iPhone Generated Record-Breaking Share of Profits Last Quarter Despite Continued Sales Decline

[LordVic]

I agree, but I'd word it as incentivizing consumers to buy products falls under one way to increase profits.
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Depends on the circumstance. With a quality product in the wings, as well as profits still increasing... many more.

I think you misinterpreted the article.

It's not saying that apples profits are growing, or that they've hit record profits.

It's saying that their share of the profits of the industry is the largest.

This is slightly misleading. Because apples business strategies, and revenue to costs model is significantly different than he rest of the industry, who generally chooses to operate with lower profit margins.

It's an interesting figure, but is t really practically useful. It's just another way of saying the bogus "Apple made 105% of smartphone profits" because it's not comparing like to like business models.

If the trends of the last few quarters revenues holds up, they will likely still see some decline in overall profits and revenues.

But that's why we have earning calls, to see what Apple did in comparison to itself, not to other companies with different businesss plans and strategies

 

[AppleScruff1]

what the heck you talking about? it is the most stable ecosystem and most worryfree electronic device ever. As the OS and other Apple apps matures it truly adds joy to everyday life...

Back to work Tim. Time to innovate.

 

[macTW]

I think you misinterpreted the article.

It's not saying that apples profits are growing, or that they've hit record profits.

It's saying that their share of the profits of the industry is the largest.

This is slightly misleading. Because apples business strategies, and revenue to costs model is significantly different than he rest of the industry, who generally chooses to operate with lower profit margins.

It's an interesting figure, but is t really practically useful. It's just another way of saying the bogus "Apple made 105% of smartphone profits" because it's not comparing like to like business models.

If the trends of the last few quarters revenues holds up, they will likely still see some decline in overall profits and revenues.

But that's why we have earning calls, to see what Apple did in comparison to itself, not to other companies with different businesss plans and strategies

It doesn't change my point. The fact that the entire smartphone industry may be decreasing is beyond Apple, but their performance within the industry is growing and that is a sign of strength.

 

[Abazigal]

This post is so laughably naive.

I've put my comments inline, since I'm on my iPad.

Thank you for replying within the quote boxes and making it infinitely harder for me to respond accordingly.

I too reply from my iPhone and iPad. My advice - save the shortcuts for quoting into a clipboard management app like Copied, so you can readily insert them around chunks of text in an app like Tapatalk to simulate the multi-quote feature.

 

[LordVic]

It doesn't change my point. The fact that the entire smartphone industry may be decreasing is beyond Apple, but their performance within the industry is growing and that is a sign of strength.

But we don't know if it's growing. We have absolutely no information. We have to wait till the quartley calll.

The number here is purely profit. Again, other companies in the industry are selling good volume, but with much smaller profit margins,

The numbers here aren't saying apples profits, volume or anything has gone up.

It's saying it's portion of the entire industry profit is up.

The only thing you can logically claim fro this stat is that Apple has been able to keep their profit margins higher than the competitors. That's it.
[doublepost=1479949428][/doublepost]

Thank you for replying within the quote boxes and making it infinitely harder for me to respond accordingly.

I too reply from my iPhone and iPad. My advice - save the shortcuts for quoting into a clipboard management app like Copied, so you can readily insert them around chunks of text in an app like Tapatalk to simulate the multi-quote feature.

Thanks for the advice,

Will try it out.

 

[citysnaps]

But we don't know if it's growing. We have absolutely no information. We have to wait till the quartley calll.

The number here is purely profit. Again, other companies in the industry are selling good volume, but with much smaller profit margins,

The numbers here aren't saying apples profits, volume or anything has gone up.

It's saying it's portion of the entire industry profit is up.

The only thing you can logically claim fro this stat is that Apple has been able to keep their profit margins higher than the competitors. That's it.

There are some clues, at least with respect to Apple's smartphone growth. Take Apple's revenue guidance for example. Generally their numbers come in very close, likely due to their conservative guidance stance.

With that in mind... Apple's Q4 2016 revenue (ending September 24th), was $46.9 billion, as reported in their October 25th report. At that time Apple also provided guidance for Q1 2017 revenue being between $76 billion and $78 billion.

Of course that's a projection (and represents all of Apple's products and services), but it will be very close. In any event it appears there's going to be substantial revenue growth, no doubt with the majority tagged to iPhone sales.

Not really surprising...

 

[bjet767]

Not at all. This has nothing to do with smarts or enlightenment. Apple's spell simply didn't work on me - I was lucky.

Wow you're so smart you chose to come to an Apple blog and write over 300 messages to enlighten everyone.

Oh and only 11% inflation in 6 years, I'll give you credit that's very low. I hope we will see the next 6 be similar.

Now Please take your gospel to another blog.

 

[Michael Scrip]

But when that company starts boasting about it, while showing huge profit margins, and also finding ways of "cheating out" on labour, lawsuits, parts, quality, etc, while still boasting higher than industry averages in profit, that's pure profiteering and that bothers my own personal ethics.

Don't boast 9bilion in profit, then refuse to pay your staff an extra 15 minutes you make them wait for a bag check, or continue to use the cheapest overseas factories with known human rights issues. Or jacking up prices internationally to make the profit margins look bigger, or hold money off shore to avoid paying taxes on the very same money you've claimed as profit.

Who's boasting?

Every three months Apple issues a press release stating how much money they made for the quarter. And usually it's in the billions of dollars of profit. I don't consider that boasting.

Apple is certainly doing better than HTC... who recently posted a $152 million LOSS for the quarter.

But Apple isn't bragging about their own success.

Perhaps Strategy Analytics shouldn't write articles like this with crazy made-up metrics.

 

[2IS]

I didn't... I proved your question to be useless.

Read it again. I think you proved your own post to be useless. Or more accurately, you helped me prove your own post to be useless. It's best to just keep quiet when you have nothing to say vs running off at the mouth while not actually saying anything, which is what you've been doing in this thread.

 

[Speedy Dingo]

Completely wrong, when Apple focused on profits-first and vision/innovation second, they got obscenely greedy and nearly killed Apple in the 90s. Blackberry focused on profits, rested on laurels and forgot to innovate, move forward, and died. Vision/innovation has to be first, then profits will follow. Steve Jobs described the demise of Apple in the 90s:

“they cared about making a lot of money… they got very greedy and instead of following the original trajectory of the original vision which was to make this thing an appliance and get this out there to as many people as possible, they went for profits, and they made outlandish profits for about 4 years, one of the most profitable companies in america for 4 years, and what that cost them was their future, because what they should have been doing was making rational profits…”

See minute 39

Steve then came back at the end of the 90s and saved Apple by innovating with iMac, digital hub, changing the world with iPod, then profits followed.

I love watching these old Steve interviews as he's describing the Apple that stands today and potentially in the future. No new products or true innovation - just refreshed iPhones, watch bands and services.

 

[trifid]

I love watching these old Steve interviews as he's describing the Apple that stands today and potentially in the future. No new products or true innovation - just refreshed iPhones, watch bands and services.

Indeed. Apple could innovate with a revolutionary TV service/product that truly kills cable but they failed negociations with media companies and we got an very mild update with Apple TV 4 for example.

Or Apple could change the way we live in our homes with an AI voice like Amazon's Echo, instead no, nothing. They are milking the userbase through dongles, soldered macs, etc.

 

[I7guy]

Indeed. Apple could innovate with a revolutionary TV service/product that truly kills cable but they failed negociations with media companies and we got an very mild update with Apple TV 4 for example.

Or Apple could change the way we live in our homes with an AI voice like Amazon's Echo, instead no, nothing. They are milking the userbase through dongles, soldered macs, etc.

Not really, maybe to some an echo is a game changer, but I've used one and I dont see it. A game changer is to have all of this stuff in your iPhone and not buying separate overlapping equipment, utilizing all of apples massive computer power to make this happen.

That I believe is coming. And of course if the user base revolts we will all know it.
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I love watching these old Steve interviews as he's describing the Apple that stands today and potentially in the future. No new products or true innovation - just refreshed iPhones, watch bands and services.

What exactly other than a cell phone and big tablet came out of the sj era after the iPhone 1 that isn't a refreshed iPhone?

 

[Speedy Dingo]

What exactly other than a cell phone and big tablet came out of the sj era after the iPhone 1 that isn't a refreshed iPhone?

I'm fairly certain Apple was on the brink of bankruptcy before Steve came back and revolutionised the music(iPod), phone and tablet industry, and in turn saved Apple. At least with Steve we saw revolutionary products. What have we seen under current Apple/Cook leadership?

 

[I7guy]

I'm fairly certain Apple was on the brink of bankruptcy before Steve came back and revolutionised the music(iPod), phone and tablet industry, and in turn saved Apple. At least with Steve we saw revolutionary products. What have we seen under current Apple/Cook leadership?

Sure the ipod and iphone 1 were an mp3 player and cell phone, respectively that changed the way people viewed those devices. But after that all incremental? The definition of revolutionary does not change. The iphone 5s, to name one, was a game changer as much as the iphone 1. Sure these goal posts can be debated until the cows come home, but based on apples current performance they seem to be doing right by their customers.
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Back to work Tim. Time to innovate.

Yeah, he's probably spending way too much time on MR.

 

[Radon87000]

Indeed. Apple could innovate with a revolutionary TV service/product that truly kills cable but they failed negociations with media companies and we got an very mild update with Apple TV 4 for example.

Or Apple could change the way we live in our homes with an AI voice like Amazon's Echo, instead no, nothing. They are milking the userbase through dongles, soldered macs, etc.

Nothing will happen while Tim's in charge . I saw this article on Forbes the other day on how is doing nothing but squandering long term profits for short term ones . The current team at Apple needs some new blood . Jony is on his way out which is a good thing . Time to replace Timmy and the existing management with some innovators and risk takers like how Jobs and Forstall were . You know something is wrong when Microsoft, which used to be the nerdy uncool one is more innovative than Apple with the surface studio , holo lens and a rumoured x86 application support for the Surface Phone .
An actual PC operating system for a phone . If this comes out I am getting it Day 1 . iPhones are becoming stale nowadays

 

[Radon87000]

Not really, maybe to some an echo is a game changer, but I've used one and I dont see it. A game changer is to have all of this stuff in your iPhone and not buying separate overlapping equipment, utilizing all of apples massive computer power to make this happen.

That I believe is coming. And of course if the user base revolts we will all know it.
[doublepost=1479962124][/doublepost]
What exactly other than a cell phone and big tablet came out of the sj era after the iPhone 1 that isn't a refreshed iPhone?

Entire product line of the current Apple except for the Watch are Jobs creations

 

[LordVic]

There are some clues, at least with respect to Apple's smartphone growth. Take Apple's revenue guidance for example. Generally their numbers come in very close, likely due to their conservative guidance stance.

With that in mind... Apple's Q4 2016 revenue (ending September 24th), was $46.9 billion, as reported in their October 25th report. At that time Apple also provided guidance for Q1 2017 revenue being between $76 billion and $78 billion.

Of course that's a projection (and represents all of Apple's products and services), but it will be very close. In any event it appears there's going to be substantial revenue growth, no doubt with the majority tagged to iPhone sales.

Not really surprising...

not really surprising, I also think the last Q results were lower than they will be for the next. The iPhone 7 only had 1 or 2 weeks worth of sales in those reports, and there will be more sales in this Q. the timing of the call and the timing of the release made the reporting timing to be a little less accurate than usual.
with the MBP and IPhone7, i think this next quarter will be decent.

 

[keithjfuller]

apple has record profits on iphones because they are garbage phones that people buy without thinking. they are like crack to people. they have been pretty much the same thing for like 4 years. the only things that are new and the john ives videos that come out with each "new" version where he tells you why it's "revolutionary, and the best iphone yet." i'd hope that the newest one would always be the best...

 

[I7guy]

Entire product line of the current Apple except for the Watch are Jobs creations

Completely missed the point. However nothing new was invented by jobs, since goal posts are being destroyed.
[doublepost=1479992957][/doublepost]

apple has record profits on iphones because they are garbage phones that people buy without thinking. they are like crack to people. they have been pretty much the same thing for like 4 years. the only things that are new and the john ives videos that come out with each "new" version where he tells you why it's "revolutionary, and the best iphone yet." i'd hope that the newest one would always be the best...

Sure, or their customer base liked their products. of course no hyperbole here because you don't get to be company of this size by selling "garbage". Obvious own an android..

 

[Radon87000]

Completely missed the point. However nothing new was invented by jobs, since goal posts are being destroyed.
[doublepost=1479992957][/doublepost]
Sure, or their customer base liked their products. of course no hyperbole here because you don't get to be company of this size by selling "garbage". Obvious own an android..

He invented the following

1)The first smartphone which actually works with a proper App Store
2)The first tablet which does not require jabbing fingers at small touch points and no stylus
3)The best MP3 player on the planet
4)The Mac computer the only known competitive alternative to Windows

I am sure there's more but these are the high level points .

 

[Radon87000]

apple has record profits on iphones because they are garbage phones that people buy without thinking. they are like crack to people. they have been pretty much the same thing for like 4 years. the only things that are new and the john ives videos that come out with each "new" version where he tells you why it's "revolutionary, and the best iphone yet." i'd hope that the newest one would always be the best...

Jony is on his way out . I am thinking we may get real proper designs soon enough . My personal opinion is that Matias Duarte designs are more intuitive than Jony Ive

 

[I7guy]

He invented the following

1)The first smartphone which actually works with a proper App Store
2)The first tablet which does not require jabbing fingers at small touch points and no stylus
3)The best MP3 player on the planet
4)The Mac computer the only known competitive alternative to Windows

I am sure there's more but these are the high level points .

Cell phones were invented by Motorola in the 1980s, MP3 players were already around, and computers were around since the Turing engine. Best is at best subjective. Here goes the hyperbole again.
[doublepost=1479993680][/doublepost]

Jony is on his way out . I am thinking we may get real proper designs soon enough . My personal opinion is that Matias Duarte designs are more intuitive than Jony Ive

Yep, We're all in our way out. However the team of cook/Ive is in for the long haul.

 

[RumorSeeker]

I must get my comment count up; does anyone know why MacRumors has this arbitrary 100 count requirement for posting on some articles? Oh, Apple could build their cheap iPhones in America and still make a profit with their exorbitant markup, and I mean cheap as in quality not price.

 

[I7guy]

I must get my comment count up; does anyone know why MacRumors has this arbitrary 100 count requirement for posting on some articles? Oh, Apple could build their cheap iPhones in America and still make a profit with their exorbitant markup, and I mean cheap as in quality not price.

Yes, read the FAQs, lots of useful information. Do you "own" a "cheap" iPhone? The comment is nonsense as the iPhone is a high-quality device.

 

[bjet767]

So what would be revolutionary for Apple to do.

They took the texting craze of Blackberry and turned it into a flat touch screen that also played songs well and ran apps.

They took the portable Walkman CD player with its black ear buds and put a hard drive in you pocket with 1000 songs and made the ear buds white.

The took a visual computer interface and packaged it in a cute small desktop package.

They took luggable portable computers to a new lighter level and with a battery that lasted more than 45 minutes on a charge.

They are trying to take the tv industry with a small tv top interface device.

They are taking the pocket digital camera to different levels, you can have your phone and a good camera all in one.

So what other revolutionary idea do you experts think Apple will take and make fashionable and profitable in the future?