49 ms·

Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

369 points by ucha 10y ago

nrjames 10y ago
I can't even fathom that amount of money.
- archmikhail 10y ago
  Analysts remain "concerned" about $AAPL growth because world forests cannot produce enough paper for how much cash $AAPL continues to print.
  - thecosas 10y ago
    One was quoted, saying "The paper shortage due to Apple's enormous cash reserves are overblown; that's why they have Apple Pay."
  - sparky_z 10y ago
    The good news is that the Irish government uses Euros, which are made of cotton fiber, not wood pulp.
    - cgh 10y ago
      US dollars are made of cotton and linen.
      - sparky_z 10y ago
        I almost mentioned that too (basically nobody makes money out of paper, it's too fragile), but it ruined the snappiness of the quip.
  - ChuckMcM 10y ago
    you know you are in trouble when we start having electron shortages resulting in not enough electrons to erase flash chips so we can program in the large bank balances :-)
  - deeth_starr 10y ago
    $AAPL has requested the mint start making them 1 trillion dollar coins
  - ricardonunez 10y ago
    Microsoft and Alphabet are printing money. Apple had to go digital.
    - freehunter 10y ago
      That's why they switched to high resolution displays, so they could fit all the zeros in their bank account on the screen without scrolling.
- ci5er 10y ago
  It's easily enough to fund the US Federal government for about 3 weeks. A bit over 10 days if state and local are factored in. Imagine! If the US Federal government were able to find a way to take half of that money, they'd be able to struggle along for almost two more whole weeks!
  - r00fus 10y ago
    Imagine if Apple management were a bunch of tax (aka revenue) cutters that also spent all the tax revenue handing it out to their cronies via earmarks and carve-outs in the annual budget? It's easy to blame the Federal government when it's leadership is hell-bent on breaking it by unfunded mandates, croynism and expensive wars while also cutting the tax revenues.
hasperdi 10y ago
Mac sales... Q1 2016 5312 units, revenue $6,746m Q4 2016 4886 units, revenue $5,739m Q1 2017 5374 units, revenue $7,244m So people are buying more new Macs despite what the press, HN, Reddit crowds are saying?
- thecosas 10y ago
  I'm guessing the pent up demand for a new Macbook Pro contributed greatly.
  - 5_minutes 10y ago
    People where just hungry (read: starving) for any kind of update. That's why.
  - whistlerbrk 10y ago
    Agreed, sentiment can be down with sales still going strong. I suspect had Microsoft been able to produce something and strongly market it in Dec/Jan the numbers might be a little different.
  - deeth_starr 10y ago
    It's actually down on the trend line. Your numbers average out to 6,576 per quarter, so lower than the first q. So while there was an uptick it was because of delayed demand (ie, people knew a new macbook was coming out). Looking at the number it looks like the new macbooks have actually hurt their sales.
  - Tanegashima 10y ago
    There's "pent up demand" because people were waiting for the MBP and bought it, and didn't buy any PC.
- skc 10y ago
  Aren't the people complaining about the new Macs mostly geeks? That's a very vocal but ultimately tiny sliver of their customer base.
deleted 10y ago
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euyyn 10y ago
From the first paragraph, record results mean the company keeps growing. How does the YoY growth compare to other years, and to other tech companies?
- BoorishBears 10y ago
  For me the screen almost made me impulse buy in-store, it's so much more vivid than my 2015
crispinb 10y ago
Terrible news for developers.
- crispinb 10y ago
  OK I'll add nuance: it's terrible news for this developer (and anyone much like him) that Apple is not facing enough commercial pressure to ever produce another laptop that will serve his needs as well as his current MB Pro does. This makes him sad.
  - tcfunk 10y ago
    I wanted to upvote your original post sooner, but it was previously flagged. I am feeling some serious dissonance here as well. I have been a MBP fan for quite some time now. I have watched the recent Apple conferences with distaste as I see the target audience for MBP shift away from me. I don't want to find an alternative, and I sincerely hoped the market would not take well to the newest iteration. Looks like that's not going to be the case.
    - crispinb 10y ago
      That original post was a tad obtuse! Anyway yes this is the point: OS X (or macOS if I must) isn't perfect, but I have found it the best compromise for my purposes. I very rarely have to futz with it, it's unixy enough, and it has scads of truly excellent 3rd party software available. But the hardware limitations might just force me to find an alternative. The latest MB Pros tanking would have offered some hope.
deleted 10y ago
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ihuman 10y ago
If you want more graphs and comparisons, MacStories created some nice visuals for the new data https://www.macstories.net/news/apple-q1-2017-results-billion-revenue-million-iphones-million-ipads-sold/ https://www.macstories.net/news/apple-q1-2017-results-billio...
djrogers 10y ago
Since September I've been reading nothing but how much of a failure the iPhone 7 is, and how removing the headphone jack was going to be the final straw for Apple. Similar story for the new MacBook Pros. It seems that the geekerati have very different priorities from the rest of the world, and maybe Apple still knows what's it's doing.
- arethuza 10y ago
  I've been very pleased with my iPhone 7 - yes requiring the headphone adapter is mildly annoying but that's all. I tried my previous iPhone, a 5S which I had donated to a relative, again recently and thought my 7 was well worth the upgrade.
  - ashark 10y ago
    How I feel about the latest Apple devices is that they're good despite the "innovation". Touchbar, removing headphone jack, and going all-usb-c (but not on the iphone?) all either sucks or fails to add value, but the spec bumps are still good enough and the build quality's still great, and, crucially, the competition still doesn't have its sh*t together.
  - austenallred 10y ago
    Try it with the airpods. I know it's cliche, but it's a fantastic experience. Truly worth the $ (for me, at least; can't say what $170 is worth to you)
    - arethuza 10y ago
      I think my ears must be a weird shape - it takes me ages to find ones that will be comfortable and stay in place and none of the Apple ones I've tried seem to work.
      - austenallred 10y ago
        The EarPods have a completely different shape. No idea of they'll work for you.
mi100hael 10y ago
That dude on Reddit must be having a melt-down.
- grepthisab 10y ago
  I just checked because I remembered something about that. It turns out the guy was faking having taken those AAPL short positions, as expected.
- curiousgal 10y ago
  It's fake.
- adrr 10y ago
  Fake. Pretty sure he's taking the opposite side. He's actually really good at predicting the market if you take the inverse.
- pfarnsworth 10y ago
  fscomeau has been a fake for several years. He accidentally revealed his IB account, which was a demo numbered one, so yes even this was fake. It was expected. But the live stream was funny as hell.
- fiatmoney 10y ago
  Who's "that dude on reddit"?
  - Gustomaximus 10y ago
    https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/5qprhh/by_popular_request_if_this_post_gets_5k_upvotes_i/ https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/5qprhh/by_p...
Dramatize 10y ago
My new laptop is the buggiest Apple product I've owned. Programs are always crashing, has issues waking up, and has connection issue with the new LG monitor.
- rak00n 10y ago
  I'm surprised you're downvoted.
  - davnn 10y ago
    Implicitly attributed to user error probably.
- diminoten 10y ago
  I've had no issues, and am pleasantly surprised by how happy I am with the new keyboard.
  - Dramatize 10y ago
    I also like the keyboard. The hardware is lovely to use, it's just the software letting the experience down.
  - chadcmulligan 10y ago
    yes, I'm the same (15" MBP). I think it's the nicest laptop I've ever owned. It's thin, light, incredible battery life, very powerful. I really like the keyboard, the travel once you get used to it makes other keyboards feel heavy. Trying to use the touchbar but maybe it will become useful as time goes by. I use it for swift coding and I can't fault it.
- DigitalJack 10y ago
  My macbook pro is having problems waking up lately--very annoying. It's a 2015 15" model... I think they must have something screwy going on with a recent update.
- izacus 10y ago
adventured 10y ago
I fail to see how this was a dynamite quarter, in Cook's words. Net income shrank year over year Operating income shrank year over year China sales imploded by another 12% Margins contracted Sales growth was a piddling 4% (it didn't contract granted, I don't see how that's "dynamite") iPad sales continue to implode, down 19% And there's Cook cheering on the results. It reminds me of the Steve Ballmer days under Microsoft. The profits were there, the sales were there, and yet you could easily spot the icebergs on the horizon.
- fisherjeff 10y ago
  I think the most interesting category to watch is going to be services: 2 straight years of 20% growth, and it's now virtually tied for second largest revenue source with Mac.
  - adventured 10y ago
    There's no great profit in their services division, compared to their historically incredible margins and sales scale in hardware. Which is why their net income is contracting. You could double their services sales and it'll only just move the needle on that $17.x billion in net income. Apple is also going to need very substantial device sales growth to keep moving services growth over time at that pace (a given user is only going to consume so much, you need a lot more of them) - I don't see where the device growth is going to come from (China's boom days are long over in that regard; India could maybe pick up some of that slack). If you're melting off 3 million iPad units year over year, at an asp of $400 to $450, that becomes a large hole for services growth to fill. Worse yet, it's very likely China is going to become more hostile as a market for the iPhone / Apple in the next few years (both politically and in terms of the domestic competition that is shrinking the iPhone's position there). Total device contraction, which is pretty likely over the next few years, will put pressure on services growth. Cook is doing a great job at managing the spigots of sales and profit that Jobs left for him to operate. The sooner Apple can move to its post Ballmer era and stop being a sales collections company (surfing the past until the wave's energy dissipates), the better.
- criddell 10y ago
emdowling 10y ago
The interesting takeaway for me is that services is now the equal second biggest revenue centre at 9%. It is still way behind iPhone, but it is growing at a phenomenal rate. By all accounts Apple is just getting started with services (e.g.: rumoured original video content, video streaming service) so we can expect this to grow even more. Finally Apple is capitalising on its install base to sell more addons after sale. This offsets slowing hardware upgrade rates, although not sure if it is enough to offset iPad declines. The narrative often heard is that if they want to shift to being a services company, Apple would need to dramatically change its org structure. I may be wrong, but no one has ever monetised consumers with recurring monthly revenue as successfully as Apple has (utility companies and mortgage brokers excluded!). And it didn't even need an org restructure!
- adventured 10y ago
  Services, basically digital content consumption (whether songs, or movies, or apps), is a very low profit business compared to hardware. You're competing with Netflix, Google and Amazon there. Netflix and Amazon have near zero margin in their content businesses. Most of your profit is eaten up by licensing (or production as well now for AMZN & NFLX), and that is guaranteed not to change. $20 billion in services sales, with $3 billion in operating income, won't scratch a $638 billion market cap (and won't compensate for tanking China iPhone sales if that doesn't immediately stop getting worse).
- hyperbovine 10y ago
  > By all accounts Apple is just getting started with services ... so we can expect this to grow even more. That's a very ... charitable way to put it. Another take would be that Apple, whose former CEO, over a decade ago, simultaneously oversaw Pixar and sat on the board of Disney, complete and totally missed the boat on streaming, original content, and cloud services. Think back to 2006: Netflix was a service that mailed DVDs, Amazon Prime was a year old, Dropbox was not around, Spotify was not around, Google was still focused on core services like maps and mail. Considering who their CEO was at the time, his connections, and their first mover advantage on digital entertainment and cloud, it absolutely amazes me that every single one of these companies was allowed to come in and eat Apple's lunch in some form or another.
breatheoften 10y ago
I bought into apple after falling for osx during college right around the financial crisis. I've been a fan of their approach to products since then. But the new macbook pro's are pretty revolting to me -- I used one at the apple store for a few minutes and could barely type on the (horrible) keyboard. I played with the touchbar and immediately found myself trying to touch the screen -- something that as a fan I definitely knew would not work. Even with just a few moments use, it was immediately utterly clear to me that to the extent that the touchbar is a good idea, a touchscreen would have been a better idea ... The good idea within the touchbar is the attempt to 'augment' the keyboard/mouse user interface with touch -- augment, not replace. Microsoft tried to make touch/keyboard-mouse interchangeable but in real-life not all elements on the screen should be touchable -- the touchbar realizes this and deserves props for getting that much right. But even after acknowledging that success, the touchbar is just ... wrong -- its not any easier to lift your hands from the keyboard and use the touchbar than it would be to touch the screen -- its actually harder because you have to take your eyes from the screen and look somewhere you would not normally look to aim your fingers. I hope the idea of 'augmenting' the macOS user interface introduced with touchbar evolves to the main display -- where it might be a good idea ... I don't know how this would be accomplished though -- maybe the api's created for touchbar could be re-targeted towards user interface elements on the main touch display ...
- freyir 10y ago
  > But the new macbook pro's are pretty revolting to me -- I used one at the apple store for a few minutes Thank you for your in-depth review. Many people judged the new MacBook Pro based on its press release alone, but you went the extra mile and used one at the Apple Store for a few minutes.
  - breatheoften 10y ago
    To be fair to me, I wasn't trying to lie or mislead about the thoroughness of my experience ... I suppose I was talking into a void but I at least was conveying the truth of my experience. My use at the apple store was enough to know I didn't want one -- which made me glad because I sort of need a new macbook and was worried I'd buy one on impulse. I immediately did not like the keyboard (never happened on an apple laptop for me before the one port Macbook which I bought for my girlfriend right when it was announced sight unseen -- when using it I tried my best not to voice my (immediate) criticism of the keyboard hoping that she would like my present ... She came from an old dell so anything was better than that monstrosity. But at some point after having the macbook one for awhile she used my macbook pro and commented how much easier the keyboard on my machine was to type on ...). I found myself unconsciously touching the display while playing around with touchbar. Attempting to use the display as a touchscreen is something I've never done before - even when playing with a microsoft laptop that had a touchscreen on it. Touching the little bar just 'felt wrong' to me ... This is certainly an unfair assessment -- but I'm not used to that feeling with apple products - the experience just legitimately felt bad to me. I'm open to having changing my mind in the future or having it changed -- I'm not really a cargo cult'er.
lolive 10y ago
Christmas 2016 was my first time in an apple store since forever (i.e the iphone 5). I went in and bought the last iphone with a headphone jack: the iphone 6s. I firmly believe a looot of people did exactly that too. So, imho, the iphone 6s is the absolute best seller ever at Apple (especially since iphone 7 announcement :).
- nicky0 10y ago
  Actually the last phone with a headphone jack was the SE. (The best phone they've ever made, imho.)
- freyir 10y ago
  > So, imho, the iphone 6s is the absolute best seller ever at Apple I know it's 2017, but "best selling" is really more a matter of fact than opinion.
- pfarnsworth 10y ago
  You would be completely wrong. This is evidence by the ASP, which was over expectations, which means it was mainly iPhone 7s.
knlje 10y ago
I will never buy a computer again. You can find lots of very powerful computers in trash bin (e.g. my current 2013 MBP). People buy a piece of very precious materials and throw it away in 2 years. I think this is one of the most unethical things a man can do. You think that you need your computers up to date because you are a geek and you must stay up to date to remain competent. This is not true. You can manage with less and you more than anyone else know how to handle a computer with slightly less resources. These kind of numbers from a company advocating this throw away culture makes me very sad.
- BOBOTWINSTON 10y ago
  For development, sure. For VR, yeah I need to basically be at the bleeding edge right now.
  - santaclaus 10y ago
    > For development, sure As a developer, I say give me more cores and more ram! Faster build and test times means more development time.
  - intoverflow2 10y ago
    I don't think you can put people with modular high end PCs in the same box as people throwing away smartphones every year and laptops every 2-3. At least modular PCs can be valuable again (or repaired) with a single component upgrade and those old components usually go straight onto ebay for other people to take advantage of.
- seanmcdirmid 10y ago
  I can't tell if this is sarcasm or real but...new computers (a) get faster over time, so upgrading is worth it, but old computers also (b) become damaged over time, for many of us at least, though this is less of a problem with MBPs than say with Lenovo's. Yes, I could do my work with 10 year old hardware, but no, I wouldn't really want to. These days, I don't feel the need to upgrade very often, 3-4 years seems to work out, but something new and faster is always nice. As for the environmental costs, these are real and should be considered. That being said, it is difficult to not consume while remaining competitive with your peers that are at the same time (they have a faster computer -> get work done faster than you -> you get a pink slip).
deeth_starr 10y ago
This guy, who seems a Trump supporter or just ADHD, keeps down voting every comment I make. What's up with the weird system at HN were some (crazy) people get way more power? Edit: tptacek Edit: His twitter feed https://twitter.com/tqbf https://twitter.com/tqbf. I'm not going to call him out by name although he has it up on his profile Edit: Understood. Sorry
- grzm 10y ago
  Calling out HN members like this is not acceptable on Hacker News. If you think there's some sort of abuse going on, please contact the mods via the Contact link in the footer.
  - tptacek 10y ago
    I like the idea of someone looking at my Twitter feed lately and coming to the conclusion that I'm a Trump supporter.
    - deeth_starr 10y ago
      I'm going to be honest with you that sarcasm is sometimes hard. Your feed compared to an alt-right feed are just missing context and pepe (joke). Esp since you have Alex Jones in there...
      - deeth_starr 10y ago
        Proof that bullies own the voting system...
        grzm 10y ago
        The guidelines specifically ask not to comment on downvoting. Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html As suggested above, if you believe there's abuse going on, please contact the mods via the Contact link below. Comments do sometimes attract downvotes from people who disagree, but far more often from what I've observed is that HN members strongly value civil and constructive comments, and will tend to downvote comments they feel don't meet those standards. They'll also downvote comments that go against the guidelines, which is likely your last comment is receiving downvotes. Speculating as to why your comment was downvoted is of course, just speculation: some might wonder what the purpose of your comment is. It reads somewhat critical of 'tptacek's Twitter feed, which is not the topic of discussion. So it appears to be needlessly negative of an arguably personal nature for something that's off-topic. While that may not have been your intent, viewed in that light, it's not surprising that it may have attracted some downvotes. Like I said, it's speculation. I have no special insight into the minds of those who downvoted. In my experience, it does little good to dwell on it other than to use it as motivation to write better comments. Again, if you think there's actual abuse going on, do contact the mods. They're very responsive and I'm confident they'll look into it for you.
bdcravens 10y ago
At the end of the day, the MBP isn't built only for developers and creatives. We're a subset of the customer base, always have been. (I suspect they sell more to soccer moms and college kids than "pros")
- paulcole 10y ago
  Pro does not only mean "for professionals." In the average person's mind it just means "better." Nobody says "oh I'm using this at home, can't get the pro."
- matt4077 10y ago
  This "professional" narrative is seriously annoying. I work on software 10h+ a day, some of it is (hopefully) at the cutting edge of biology. I even get paid. Use neural nets. And vim. So I should probably fall within the "professional" category. At least more than "soccer mom", with regards to gender, reproductive status, and offsprings' choice of sports. I have never felt the need to plug in 6+ peripherals. 16GB work fine even with a Linux and a Windows 10 virtual machine running. If I run out of battery after 12h of working on a flight, I sleep – but I don't dream of replaceable batteries. Whatever all these self-professed "professionals" are doing, it sounds a lot more like what I did in high school: spending weeks swapping components, recompiling Linux kernels for 2% higher values at some useless benchmark, building incredibly-convoluted setups to really finally create a media centre rivalling Fleet Street etc.
  - mark_l_watson 10y ago
    I agree, for my workflow. I just bought a new laptop, and didn't even go for a pro model. If I need more resources, I have a 60gig ram, 16 core VPS I can spin up, but for most Java, Haskell, and other dev work, and for writing my books, a plain MacBook is quite sufficient (after 1 week to get used to, and like, the keyboard). I did toss my old external monitor for a LG 4K, a purchase I am also really happy with. For fun, I am writing iOS and Android app versions of my cookingspace web app, and the MacBook also performs well enough for that.
EGreg 10y ago
Looks like Tim Cook worked hard to claw his salary back :)
jhack 10y ago
So nothing's going to change. Great...
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
samfisher83 10y ago
China Iphone sales took a pretty big dip, but US sales looked good and their ASP hasn't gone down. The Chinese Market is more price sensitive than US market.
bitmapbrother 10y ago
Talk about setting expectations low so that they can beat the street again. >Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2017 second quarter: revenue between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion
- bekman 10y ago
  Well the coming quarter is a non-holiday.
erickhill 10y ago
How many Macs sold from the Apple refurb-shop helped push those Q1 Mac sales figures? I bought my brand new (2015) refurb model the week the new Macs were shown, as did several of my colleagues.
andai 10y ago
For everyone asking about magsafe, you can buy a usb-c to magsafe adapter. (2 parts which separate)
arrty88 10y ago
I have the 2016 touch bar pro 15 inch. Love it
keyle 10y ago
I wonder how much if "services" is due to the iCloud revenues because iPhone keep getting bigger, and the free hosting is not getting bigger..... Bugging people constantly to increase storage.
MarkMc 10y ago
Meh. A bank account earning compound interest will achieve "all-time record quarterly revenue" every single quarter. Apple's quarterly profit is only up by 2.4% per share. Let's look at earnings per share for each calendar year [1]: 2016: $8.35 (down 11%) 2015: $9.42 (up 27%) 2014: $7.42 (up 29%) 2013: $5.76 (down 9%) 2012: $6.30 Looks to me like Apple's growth spurt is over. [1] Note 12 in annual reports at http://investor.apple.com/sec.cfm?DocType=Annual&ndq_keyword= http://investor.apple.com/sec.cfm?DocType=Annual&ndq_keyword...
- bduerst 10y ago
  I've always wondered why people use EPS - What if Apple issued more outstanding shares during this timeframe? Wouldn't that skew this metric without representing that?
  - bkjelden 10y ago
    EPS is only really relevant if given in the same breath as share price. P/E ratio is the more meaningful (and shares-outstanding-invariant) metric.
  - sumedh 10y ago
    You can look at the EPS trend for many years and form your conclusions. If its going up that is good, if its down or flat you should be asking why.
  - qeternity 10y ago
    When a company does something dilutive (or anti-dilutive) then previous metrics are recalculated (split adjusted) for comparison. Also, as someone else mentions, EPS in its own right is meaningless. P/E ratios are a more common (albeit flawed) way to compare companies' relative valuations.
- azinman2 10y ago
  Where can I get a bank account with compound interest that isn't 0.001%?
econner 10y ago
Possibly a dumb question, but doesn't 2017 Q1 end in 2 months? How are they already reporting results?
- stuckagain 10y ago
  Financial calendars are not necessarily aligned with actual calendars.
  - aetherson 10y ago
    And, yes, specifically Apple's year ends with Q3 of the "real" calendar. Their fiscal year is aligned with their iPhone release cycle, which is probably a good idea.
scottmcleod 10y ago
Now if only they would leverage their piles and piles of cash for humanity.
yig 10y ago
It was a 14 week quarter rather than the typical 13 week quarter. Multiply all the numbers by 13/14 and you'll see it was a year over year decline.
- qqrsmith 10y ago
  Interesting. Thanks for pointing that out. > For accounting purposes, a firm is allowed to define a "quarter" as either a span of 3 months or else a span of 13 weeks. A "year" is then four quarters. ... Consequently, a firm that defines its quarters in terms of weeks needs to hold a 14-week quarter every four or five years. [1] [1] http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/02/06/_14_week_quarters_financial_markets_get_confused.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/02/06/_14_week_quar...
- alanfalcon 10y ago
  Except you're adding a weak week, not a week that's expected to compete on an even basis with a typical holiday-quarter week, so that math isn't exactly telling/accurate either.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- retromario 10y ago
  From CFO Maestri on the Q&A call with analysts: "2:15 pm: We had the benefit of a 14th week, but this was offset by several factors including less channel fill than last year and a one-time $548 million patent judgment receipt last year." http://www.macrumors.com/2017/01/31/q1-2017-results/ http://www.macrumors.com/2017/01/31/q1-2017-results/
  - toyg 10y ago
    Channel fill is fairly irrelevant (whose fault is it that your distributors don't want more of your stuff "just in case"?) and the cash is also fairly irrelevant - what matters for momentum is the number of units shifted and that's lagging everywhere except iPhones (and, if you trust them, the Watch).
freshyill 10y ago
I searched and searched to find an Apple Watch for my wife for Christmas. I got lucky and got one on Christmas Eve at Target. I'm not shocked at all they they made bank this quarter.
piyush_soni 10y ago
Wait. Isn't the revenue number supposed to grow each year as long as things are just going as they were? I've never understood Apple's fixation with the word 'ever' for everything which is supposed to grow organically. Guess what? Every year I get my 'highest ever' salary.
- piyush_soni 10y ago
  People giving negative votes, do you have an objective reason for that, or you just don't like someone bashing Apple for their hyperbole?
jpalomaki 10y ago
Mac might be a victim of the high profit margins. Frequent updates and competitive pricing do no good for the profit margin. Much easier to maintain those if you sell a bit outdated hw (thinking about Mac Pro and Mini). What would the "markets" think if Apple sold more Macs, maintained the same absolute profits but let the margins slip? Would that be considered as a bad thing?
- nkkollaw 10y ago
  I don't know if I would describe 3-year-old hardware as "a bit outdated" :-/
mpweiher 10y ago
So why hasn't the stock price tanked yet? What's wrong with the Universe?
- coldcode 10y ago
  17B profits should count for something. That more than 7 months of Facebook's total revenue. Apple made more in service revenue than FB made in total.
wildchild 10y ago
This is actually bad news because Apple will continue this weird strategy of pushing fancy crap for fortune.
- dashoffset 10y ago
  If you think their products are fancy crap, would it make a difference if they suddenly decided to sell them for half the price?
  - wildchild 10y ago
    Yes, because price and quality matters. I have luxury leather goods and they worth every penny because awesome quality and the rest of goods just junk. Does not work with Mac, you pay a lot and a chance that you will be in a trouble with it is very high. Like with last MBP. Apple must spend more money for QA and offer better hardware. I will look on their new mac mini if it will be updated this or next year, probably it will be my last device from this company. Apple business is one of the greatest bubbles.

369 points by ucha 10y ago

nrjames 10y ago

I can't even fathom that amount of money.

archmikhail 10y ago
Analysts remain "concerned" about $AAPL growth because world forests cannot produce enough paper for how much cash $AAPL continues to print.
- thecosas 10y ago
  One was quoted, saying "The paper shortage due to Apple's enormous cash reserves are overblown; that's why they have Apple Pay."
- sparky_z 10y ago
  The good news is that the Irish government uses Euros, which are made of cotton fiber, not wood pulp.
  - cgh 10y ago
    US dollars are made of cotton and linen.
    - sparky_z 10y ago
      I almost mentioned that too (basically nobody makes money out of paper, it's too fragile), but it ruined the snappiness of the quip.
- ChuckMcM 10y ago
  you know you are in trouble when we start having electron shortages resulting in not enough electrons to erase flash chips so we can program in the large bank balances :-)
- deeth_starr 10y ago
  $AAPL has requested the mint start making them 1 trillion dollar coins
- ricardonunez 10y ago
  Microsoft and Alphabet are printing money. Apple had to go digital.
  - freehunter 10y ago
    That's why they switched to high resolution displays, so they could fit all the zeros in their bank account on the screen without scrolling.
ci5er 10y ago
It's easily enough to fund the US Federal government for about 3 weeks. A bit over 10 days if state and local are factored in. Imagine! If the US Federal government were able to find a way to take half of that money, they'd be able to struggle along for almost two more whole weeks!
- r00fus 10y ago
  Imagine if Apple management were a bunch of tax (aka revenue) cutters that also spent all the tax revenue handing it out to their cronies via earmarks and carve-outs in the annual budget? It's easy to blame the Federal government when it's leadership is hell-bent on breaking it by unfunded mandates, croynism and expensive wars while also cutting the tax revenues.

hasperdi 10y ago

Mac sales... Q1 2016 5312 units, revenue $6,746m Q4 2016 4886 units, revenue $5,739m Q1 2017 5374 units, revenue $7,244m So people are buying more new Macs despite what the press, HN, Reddit crowds are saying?

thecosas 10y ago
I'm guessing the pent up demand for a new Macbook Pro contributed greatly.
- 5_minutes 10y ago
  People where just hungry (read: starving) for any kind of update. That's why.
- whistlerbrk 10y ago
  Agreed, sentiment can be down with sales still going strong. I suspect had Microsoft been able to produce something and strongly market it in Dec/Jan the numbers might be a little different.
- deeth_starr 10y ago
  It's actually down on the trend line. Your numbers average out to 6,576 per quarter, so lower than the first q. So while there was an uptick it was because of delayed demand (ie, people knew a new macbook was coming out). Looking at the number it looks like the new macbooks have actually hurt their sales.
- Tanegashima 10y ago
  There's "pent up demand" because people were waiting for the MBP and bought it, and didn't buy any PC.
skc 10y ago
Aren't the people complaining about the new Macs mostly geeks? That's a very vocal but ultimately tiny sliver of their customer base.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

euyyn 10y ago

From the first paragraph, record results mean the company keeps growing. How does the YoY growth compare to other years, and to other tech companies?

BoorishBears 10y ago
For me the screen almost made me impulse buy in-store, it's so much more vivid than my 2015

crispinb 10y ago

Terrible news for developers.

crispinb 10y ago
OK I'll add nuance: it's terrible news for this developer (and anyone much like him) that Apple is not facing enough commercial pressure to ever produce another laptop that will serve his needs as well as his current MB Pro does. This makes him sad.
- tcfunk 10y ago
  I wanted to upvote your original post sooner, but it was previously flagged. I am feeling some serious dissonance here as well. I have been a MBP fan for quite some time now. I have watched the recent Apple conferences with distaste as I see the target audience for MBP shift away from me. I don't want to find an alternative, and I sincerely hoped the market would not take well to the newest iteration. Looks like that's not going to be the case.
  - crispinb 10y ago
    That original post was a tad obtuse! Anyway yes this is the point: OS X (or macOS if I must) isn't perfect, but I have found it the best compromise for my purposes. I very rarely have to futz with it, it's unixy enough, and it has scads of truly excellent 3rd party software available. But the hardware limitations might just force me to find an alternative. The latest MB Pros tanking would have offered some hope.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

ihuman 10y ago

If you want more graphs and comparisons, MacStories created some nice visuals for the new data https://www.macstories.net/news/apple-q1-2017-results-billion-revenue-million-iphones-million-ipads-sold/ https://www.macstories.net/news/apple-q1-2017-results-billio...

djrogers 10y ago

Since September I've been reading nothing but how much of a failure the iPhone 7 is, and how removing the headphone jack was going to be the final straw for Apple. Similar story for the new MacBook Pros. It seems that the geekerati have very different priorities from the rest of the world, and maybe Apple still knows what's it's doing.

arethuza 10y ago
I've been very pleased with my iPhone 7 - yes requiring the headphone adapter is mildly annoying but that's all. I tried my previous iPhone, a 5S which I had donated to a relative, again recently and thought my 7 was well worth the upgrade.
- ashark 10y ago
  How I feel about the latest Apple devices is that they're good despite the "innovation". Touchbar, removing headphone jack, and going all-usb-c (but not on the iphone?) all either sucks or fails to add value, but the spec bumps are still good enough and the build quality's still great, and, crucially, the competition still doesn't have its sh*t together.
- austenallred 10y ago
  Try it with the airpods. I know it's cliche, but it's a fantastic experience. Truly worth the $ (for me, at least; can't say what $170 is worth to you)
  - arethuza 10y ago
    I think my ears must be a weird shape - it takes me ages to find ones that will be comfortable and stay in place and none of the Apple ones I've tried seem to work.
    - austenallred 10y ago
      The EarPods have a completely different shape. No idea of they'll work for you.

mi100hael 10y ago

That dude on Reddit must be having a melt-down.

grepthisab 10y ago
I just checked because I remembered something about that. It turns out the guy was faking having taken those AAPL short positions, as expected.
curiousgal 10y ago
It's fake.
adrr 10y ago
Fake. Pretty sure he's taking the opposite side. He's actually really good at predicting the market if you take the inverse.
pfarnsworth 10y ago
fscomeau has been a fake for several years. He accidentally revealed his IB account, which was a demo numbered one, so yes even this was fake. It was expected. But the live stream was funny as hell.
fiatmoney 10y ago
Who's "that dude on reddit"?
- Gustomaximus 10y ago
  https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/5qprhh/by_popular_request_if_this_post_gets_5k_upvotes_i/ https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/comments/5qprhh/by_p...

Dramatize 10y ago

My new laptop is the buggiest Apple product I've owned. Programs are always crashing, has issues waking up, and has connection issue with the new LG monitor.

rak00n 10y ago
I'm surprised you're downvoted.
- davnn 10y ago
  Implicitly attributed to user error probably.
diminoten 10y ago
I've had no issues, and am pleasantly surprised by how happy I am with the new keyboard.
- Dramatize 10y ago
  I also like the keyboard. The hardware is lovely to use, it's just the software letting the experience down.
- chadcmulligan 10y ago
  yes, I'm the same (15" MBP). I think it's the nicest laptop I've ever owned. It's thin, light, incredible battery life, very powerful. I really like the keyboard, the travel once you get used to it makes other keyboards feel heavy. Trying to use the touchbar but maybe it will become useful as time goes by. I use it for swift coding and I can't fault it.
DigitalJack 10y ago
My macbook pro is having problems waking up lately--very annoying. It's a 2015 15" model... I think they must have something screwy going on with a recent update.
izacus 10y ago

adventured 10y ago

I fail to see how this was a dynamite quarter, in Cook's words. Net income shrank year over year Operating income shrank year over year China sales imploded by another 12% Margins contracted Sales growth was a piddling 4% (it didn't contract granted, I don't see how that's "dynamite") iPad sales continue to implode, down 19% And there's Cook cheering on the results. It reminds me of the Steve Ballmer days under Microsoft. The profits were there, the sales were there, and yet you could easily spot the icebergs on the horizon.

fisherjeff 10y ago
I think the most interesting category to watch is going to be services: 2 straight years of 20% growth, and it's now virtually tied for second largest revenue source with Mac.
- adventured 10y ago
  There's no great profit in their services division, compared to their historically incredible margins and sales scale in hardware. Which is why their net income is contracting. You could double their services sales and it'll only just move the needle on that $17.x billion in net income. Apple is also going to need very substantial device sales growth to keep moving services growth over time at that pace (a given user is only going to consume so much, you need a lot more of them) - I don't see where the device growth is going to come from (China's boom days are long over in that regard; India could maybe pick up some of that slack). If you're melting off 3 million iPad units year over year, at an asp of $400 to $450, that becomes a large hole for services growth to fill. Worse yet, it's very likely China is going to become more hostile as a market for the iPhone / Apple in the next few years (both politically and in terms of the domestic competition that is shrinking the iPhone's position there). Total device contraction, which is pretty likely over the next few years, will put pressure on services growth. Cook is doing a great job at managing the spigots of sales and profit that Jobs left for him to operate. The sooner Apple can move to its post Ballmer era and stop being a sales collections company (surfing the past until the wave's energy dissipates), the better.
criddell 10y ago

emdowling 10y ago

The interesting takeaway for me is that services is now the equal second biggest revenue centre at 9%. It is still way behind iPhone, but it is growing at a phenomenal rate. By all accounts Apple is just getting started with services (e.g.: rumoured original video content, video streaming service) so we can expect this to grow even more. Finally Apple is capitalising on its install base to sell more addons after sale. This offsets slowing hardware upgrade rates, although not sure if it is enough to offset iPad declines. The narrative often heard is that if they want to shift to being a services company, Apple would need to dramatically change its org structure. I may be wrong, but no one has ever monetised consumers with recurring monthly revenue as successfully as Apple has (utility companies and mortgage brokers excluded!). And it didn't even need an org restructure!

adventured 10y ago
Services, basically digital content consumption (whether songs, or movies, or apps), is a very low profit business compared to hardware. You're competing with Netflix, Google and Amazon there. Netflix and Amazon have near zero margin in their content businesses. Most of your profit is eaten up by licensing (or production as well now for AMZN & NFLX), and that is guaranteed not to change. $20 billion in services sales, with $3 billion in operating income, won't scratch a $638 billion market cap (and won't compensate for tanking China iPhone sales if that doesn't immediately stop getting worse).
hyperbovine 10y ago
> By all accounts Apple is just getting started with services ... so we can expect this to grow even more. That's a very ... charitable way to put it. Another take would be that Apple, whose former CEO, over a decade ago, simultaneously oversaw Pixar and sat on the board of Disney, complete and totally missed the boat on streaming, original content, and cloud services. Think back to 2006: Netflix was a service that mailed DVDs, Amazon Prime was a year old, Dropbox was not around, Spotify was not around, Google was still focused on core services like maps and mail. Considering who their CEO was at the time, his connections, and their first mover advantage on digital entertainment and cloud, it absolutely amazes me that every single one of these companies was allowed to come in and eat Apple's lunch in some form or another.

breatheoften 10y ago

I bought into apple after falling for osx during college right around the financial crisis. I've been a fan of their approach to products since then. But the new macbook pro's are pretty revolting to me -- I used one at the apple store for a few minutes and could barely type on the (horrible) keyboard. I played with the touchbar and immediately found myself trying to touch the screen -- something that as a fan I definitely knew would not work. Even with just a few moments use, it was immediately utterly clear to me that to the extent that the touchbar is a good idea, a touchscreen would have been a better idea ... The good idea within the touchbar is the attempt to 'augment' the keyboard/mouse user interface with touch -- augment, not replace. Microsoft tried to make touch/keyboard-mouse interchangeable but in real-life not all elements on the screen should be touchable -- the touchbar realizes this and deserves props for getting that much right. But even after acknowledging that success, the touchbar is just ... wrong -- its not any easier to lift your hands from the keyboard and use the touchbar than it would be to touch the screen -- its actually harder because you have to take your eyes from the screen and look somewhere you would not normally look to aim your fingers. I hope the idea of 'augmenting' the macOS user interface introduced with touchbar evolves to the main display -- where it might be a good idea ... I don't know how this would be accomplished though -- maybe the api's created for touchbar could be re-targeted towards user interface elements on the main touch display ...

freyir 10y ago
> But the new macbook pro's are pretty revolting to me -- I used one at the apple store for a few minutes Thank you for your in-depth review. Many people judged the new MacBook Pro based on its press release alone, but you went the extra mile and used one at the Apple Store for a few minutes.
- breatheoften 10y ago
  To be fair to me, I wasn't trying to lie or mislead about the thoroughness of my experience ... I suppose I was talking into a void but I at least was conveying the truth of my experience. My use at the apple store was enough to know I didn't want one -- which made me glad because I sort of need a new macbook and was worried I'd buy one on impulse. I immediately did not like the keyboard (never happened on an apple laptop for me before the one port Macbook which I bought for my girlfriend right when it was announced sight unseen -- when using it I tried my best not to voice my (immediate) criticism of the keyboard hoping that she would like my present ... She came from an old dell so anything was better than that monstrosity. But at some point after having the macbook one for awhile she used my macbook pro and commented how much easier the keyboard on my machine was to type on ...). I found myself unconsciously touching the display while playing around with touchbar. Attempting to use the display as a touchscreen is something I've never done before - even when playing with a microsoft laptop that had a touchscreen on it. Touching the little bar just 'felt wrong' to me ... This is certainly an unfair assessment -- but I'm not used to that feeling with apple products - the experience just legitimately felt bad to me. I'm open to having changing my mind in the future or having it changed -- I'm not really a cargo cult'er.

lolive 10y ago

Christmas 2016 was my first time in an apple store since forever (i.e the iphone 5). I went in and bought the last iphone with a headphone jack: the iphone 6s. I firmly believe a looot of people did exactly that too. So, imho, the iphone 6s is the absolute best seller ever at Apple (especially since iphone 7 announcement :).

nicky0 10y ago
Actually the last phone with a headphone jack was the SE. (The best phone they've ever made, imho.)
freyir 10y ago
> So, imho, the iphone 6s is the absolute best seller ever at Apple I know it's 2017, but "best selling" is really more a matter of fact than opinion.
pfarnsworth 10y ago
You would be completely wrong. This is evidence by the ASP, which was over expectations, which means it was mainly iPhone 7s.

knlje 10y ago

I will never buy a computer again. You can find lots of very powerful computers in trash bin (e.g. my current 2013 MBP). People buy a piece of very precious materials and throw it away in 2 years. I think this is one of the most unethical things a man can do. You think that you need your computers up to date because you are a geek and you must stay up to date to remain competent. This is not true. You can manage with less and you more than anyone else know how to handle a computer with slightly less resources. These kind of numbers from a company advocating this throw away culture makes me very sad.

BOBOTWINSTON 10y ago
For development, sure. For VR, yeah I need to basically be at the bleeding edge right now.
- santaclaus 10y ago
  > For development, sure As a developer, I say give me more cores and more ram! Faster build and test times means more development time.
- intoverflow2 10y ago
  I don't think you can put people with modular high end PCs in the same box as people throwing away smartphones every year and laptops every 2-3. At least modular PCs can be valuable again (or repaired) with a single component upgrade and those old components usually go straight onto ebay for other people to take advantage of.
seanmcdirmid 10y ago
I can't tell if this is sarcasm or real but...new computers (a) get faster over time, so upgrading is worth it, but old computers also (b) become damaged over time, for many of us at least, though this is less of a problem with MBPs than say with Lenovo's. Yes, I could do my work with 10 year old hardware, but no, I wouldn't really want to. These days, I don't feel the need to upgrade very often, 3-4 years seems to work out, but something new and faster is always nice. As for the environmental costs, these are real and should be considered. That being said, it is difficult to not consume while remaining competitive with your peers that are at the same time (they have a faster computer -> get work done faster than you -> you get a pink slip).

deeth_starr 10y ago

This guy, who seems a Trump supporter or just ADHD, keeps down voting every comment I make. What's up with the weird system at HN were some (crazy) people get way more power? Edit: tptacek Edit: His twitter feed https://twitter.com/tqbf https://twitter.com/tqbf. I'm not going to call him out by name although he has it up on his profile Edit: Understood. Sorry

grzm 10y ago
Calling out HN members like this is not acceptable on Hacker News. If you think there's some sort of abuse going on, please contact the mods via the Contact link in the footer.
- tptacek 10y ago
  I like the idea of someone looking at my Twitter feed lately and coming to the conclusion that I'm a Trump supporter.
  - deeth_starr 10y ago
    I'm going to be honest with you that sarcasm is sometimes hard. Your feed compared to an alt-right feed are just missing context and pepe (joke). Esp since you have Alex Jones in there...
    - deeth_starr 10y ago
      Proof that bullies own the voting system...
      - grzm 10y ago
        The guidelines specifically ask not to comment on downvoting. Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html As suggested above, if you believe there's abuse going on, please contact the mods via the Contact link below. Comments do sometimes attract downvotes from people who disagree, but far more often from what I've observed is that HN members strongly value civil and constructive comments, and will tend to downvote comments they feel don't meet those standards. They'll also downvote comments that go against the guidelines, which is likely your last comment is receiving downvotes. Speculating as to why your comment was downvoted is of course, just speculation: some might wonder what the purpose of your comment is. It reads somewhat critical of 'tptacek's Twitter feed, which is not the topic of discussion. So it appears to be needlessly negative of an arguably personal nature for something that's off-topic. While that may not have been your intent, viewed in that light, it's not surprising that it may have attracted some downvotes. Like I said, it's speculation. I have no special insight into the minds of those who downvoted. In my experience, it does little good to dwell on it other than to use it as motivation to write better comments. Again, if you think there's actual abuse going on, do contact the mods. They're very responsive and I'm confident they'll look into it for you.

bdcravens 10y ago

At the end of the day, the MBP isn't built only for developers and creatives. We're a subset of the customer base, always have been. (I suspect they sell more to soccer moms and college kids than "pros")

paulcole 10y ago
Pro does not only mean "for professionals." In the average person's mind it just means "better." Nobody says "oh I'm using this at home, can't get the pro."
matt4077 10y ago
This "professional" narrative is seriously annoying. I work on software 10h+ a day, some of it is (hopefully) at the cutting edge of biology. I even get paid. Use neural nets. And vim. So I should probably fall within the "professional" category. At least more than "soccer mom", with regards to gender, reproductive status, and offsprings' choice of sports. I have never felt the need to plug in 6+ peripherals. 16GB work fine even with a Linux and a Windows 10 virtual machine running. If I run out of battery after 12h of working on a flight, I sleep – but I don't dream of replaceable batteries. Whatever all these self-professed "professionals" are doing, it sounds a lot more like what I did in high school: spending weeks swapping components, recompiling Linux kernels for 2% higher values at some useless benchmark, building incredibly-convoluted setups to really finally create a media centre rivalling Fleet Street etc.
- mark_l_watson 10y ago
  I agree, for my workflow. I just bought a new laptop, and didn't even go for a pro model. If I need more resources, I have a 60gig ram, 16 core VPS I can spin up, but for most Java, Haskell, and other dev work, and for writing my books, a plain MacBook is quite sufficient (after 1 week to get used to, and like, the keyboard). I did toss my old external monitor for a LG 4K, a purchase I am also really happy with. For fun, I am writing iOS and Android app versions of my cookingspace web app, and the MacBook also performs well enough for that.

EGreg 10y ago

Looks like Tim Cook worked hard to claw his salary back :)

jhack 10y ago

So nothing's going to change. Great...

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

samfisher83 10y ago

China Iphone sales took a pretty big dip, but US sales looked good and their ASP hasn't gone down. The Chinese Market is more price sensitive than US market.

bitmapbrother 10y ago

Talk about setting expectations low so that they can beat the street again. >Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2017 second quarter: revenue between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion

bekman 10y ago
Well the coming quarter is a non-holiday.

erickhill 10y ago

How many Macs sold from the Apple refurb-shop helped push those Q1 Mac sales figures? I bought my brand new (2015) refurb model the week the new Macs were shown, as did several of my colleagues.

andai 10y ago

For everyone asking about magsafe, you can buy a usb-c to magsafe adapter. (2 parts which separate)

arrty88 10y ago

I have the 2016 touch bar pro 15 inch. Love it

keyle 10y ago

I wonder how much if "services" is due to the iCloud revenues because iPhone keep getting bigger, and the free hosting is not getting bigger..... Bugging people constantly to increase storage.

MarkMc 10y ago

Meh. A bank account earning compound interest will achieve "all-time record quarterly revenue" every single quarter. Apple's quarterly profit is only up by 2.4% per share. Let's look at earnings per share for each calendar year [1]: 2016: $8.35 (down 11%) 2015: $9.42 (up 27%) 2014: $7.42 (up 29%) 2013: $5.76 (down 9%) 2012: $6.30 Looks to me like Apple's growth spurt is over. [1] Note 12 in annual reports at http://investor.apple.com/sec.cfm?DocType=Annual&ndq_keyword= http://investor.apple.com/sec.cfm?DocType=Annual&ndq_keyword...

bduerst 10y ago
I've always wondered why people use EPS - What if Apple issued more outstanding shares during this timeframe? Wouldn't that skew this metric without representing that?
- bkjelden 10y ago
  EPS is only really relevant if given in the same breath as share price. P/E ratio is the more meaningful (and shares-outstanding-invariant) metric.
- sumedh 10y ago
  You can look at the EPS trend for many years and form your conclusions. If its going up that is good, if its down or flat you should be asking why.
- qeternity 10y ago
  When a company does something dilutive (or anti-dilutive) then previous metrics are recalculated (split adjusted) for comparison. Also, as someone else mentions, EPS in its own right is meaningless. P/E ratios are a more common (albeit flawed) way to compare companies' relative valuations.
azinman2 10y ago
Where can I get a bank account with compound interest that isn't 0.001%?

econner 10y ago

Possibly a dumb question, but doesn't 2017 Q1 end in 2 months? How are they already reporting results?

stuckagain 10y ago
Financial calendars are not necessarily aligned with actual calendars.
- aetherson 10y ago
  And, yes, specifically Apple's year ends with Q3 of the "real" calendar. Their fiscal year is aligned with their iPhone release cycle, which is probably a good idea.

scottmcleod 10y ago

Now if only they would leverage their piles and piles of cash for humanity.

yig 10y ago

It was a 14 week quarter rather than the typical 13 week quarter. Multiply all the numbers by 13/14 and you'll see it was a year over year decline.

qqrsmith 10y ago
Interesting. Thanks for pointing that out. > For accounting purposes, a firm is allowed to define a "quarter" as either a span of 3 months or else a span of 13 weeks. A "year" is then four quarters. ... Consequently, a firm that defines its quarters in terms of weeks needs to hold a 14-week quarter every four or five years. [1] [1] http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/02/06/_14_week_quarters_financial_markets_get_confused.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/02/06/_14_week_quar...
alanfalcon 10y ago
Except you're adding a weak week, not a week that's expected to compete on an even basis with a typical holiday-quarter week, so that math isn't exactly telling/accurate either.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
retromario 10y ago
From CFO Maestri on the Q&A call with analysts: "2:15 pm: We had the benefit of a 14th week, but this was offset by several factors including less channel fill than last year and a one-time $548 million patent judgment receipt last year." http://www.macrumors.com/2017/01/31/q1-2017-results/ http://www.macrumors.com/2017/01/31/q1-2017-results/
- toyg 10y ago
  Channel fill is fairly irrelevant (whose fault is it that your distributors don't want more of your stuff "just in case"?) and the cash is also fairly irrelevant - what matters for momentum is the number of units shifted and that's lagging everywhere except iPhones (and, if you trust them, the Watch).

freshyill 10y ago

I searched and searched to find an Apple Watch for my wife for Christmas. I got lucky and got one on Christmas Eve at Target. I'm not shocked at all they they made bank this quarter.

piyush_soni 10y ago

Wait. Isn't the revenue number supposed to grow each year as long as things are just going as they were? I've never understood Apple's fixation with the word 'ever' for everything which is supposed to grow organically. Guess what? Every year I get my 'highest ever' salary.

piyush_soni 10y ago
People giving negative votes, do you have an objective reason for that, or you just don't like someone bashing Apple for their hyperbole?

jpalomaki 10y ago

Mac might be a victim of the high profit margins. Frequent updates and competitive pricing do no good for the profit margin. Much easier to maintain those if you sell a bit outdated hw (thinking about Mac Pro and Mini). What would the "markets" think if Apple sold more Macs, maintained the same absolute profits but let the margins slip? Would that be considered as a bad thing?

nkkollaw 10y ago
I don't know if I would describe 3-year-old hardware as "a bit outdated" :-/

mpweiher 10y ago

So why hasn't the stock price tanked yet? What's wrong with the Universe?

coldcode 10y ago
17B profits should count for something. That more than 7 months of Facebook's total revenue. Apple made more in service revenue than FB made in total.

wildchild 10y ago

This is actually bad news because Apple will continue this weird strategy of pushing fancy crap for fortune.

dashoffset 10y ago
If you think their products are fancy crap, would it make a difference if they suddenly decided to sell them for half the price?
- wildchild 10y ago
  Yes, because price and quality matters. I have luxury leather goods and they worth every penny because awesome quality and the rest of goods just junk. Does not work with Mac, you pay a lot and a chance that you will be in a trouble with it is very high. Like with last MBP. Apple must spend more money for QA and offer better hardware. I will look on their new mac mini if it will be updated this or next year, probably it will be my last device from this company. Apple business is one of the greatest bubbles.