Apple Sets a New Record For iPhone Sales (theverge.com)

Apple has reported strong financial results for the first quarter of 2017. According to CEO Tim Cook, the "holiday quarter results generated Apple's highest quarterly revenue ever, and broke multiple records along the way." The company took in $78.4 billion in revenue and sold 78 million iPhones. The Verge reports: Apple reported a profit of $17.8 billion, and said its earnings per share were boosted by the high demand for the larger models of its iPhones, which have higher margins. On the earnings call, Chief financial officer Luca Maestri said that customer satisfaction with iPads, and the new iPad pro, was very high. He predicted strong growth in that category. But the sales figures don't reflect that optimism, with unit sales and revenue from iPad both down around 20 percent year over year. With over a billion iOS devices active around the world, Apple has been able to shore up its flagging hardware sales growth with an increase in revenue from services to those devices. This includes money from Apple Pay, iCloud storage, Apple Music, and App Store sales. It was by far the fastest-growing segment of Apple's revenue this quarter, climbing 18 percent to $7.17 billion since the same period last year. Cook said Apple is aiming to double service revenue over the next four years. Maestri said Apple's App Store had double the revenue of Google's Play Store in 2016. Apple has more than $200 billion in cash parked overseas. Cook said on today's call that he was optimistic about tax reform in the U.S. happening this year, and that this might allow Apple to bring a lot of that money back home. "With our toe in the water, we're learning a lot about the original content business," Cook said, hinting at one way Apple might deploy all that capital.

Comments

Re:Queue the headphone jack comments

[Gumbercules!!]

Then again, Cook is no Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs brought "Gorilla Glass" to the masses. Tim Cook tried and failed with "Sapphire Glass". Steve Jobs was the iMac, iPad, iPhone, iPod - Cook was iWatch and iBuds - and dwindling sales of computers, iPads, and loss of market share for iPhones.

I'm not an Apple fanboi (feel free to read my years of posts, many of which are not Apple friendly) but if you look at the numbers, Mac sales went up not down. I'm also fairly sure Apple couldn't give a shit about the market share of iPhone considering they make like 100% of the profits, with what marketshare they have.

I don't really feel inspired by Cook, either - but to say he's failing at making Apple a profitable company is just your own Reality Distortion Field. Apple is the most profitable company on earth and it has been pretty much since Cook starting running it. It's making more money than ever. He's doing exactly what he's supposed to be doing - making a shit tonne of money. That might not be cool for people who really love tech - but he's tasked with making Wall Street and investors happy, not geeks.

Fudging the Math

[ghoul]

Apple had a 14 week Quarter as compared to a 13 week quarter and grew revenue 3.9%. So for a 7% longer period a 3.9% higher revenue looks like a drop . No wonder the profit dropped as 14 weeks means 7% more costs but only 3.9% more revenue so profit has to fall.