Notes of interest from Apple's Q309 quarterly conference call

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Once again, Apple has had the best non-holiday quarter in its history, selling more Macs and iPhones than it ever has in spring, albeit with fewer iPods sold. The company has conducted a financial conference call with analysts and the press. Notes of interest for Apple's results and the now concluded call follow.



On Tuesday, Apple detailed the results of its fiscal 2009 third quarter ended June 27, 2009, posting revenue of $8.34 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.23 billion, or $1.35 per diluted share.Â*



Apple's regional business segments



Apple Americas accounted for 1.147 million Mac sales and $3.827 billion in revenues. The amount of Mac sales is a major 42 percent surge in units sequentially and an uptick of 9 percent in revenue, but a more modest 1 percent gain in units and 11 percent in revenue compared to a year earlier.



Apple Europe represented 626,000 Mac sales and $2.006 billion in revenues. Sequentially, the numbers dropped 5 percent in units and 4 percent in revenue, but were increases of 9 percent in units and 22 percent in revenue versus spring 2008.



Apple Japan was responsible for 108,000 Mac sales and $416 million in revenues. Sequentially, these are down 1 percent in units and 17 percent in revenue, but increases of 6 percent in shipments and 14 percent in revenue year-over-year.



Apple's Asia Pacific (and FileMaker Inc) divisions represented 230,000 Mac sales and $592 million in revenues. The values represent a 14 percent sequential lift to units but only a 2 percent change in revenue. From year to year, units increased 11 percent and revenue increased 4 percent.



Apple's "Other Music Related Products and Services" segment was responsible for $958 million in revenue. It was a 9 percent sequential drop but a 17 percent increase versus a year ago.



Apple's "Peripherals and Other Hardware" added $341 million in revenue, a 5 percent drop in sequential revenue and a 22 percent drop annually.



Apple's "Software, Service and Other Sales" segment produced $528 million in revenue, a 16 percent plunge versus the March quarter but a 5 percent increase compared to the same quarter 12 months prior.



Apple's Mac business



Apple sold a total of 849,000 desktops during the quarter, generating $1.129 billion in revenue. The shipments and revenue are up 4 and 8 percent sequentially, but down 10 percent and 18 percent year-over-year.



In notebooks, Apple shipped 1.754 million of its portables during the quarter, creating exactly $2.2 billion in revenue. These statistics are healthy increases of 25 percent in units and 16 percent in revenue sequentially, but show an emphasis on lower-cost systems with a 13 percent increase in units year-over-year with a 2 percent drop in revenue.



There is between 3 and 4 weeks of channel inventory.



There were updates to the portable lineup that helped combined Mac units increase 13 percent year over year. The reaction was "very favorable" and has resulted in faster sales.



Half of Macs sold in stores were to customers who never owned a Mac before.



On shortages of the 13-inch MacBook Pro: Apple acknowledged a pair of models that are constrained in supply right now, but that this should improve within the "next few weeks."



The K-12 education market is weak and hit by budget cuts. Few of the federal stimulus funds went towards the state and district levels, where it helps Apple the most. There's about a 6 percent decline in institutional business, but higher education was flat.



Small businesses are also delaying their purchases.



Apple is 7 to 9 points ahead of the market in growth.



The company fully expected that some customers were going to buy a system because they could get a MacBook Pro for $1,199. At the same time, though, the price also upsold many who would have bought the cheaper $999 MacBook instead; the mix was more towards the cheaper system last quarter. K-12 goes towards the less expensive units.



Apple isn't "thinking fundamentally different" about its Mac business despite the price cuts. It wants to build the best computers possible, but it does so at lower prices when it thinks it can.



No updates on Snow Leopard other than that it will ship later this quarter (i.e. September).



Apple's iPhone and Apple TV businesses



Apple sold 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter, producing $1.689 billion in revenue. This is sequentially up 37 percent in units and 11 percent in revenue, but in year-over-year results was a staggering 626 percent jump in units and 303 percent surge in revenue.



iPhones are being sold in 81 countries and 50,000 storefronts.



iPhone inventory was flat sequentially.



>Response to the iPhone 3GS has been "tremendous" to the point where the company can't make enough of the phones to meet demand. "We're working to address this," the company said.



The company doesn't want to predict when supply and demand will balance, but it won't be in the short term. Rollouts to new countries may have to move by "a few weeks here or there."



There is "nothing to announce today" in terms of anything else Apple might do with carriers, such as notebooks. It's "very focused" on pairing with them on iPhones.



Apple saw "significant acceleration" in total unit sales this quarter, but sees the specific percentage breakdown of $99 iPhones versus the 3GS as a competitive secret.



Apple just took a "major change" with the introduction of the $99 iPhone 3G and says it added the model to exploit elasticity in that price area.



In large enterprise, the iPhone is producing "growing interest" thanks to 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS, which adds hardware encryption of data. Small and large businesses that allow individual purchases are doing well; more than one company bought over 25,000 iPhones each.



JD Power ranked the iPhone the highest in satisfaction with business users. "We're at the tip of the iceberg," Apple said.



The company is focused on total iPhone use, not just which specific models are being used. Only 18 countries currently sell the iPhone 3GS so far and it's still constrained. Also, many of the early buyers are upgrading rather than buying as first-time customers. It's too soon to tell how results will fare as there's only been a few weeks with the new product mix.



The App Store is available in 77 countries and reaches 45 million people. By comparison, Android Market has less than 5,000 apps, and both BlackBerry App World and Nokia's Ovi Store have between 1,000 and 2,000 apps.



Apple "does have some ideas" on how to avoid the race to the bottom in terms of iPhone app prices, and may categorize them differently in the future. However, as the install base grows, it makes more sense for developers to sell at lower prices. It's up to them to set the price.



Apple won't release the percentage of iPhone sales by geography; unofficial estimates have it at 40 percent for the US.



The company continues to sell the iPhone prepaid in those markets where it's dominant. The greatest success is in areas where postpaid (subscription) leads the way.



Nothing new on the iPhone in China, other than that it's a "priority project" and should happen within a year.



Apple continues to see its partnering with AT&T as an "excellent relationship."



Apple's iPod business



About 10.215 million iPods were sold this quarter, resulting in $1.492 billion in revenue. The sequential decrease marks 7 percent and 10 percent drops in units and revenue, and a near identical yearly 7 percent drop in units and an 11 percent drop in revenue over the same period.



Apple has between 4 and 6 weeks of iPod channel inventory; the reduced sales were partly attributed to dropping channel inventory by about 400,000 iPods. The new iPod shuffle and the Easter holiday created a slight overstock at the end of March that necessitated culling inventory.



Traditional MP3 players (shuffle, nano and classic), had a decline year over year that Apple forecasted would occur. "This was one of the original reasons we developed the iPhone and the iPod touch," the company said.



Apple expects conventional iPods to continue to decline as the iPhone and iPod touch cannibalize the lines. However, about 50 percent of those buying non-touch iPods were buying an iPod for the first time.



Apple sold over 8 billion iTunes songs as of last week.



The iPod continues to have over 70 percent of the US market, according to NPD data; this is actually a gain in share despite a shrinking market.



The iPod touch specifically grew about 130 percent year over year, though numbers weren't given. Shipments of the iPod touch should "grow significantly" in the next quarter.



A "good number" of iPod touch users have upgraded to 3.0, but Apple won't go into specifics.



Apple's retail business



Retail stores accounted for 492,000 Macs shipped in the quarter, or about $1.496 billion in revenue. This is a 12 percent sequential step up in units and a 2 percent increase in revenue, but in year-to-year terms just a 3 percent increase in units and a 4 percent climb in revenue.



There were an average of 254 stores open in the quarter, and the average revenue per store was $5.9 million.



38.6 million people visited stores in the quarter, an increase of 22 percent.



The new One to One program launched in the quarter and hosted 667,000 personal training sessions.



Apple is still on track to open 24 new stores in 2009 and remodel about 27 more.



The company's first store in France should open for the holidays.



Apple's next (Q409) fiscal quarter



The company expects its fourth quarter revenue to float between $8.7 billion and $8.9 billion, and its diluted earnings per share to range between $1.18 and $1.23.



Costs are rising for components, and you're seeing that in the market. Apple still wants to provide state-of-the-art products, however and wants to provide "ever increasing value."



DRAM (memory) and LCD display market have become restrained, but flash memory prices are stabilizing. Hard drive and optical drive prices are recovering.



Apple paid Toshiba $500 million earlier this quarter for a long-term flash memory supply deal. NAND flash is a "very key component" for Apple as it's used in so many of its products.



The company says it "may do others" of this type and won't "close that door," but it depends on circumstances.



Tim Cook on the question of netbooks: "whatever price point that we can build the best at, we will play there. At this point we don't see a way to build a great product for this $399, $499... this kind of price point unit," he says. "As I've said before, I think this is playing out in several areas, I think some customers, maybe many customers buying these [netbooks], become disappointed and disenchanted after they buy one of these."



When questioned on a possible smaller device: Cook would "never want to discount anything" but won't talk about any plans for a particular product. Most people buying portables "want a full-featured notebook."



"I think some of the netbooks that are being delivered... are very slow," Cook said. "They have software technology that is old. They don't have a robust computing experience. They lack horsepower. They have small displays and cramped keyboards. I could go on and on, but I won't."
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 98
    mactelmactel Posts: 1,275member
    Not sure how 849,000 desktops and 1.398 notebooks adds up to 2.6 million mac sold from the previous article. What am I missing?
  • Reply 2 of 98
    kasperkasper Posts: 941member, administrator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacTel View Post


    Not sure how 849,000 desktops and 1.398 notebooks adds up to 2.6 million mac sold from the previous article. What am I missing?



    1.754M portables -- making the correction.
  • Reply 3 of 98
    tokoloshtokolosh Posts: 101member
    Apparently Apple didn't get the memo about the world being in a recession.
  • Reply 4 of 98
    bloggerblogbloggerblog Posts: 2,464member
    Billion Billion Dollars Sheesh!

    Maybe we should get together and revive the Amiga.
  • Reply 5 of 98
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member
    By my calculations, Apple now has about 12.5% of the smartphone market.
  • Reply 6 of 98
    noirdesirnoirdesir Posts: 1,027member
    So, how much cash does Apple now have?

    EDIT: Seen it elsewhere: $31.1 billion

    That is whole boatload of cash.
  • Reply 7 of 98
    mcarlingmcarling Posts: 1,106member
    How can both laptop and desktop sales be down year over year, but Mac sales up year over year?
  • Reply 8 of 98
    brucepbrucep Posts: 2,823member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Apple's Mac business



    Apple sold a total of 849,000 desktops during the quarter, generating $1.129 billion in revenue. The shipments and revenue are up 4 and 8 percent sequentially, but down 10 percent and 18 percent year-over-year.



    In notebooks, Apple shipped 1.754 million of its portables during the quarter, creating $1.895 billion in revenue. These statistics are down sharply from the holiday quarter, falling 22 percent in units and 25 percent in revenue, but are softer in annual changes at decreases of 2 percent in shipments and 12 percent in revenue.



    There is between 3 and 4 weeks of channel inventory.



    There were updates to the portable lineup that helped the Mac increase 13 percent year over year as a whole. The reaction was "very favorable" and has resulted in faster sales.



    Half of Macs sold were to customers who][/url][/c]



    HUH



    sales are down

    yet sales ae then up

    for mac lappops and desktops
  • Reply 9 of 98
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Re: the two posts above this one (edit: and the one below! ) : there was an error in the original article, you're all right it didn't make sense, but it's been fixed now. With the portables, there was actually a 13% increase in units but 2% decline in revenue (i.e.: A huge shift to the bottom-end of the range).
  • Reply 10 of 98
    ouraganouragan Posts: 437member
    O.K. early report corrected.



    Thanks, AppleInsider.





  • Reply 11 of 98
    brucepbrucep Posts: 2,823member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr. H View Post


    Re: the two posts above this one: there was an error in the original article, you're both right it didn't make sense, but it's been fixed now.



    MSN gets it right



    >>>>>

    Apple's Mac computers also bolstered results. Apple sold 4 percent more Mac computers than a year ago. Meanwhile, researchers recently reported a 3 percent to 5 percent decline for the overall worldwide PC market in the same period

    >>>>go msft
  • Reply 12 of 98
    mark2005mark2005 Posts: 1,158member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by noirdesir View Post


    So, how much cash does Apple now have?

    EDIT: Seen it elsewhere: $31.1 billion

    That is whole boatload of cash.



    Based only on the balance sheet, it looks like Apple used cash to buy about $4.5B worth of longer-term securities during the quarter.



    And on the conference call, they just said they paid Toshiba $500M on a long-term flash memory deal.



    So cash is a bit lower than it could've been based on revenue.
  • Reply 13 of 98
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tokolosh View Post


    Apparently Apple didn't get the memo about the world being in a recession.



    The recession as the government calls it is focused on primarily two industries, housing and automobiles. Both deserve exactly what they are getting. In the case of the auto industry they really should have been forced into failure. The housing industry is as much a result of government mandates and medling as anything.



    The key with Apple though is that they pulled some winners out of the rabbits hat at WWDC. This should provide momentum to drive very good results in this quarter. There are some sad spots in accessories and stuff that should cause some concern. The other positive sign is iPod sales, the numbers are far better than the analyst where predicting.



    Frankly I wish iPod sales where broken down a bit but that is likely a trade secret. I honestly see Apple doing well all the way through to the new year. That barring a major war or disaster. They just don't have the competition.



    Dave
  • Reply 14 of 98
    mark2005mark2005 Posts: 1,158member
    Desktop units 10% decline in units yoy; 18% decline in revenue yoy

    Notebook units 13% increase in units yoy; 2% decline in revenue yoy

    Combined Mac units 4% increase in units yoy; 8% decline in revenue yoy (lower prices)



    Desktop units 4% increase in units qoq; 8% increase in revenue qoq

    Notebook units 25% increase in units qoq; 16% increase in revenue qoq

    Combined Mac units 17% increase in units qoq; 13% increase in revenue qoq
  • Reply 15 of 98
    noirdesirnoirdesir Posts: 1,027member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mark2005 View Post


    Based only on the balance sheet, it looks like Apple used cash to buy about $4.5B worth of longer-term securities during the quarter.



    And on the conference call, they just said they paid Toshiba $500M on a long-term flash memory deal.



    So cash is a bit lower than it could've been based on revenue.



    I would have thought longer-term securities would be counted as 'cash' (as they could be easily converted back to cash) on a company balance sheet. At least compared to 'invested' money in buying shares of companies they are a strategic interest in.
  • Reply 16 of 98
    benroethigbenroethig Posts: 2,782member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by brucep View Post


    HUH



    sales are down

    yet sales ae then up

    for mac lappops and desktops



    Might have something to do with MBPs that have much longer battery life, lower prices, and features customers have been asking for.
  • Reply 17 of 98
    brucepbrucep Posts: 2,823member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    The recession as the government calls it is focused on primarily two industries, housing and automobiles. Both deserve exactly what they are getting. In the case of the auto industry they really should have been forced into failure. The housing industry is as much a result of government mandates and medling as anything.



    The key with Apple though is that they pulled some winners out of the rabbits hat at WWDC. This should provide momentum to drive very good results in this quarter. There are some sad spots in accessories and stuff that should cause some concern. The other positive sign is iPod sales, the numbers are far better than the analyst where predicting.



    Frankly I wish iPod sales where broken down a bit but that is likely a trade secret. I honestly see Apple doing well all the way through to the new year. That barring a major war or disaster. They just don't have the competition.



    Dave



    well a real shocker is that besides the best ever quarter

    and very high sales for every product , including the creaming hot sales of MBP 13 " AND WHITE MB'S Beside's all that,



    Market Watch reports this shocking news item .



    >>>>>>>The iPhone highlighted the report, as Apple said iPhone sales surged 626% over the same period a year ago. The new iPhone 3GS was on sale for less than two weeks during the quarter.>>>><>>>>>



    The new iphone was on sale for less than two weeks !!!!



    Next quarter will be a very good one too .





    9



    go steve go
  • Reply 18 of 98
    mdriftmeyermdriftmeyer Posts: 7,503member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mcarling View Post


    How can both laptop and desktop sales be down year over year, but Mac sales up year over year?



    More people are prioritizing money and spending a bit more to buy something they find gives them a far greater ROI.
  • Reply 19 of 98
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mdriftmeyer View Post


    More people are prioritizing money and spending a bit more to buy something they find gives them a far greater ROI.



    I think you misunderstood mcarling's question. Given that a Mac is either a portable or a desktop, it is impossible for sales of desktop Macs and laptop Macs to both be down, but sales of Macs overall to be up. The correct answer to the question is that there was an error in the original article which has now been fixed.
  • Reply 20 of 98
    tbelltbell Posts: 3,146member
    I think you have it in reverse. The housing market failure is a result of a lack of government meddling. The reality is that companies were selling mortgages to just about anybody. I bought a house a few years ago, and the bank did a drive by appraisal and came up with the same number as my offer. Further, as a Bankruptcy attorney, I see people who were making little more then minimum wage getting approved for $200, 000 mortgages. There are very few state or federal regulations governing this area. On top of that, there was little government over sight on selling mortgage securities.





    The automobile companies have made some questionable decisions over the years, but government regulations favor foreign companies coming into the US and those relocating manufacturing out of the US. If you stay in the US you get taxed more then companies moving overseas, and if you move to the US you get Tax breaks not available to those already situated. About five years ago, American companies couldn't build enough SUVs. If the automobile industry went belly up unemployment would be much higher and the government would be paying unemployment benefits for a much higher amount of people. Further, less manufacturing based in the US is a security threat. Keeping big auto companies alive is a good thing for all.



    The mortgage crisis caused everybody else to fail. If anybody should have been forced to close shop it should have been those banks buying and selling mortgage securities. The Country would be stronger for it. No bailout would have been needed, and a lesson would have been taught to those reckless people in the banking world who destroyed many people's lives.







    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    The recession as the government calls it is focused on primarily two industries, housing and automobiles. Both deserve exactly what they are getting. In the case of the auto industry they really should have been forced into failure. The housing industry is as much a result of government mandates and medling as anything.



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