It's still odd though. I find it hard to believe they will sell $3.6 billion LESS next quarter.
Yeah, thats what I was trying to get at (despite my "holiday quarter" blunder.
My fear is that they are worried about the iPhone5 transition--massive shortages keeping the quarter's sales lower than they could be. I hope that, instead, they are just being ridiculously cautious...
Would love to be a fly on the wall of some editor's offices today, especially when they call in the tech writers who have been claiming tablet/iPad sales are dying. How did that stupid meme get started anyway? I've seen at least a half-dozen articles about how the iPad is dying in the last month. Clearly, that's not the case.
"Apple sold 33 million iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches during the quarter ending in June. By contrast, HP sold just 14.8 million PCs during the second quarter. Dell sold only 10.6 million. Suddenly, the post-PC era is here."
Apple's iOS device business is larger than HP's an Dell's PC businesses combined. That's just astounding. Yes, the post-PC era has definitely arrived.
most of them are Buy one get one deals, $5/$10 crap phones in 3rd world countries running Android 1.3
ROFL!
Android = CRAP
Let's be fair. Not all Android phones are crap. Many of them, yes, but not all. Regardless of activation numbers (which I consider a meaningless metric when comparing any mobile platform) Apple is thriving even under the best Google and their partners can unleash which is remarkable.
Let's be fair. Not all Android phones are crap. Many of them, yes, but not all. Regardless of activation numbers (which I consider a meaningless metric when comparing any mobile platform) Apple is thriving even under the best Google and their partners can unleash which is remarkable.
All in all another stellar quarter for the Apple cash machine. I don't agree with all their methods, but there's no arguing the magnitude of their success is amazing. The decision by Steve Jobs to go up against the entrenched and market leading Sony MP3 players years ago was the single most important step he's made at Apple IMO. It's made everything else that's followed possible.
Let's be fair. Not all Android phones are crap. Many of them, yes, but not all. Regardless of activation numbers (which I consider a meaningless metric when comparing any mobile platform) Apple is thriving even under the best Google and their partners can unleash which is remarkable.
Well, they're all crap because the Android OS is crap.
I believe the technical term for the amount of money Apple have made is "a shit load"!
In an age when companies boost profit by making things cheaper and cheaper and crapper and crapper it's great that there is still a company doing better than all of them by sticking by quality.
I got a free ticket to see the final Harry Potter with my son. But even tho I didn't pay for the ticket, I thought the movie was fantastic.
Out of curiosity, what's your perspective on the android fragmentation problem? To me it seems like the biggest long term problem that the platform faces. Fragmentation, and poor OS level support from OEMs/carriers seems certain to end up degrading the user experience- especially when iOS users are running round doing all the latest cool stuff on 3 year old handsets.
Out of curiosity, what's your perspective on the android fragmentation problem? To me it seems like the biggest long term problem that the platform faces. Fragmentation, and poor OS level support from OEMs/carriers seems certain to end up degrading the user experience- especially when iOS users are running round doing all the latest cool stuff on 3 year old handsets.
You're right that fragmentation had been a big issue. Less so now as far as OS version and app compatibility. But hardware compatibility is perhaps even more of an issue now compared to 6 months ago IMO. While the overwhelming percentage of Android handsets are now on 2.1 and up and therefor technically meeting the OS requirements for nearly every application in the Android Market, games are particularly problematic. Those wonderful HD-quality shooters with fast action and immersive graphics are only usable on the more recent higher-end smartphones with fast processors and lots of memory. Simply having the latest OS version isn't enough.
That's the reason for Google's recent efforts at setting minimum hardware requirements if an Android partner is to be part of the "in-crowd". I believe they'll get there with most of the manufacturers, particularly on the mainstream devices. So I don't see the OS version as a big problem any longer. Hardware consistency, especially minimum standards, is the bigger problem. If only there were three or four models, like Apple's product line, it would be easy to control.
Having now said that, I do think Apple sometimes takes the easy way out and drops support for some features on older hardware to make things easier for themselves rather than due to actual hardware limitation. Just ask Microsoft haw much effort is needed to support legacy systems. It would certainly be easier, cheaper and reduce problems if they'd just say they weren't supporting those older computers and tablets still using Vista. (I think they finally are ending support for XP)
You're right that fragmentation had been a big issue. Less so now as far as OS version and app compatibility. But hardware compatibility is perhaps even more of an issue now compared to 6 months ago IMO. While the overwhelming percentage of Android handsets are now on 2.1 and up and therefor technically meeting the OS requirements for nearly every application in the Android Market, games are particularly problematic. Those wonderful HD-quality shooters with fast action and immersive graphics are only usable on the more recent higher-end smartphones with fast processors and lots of memory. Simply having the latest OS version isn't enough.
Right, I know Hulu+ was only released to a handful of phones, presumably due to hardware requirements? I think that will result in considerable consumer dissatisfaction in the long term. If buying an android phone means you still can't run half the software, people just aren't used to minimum specs on phones.
Quote:
Having now said that, I do think Apple sometimes takes the easy way out and drops support for some features on older hardware to make things easier for themselves rather than due to actual hardware limitation.
What are you thinking of here specifically? At least in the mobile space Apple seems to be giving longer product life than industry average.
CUPERTINO, California?October 18, 2010?Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 fourth quarter ended September 25, 2010. The Company posted record revenue of $20.34 billion and net quarterly profit of $4.31 billion, or $4.64 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $12.21 billion and net quarterly profit of $2.53 billion, or $2.77 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.9 percent compared to 41.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 57 percent of the quarter?s revenue.
Apple sold 3.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 27 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 14.1 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 91 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.05 million iPods during the quarter, representing an 11 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The Company also sold 4.19 million iPads during the quarter.
?We are blown away to report over $20 billion in revenue and over $4 billion in after-tax earnings?both all-time records for Apple,? said Steve Jobs, Apple?s CEO. ?iPhone sales of 14.1 million were up 91 percent year-over-year, handily beating the 12.1 million phones RIM sold in their most recent quarter. We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year.?
?We?re thrilled with the performance and strength of our business, generating almost $5.7 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter,? said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple?s CFO. ?Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $23 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $4.80.?
Oppenheimer is forecasting a $5 Billion+ revenue increase from Q42010.
Right, I know Hulu+ was only released to a handful of phones, presumably due to hardware requirements? I think that will result in considerable consumer dissatisfaction in the long term. If buying an android phone means you still can't run half the software, people just aren't used to minimum specs on phones.
What are you thinking of here specifically? At least in the mobile space Apple seems to be giving longer product life than industry average.
The most obvious would be iOS4.3x and the lack of any support for the 3G.
The hardware differences going from the 3G to the 3GS aren't enormous. CPU went from 4-something to 600MHz, and the RAM from 128 to 256. The only other substantial difference I know of is a different graphics chip which added support for additional gaming features (I think). Yet no new features offered by 4.3 made it to the 3G. I feel certain that Apple could have made at least some improvements available. IMO, it was a decision based on both marketing and the path of least resistance. Stop the feature improvements/additions and give users a reason to upgrade, while at the same time allow the software engineers to concentrate on one or two hardware setups, speeding development and keeping costs down.
I have no proof that the existing 3G hardware could run many of the new 4.3 features, but highly doubt that it wasn't capable of using any of them. There's others here much more knowledgeable than me that could probably comment on that with more authority. But my opinion is Apple took the easy (and less expensive) way out by avoiding further development for an older model (which was still being sold just 2 years ago.) Not saying they were necessarily wrong to do so either.
The hardware differences going from the 3G to the 3GS aren't enormous. CPU went from 4-something to 600MHz, and the RAM from 128 to 256.
Well the RAM increase is pretty stonking isn't it? It's entirely plausible that iOS 4.3 just crept above the memory footprint that would allow it to run well on the 3G, and they have continued to supply security fixes to 4.2.
30 months of active OS support and security support after that is pretty good for a smartphone. How many Android phones from 2008 were still getting support until 2011? Heck how many android devices are shipping now with Froyo? I believe there are devices in stores that ship with Eclair!
What will be interesting to see is whether the iPhone-3GS gets support for iOS 6. I think Apple's target is 3 years of full OS support from launch.
Anybody here still under the absolute delusion that iPad demand is anywhere near "slowing" down? As I pointed out before and confirmed in the conference call, only 36 countries carry the iPad 2, with only 64 total countries carrying a mix of iPad 1 and 2 as of end of calendar Q2 2011. Compare this with iPhone in 105 countries.
I'd be very surprised if iPad doesn't hit an average of 15 million per calendar quarter for the rest of this year.
Calendar
Q1 4 million
Q2 9 million
Q3 13 milllion
Q4 17 million
= 43 million
We're looking at between 40 to 45 million iPads for calendar 2011.
Oppenheimer is forecasting a $5 Billion+ revenue increase from Q42010.
That's reasonable.
It's just managing investor expectations... Year-ago comparisons are virtually meaningless at this stage. It is highly unlikely in fiscal Q4 2011 that Apple will post less than their 28 billion in revenue this fiscal Q3 2011.
Comments
most of them are Buy one get one deals, $5/$10 crap phones in 3rd world countries running Android 1.3
ROFL!
Android = CRAP
It's still odd though. I find it hard to believe they will sell $3.6 billion LESS next quarter.
Yeah, thats what I was trying to get at (despite my "holiday quarter" blunder.
My fear is that they are worried about the iPhone5 transition--massive shortages keeping the quarter's sales lower than they could be. I hope that, instead, they are just being ridiculously cautious...
"Apple sold 33 million iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches during the quarter ending in June. By contrast, HP sold just 14.8 million PCs during the second quarter. Dell sold only 10.6 million. Suddenly, the post-PC era is here."
Apple's iOS device business is larger than HP's an Dell's PC businesses combined. That's just astounding. Yes, the post-PC era has definitely arrived.
android 550K/day
most of them are Buy one get one deals, $5/$10 crap phones in 3rd world countries running Android 1.3
ROFL!
Android = CRAP
Let's be fair. Not all Android phones are crap. Many of them, yes, but not all. Regardless of activation numbers (which I consider a meaningless metric when comparing any mobile platform) Apple is thriving even under the best Google and their partners can unleash which is remarkable.
Let's be fair. Not all Android phones are crap. Many of them, yes, but not all. Regardless of activation numbers (which I consider a meaningless metric when comparing any mobile platform) Apple is thriving even under the best Google and their partners can unleash which is remarkable.
All in all another stellar quarter for the Apple cash machine. I don't agree with all their methods, but there's no arguing the magnitude of their success is amazing. The decision by Steve Jobs to go up against the entrenched and market leading Sony MP3 players years ago was the single most important step he's made at Apple IMO. It's made everything else that's followed possible.
Let's be fair. Not all Android phones are crap. Many of them, yes, but not all. Regardless of activation numbers (which I consider a meaningless metric when comparing any mobile platform) Apple is thriving even under the best Google and their partners can unleash which is remarkable.
Well, they're all crap because the Android OS is crap.
Well, they're all crap because the Android OS is crap.
I got a free ticket to see the final Harry Potter with my son. But even tho I didn't pay for the ticket, I thought the movie was fantastic.
I believe the technical term for the amount of money Apple have made is "a shit load"!
In an age when companies boost profit by making things cheaper and cheaper and crapper and crapper it's great that there is still a company doing better than all of them by sticking by quality.
applauding!!!
I got a free ticket to see the final Harry Potter with my son. But even tho I didn't pay for the ticket, I thought the movie was fantastic.
Out of curiosity, what's your perspective on the android fragmentation problem? To me it seems like the biggest long term problem that the platform faces. Fragmentation, and poor OS level support from OEMs/carriers seems certain to end up degrading the user experience- especially when iOS users are running round doing all the latest cool stuff on 3 year old handsets.
Out of curiosity, what's your perspective on the android fragmentation problem? To me it seems like the biggest long term problem that the platform faces. Fragmentation, and poor OS level support from OEMs/carriers seems certain to end up degrading the user experience- especially when iOS users are running round doing all the latest cool stuff on 3 year old handsets.
You're right that fragmentation had been a big issue. Less so now as far as OS version and app compatibility. But hardware compatibility is perhaps even more of an issue now compared to 6 months ago IMO. While the overwhelming percentage of Android handsets are now on 2.1 and up and therefor technically meeting the OS requirements for nearly every application in the Android Market, games are particularly problematic. Those wonderful HD-quality shooters with fast action and immersive graphics are only usable on the more recent higher-end smartphones with fast processors and lots of memory. Simply having the latest OS version isn't enough.
That's the reason for Google's recent efforts at setting minimum hardware requirements if an Android partner is to be part of the "in-crowd". I believe they'll get there with most of the manufacturers, particularly on the mainstream devices. So I don't see the OS version as a big problem any longer. Hardware consistency, especially minimum standards, is the bigger problem. If only there were three or four models, like Apple's product line, it would be easy to control.
Having now said that, I do think Apple sometimes takes the easy way out and drops support for some features on older hardware to make things easier for themselves rather than due to actual hardware limitation. Just ask Microsoft haw much effort is needed to support legacy systems. It would certainly be easier, cheaper and reduce problems if they'd just say they weren't supporting those older computers and tablets still using Vista. (I think they finally are ending support for XP)
You're right that fragmentation had been a big issue. Less so now as far as OS version and app compatibility. But hardware compatibility is perhaps even more of an issue now compared to 6 months ago IMO. While the overwhelming percentage of Android handsets are now on 2.1 and up and therefor technically meeting the OS requirements for nearly every application in the Android Market, games are particularly problematic. Those wonderful HD-quality shooters with fast action and immersive graphics are only usable on the more recent higher-end smartphones with fast processors and lots of memory. Simply having the latest OS version isn't enough.
Right, I know Hulu+ was only released to a handful of phones, presumably due to hardware requirements? I think that will result in considerable consumer dissatisfaction in the long term. If buying an android phone means you still can't run half the software, people just aren't used to minimum specs on phones.
Having now said that, I do think Apple sometimes takes the easy way out and drops support for some features on older hardware to make things easier for themselves rather than due to actual hardware limitation.
What are you thinking of here specifically? At least in the mobile space Apple seems to be giving longer product life than industry average.
It's still odd though. I find it hard to believe they will sell $3.6 billion LESS next quarter.
For perspective: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010...r-Results.html
Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results
Record Mac, iPhone and iPad Sales
Highest Revenue and Earnings Ever
CUPERTINO, California?October 18, 2010?Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 fourth quarter ended September 25, 2010. The Company posted record revenue of $20.34 billion and net quarterly profit of $4.31 billion, or $4.64 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $12.21 billion and net quarterly profit of $2.53 billion, or $2.77 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.9 percent compared to 41.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 57 percent of the quarter?s revenue.
Apple sold 3.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 27 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 14.1 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 91 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.05 million iPods during the quarter, representing an 11 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The Company also sold 4.19 million iPads during the quarter.
?We are blown away to report over $20 billion in revenue and over $4 billion in after-tax earnings?both all-time records for Apple,? said Steve Jobs, Apple?s CEO. ?iPhone sales of 14.1 million were up 91 percent year-over-year, handily beating the 12.1 million phones RIM sold in their most recent quarter. We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year.?
?We?re thrilled with the performance and strength of our business, generating almost $5.7 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter,? said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple?s CFO. ?Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $23 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $4.80.?
Oppenheimer is forecasting a $5 Billion+ revenue increase from Q42010.
That's reasonable.
Right, I know Hulu+ was only released to a handful of phones, presumably due to hardware requirements? I think that will result in considerable consumer dissatisfaction in the long term. If buying an android phone means you still can't run half the software, people just aren't used to minimum specs on phones.
What are you thinking of here specifically? At least in the mobile space Apple seems to be giving longer product life than industry average.
The most obvious would be iOS4.3x and the lack of any support for the 3G.
The hardware differences going from the 3G to the 3GS aren't enormous. CPU went from 4-something to 600MHz, and the RAM from 128 to 256. The only other substantial difference I know of is a different graphics chip which added support for additional gaming features (I think). Yet no new features offered by 4.3 made it to the 3G. I feel certain that Apple could have made at least some improvements available. IMO, it was a decision based on both marketing and the path of least resistance. Stop the feature improvements/additions and give users a reason to upgrade, while at the same time allow the software engineers to concentrate on one or two hardware setups, speeding development and keeping costs down.
I have no proof that the existing 3G hardware could run many of the new 4.3 features, but highly doubt that it wasn't capable of using any of them. There's others here much more knowledgeable than me that could probably comment on that with more authority. But my opinion is Apple took the easy (and less expensive) way out by avoiding further development for an older model (which was still being sold just 2 years ago.) Not saying they were necessarily wrong to do so either.
The hardware differences going from the 3G to the 3GS aren't enormous. CPU went from 4-something to 600MHz, and the RAM from 128 to 256.
Well the RAM increase is pretty stonking isn't it? It's entirely plausible that iOS 4.3 just crept above the memory footprint that would allow it to run well on the 3G, and they have continued to supply security fixes to 4.2.
30 months of active OS support and security support after that is pretty good for a smartphone. How many Android phones from 2008 were still getting support until 2011? Heck how many android devices are shipping now with Froyo? I believe there are devices in stores that ship with Eclair!
What will be interesting to see is whether the iPhone-3GS gets support for iOS 6. I think Apple's target is 3 years of full OS support from launch.
Oppenheimer is forecasting a $5 Billion+ revenue increase from Q42010.
That's reasonable.
The previous two years Q4 results were a sequential increase over Q3 though, so it is interesting.
I'd be very surprised if iPad doesn't hit an average of 15 million per calendar quarter for the rest of this year.
Calendar
Q1 4 million
Q2 9 million
Q3 13 milllion
Q4 17 million
= 43 million
We're looking at between 40 to 45 million iPads for calendar 2011.
For perspective: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010...r-Results.html
Oppenheimer is forecasting a $5 Billion+ revenue increase from Q42010.
That's reasonable.
It's just managing investor expectations... Year-ago comparisons are virtually meaningless at this stage. It is highly unlikely in fiscal Q4 2011 that Apple will post less than their 28 billion in revenue this fiscal Q3 2011.
The previous two years Q4 results were a sequential increase over Q3 though, so it is interesting.
Apple changed it's release cycle this year over the past 2 prior years.