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Mac sales offer lower margin than iPhone sales, as I understand. 9B in mac sales does not translate to the same amount of profit as 9B in iPhone sales would be.
by totalZero 6y ago
Mac sales offer lower margin than iPhone sales, as I understand. 9B in mac sales does not translate to the same amount of profit as 9B in iPhone sales would be.
China sales were down quite a bit (28.8% QoQ). That drew my attention because China is supposedly a growth market for Apple.
- sgerenser 6y agoMacs might have lower margin on a percentage basis but the average selling price is probably 2-3x the iPhone ASP. So the profit for unit is almost certainly higher.
- totalZero 6y agoSure. However, Apple reports revenue in terms of dollars sold, not units sold. I don't see how profit per unit is relevant when you're reading a 10Q. You can look at HPQ's PC margin (and adjust based on how much extra % premium you think Apple charges versus HPQ) to get a rough idea of the margins for Macs. The point is, people are looking at this revenue number as a beat, but in reality it would be a far better situation to have missed on Mac revenue and beat on iPhone revenue, due to the differences in margin.
- sgerenser 6y agoYou’re right, I read it too fast as 9M units not 9B in revenue. I’m sure Apples margins on Macs are much higher than the rest of the PC industry but they’re almost certainly making less margin on them than on iPhones. That being said, I don’t think missing on iPhones for this quarter that includes the time period right before a major release is particularly damning. If they miss NEXT quarter that would be a big problem.