monitor. Therefore you have an underperforming PC with a perfectly functional display
Interesting...
1)Little mention of the Mac line
2)Mac line increased 7% in sales but is still dwarfed by the iPod line (that does not include the iPad and iPhone folks)...and the iPod line DROPPED 15% in sales volume. The iPod line is ancient as far as technology years are concerned. I'm still wondering who doesn't have an ipod!
Yeah, I know, people want new ones or maybe move to the Touch.
Makes me wonder how much dedication there is to the Mac family...especially since it's late April and WE STILL HAVE NO WORD on new Mac rollouts. iMacs are over a year old already, notebooks are close to a year old. Not to mention I believe there is a big change coming in the Mac OS. I'm still itching to buy a nice iMac but I'm at the point where I seriously doubt Apple's committment to the Mac line...especially if Mac OS is going to change into something like the iOS. I forget where those rumors are located on this site (and others) but I've seen them as far back as December 2011.
My guess is Apple will try to have the new iMacs out by June at best given MacRumors usually knows a few weeks in advance of SOMETHING coming...then an official public press conference...then usually 1-3 weeks after the conference the computers are ready for purchase.
1)Little mention of the Mac line
2)Mac line increased 7% in sales but is still dwarfed by the iPod line (that does not include the iPad and iPhone folks)...and the iPod line DROPPED 15% in sales volume. The iPod line is ancient as far as technology years are concerned. I'm still wondering who doesn't have an ipod!
Yeah, I know, people want new ones or maybe move to the Touch.Makes me wonder how much dedication there is to the Mac family...especially since it's late April and WE STILL HAVE NO WORD on new Mac rollouts. iMacs are over a year old already, notebooks are close to a year old. Not to mention I believe there is a big change coming in the Mac OS. I'm still itching to buy a nice iMac but I'm at the point where I seriously doubt Apple's committment to the Mac line...especially if Mac OS is going to change into something like the iOS. I forget where those rumors are located on this site (and others) but I've seen them as far back as December 2011.
My guess is Apple will try to have the new iMacs out by June at best given MacRumors usually knows a few weeks in advance of SOMETHING coming...then an official public press conference...then usually 1-3 weeks after the conference the computers are ready for purchase.
That's a useless example considering Apple doesn't make memory,hard drives,microprocessors and LCD panels.
Impressive
Impressive, but Apple better hope that iPhone sales don't decline or level off. It's astounding that iPhone sales comprise 58% of its revenue.
Impressive, but Apple better hope that iPhone sales don't decline or level off. It's astounding that iPhone sales comprise 58% of its revenue.
True about the iPod. But the iPhone is the new iPod inside a phone. I know from my experience I never owned an iPod til I got my first iPhone which was a iPhone 3GS in Nov. 2010 and now I'm on my 2nd iPhone with iPhone 4S and just got my first iPad with the "New"iPad. Next up this year I'll be getting my first Mac deciding between iMac or MacBook Pro pending refreshes.
So you may be right but the iPhone has made me want to own all 3 platforms.
I'm happy to read this from the horses' mouth, and your take as well.
It brings me great relief, as a truly hard core Mac user, that admittedly was quite concerned over how things were going with respect to iOS's influence over OS X, an OS I have enjoyed and relied on for years.
I've found your interpretation of things, in many of your posts, very refreshing.
Cheers...
Question from an idiot.
Hi - I'm NO EXPERT in these matters, but if Apple have secured $11.6 billion profit in one quarter, piled on top of their astronomical cash balance, how much does it cost to set up the facilities to manufacture chips?
And screens for that matter.
If Apple weren't reliant on Intel for chips, and Sharp - etc - for touchscreens, wouldn't they have an in-house market buggerer?
I'm not sure I want Apple to become the evil overlords of the world but surely even these Q2 profits could set up the facilities to make microchips? Can anyone advise me on why they seemingly aren't pursuing this?
Hi - I'm NO EXPERT in these matters, but if Apple have secured $11.6 billion profit in one quarter, piled on top of their astronomical cash balance, how much does it cost to set up the facilities to manufacture chips?
And screens for that matter.
If Apple weren't reliant on Intel for chips, and Sharp - etc - for touchscreens, wouldn't they have an in-house market buggerer?
I'm not sure I want Apple to become the evil overlords of the world but surely even these Q2 profits could set up the facilities to make microchips? Can anyone advise me on why they seemingly aren't pursuing this?
But they are.
It has been previously reported that Apple has made capital expenditures for manufacturing equipment. The exact details are never disclosed. This probably gives them exclusivity for a certain period for parts that come off those product lines. I believe the CNC machines that mill unibody chassis out of solid blocks of aluminum is one example of this.
Also, Apple has prepaid for components in what appears to be a successful strategy at cornering key components, often in large quantities that increases costs for their competitors who have to pay spot market rates.
Note that Tim Cook is a supply chain expert, and likely uses a multi-pronged approach in gaining advantages.
Also, remember that he knows that Apple's strong suite is not in the manufacturing/assembly of hardware. When he joined Apple in the Nineties, he got them out of the manufacturing and warehousing business. That fundamentally improved Apple's operations. Tim sees inventory as fundamentally evil.
It has been previously reported that Apple has made capital expenditures for manufacturing equipment. The exact details are never disclosed. This probably gives them exclusivity for a certain period for parts that come off those product lines. I believe the CNC machines that mill unibody chassis out of solid blocks of aluminum is one example of this.
Also, Apple has prepaid for components in what appears to be a successful strategy at cornering key components, often in large quantities that increases costs for their competitors who have to pay spot market rates.
Note that Tim Cook is a supply chain expert, and likely uses a multi-pronged approach in gaining advantages.
Also, remember that he knows that Apple's strong suite is not in the manufacturing/assembly of hardware. When he joined Apple in the Nineties, he got them out of the manufacturing and warehousing business. That fundamentally improved Apple's operations. Tim sees inventory as fundamentally evil.
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AAPL should go up quite a bit more. My mother's Mac Pro just exploded. Running out to the Apple Store to get her a new one. (This time, configured with mirrored RAID to supplement the external backup drive. We are also planning new offsite backup strategies. [It's tornado season.])
Focus. If they tried to do everything under the sun, they wouldn't be very good at anything. Jack of all trades, master of none. The larger you become the harder it is to control and manage everything. It's best for Apple to keep their product line focused despite all the success and money.
Also, the competition in those domains you mention would be very steep. Apple is doing very well for itself as things stand. No need to diversify to that point. There would be little to no benefit in so doing.
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Why would your mom need a Mac Pro? I suppose she isn't your typical mother insofar as she seems to be one special computer user.
It costs less to let others do the development work and just buy the finished product. The equipment costs a mint and the margins are not that great. If Apple were to cut out Intel, they might also face antitrust issues.
Apple certainly invests - quite heavily - in "capital goods" (see their annual report for more details).
But the fact of the matter is that, by the standards of the rest of Apple's businesses, manufacturing microchips, LCD screens, memory modules, etc. are relatively low-profit endeavors.
Apple sees gross margins in most of its businesses of at least 40%. Chip and screen fabrication typically sees less than half that - more like 10-15%. And Apple's "expertise", the thing that Apple does better than any other company in the world, wouldn't make them any better at making chips than the companies that are doing it for them now.
Its far better, from a business standpoint, for Apple to hold on to its cash.
Not to mention cutting out Intel is a massive investment in R&D to even try to catch up to where Intel in regards to performance, manufacturing, power consumption.
There's a reason even AMD is struggling right now, Intel is just on top of its game when it comes to CPUs. People claiming ARM processors are better are ignoring the fact that ARM is not currently shipping 64 bit, high performance processors, only processors targeted to embedded devices and mobile platforms.
That Mac Pro runs half of our company. In theory we could get by with an iMac, however, it would need lots of external storage and it is used much more than a typical desktop. Running it 10 to 12 hour per day 6 or 7 days a week could have some thermal issues for a computer that is mission critical. When down time costs you money, it never hurts to buy bigger than you need.
Okay, understood.
But Apple now have an embarrassing amount of money that they simply cannot spend on product development.
I'm not inciting a serious argument here - because I know absolutely nothing about the technology game (just a fan with a Macbook) - but this money is presumably going to be spent on something or it will just keep accruing.
And the money is getting beyond silly. They could afford to develop a spaceship. Everyone's looking forward to an Apple television, but they could develop a spaceship. Joking aside - this bank balance will only build - what the hell are they going to do with it aside from shareholder dividends?
What is it there for?
But Apple now have an embarrassing amount of money that they simply cannot spend on product development.
I'm not inciting a serious argument here - because I know absolutely nothing about the technology game (just a fan with a Macbook) - but this money is presumably going to be spent on something or it will just keep accruing.
And the money is getting beyond silly. They could afford to develop a spaceship. Everyone's looking forward to an Apple television, but they could develop a spaceship. Joking aside - this bank balance will only build - what the hell are they going to do with it aside from shareholder dividends?
What is it there for?
Apple to give back - better warranty on higher end products
Time for Apple to give back to its customers, for example by dropping that excessively expensive "Apple Care", and give a three year warranty on higher end computers like everybody else in the industry.
Time for Apple to give back to its customers, for example by dropping that excessively expensive "Apple Care", and give a three year warranty on higher end computers like everybody else in the industry.
Rainy days, I guess.
You are raising a huge can of worms. Apple doesn't seem to know what to do with the money right now. There is nothing to buy, no other markets to feasibly move into, and paying dividends has limited value. I'd bet the cash pile and what to do with it is a question that bothers Apple just as much as it intrigues the rest of us. In other words, right now your best guess is as good as anyone elses
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They could certainly afford it, and such extended care would likely make for very grateful consumers. I think that's a pretty good long term retention plan. I hope Apple considers it.
If Apple doesn't have some kind of strategic plan behind that cash reserve they are a poorly run company.
Even if they don't have a strategic plan, I'd say their success demonstrates they are a well run company. You don't get to #1 without being well-run. The problem is they may be too well-run. It may well be the case they have more success than they know to do with it. Let's just hope that doesn't corrupt them.