Notes of interest from Apple's Q1 2018 conference call

Posted:
in AAPL Investors edited February 2018
Revenue reached new heights in Apple's holiday 2017 quarter, but unit sales of the iPhone fell year over year, reflecting the premium-priced lineup of the iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone 8. Following the publications of its first fiscal quarter 2018 results, the company held a conference call with media and analysts, and notes of interest follow.




Participating in Thursday's call were Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri.

Highlights

  • Apple's active install base reached 1.3 billion devices, 30 percent growth in two years
  • iPhone X was the top selling iPhone every week since launch, dispelling the myth that the cheaper iPhone 8 was outperforming it
  • Apple Pay is coming to Brazil in the coming months
  • Apple Watch saw its best-ever quarter, with 50 percent growth
  • Apple will pay the U.S. government $38 billion to repatriate overseas funds
  • The company has $285 billion in cash, but debt brings that down to $163 billion

Apple's iPhone business

Fifth consecutive quarter of accelerating revenue growth.

This quarter was 13 weeks long, year-ago was 14 weeks.

iPhone X was the best-selling smartphone in the world in the December quarter, according to Canalys.

"It has been our top selling phone every week since it launched," Cook said of the iPhone X.

Revenue for newly launched iPhones was highest for any lineup in company history.

App Store and services

Best holiday season ever.

Great excitement around augmented reality, Cook said.

2,000 ARKit apps in the App Store.

Apple surpassed 240 million paid subscribers across services in the quarter, up 30 million.

Apple Watch

The wearable's best quarter ever saw 50 percent growth in both revenue and units for the fourth quarter in a row.

Strong double-digit growth in every geographic segment.

Series 3 models were more than twice the volume of Series 2 a year ago.

Apple's iPad business

Worldwide, about half of iPad sales were to first-time tablet buyers or those switching to Apple.

Third consecutive quarter of revenue growth for the iPad.

LensCrafters plans to use 7,000 iPads for digital eye exams.
watto_cobra

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 13
    I can't get the audio cast to load on my Mac but it works on my iPad and listening now.   Anyone else have this problem?
  • Reply 2 of 13
    NY1822NY1822 Posts: 621member
    Dispelling the myth....lookie lookie....show your faces now
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 13
    tipootipoo Posts: 1,141member
    Mac sales slipped to 5.1 million from 5.4 million. Hoping for a great refresh here, and the dip actually encourages me that some complaints will be heard. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 13
    tipoo said:
    Mac sales slipped to 5.1 million from 5.4 million. Hoping for a great refresh here, and the dip actually encourages me that some complaints will be heard. 
    From last quarter? This is typically seasonally a slower quarter, so that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
  • Reply 5 of 13
    jungmarkjungmark Posts: 6,926member
    Too bad the X is DOA. Will those tech blogs issue a retraction or correction? Probably not. 
    lolliverwatto_cobraxamax
  • Reply 6 of 13
    jungmark said:
    Too bad the X is DOA. Will those tech blogs issue a retraction or correction? Probably not. 
    The Doom Train™ will keep chugging along as usual.
    anantksundaramwatto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 13
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    Someone should sit down and do the math on the 30% increase in active devices. It looks like more than half (up to 2/3) iPhones are not being retired. It’s hard to say more precisely without a breakdown of “devices”. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 13
    asdasdasdasd Posts: 5,686member
    As in it looks like they sold approximately  440M iPhones in the last two years and have 300M extra active devices. iPads probably are also not being retired. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 13
    The first ever AI 'notes of interest' from an Apple results conference call not to mention Macs at all. 
    SpamSandwich
  • Reply 10 of 13
    FolioFolio Posts: 698member

    Quickie excerpt from analyst of what used to be called S&P IQ:

    CFRA KEEPS BUY OPINION ON SHARES OF APPLE INC.

    Recent Price: $167.43

    S&P Stock in the News

    February 1, 2018

    AAPL posts Dec-Q EPS of $3.89 vs. $3.36, beating the $3.85 consensus. Sales rose 13%, with iPhone sales growing 13%, as higher selling prices were partly offset by a decline in unit shipments. We positively view Services growth of 18% and Other products (e.g. Apple Watch), up 36%. We think AAPL executed well internationally, with Greater China rising 11% and Asia overall growing 15% (including Japan). While the Mar-Q revenue outlook of $60B-$62B was below our view, we think shares have largely discounted iPhone X softness. We view a 15% projected Mar-Q tax rate as a bright spot.

    Angelo Zino, CFA 02/01/2018 17:38:38 

    space2001
  • Reply 11 of 13
    FolioFolio Posts: 698member
    Whether customer or stockholder, gotta love the growing breadth of Apple:

    1. Geographically-- peerless compared to other big "global" techs (AMZN, GOOGL, FB, BABA, Tencent)

    2. New Products-- including watch, Airpods, iPad Pros, and now Homepods

    3. Expanding Services, serving upward of 1.3 billion devices

    4. Diversity of iPhone line for consumers, big, small, new, refurbs

    5. Dedicated push into enterprise
    MacPrololliverwatto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 13
    brakkenbrakken Posts: 687member
    And what will the T-Admin spend that 38b$ on, hmm?
  • Reply 13 of 13
    JanNLJanNL Posts: 327member
    emoeller said:
    I can't get the audio cast to load on my Mac but it works on my iPad and listening now.   Anyone else have this problem?
    Had it the other way around. Didn't load on my iPad and it was instantaneously on my iMac...
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