Apple Reports Record First Quarter Results

[Cristian_25H]

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 first quarter ended December 27, 2014. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $74.6 billion and record quarterly net profit of $18 billion, or $3.06 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $57.6 billion and net profit of $13.1 billion, or $2.07 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.9 percent compared to 37.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 65 percent of the quarter's revenue.

The results were fueled by all-time record revenue from iPhone and Mac sales as well as record performance of the App Store. iPhone unit sales of 74.5 million also set a new record.



"We'd like to thank our customers for an incredible quarter, which saw demand for Apple products soar to an all-time high," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Our revenue grew 30 percent over last year to $74.6 billion, and the execution by our teams to achieve these results was simply phenomenal."

"Our exceptional results produced EPS growth of 48 percent over last year, and $33.7 billion in operating cash flow during the quarter, an all-time record," said Luca Maestri, Apple's CFO."We spent over $8 billion on our capital return program, bringing total returns to investors to almost $103 billion, over $57 billion of which occurred in just the last 12 months."

Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2015 second quarter:

• revenue between $52 billion and $55 billion
• gross margin between 38.5 percent and 39.5 percent
• operating expenses between $5.4 billion and $5.5 billion
• other income/(expense) of $350 million
• tax rate of 26.3 percent

Apple's board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $.47 per share of the Company's common stock. The dividend is payable on February 12, 2015, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 9, 2015.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[D1RTYD1Z619]

Ah yeah hello Apple I need to borrow some money.

 

[Prima.Vera]

TBH, I only love the iPhone and the iPod Nano from Apple, the rest I think are just toys and nothing more. That's right, even your precious Macs, iMacs, tablets and so on...

 

[phanbuey]

Of course they are toys... really really nice toys.

I mean when you blew all that money on your gaming rig, what were you buying?

 

[Sony Xperia S]

I wanna see this bubble explode. I use nothing apple anyways.

 

[PLAfiller]

I wanna see this bubble explode. I use nothing apple anyways.

You wanna see Apple's bubble pop, you wanna see nVidia's bubble pop, I am starting to think you are biased or something

 

[Sony Xperia S]

You wanna see Apple's bubble pop, you wanna see nVidia's bubble pop, I am starting to think you are biased or something

True that. I am biased towards justice. Apple and nvidia can share their profit with other companies. They can settle with less profit for them and more for their competition, for a fair market and competition.

 

[Caring1]

Maybe if Apple paid tax like any honest company is meant to their profit wouldn't be so big.

 

[Aquinus]

TBH, I only love the iPhone and the iPod Nano from Apple, the rest I think are just toys and nothing more. That's right, even your precious Macs, iMacs, tablets and so on...

Remember that when you use your GTX 780 Ti... What about toys again?

Of course they are toys... really really nice toys.

I mean when you blew all that money on your gaming rig, what were you buying?

That.

 

[Fourstaff]

Maybe if Apple paid tax like any honest company is meant to their profit wouldn't be so big.

I am pretty sure Apple pays the least amount of tax they have to, just like any sane person.

 

[Uplink10]

I wanna see this bubble explode. I use nothing apple anyways.

I do not know how can a company survive by having high prices. Apple notebooks start at 900 USD, normal notebooks start at 250 USD. Apple stock price is going to explode and when it does it will lose a lot of worth.

 

[Aquinus]

I do not know how can a company survive by having high prices. Apple notebooks start at 900 USD, normal notebooks start at 250 USD. Apple stock price is going to explode and when it does it will lose a lot of worth.

Yeah, but you buy a 900 dollar Apple product you're getting an SSD, a low power i5, an IPS display, and a light laptop that would qualify as an "ultrabook" that can do most of what your average person will do. A 250 USD laptop is a Netbook with the lowest of the low hardware in it. You probably won't get an SSD and if you do you probably won't get more than 32GB of it. Hardly any memory, It will probably be tiny as well.

So you're comparing apples and oranges...

 

[Uplink10]

So you're comparing apples and oranges...

That is true, but what if I want a low end notebook (netbooks are practically gone) for a few simple tasks, do I have to spend 900 USD just so I can use it as a backup maybe few times a year? The Apple makes computers and they decide what kind of computer you can buy and they start at a high price. I will build NAS server with Intel Bay Trail and I really do not have to spend so much money on a computer whose full performance (GPU...) I will not need. Plus I calculated price of components as a consumer for a few Apple computers and found out they really rob consumers of their money.

 

[64K]

That is true, but what if I want a low end notebook (netbooks are practically gone) for a few simple tasks, do I have to spend 900 USD just so I can use it as a backup maybe few times a year? The Apple makes computers and they decide what kind of computer you can buy and they start at a high price. I will build NAS server with Intel Bay Trail and I really do not have to spend so much money on a computer whose full performance (GPU...) I will not need. Plus I calculated price of components as a consumer for a few Apple computers and found out they really rob consumers of their money.

For what you want Apple is not for you and they aren't targeting you for their products. Apple, from what I've read, makes quality products but you're not just paying for the product. You're also paying a premium for the Apple owner prestige. That has no appeal to me so I never buy Apple products. I came close in the late 80s in buying an Apple IIGS but changed my mind.

 

[Aquinus]

For what you want Apple is not for you and they aren't targeting you for their products. Apple, from what I've read, makes quality products but you're not just paying for the product. You're also paying a premium for the Apple owner prestige. That has no appeal to me so I never buy Apple products. I came close in the late 80s in buying an Apple IIGS but changed my mind.

There is something to be said for a single company controlling a product all the way from hardware to software. Apple owners don't tend to need to think about their OS. Drivers are almost never thought about because everything is done internally and they can focus on the hardware they know their OS will be running on. People might not like OS X, but it tends to be stable and it runs pretty well. More often than not, I've found Apple products to "just work" and a lot of people want that.

As for me, I do think they're too expensive. I only use a Apple laptop at work because we're an Apple shop, a decision that I cannot change so I roll with it (even more so since I get to use a Mac but not pay for it). If you're not gaming, Apple makes a good, solid product. Although if I want a server, or to play a game, or have a lot of compute power or storage, that's kind of outside a typical use case for an Apple product. So you need to make sure you're buying something for what you need it for and you should never buy Apple for those cases. For a general purpose laptop though, that price premium might be worth not having to deal with a lot of issues with things like updates and drivers because it's so tightly controlled by Apple.

There are upsides and downsides, no doubt, but it would be a little dumb to say that Apple doesn't try to build a quality and reliable product because that is one of the biggest selling points to Apple products, even if you don't care about such things being a power user.

 

[64K]

There are upsides and downsides, no doubt, but it would be a little dumb to say that Apple doesn't try to build a quality and reliable product because that is one of the biggest selling points to Apple products, even if you don't care about such things being a power user.

I'm not sure if that was directed at me but since it followed my post which you quoted then I have to say I've never said that Apple doesn't make a quality product. I said "Apple, from what I've read, makes quality products".

 

[peche]

TBH, I only love the iPhone and the iPod Nano from Apple, the rest I think are just toys and nothing more. That's right, even your precious Macs, iMacs, tablets and so on...

+1... but also i like a little Macbook pro ... and just hate iPad...

Regards,

 

[Prima.Vera]

Remember that when you use your GTX 780 Ti... What about toys again?

That.

You didn't understand my comment. I bought a 780Ti not for the design or shinny looks, but to actually use it, not to admire it and brag about it

Of course they are toys... really really nice toys.
I mean when you blew all that money on your gaming rig, what were you buying?

Again, I pay for that because I knew exactly what was for. I didn't pay 700$ just to browse FB and play indy games

 

[TheGuruStud]

You didn't understand my comment. I bought a 780Ti not for the design or shinny looks, but to actually use it, not to admire it and brag about it



Again, I pay for that because I knew exactly what was for. I didn't pay 700$ just to browse FB and play indy games

There's no reasoning with them.

 

[Aquinus]

You didn't understand my comment. I bought a 780Ti not for the design or shinny looks, but to actually use it, not to admire it and brag about it
Again, I pay for that because I knew exactly what was for. I didn't pay 700$ just to browse FB and play indy games

I suspect most people don't buy Macs to do what you described unless it's someone getting it for their child. I write software on mine. In fact I'm getting one with a bigger drive just so I can work on our database locally (we're an Apple shop and it's not my choice). The simple fact is that you can't assume someone is getting a product for just one reason, and I think you missed the other reason I said why someone might consider Apple, which I posted earlier. So instead of saying it just a shiny toy, maybe you need to step away from your preconceptions for just a minute and truly consider what Apples does, which I tried to describe. Remember, not all people want to mess with their computer to make it work. In fact most people want their stuff to just work and I find that's what Apple products tend to do just that.

There is something to be said for a single company controlling a product all the way from hardware to software. Apple owners don't tend to need to think about their OS. Drivers are almost never thought about because everything is done internally and they can focus on the hardware they know their OS will be running on. People might not like OS X, but it tends to be stable and it runs pretty well. More often than not, I've found Apple products to "just work" and a lot of people want that.

As for me, I do think they're too expensive. I only use a Apple laptop at work because we're an Apple shop, a decision that I cannot change so I roll with it (even more so since I get to use a Mac but not pay for it). If you're not gaming, Apple makes a good, solid product. Although if I want a server, or to play a game, or have a lot of compute power or storage, that's kind of outside a typical use case for an Apple product. So you need to make sure you're buying something for what you need it for and you should never buy Apple for those cases. For a general purpose laptop though, that price premium might be worth not having to deal with a lot of issues with things like updates and drivers because it's so tightly controlled by Apple.

There are upsides and downsides, no doubt, but it would be a little dumb to say that Apple doesn't try to build a quality and reliable product because that is one of the biggest selling points to Apple products, even if you don't care about such things being a power user.

 

[RichF]

Really poor products fail in the marketplace. The market has spoken. Apple is doing well.

Apple does what a lot of people want and they're willing to pay a bit more to be assured that it will "just work". Apple has a history of doing a reasonable job of making things "just work". It's far from perfect, but Consumer Reports has reported Apple products to have the highest customer service satisfaction rating of the large tech hardware companies for many years. I don't know if that has changed recently, but I doubt it.

Apple products are not designed for the enthusiast gamer market. I'm sure the company realized the margins are too thin to be worthwhile. Plus, Apple has been boneheaded when it comes to gaming for a long time. Apple doesn't "get" gaming and never really has — probably because people reacted to its GUI machines like the Lisa and first Mac as if they were toys because of the mouse. Apple's philosophy was that the CPU should do all the work, unlike game-friendly systems such as the NES and Amiga that would offload work to dedicated graphics and sound chips. The only exception is the IIgs, but that was Woz's vision and Apple hobbled it to prevent it from competing with Macintosh.

Apple has given lipservice to gamers at times over the years but its constant churning out of incompatible operating system revisions, non-expandable tight form factor hardware, and lack of DirectX are all too tough for most gaming companies to deal much with. Thunderbolt might help things (external Thunderbolt GPUs), but Apple's focus is on mobile and its constant operating system changes will continue to create incompatibilities that gaming companies are unlikely to bother with.

Even the Apple II had cruddy graphics and sound so gamers bought Commodores and Ataris. Apple does get the professional content creation market and has been targeting it ever since it transitioned its business from home finance (VisiCalc, AppleWorks) + schools. It also targets the upscale non-enterprise non-gamer individual with products like the original iMac, the Mac LC, and the 5K iMac.

 

[MxPhenom 216]

True that. I am biased towards justice. Apple and nvidia can share their profit with other companies. They can settle with less profit for them and more for their competition, for a fair market and competition.

oh good lord.....

 

[Caring1]

Really poor products fail in the marketplace. The market has spoken. Apple is doing well.
Apple does what a lot of people want

Not pay tax?
In Australia alone their tax bill is $6 Billion dollars.
That doesn't make them successful or their products better, that makes them liars and cheats.

 

[Aquinus]

Not pay tax?
In Australia alone their tax bill is $6 Billion dollars.
That doesn't make them successful or their products better, that makes them liars and cheats.

I'm sorry, there was a devlopment somewhere between the second and third lines of your post. Could you describe why you think 6 Billion AUD in taxes is a bad thing? Is it not enough?

oh good lord.....

I know, right?

Apple does get the professional content creation market and has been targeting it ever since it transitioned its business from home finance (VisiCalc, AppleWorks) + schools.

I work for a school and we're a Apple shop. Although, having a 15" MBP with Retina, I can't really complain. For everything I do with the exception of gaming, Apple has worked. I do personally feel that the price tag is a bit on the high side though. That has absolutely no bearing on me thinking weather Apple has a good product or not. The question is weather you think it's worth the price. For me, that's usually not the case, but since I got one from work to do my job on, I do use it, and I do enjoy it, but I probably would never buy one myself unless I were to give up gaming all together, but still it would be a hard choice to make given the price.

 

[Caring1]

I'm sorry, there was a devlopment somewhere between the second and third lines of your post. Could you describe why you think 6 Billion AUD in taxes is a bad thing? Is it not enough?

It flowed on from the statement Apple is doing well.
Of course they are, they refuse to pay tax in the countries the income is earned, therefore increasing profits.
Sounds like a pyramid scheme to me.