Apple Reports Results for Q3 2012: $8.8 Billion Profit on $35 Billion in Revenue

[wizard]

I think some bodies nose needs repair.

Exactly. Something smells bad at Apple, and ML and a moronic iPad Mini will not help much.

Considering the quarter and the rest of the market these are excellent numbers for Apple. Beyond that what is with your emotional problem within iPad Mini? IOS has been a tremendous success for Apple, it would be irresponsible of them not to put it on more devices to cover different markets.

 

[Technarchy]

The only thing that worries me (and I'm NOT one who thinks SJ was god or the only one with vision at Apple) is at the D-10 conference when Tim Cook was asked about who the product curator is he gave sort of a wish washy answer saying it always moves around. That does make me wonder a bit about his vision. Or if there is one person who can take the reigns and drive the vision. I see Cook as more of an operations guy than a product visionary.

SJ was a driving force. An insane perfectionist, and that is my larger concern.

Someone else can think of a great idea for a great product, but without an insane person hanging over you pushing you to the limit, that product might never reach its potential.

The iPhone could very easily have been a great concept that fell short without SJ driving everyone insane.

The Toy Story "story" is funny. Steve making his friends watch it 75 times just to show the progression of CGI shadows. Tim Cook is not insane like that.

 

[Rogifan]

This was clear from day one; as far as vision is concerned, Cook is as blind as a mole.

Yet SJ picked Cook as his replacement. I can only speculate he did so because Cook is an operations genius, someone the board had confidence in and was someone the rest of the leadership team could work for (there were rumors that Ive and Mansfield don't get along with Forstsll).

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I must agree with you. There no longer is a jerk running around cussing people out and pushing them using their famous RDFilator.

I miss Steve.

Well according to Adam Lashinsky that's Forstall.

 

[50548]

Considering the quarter and the rest of the market these are excellent numbers for Apple. Beyond that what is with your emotional problem within iPad Mini? IOS has been a tremendous success for Apple, it would be irresponsible of them not to put it on more devices to cover different markets.

The problem with this flawed rationale is that it reminds me of the terrible days of the Quadra, Performa, LC, Centris, PowerMac...with SJ Apple had confidence in its "thin as a paperclip" product line; it didn't care about Nexus or any other copycat crap.

In other words, the iPad Mini seems like a desperate attempt at catching up to a threat that doesn't really exist...unless you have lost the initiative on the battlefield, of course.

 

[Rogifan]

Considering the quarter and the rest of the market these are excellent numbers for Apple. Beyond that what is with your emotional problem within iPad Mini? IOS has been a tremendous success for Apple, it would be irresponsible of them not to put it on more devices to cover different markets.

Europe has been a drag on a lot of companies. What big name company has reported great numbers this quarter? On CNBC today they were talking about stimulus needed from the Fed to stave off recession.

 

[Klae17]

One more reason to dump the brand and fold the surviving products (the touch and nano) into the iPad line. Leaving the iPod brand alive is just a quarterly reminder that as quickly as a product flies off the shelves, it can eventually fall into irrelevance.

I assume Other is primarily on the strength of the Apple TV? If so, then Apple's "hobby" is outselling an entire line of products featured in the main navigation on their website, and which was once the cornerstone of Apple's resurgence. It's time to retire the iPod brand and focus on getting that iTV out the door.

They will probably keep the iPod brand, especially for people who don't need an iPhone, are still in phone contracts, teenagers, iPod Shuffles (gateway?). Sales might go down further with the price drop if the iPad Mini pushes the price down.

Also, iTV will need a remote. The Apple Remote isn't enough to type in search and I use my iPad or iPhone when surfing, it is just easier in case I need to look something up. I bet the new iTV will have a lot more features (Apps?) that might need an iPod.

I think the Nano needs a major price drop, getting rid of the touchscreen and gimmicks of it will help. Or, with the new one, if it can serve as a remote (has virtual keyboard?) that will help keep the Nano relevant

 

[IJ Reilly]

Europe has been a drag on a lot of companies. What big name company has reported great numbers this quarter? On CNBC today they were talking about stimulus needed from the Fed to stave off recession.

What we really need is for the EU to get its act together. Their ship is sinking fast, and they're bailing with teacups.

 

[Peace]

Yet SJ picked Cook as his replacement. I can only speculate he did so because Cook is an operations genius, someone the board had confidence in and was someone the rest of the leadership team could work for (there were rumors that Ive and Mansfield don't get along with Forstsll).

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Well according to Adam Lashinsky that's Forstall.

Forstall without the genius. Big difference.

 

[marcusj0015]

Apple's desperate legal trolling of Samsung all over the world tells me that the iPad fad might be just about up, and I say that as an owner of 2 iPads. Only because there isn't anything better at the moment, until Window 8 tablets come out.

Because the average consumer gives a **** about Samsung, or Android.

And it's not "Trolling" Samsung blatantly copied Apple, and deserves everything they got.

 

[bpaluzzi]

At least Nokia is releasing Lumia phones that people actually *want* to buy, plus Elop is doing a great job of restructuring the company to become profitable soon.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Wow. Just.... wow.

 

[wizard]

What an incredibly negative view.

4 years? That's a joke in the tech world. What they mean is that they had road maps for existing product lines.

Apple TV is clearly something Jobs wanted, so you're right there.

Apple has some of the smartest engineers on the planet working for them, I'm sure there are plenty of ideas being worked on in the labs. It is a mistake to believe that Jobs invented everything at Apple. Even with iPhone he realized that the tablet people actually had the perfect interface for an iPhone and retasked them to build iPhone.

But anything else with vision? I don't see it. Google glasses came out and then Apple put something out, "we're doing that too!"

Of course you don't see it, Apple doesn't let out prerelease information on anything. As a point in fact Google had to hire Apple employees to get those glasses out the door.

Don't underestimate the loss of Steve Jobs.

True, many companies fall flat on their faces once the driving force is removed. However we have seen nothing to indicate that is a problem today. In fact Apple is in a rather strong position technology wise across all of its products.

He may have been one guy, but it was his company and he decided what happened. Jobs drove the market, now Apple is headless, a zombie corporation run by quarterly profits and shareholder meetings. It is HP. It is Microsoft. It is no longer the Apple you once knew.

That has yet to be proven. All I see here is a bunch of people taking relatively good numbers and trying to turn then into evidence of some sort of failure at Apple. That is very far from the case, actuality is Apple did very well in a market where the economy is rapidly turning to a significant depression.

Step back a minute and look at the new Retina MBP which is a technology showcase and a very progressive machine when held up to what is produced world wide. It very much represents what Apple is all about and is years ahead of the competition. This combined with other hardware represents the best of what is available to consumers. Now obviously Steve wasn't around to put his marketing spin on the machine, but if that is all you see then you have a rather pathetic sense of value.

 

[Rogifan]

Forstall without the genius. Big difference.

To me the biggest problems with Apple right now are: iOS is stale and Siri just isn't that great. Forstall has responsibility over both of those things. But I personally didn't see any iOS stuff at WWDC that blew me away. Ooh Siri is going to provide me with sports data now. Whoopee. Maps has navigation now. Great, my POS Android phone from 2 years ago already had that. If Apple didn't have the rMBP to announce WWDC would've been a dud.

 

[AppliedMicro]

The iPhone 4 was released in June 2010. Yes, the 4S is still a great a great smartphone, but it is nothing more than a rehash of the 4. It is widely perceived as being the "essentially same thing" as the iPhone 4. And before anyone mentions Siri: I don't know about Northern America, but Siri is barely usable for many users, except for maybe simple voice commands and dictation - which few people seem to use in my experience. Siri couldn't and still doesn't even find (and show) the way to the next friggin' train station in my country (and my country should have one of the highest ratios of train usage per capita in the world).

- Apple haven't released a (truly) new Smartphone for over 2 years.
- Apple's lineup of Desktop Macs hasn't seen any update for over a year (If we discount the almost laughable "upgrade" on the Mac Pro)
- The Retina MacBook Pro was introduced towards the end of the fiscal quarter, with Apple severly struggling to meet initial demand.

Is it any wonder that sales for last quarter were down?

Better sales will come with new products - it's that simple (as the 3rd gen. iPad proves).

 

[Rogifan]

Step back a minute and look at the new Retina MBP which is a technology showcase and a very progressive machine when held up to what is produced world wide. It very much represents what Apple is all about and is years ahead of the competition. This combined with other hardware represents the best of what is available to consumers. Now obviously Steve wasn't around to put his marketing spin on the machine, but if that is all you see then you have a rather pathetic sense of value.

IMO Apple doesn't have an issue on the hardware side. They push out some of the best hardware that on the Mac side at least is getting imitated left, right and center. Of course the one most likely calling the shots on the hardware side is Jony Ive, who was very close to Steve. Is there an Ive on the software side?

 

[SpectatorHere]

The problem with this flawed rationale is that it reminds me of the terrible days of the Quadra, Performa, LC, Centris, PowerMac...with SJ Apple had confidence in its "thin as a paperclip" product line; it didn't care about Nexus or any other copycat crap.

In other words, the iPad Mini seems like a desperate attempt at catching up to a threat that doesn't really exist...unless you have lost the initiative on the battlefield, of course.

This is exactly right.

SJ leaving could have freed up Apple and unleashed a ton of innovation and creativity he'd bottled up. Or, SJ leaving could result in an extremely cautious and conservative approach.

Considering the amount of money the big wigs at Apple have tied up in company stock, I think we're seeing the predictable, unfortunate, second approach.

 

[marcusj0015]

Plenty of things to think about from this call. I doubt 85% y/y growth of the iPad is something to worry about.

Lol, he's not worrying, he's spreading bull **** on Apple forums, so people will get scared and he's hoping it will actually affect the market, but it won't. lmao.

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Apple killing the XServe is proof enough that they gave up on the enterprise market. Of course iPads are the leading BYOD tablet into the enterprise until Windows 8 hits.

Clearly Windows 8 will save us from Apple's dominance, the fact that everyone who's ever used it despises it means nothing at all.

 

[wizard]

What was so terrible about those days other than a crap OS?

The problem with this flawed rationale is that it reminds me of the terrible days of the Quadra, Performa, LC, Centris, PowerMac...with SJ Apple had confidence in its "thin as a paperclip" product line; it didn't care about Nexus or any other copycat crap.

A excessively thin product line up boxes you in and also leaves you open to loss of sales due to products that better fit user needs. Honestly I can't see how anybody can look at Apples current desktop lineup and seriously say they are on the right track. Apple is doing well with portable, where by coincidence they have plenty of models, but not so well on the desktop. That is due in no part to the fact that they have the worst hardware lineup in years for desktop machines.

Now you seem to imply that Apple should remain short sighted and conservative with respect to the iPad. This my friend is stupid, they need to grab as much of the market as they can. The number one reason to support 7" tablets is that people like them, as they are easy to carry.

In other words, the iPad Mini seems like a desperate attempt at catching up to a threat that doesn't really exist...unless you have lost the initiative on the battlefield, of course.

Baloney! I'm pretty certain that Apple never intended the iPad concept to remain in a single form factor. It may take them awhile to bring out other sizes but it would be foolish not to sew up the market. In the same manner that a 7" iPad is a good idea so is the idea of a 13" iPad.

I see a similar strategy unfolding with respect to iPhone. It looks like a larger model is coming but I really doesn't see the current form factor going away, I could actually see it shrink some. Given that the market isn't made of customers all poured from the same mold the only wise move is to give people a choice.

 

[wizard]

I hear this crap constantly, but really what is it that is missing from iOS?

IOS is anything but stale and support an ever improving stable of apps that are at your finger tips.

To me the biggest problems with Apple right now are: iOS is stale and Siri just isn't that great. Forstall has responsibility over both of those things.

It sounds like you have been trained to dwell on the negative and explode out of proportion anything you dislike about a product. IOS is far from stale and is developing into a great tool for people that actually use the iPhone as more than a toy. IOS is in fact one of the only tools that Improves daily.

But I personally didn't see any iOS stuff at WWDC that blew me away.

Sorry to hear that. Again you need to look at the big picture instead of dwelling on the minor things that bother you. IOS 6 is another great leap for developers. As such it means a steady stream of new and improved apps.

Ooh Siri is going to provide me with sports data now. Whoopee. Maps has navigation now. Great, my POS Android phone from 2 years ago already had that. If Apple didn't have the rMBP to announce WWDC would've been a dud.

WWDC = World Wide Developers Conference. Note that it is a developer conference it isnt a platform to amaze stupid users but rather an event to encourage developer to grab on to the latest features in iOS. As a side note if you don't understand the importance of Apple deploying their own mapping technology then you are totally clueless about iOS.

 

[AppliedMicro]

This my friend is stupid, they need to grab as much of the market as they can. The number one reason to support 7" tablets is that people like them, as they are easy to carry.

I am personally not a big fan of a 7" iPad and can only the concept flawed in terms of size/usability.
Still, there is a fundamental difference between 7" tablets vs. 10" tablets and Quadra vs. Performa vs. Centris:

Normal people can (figuratively but also very literally) grasp a tablet and see how and why different sizes might fit into their lives, be suited to their needs - or not.

Whereas the differentiation in Mac desktops used to be a big mess, which nobody really understood and few cared about.

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

Now, tell me again. What do analysts do, and why should we care?

Analysts manipulate the stock market. And you should care because that's your investment portfolio they are screwing.

 

[marcusj0015]

Hmm. the argument for or against an iPad mini is a dilemma, Idk what Apple should do. A 7'' iPad seems REALLY small though. :/

 

[69650]

Wish they would do something constructive with all that cash. It's not doing Apple shareholders much good just sitting there collecting bugger all in interest. Use it to make strategic acquisitions that will add to the bottom line and provide Apple users with more products to buy. Either that or give it away to charity.

 

[alexN350z]

My interpretation of this. iPod is slowly dying, Macs are stagnant and will continue to be so as ultrabooks take off. iPhone has finally met its match with the Samsung Galaxy line and Windows Phone 8 will take even bigger bite to come. The only thing that Apple is truly dominant is tablets where they have no real competition as of yet. That will change with Windows 8.

You do realise there is a new tablet call Google Nexus 7.

 

[wizard]

On the desktop they have totally lost it!

IMO Apple doesn't have an issue on the hardware side. They push out some of the best hardware that on the Mac side at least is getting imitated left, right and center. Of course the one most likely calling the shots on the hardware side is Jony Ive, who was very close to Steve. Is there an Ive on the software side?

I don't know how you came to that conclusion, maybe you haven't looked at the desktop lineup. Frankly it is pathetic!! Nothing in the way of an iMac, Mini or Mac Pro update, with some of these products being very old in the marketplace. More so many of these products have lost their reason for being due to neglect and not keeping an eye on the ball. The iMac has been a joke for the last couple of years, the Mini is artificially keep down and the Mac Pro is a joke at this point. I'd have to say when looking at the desktop Apple does indeed have hardware issues. Frankly I think I've is part of the problem here and to much form over function happens with respect to the desktop machines.

This is in stark contrast to the laptops. The laptops are much more balanced and actually priced more reasonably than the desktop machines.

As to the OS I really see Mac OS as a string point with Apple though I do wish more effort was put into quality control. Even on my old 2008 MBP it runs fairly decently, certainly far better than Windows would on such a machine. More so Apple has taken a very balanced approach with OS updates, Mac OS is a very strong UNIX platform for gurus and a great GUI for others. It is very much a Ying/Yang OS.

 

[smoledman]

You do realise there is a new tablet call Google Nexus 7.

Until I see numbers it's not competition.