Apple Watch and Apple TV See Record Quarterly Sales

[gugy]

I am pretty happy with the new ATV. The more apps get developed the more enticing this product will be.
If Apple could figure out a way to use either a Time Capsule or NAS or attach a external drive with the media to it, would be fantastic.

 

[kagharaht]

When Apple fixes Apple TV 4 pathetic Dolby Digital Dynamic Range and make it work perfectly like ATV 3 then yeah I would love it too. Oh and fix the random stuttering.

 

[Kaibelf]

I tend to agree. I'm used to Steve Jobs standing up in front of a huge audience during a keynote address boasting about how many millions of iPhones they sold.

I don't recall him EVER doing that about the Apple TV when he was alive, yet millions ended up in homes. Besides, they frankly don't owe you that information. They only have to make sure the company and stock are healthy for the shareholders, and those who actually BUY things like the watch get service and products that make them happy.

 

[Soccertess]

Remember all those people saying that time was running out for the Apple Watch?

Seriously, this is great news for both the Apple Watch and the Apple TV. Hopefully Apple will apply even more resources to these projects, and the next builds we be more full-featured (more health monitors on the watch, and coaxial input on the ATV).

I really hope it has more health monitors to give a place in people's lives. I thought about a watch, tried it out and then walked away with a lot of money still in my pocket.

I think it has so much potential, I really hope the second version takes it there.

Coaxial input? To use as a DVR?

 

[ghost187]

Yep. The 2 year contract is dead. My daughter works at an AT&T store and all they sell now is 12-18 month or 24-30 month contracts which allow the customer to update for free at 12 months or 24 months. There will be A LOT of iPhone 6 and 6plus users who will be upgrading in the Xmas quarter of this year.

Apple will need something to boost sales so I am hoping the all glass screen is the iPhone 7.

The height of the iPhone is what bothers me the most. The screen to body ratio is only about 65%, that's huge space

I think this has big time potential. I know I'm upgrading every year now. I'm surprised this doesn't weigh more heavily in analysts numbers. Why wouldn't you upgrade every year? Assuming you're into this kind of thing.

Well, I switched to T-Mobile because of this and my family of 4 all get new iPhones every year with the jump on demand program. If they didn't have such a deal, only I would have upgraded this year because everyone else in my family was content with their iPhone 6's.

 

[Fthree]

Apple suffers from products that are too good. ironically this is terrible for share holders and awesome for consumers. The 'have to have it" Apple days are gone because the new stuff is just marginally better.

 

[developer13245]

You're hilarious. Developers are abandoning the watch and TV platforms? They are? There are already like 40,000 TV apps, and almost every app I use has a companion watch app. Can you imagine if iPhone developers had your attitude back when the App Store launched? They'd have missed out on billions! The tv and watch don't have to replicate the success of the iPhone, expecting anything to replicate it would be absurd. But as iPhone revenues start to recede, tv and watch revenues climb.

Where do you see 40,000 as the number of TV apps? The best tracking available in mid December was around 2,500, with predictions that it would hit 5,000 by now, and 10,000 in "early" 2016. TouchArcade reported that the most popular tvOS games were only making $100 bucks a day in mid December:
http://toucharcade.com/2015/12/07/apple-tv-app-store-games-making-100-dollars-a-day/
All early TVOS apps are "shoe horn" ports of iOS apps, with few exceptions such as GILT (a shopping app). This was the plan by Apple to get a fast number uptick. But I'm betting growth has slowed way down because there's no money in it.

NO ONE is going to develop a "ground up" game for ATV to make $100 bucks a day on it. Apple leveraged iOS for quick and dirty numbers, but the growth is not sustainable for the structural reasons I cite.

Apple has caused the slowdown by killing discoverability for new titles (like they did for iOS), so if the title does not get featured there is no hope of success. Sure, you can spend $$ on your own marketing campaign, but without a simple sort by release date feature, the cost of marketing makes the total cost to develop tvOS (and also now iOS) games beyond budget reach for all but the largest established companies. The TouchArcade article reports that developers perceive luck as the only way to get featured, so that increases risk.

Your comparison to the early days of iOS is not valid. The iOS app store opened in 2008 (I have apps on the store since then) with a fair system for discovering new releases. That's also now gone. I'm betting the total number of iOS apps on the store to start to decline over time.

P.S. I'm a developer, and have been to WWDC, Apple TV tech talks, and am also involved in other parts of the "ecosystem" (including some Venture Capital contacts). EVERYONE is frustrated with Apple right now, and taking a "wait and see" position now.

 

[dogslobber]

Why?

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

Are you grieving over that the Apple Watch is being successful?

But it's not a success unless they prove it. No numbers, no success. It's not about people wanting it to fail. You misread why people want the numbers. They're not willing to take the apple spin at face value. Apple needs to back up their spin with hard data like they do for successful products.

 

[mr.steevo]

Not surprised by this at all. I will be waiting for the holiday season following the net watch launch to update my wife'swatch. Hell, OI may do the same with our phones. Apple products seem to finally be getting those deep Holiday discounts that they were virtually immune it in years past.

I'd rather the Swatch Sistem51 than the Apple Watch. The Swatch will last a decade while the Apple Watch will be in a landfill by year six.

 

[H2SO4]

I tend to agree. I'm used to Steve Jobs standing up in front of a huge audience during a keynote address boasting about how many millions of iPhones they sold. It would warm the cockles of my heart if Cook stands up during the March keynote with a similar announcement for the first year of Watch sales, and stats about dusting the rest of the industry, just before he announces the Watch 2, and the continuation of select 1st Gen Watch models at a lower price.

But the secrecy is damning. By all indications, the Watch has been very successful -- far more successful than all of the competition put together it would appear. So hopefully, they're just waiting for a full year of sales to knock everyone's socks off.

I think this is where I am. Whether the watch is a success or failure I don’t know, but I find TC to be a little disingenuous, (especially over the lies with the tax business).
‘We don’t release sales figures’, that’s piffle. His prerogative, but piffle nonethelss. He’s trying to either manipulate the market or make sure others have less control when they do so.
Also the indications are only what they let you see. Percent increases don’t mean that much at the moment and one big thing a lot seem to be over looking;
There is a machine shop down the road from my house. Great place, I pop in periodically to have a jig made up or such like. Not sure how much money he makes but it just strikes me that if he advertised/sold in an extra 48 countries, that he’d have a lot more enquiries/sales.
So, what they could have done is post worldwide figures, yes, but also figures per market unit may also be telling.

I should aslo add, the CEO of my company is probably doing the same, but two wrongs don’t make a right.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

You're hilarious. Developers are abandoning the watch and TV platforms? They are? There are already like 40,000 TV apps, and almost every app I use has a companion watch app. Can you imagine if iPhone developers had your attitude back when the App Store launched? They'd have missed out on billions! The tv and watch don't have to replicate the success of the iPhone, expecting anything to replicate it would be absurd. But as iPhone revenues start to recede, tv and watch revenues climb.

I think the only thing that will replicate the success of the iPhone is Air, which will be sold to people on the moon, or here on Earth to hipsters wanting only the best:

 

[ayebang]

What's about Ipad Air Pro ?

 

[dfs]

Both the Apple Watch and the Apple TV set new quarterly sales records in 1Q 2016, according to information shared by Tim Cook during today's earnings call. The Apple Watch saw especially strong sales in December as people purchased the device during the holiday season, something that's perhaps not a surprise given the significant discounts offered by some third-party retailers.

While Apple did not offer discounts itself, Best Buy cut prices on the Apple Watch by $100, and Target offered a $100 gift card with the purchase of an Apple Watch. These price drops likely boosted Apple Watch sales by a good amount during the quarter. Apple also expanded Apple Watch availability to more than 48 countries ahead of the holiday season.

As for the Apple TV, Apple says it saw its best quarter ever following the launch of the fourth-generation device. The Apple TV 4, priced at $149 to $199 depending on capacity, includes features like a full App Store, a touch-based remote control and Siri voice control. Available apps on the Apple TV have expanded, with 3,600 total apps now downloadable on the device.

Apple does not break out sales of the Apple Watch and the Apple TV, choosing instead to lump them into an "Other" category that also includes iPods and Beats headphones, so exact sales numbers for the two devices are not known. Revenue for the Other category did see a big increase, jumping more than 40 percent from $2.7 billion in 1Q2015 to $4.35 billion in 1Q2016. Sales were also up quarter over quarter, as revenue in 4Q2015 was at $3 billion.

Overall, it was a record quarter for Apple with $18.4 billion in profit on $75.9 billion in revenue. During the quarter, the company sold 74.8 million iPhones, 16.1 million iPads, and 5.3 million Macs.

Article Link: Apple Watch and Apple TV See Record Quarterly Sales

[doublepost=1453873201][/doublepost]2016 is the breakout year for Car Play, now it's suddenly available on a wide range of vehicles by Ford, GM, Honda, etc. etc. This is a licensed technology, to be sure, rather than a product, but it must be creating an impressive revenue stream. I get the idea that Car Play is being overlooked by Wall St. analysts, but I should think this new source of profit will go a certain way towards offsetting dwindling iPhone sales.

 

[Zirel]

But it's not a success unless they prove it. No numbers, no success. It's not about people wanting it to fail. You misread why people want the numbers. They're not willing to take the apple spin at face value. Apple needs to back up their spin with hard data like they do for successful products.

Yeah, sure thing…

Samsung, LG, etc. don't release official sales numbers (yes, only "estimated sales" flow through the web), yet Android is considered an huge success…

 

[bluespark]

To say that the Apple Watch set record quarterly sales means precisely nothing.

There were no sales a year ago. It's hardly surprising that their best sales would be at Christmas. We also know that the watch was hugely discounted, an unprecedented move from Apple. We have also had no sales figures from Tim Cook since the watch was launched in April 2015.

All this suggests that the iWatch has been disappointing at a minimum. I think it has done very badly, and that its future is bleak. Goodwill to all who have bought it, but the Apple Watch is a mistake.

I agree with your analysis of current sales, and that Apple must be disappointed. But I disagree that its future necessarily is bleak or that it was a mistake. It is badly in need of improvement and and more sane pricing (beyond the Sport, which is priced correctly). But I love the design and think the idea has serious potential. I'm holding out for the next version, and expecting big improvement. If Apple accomplishes that, it could yet be a success (think for example of the widely-panned first generation Macbook Air and then consider how that line has done since then).

 

[JoeShades]

Where do you see 40,000 as the number of TV apps? The best tracking available in mid December was around 2,500, with predictions that it would hit 5,000 by now, and 10,000 in "early" 2016. TouchArcade reported that the most popular tvOS games were only making $100 bucks a day in mid December:
http://toucharcade.com/2015/12/07/apple-tv-app-store-games-making-100-dollars-a-day/
All early TVOS apps are "shoe horn" ports of iOS apps, with few exceptions such as GILT (a shopping app). This was the plan by Apple to get a fast number uptick. But I'm betting growth has slowed way down because there's no money in it.

NO ONE is going to develop a "ground up" game for ATV to make $100 bucks a day on it. Apple leveraged iOS for quick and dirty numbers, but the growth is not sustainable for the structural reasons I cite.

Apple has caused the slowdown by killing discoverability for new titles (like they did for iOS), so if the title does not get featured there is no hope of success. Sure, you can spend $$ on your own marketing campaign, but without a simple sort by release date feature, the cost of marketing makes the total cost to develop tvOS (and also now iOS) games beyond budget reach for all but the largest established companies. The TouchArcade article reports that developers perceive luck as the only way to get featured, so that increases risk.

Your comparison to the early days of iOS is not valid. The iOS app store opened in 2008 (I have apps on the store since then) with a fair system for discovering new releases. That's also now gone. I'm betting the total number of iOS apps on the store to start to decline over time.

P.S. I'm a developer, and have been to WWDC, Apple TV tech talks, and am also involved in other parts of the "ecosystem" (including some Venture Capital contacts). EVERYONE is frustrated with Apple right now, and taking a "wait and see" position now.

OH NO ONE MONTH INTO APPLE TV AND APPS NOT MAKING TONS OF MONEY,FAILURE OH NO!!, GET LOST, YOU KEEP POSTING THE SAME STUPID ARTICLE FROM EARLY DECEMBER, GET A HOBBYY!!

P.S Crappy "reporters" who are pretty much idiots and can't come up with anything original sit back and say well this product just came out, common sense would tell you that of course it is not going to be a huge App money maker right away but we can't create an original thought so lets get the easy article ready saying so far things don't look good... oh wait you are a developer and you know people, my fault you know everything

 

[BvizioN]

But Macrumour members told us no one buys Apple Watch!!!
[doublepost=1453876467][/doublepost]

The day Apple release actual sales figures for the watch is the day I'll accept the watch is a success.

Because if you don't, it mean's it have not been a success! We got it

 

[b1wils1]

I'll say this, I bought an aWatch. I like it. I hope they release a new watch2. I will buy it. I see the deficiencies, and the potentials, and I'm having a much better time enjoying what it can do for me than what it can't. When 2.0 comes out, I'll drop the cash. Haters gotta hate.

 

[Mac 128]

I don't recall him EVER doing that about the Apple TV when he was alive, yet millions ended up in homes. Besides, they frankly don't owe you that information. They only have to make sure the company and stock are healthy for the shareholders, and those who actually BUY things like the watch get service and products that make them happy.

What I remember is Steve Jobs dismissing the TV as a "hobby" until the day he died. And by all appearances, it still is. The Watch in contrast saw Apple pulling out all the stops. It sure felt like a much bigger launch than the iPhone was, and definitely bigger than the iPad. Apple has hired expensive new VPs from the upper echelons of the fashion world, courted fashion luminaries, and countless celebrities, bankrolling lavish spreads in top fashion magazines, and on and on. Frankly, as a stock holder, I sort of think Apple does owe me the information. I'd really like to know how well all that money spent is paying off, so maybe I could express myself, and vote accordingly at the next shareholder's meeting.

And putting all that aside, I'm curious, and I'd like to be able to tout Apple's success, like we used to do in the old days with the iPhone. I'm perfectly happy with the watch. I'm perfectly happy letting Apple run the company anyway they want as long as they aren't losing money. But Wall Street isn't particularly happy at the moment, and Apple's earnings are off, and now for the first time they're giving lower guidance going into the next quarter. So yeah, I'd like to know how well that watch is doing for other more practical reasons as well. The TV I couldn't care less about ... It's still a hobby as far as I'm concerned, with ridiculously high margins on every unit it sells. Who cares if it's successful or not?

 

[SeattleMoose]

Well there you have it....APPLE IS DOOMED!!! DOOMED I TELL YOU!!!

 

[Mildredop]

Why?

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

Are you grieving over that the Apple Watch is being successful?

Oh dear, I rattled the MacRumors cage! No, none of the above - I really don't care that much. I just think, if it really was a success, Apple would be shouting the figures from the rooftops. By lumping them all into the 'other' category, they don't need to answer too many questions.

Personally, I can't ignore the fact that I almost never see them. I think a guy on that Steven Avery documentary was wearing one, I met with my web developer last week and he was wearing one, but I don't personally know anyone who owns one.

 

[developer13245]

OH NO ONE MONTH INTO APPLE TV AND APPS NOT MAKING TONS OF MONEY,FAILURE OH NO!!, GET LOST, YOU KEEP POSTING THE SAME STUPID ARTICLE FROM EARLY DECEMBER, GET A HOBBYY!!

P.S Crappy "reporters" who are pretty much idiots and can't come up with anything original sit back and say well this product just came out, common sense would tell you that of course it is not going to be a huge App money maker right away but we can't create an original thought so lets get the easy article ready saying so far things don't look good... oh wait you are a developer and you know people, my fault you know everything

"The future of TV is Apps" -Apple

Just because Apple says it, doesn't make it true. Their spin is not reality. And I'm telling you it's just a marketing lie. They're baiting customers into buying ATV because all the iOS games they already own "might" be free on ATV4 via universal purchase. Name one game that is featured on either platform that is NOT universal purchase!

Yes, the TouchArcade article is from early December, but where are the big success stories that tell a new, different story? Where is the latest big success story of an app that wasn't featured? Or even was featured on tvOS? <crickets>

Reporters serve a valid purpose in the Apple ecosystem ESPECIALLY BECAUSE NO ONE is willing to go public due to the fear of reprisal from Apple. My experience in the ecosystem is consistent with the reporting I cited. Stories reporting bizarre iOS App Rejection have existed since day one, and continue. Apple removed App discovery (sort by release date) features from iOS, and launched tvOS without them. Now developers perceive success on the platform as nothing more than luck of being featured. What would be the purpose of TouchArcade reporting this if they didn't believe it was a consensus amongst developers?

Does adding mystery of App "featuring" to the bizarre history of App Approval make any Apple platform more attractive to develop on? How does adding a coin toss increase the odds that a good game will make money?

How many games that were "just ok" evolved into big hits due to early traction that never would have happened if Apple buried them in the early days?

Would you invest a significant amount of your life savings on an "Investment" you were advised is a coin toss?

 

[MH01]

The new Apple TV would have done well over the holiday period .

The Apple Watch, who Knows, the one product we get politician responses from Tim. would have been a neat Xmas present for some though

 

[Mildredop]

Calling the watch a failure without knowing the real sales numbers is farfetched.

But calling the watch a success without knowing the real sales numbers is ok?

 

[Easttime]

The iPhone is for everybody, techie to non-techie. The Apple Watch isn't going to work for everyone and is too expensive for many. Those of us who like its utility and can prioritize the budget buy and use it. Our family is like that. We all have iPhones. I use my AW all day every day along with my iPad, iPhone and iMac. My wife has no interest in anything other than her iPhone and iPad. Our young adult kids are techies but can't yet afford the Watch, although it is on their wish lists. It's a great product that meets reasonable expectations.