Apple's Third Quarter Earnings Call Takeaways: Work on AI, Vision Pro Demo Success, iPad and Mac Sales to Fall in Q4

Tim 'visions' the future.

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A dividend of just 20% is ridiculous. What are they doing with all the money? We got high inflation. Is the ROI of this money higher? The owners like Berkshire should talk business with Tim.
 
Yah, but those consumers will be impressed.

The way he worded it, he was respectful that not everyone will be able to afford it - even though they will be "blown away" by the product demo.

People will be definitely visiting the Apple Store to check out the super cool Vision Pro headset demos.

When I was a kid I would go to Radio Shack to play on the TRS80 Model 1 - even though it was way out of reach to think about buying one or getting one at our home at the time.
OMG I used to hit Radio Shack every Saturday after paying my paper route to play with their computers.

Pretty sure my version of “Hello World” was:

10 PRINT “I Am Awesome! “;
20 GOTO 10
 
If iPad revenue is down it might be because the lineup is a frigging nightmare on wheels. Here’s your base price, now if you want more storage it’ll be $150 and you’ll be just about paying the base price of the next model up! 🙄
Oh, don't be silly. Pricing logic for increased storage was the same, when iPads were on the rise. I think the real reason is, that tablet as a product is dead, or dying at least for the last 3-4 years. Average consumer just do not need iPad or any other tablet, there is just no use cases for wide audience. AND iPads are so good, that it is almost 1-2x a life time buy - 5-6 year old iPad works almost as good as new one, so no demand for newer models from upgraders, not counting those, who don't need any tablet at all.
 
We will see new Macs, but I suspect Apple will work more and more on the games front, as that source of revenue could be immense and Apple seem to be migrating more and more to content creation also. Of course they will need the graphics capability to go with it, but Apple will not miss out on that slice of the cake that has to some extent escaped Apple's direct attention. With more and more pressure of App commission, Games is the obvious route to increased revenues.
 
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If you are going to set the bar that high, very little new product can leap it.
  • Watch doesn't really get anything done that iDevices can't.
  • iPad doesn't really get anything done that iPhone can't. It is just a big iPhone/iPod.
  • iPhone doesn't really get anything done that MB can't. I was making phone calls on Macs long before iPhone (VOIP software)
  • MB doesn't really get anything done that Mac can't.
  • Mac doesn't really get anything done that PC can't.
So perhaps Apple should cut it all down to a single Mac product... or maybe a PC... if the bar has to be "what a traditional computer can't."

Else, the question becomes the one that justified all of the past new products launched: what does Vpro add to the tech proposition?

And there are PLENTY of answers to that one before any of us have even got to demo one ourselves. Rather than dig its grave before even a demo, it might be a good idea to "think different." A device capable of showing our eyes ANYTHING in a realistic way paired with devices that can similarly "fool" our ears is a new bit of tech with enormous potential.
Yes if you build it they will come
 
I read this article two times & I am still trying to figure out what the two following statements from the article are supposed to mean.

"due to difficult compares" & "due to a tough compare as last year"

I'm stumped on those two. Is this being written buy a poorly trained AI bot, or are the proof readers asleep at the wheel?
Possibly a demonstration of AI
 
If Apple had just gone with Proton instead of Metal, they'd be doing a lot better. So many more games work on linux/proton than mac/metal. Of course, M chips can't handle AAA games, so maybe that's a good thing...
 
Here's something I don't understand--for years, maybe like 20 years, Apple repeatedly says things like, "50% of Mac purchases were by users new to the platform." This article says this about the Mac and the Apple Watch. If this is true, consistently over time, and it is also (mostly) true that overall PC sales have stagnated, why aren't Mac sales as a percentage of overall PC sales roughly doubling? There's probably some simple math I am missing here, but at the very least, Apple's claims on this would seem to imply a much larger rate of market share growth than they have achieved over the past ten years.
 
Here’s the thing: Vision Pro doesn’t really get anything done that a tradition computer can’t.

AI gets things done that current market offerings can’t.

AI is the future, Tim. Doesn’t matter how cool you say something is, at some point people will stop buying things just because you say they are cool. Vision Pro is that ending. Focus on the real revolution: AI.
I could say the same thing for my iPad. It doesn't let me do anything my laptop couldn't, but it lets me perform those tasks differently enough that I find value in using my iPad to teach in the classroom compared to a conventional PC. My Apple Watch doesn't really do anything my iPhone can't, but I do find that viewing notifications and Apple Pay is so much more convenient from the wrist.

Same with the Vision Pro. It doesn't need to do something new that my existing computer can't; it just needs to be able to rethink the manner in which I interact with my content in order to be worth the price tag.

If you are referring to generative AI like chatGPT, that is only a very small subset of what AI is, and even then, I won't be surprised if services like chatGPT and stable diffusion eventually get a very dirty reputation due to privacy and copyright concerns.

The truth is that Apple does incorporate AI into their products, like crash detection in their phones, ECG or fall detection in their smartwatches. This might not be what you normally associate with AI, but they have been credited with saving lives, and if you ask me, that's meaningful innovation right there.

This is really the classic mistake most people criticising Apple make. That they think just because Apple isn't doing what the rest of the industry is currently doing, then it must be Apple who has missed the boat and is lagging behind. But Apple does a lot of things differently, and if all you are doing is simply comparing Apple to everyone else and then go “Hey, Apple isn’t following what everyone else is doing, so I don’t think whatever Apple is doing is going to work”, I think they go down the wrong path.

The best way of covering Apple is still to begin with Apple. You have to focus with Apple, and then you move outwards. You start with Apple, and then you analyse the industry that Apple operates in. Not the other way around.
 
Two thirds of new Apple Watch customers during the quarter were new to the product.
Wearables are nearly the size of a Fortune 100 company, earning $40 billion in the last 12 months.

Number of the people insisting Vision Pro will be a failure who learn anything from these numbers?
Approximately zero...
 
These quarterly calls always say the same thing: nothing. Just nonsensical phrases with keywords to please investors.
Or perhaps they are talking about things you don't understand, for purposes you don't understand?

The world is a very big place, and we all know well only a VERY SMALL portion of it. The wise person reacts to the unfamiliar with humility, not scorn.
 
Eh either you need a new laptop or you don’t. I double the avg. customer knows or cares if it has a M1, M2 or Big Mac inside

“Big Mac”, funny haha
I don’t necessarily agree; and devices get relevant again when the specs are updated.
 
Vision Pro

Cook said that Apple is "very excited" about Vision Pro. "Everyone who has gone through the demos have been blown away," said Cook. "We're looking forward to shipping it next year.

That's good and great but the consumer market will be blown away when they will spend $3,500.00 on Apple Vision Pro. (Not including other accessories). The price is too steep!
It’s less than half the cost of the first Mac, and it will do things no other device can. I think it’s a bargain! 💸
 
It’s less than half the cost of the first Mac, and it will do things no other device can. I think it’s a bargain! 💸
Using the value of the Dollar back in 1984 doesn't mean it was half the price. Life was a lot cheaper, price of gas, buying a car, home prices, interest rates from banks. Just comparing tuition at Stanford University for example has gone from $43,683 to $82,162 (2013-2023) want to guess how low it was in 1984? Try $6500.

So trying to pitch that because the 1984 dollar was a lot stronger in today's 2023 dollars is extremely misleading. Cost of living has gone way up. Yes technology is a bargain these days compared to those Apple dinosaur products, you differently get much faster/better computing products for the weaker dollar. :D
 
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Using the value of the Dollar back in 1984 doesn't mean it was half the price. Life was a lot cheaper, price of gas, buying a car, home prices, interest rates from banks. Just comparing tuition at Stanford University for example has gone from $43,683 to $82,162 (2013-2023) want to guess how low it was in 1984? Try $6500.

So trying to pitch that because the 1984 dollar was a lot stronger in today's 2023 dollars is extremely misleading. Cost of living has gone way up. Yes technology is a bargain these days compared to those Apple dinosaur products, you differently get much faster/better computing products for the weaker dollar. :D
It appears we are in agreement that inflation exists. People in 1984 weren’t making what people do in 2023. 😝
 
I don't even think its the macro-economic conditions thats affecting revenue, its just people feeling what they have is good enough and sticking with it. They would rather put that $1,000 in Apple Savings than upgrade from iPhone 12, 13 or 14.
I have working iMacs dated from 2011 and they work great!! I must admit that I change my iPhone every year because I like to have the latest, but this products endure quite a lot without any failure other than the battery..
 
A dividend of just 20% is ridiculous. What are they doing with all the money? We got high inflation. Is the ROI of this money higher? The owners like Berkshire should talk business with Tim

From a financial perspective, it makes sense to not be too generous with dividends. First, more dividends mean more taxes paid (unlike selling stock where you can defer your tax payment to the quarter it is sold). Second, you don't really want a company that adjusts its dividend payout too radically every quarter, much less one that fluctuates in accordance to how well or poorly it does. It's just too much noise.

The whole idea of share buybacks is to raise the price of Apple stock by reducing the amount in circulation. As such, if people wish to liquidate their earnings, they can always sell Apple shares. That's my take at least.
 
From a financial perspective, it makes sense to not be too generous with dividends. First, more dividends mean more taxes paid (unlike selling stock where you can defer your tax payment to the quarter it is sold). Second, you don't really want a company that adjusts its dividend payout too radically every quarter, much less one that fluctuates in accordance to how well or poorly it does. It's just too much noise.

The whole idea of share buybacks is to raise the price of Apple stock by reducing the amount in circulation. As such, if people wish to liquidate their earnings, they can always sell Apple shares. That's my take at least.
Buybacks do reduce the total amount of shares, which increases the eps — the stock price is separate from this.

I absolutely agree on dividends. Share buybacks have increased shareholder value far greater. I would rather they put those dividend funds towards growth opportunities like r&d, talent acquisition, m&a, etc.
 
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