Apple Reports Second Quarter Results

[btarunr]

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2018 second quarter ended March 31, 2018. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $61.1 billion, an increase of 16 percent from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.73, up 30 percent. International sales accounted for 65 percent of the quarter's revenue.

"We're thrilled to report our best March quarter ever, with strong revenue growth in iPhone, Services and Wearables," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Customers chose iPhone X more than any other iPhone each week in the March quarter, just as they did following its launch in the December quarter. We also grew revenue in all of our geographic segments, with over 20% growth in Greater China and Japan."

"Our business performed extremely well during the March quarter, as we grew earnings per share by 30 percent and generated over $15 billion in operating cash flow," said Luca Maestri, Apple's CFO. "With the greater flexibility we now have from access to our global cash, we can more efficiently invest in our US operations and work toward a more optimal capital structure. Given our confidence in Apple's future, we are very happy to announce that our Board has approved a new $100 billion share repurchase authorization and a 16 percent increase in our quarterly dividend."

The Company will complete the execution of the previous $210 billion share repurchase authorization during the third fiscal quarter.

Reflecting the approved increase, the Board has declared a cash dividend of $0.73 per share of Apple's common stock payable on May 17, 2018 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 14, 2018.

The Company also expects to continue to net-share-settle vesting restricted stock units.

From the inception of its capital return program in August 2012 through March 2018, Apple has returned $275 billion to shareholders, including $200 billion in share repurchases. The management team and the Board will continue to review each element of the capital return program regularly and plan to provide an update on the program on an annual basis.

Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2018 third quarter:

• revenue between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion
• gross margin between 38 percent and 38.5 percent
• operating expenses between $7.7 billion and $7.8 billion
• other income/(expense) of $400 million
• tax rate of approximately 14.5 percent

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q2 2018 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT on May 1, 2018 at www.apple.com/investor/earnings-call/.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Rehmanpa]

I honestly don't understand why so many people waste their money with Apple. Their products are awful, over priced, are not user friendly (just try using OSX it's Terrible, and iPhone ain't much better and that's coming from someone who has used both), and the general company's attitude is a fck you to customers. I mean they pull BS like removing the headphone jack so they can sell ridiculously over priced and not even very good Bluetooth earbuds. My OnePlus 5 is better in pretty much every way than my friends brand new iPhone 8, and it was pennies on the dollar in terms of cost.

I mean if you own stock in Apple congrats, other wise if you're the ones supplying this I really just don't get it. I mean I guess Apple didn't make ethereum mining Macs so that's a plus If you're a gamer I guess? Not like you can even really game on a mac unless you literally game ON (top of) a Mac, they're comfortable seats considering how warm they get

 

[TheGuruStud]

I honestly don't understand why so many people waste their money with Apple. Their products are awful, over priced, are not user friendly (just try using OSX it's Terrible, and iPhone ain't much better and that's coming from someone who has used both), and the general company's attitude is a fck you to customers. I mean they pull BS like removing the headphone jack so they can sell ridiculously over priced and not even very good Bluetooth earbuds. My OnePlus 5 is better in pretty much every way than my friends brand new iPhone 8, and it was pennies on the dollar in terms of cost.

I mean if you own stock in Apple congrats, other wise if you're the ones supplying this I really just don't get it. I mean I guess Apple didn't make ethereum mining Macs so that's a plus If you're a gamer I guess? Not like you can even really game on a mac unless you literally game ON (top of) a Mac, they're comfortable seats considering how warm they get

But how else will people think you're rich? Silly pleb. Now, take out a loan to buy the new iPhone like a good little lemming.

OP5T shames virtually everything on the market and absolutely destroys apple and samsung... Unless you think a slightly better camera is worth another 350+. And don't drop the other flagships, it's game over.

 

[Shihab]

I honestly don't understand why so many people waste their money with Apple.

And I don't understand why people waste money on any phone that is more expensive than $250.

Their products are awful,

They tend to have the highest reliability and a decent all-round quality, and are known to have a very decent user satisfaction.

over priced,

Barring reductionist, hardware-to-hardware comparisons, how adequate the cost is is defined by the value the product provides. And well, since the products sell and have generally positive reception, I'd say they aren't quite so overpriced for their targeted market. Not saying that it's within the budget of many/majority of consumers, but so do those Infiniti cars; and neither denying that glam is part of the said "value" of the said products.

are not user friendly (just try using OSX it's Terrible, and iPhone ain't much better and that's coming from someone who has used both),

Aren't user friendly to you.
Numbers aren't with you on this one.

and the general company's attitude is a fck you to customers.

I'm not really sure what counts as a "fck you" attitude in your books. Mine considers Google's borderline anti-competitive approach to managing the quasi- "open source" Android pretty much of that type. And let's not even go into Microsoft since Windows 8.

I mean they pull BS like removing the headphone jack so they can sell ridiculously over priced and not even very good Bluetooth earbuds.

AFAIK, it was Motorola who started this, so, at best, the only anti-Apple rhetoric you can use here is the good ol' "they don't innovate, they just copied it!" And at the risk of going too much whataboutist, need I remind you that Android OEMs have nearly turned this into a fact-of-life? That, and that ugly, god damned awful notch!

 

[TheGuruStud]

And I don't understand why people waste money on any phone that is more expensive than $250.


They tend to have the highest reliability and a decent all-round quality, and are known to have a very decent user satisfaction.


Barring reductionist, hardware-to-hardware comparisons, how adequate the cost is is defined by the value the product provides. And well, since the products sell and have generally positive reception, I'd say they aren't quite so overpriced for their targeted market. Not saying that it's within the budget of many/majority of consumers, but so do those Infiniti cars; and neither denying that glam is part of the said "value" of the said products.


Aren't user friendly to you.
Numbers aren't with you on this one.


I'm not really sure what counts as a "fck you" attitude in your books. Mine considers Google's borderline anti-competitive approach to managing the quasi- "open source" Android pretty much of that type. And let's not even go into Microsoft since Windows 8.


AFAIK, it was Motorola who started this, so, at best, the only anti-Apple rhetoric you can use here is the good ol' "they don't innovate, they just copied it!" And at the risk of going too much whataboutist, need I remind you that Android OEMs have nearly turned this into a fact-of-life? That, and that ugly, god damned awful notch!

Stupid people are very satisfied with shitty products. Look at domestic/German cars. And iOS is objectively harder to use. It takes more steps to do almost anything and there's nothing intuitive about the interface. I think it took me a year to find the GPS switch (gave up after 2 mins)...and there's hardly any settings compared to Android, yet, all of Android's settings are easy to navigate (regardless of what crap a manuf piles on top). iPhone users don't even change the ringtone. What would they know about ease of use? Hell, I used to get asked by them how to copy text or send pics... apparently not that easy for more than calling and simple texting.

I use a shitphone daily and cuss it daily. It's garbage.

As far as OSX goes, if you do anything except web browsing, it's unusable. Guess what...their users don't do anything but that and email lol. You should know something is wrong when a several year old Linux distro is more user friendly.

 

[Vayra86]

Stupid people are very satisfied with shitty products. Look at domestic/German cars. And iOS is objectively harder to use. It takes more steps to do almost anything and there's nothing intuitive about the interface. I think it took me a year to find the GPS switch (gave up after 2 mins)...and there's hardly any settings compared to Android, yet, all of Android's settings are easy to navigate (regardless of what crap a manuf piles on top). iPhone users don't even change the ringtone. What would they know about ease of use? Hell, I used to get asked by them how to copy text or send pics... apparently not that easy for more than calling and simple texting.

I use a shitphone daily and cuss it daily. It's garbage.

As far as OSX goes, if you do anything except web browsing, it's unusable. Guess what...their users don't do anything but that and email lol. You should know something is wrong when a several year old Linux distro is more user friendly.

For once I can wholeheartedly agree with you on this.

I've always used Android phones and a month ago swapped to an Iphone SE for work. Decided to make it the phone for everything... boy do I regret this.

Some examples of the ridiculousness:
- closing apps. 'Press the home button twice'... what's intuitive about this? Its an unpleasant button to push too, loud clicky sound, y u no touch
- the ultra clunky pull'up' menu with all differently shaped sliders and buttons for phone functions, some of which leave you guessing what the icon means (and have no text label). You drag up or down for one setting and its a push button for another. Why
- Touch ID does not work better than Android's alternative.
- Safari's rather flat address bar with lots of wasted space surrounding it - hard to touch, odd design choice. Is Apple scared some edge wouldn't be 'rounded' enough?
- Battery life is worse than on my Moto G5 Plus, even though the screen is much smaller and there is much less functionality on the phone
- the camera is far worse than on the Moto G5 Plus, do note: a midrange Android 250 bucks phone
- When iOS wants my permission for some access... it is often unclear which app is asking for this access. You just get a pop-up shoved in your face that you *must* click
- minimizing apps or leaving an app - The button to close something is 'Home' while there is no 'back' button. On Android, the back button is useful to quickly switch between two apps, say you copy/paste something from one to another or switching between an opened email and a browser window. Not happenin' on Apple! Every application means going back to the home screen and finding the app again so you can click it, or double clicking home to get the opened apps... forcing you to pick from a massive list of everything.
- retarded settings menu.... that lacks half the settings you want but does contain a specific entry for EVERY APP in terms of using Siri and other junk you don't really care about

OSX... done that before but iOS is Apple stupid on a whole new level. People pay 1K for a phone with this OS? Faith in humanity = lost. I'd rather use Symbian or Windows Phone than this

 

[TheGuruStud]

For once I can wholeheartedly agree with you on this.

I've always used Android phones and a month ago swapped to an Iphone SE for work. Decided to make it the phone for everything... boy do I regret this.

Some examples of the ridiculousness:
- closing apps. 'Press the home button twice'... what's intuitive about this?
- the ultra clunky pull'up' menu with all differently shaped sliders and buttons for phone functions, some of which leave you guessing what the icon means (and have no text label). You drag up or down for one setting and its a push button for another. Why
- Touch ID does not work better than Android's alternative.
- Safari's rather flat address bar with lots of wasted space surrounding it - hard to touch, odd design choice. Is Apple scared some edge wouldn't be 'rounded' enough?
- Battery life is worse than on my Moto G5 Plus, even though the screen is much smaller and there is much less functionality on the phone
- minimizing apps or leaving an app - The button to close something is 'Home' while there is no 'back' button. On Android, the back button is useful to quickly switch between two apps, say you copy/paste something from one to another or switching between an opened email and a browser window. Not happenin' on Apple! Every application means going back to the home screen and finding the app again so you can click it, or double clicking home to get the opened apps... forcing you to pick from a massive list of everything.
- retarded settings menu.... that lacks half the settings you want but does contain a specific entry for EVERY APP in terms of using Siri and other junk you don't really care about

OSX... done that before but iOS is Apple stupid on a whole new level. People pay 1K for a phone with this OS? Faith in humanity = lost. I'd rather use Symbian or Windows Phone than this

Don't get me started on the fingerprint reader. It works half of the time and I still have to spam touches. Works everytime on my op5t even if my hands are a little wet.

 

[Shihab]

Stupid people are very satisfied with shitty products. Look at domestic/German cars. And iOS is objectively harder to use. It takes more steps to do almost anything and there's nothing intuitive about the interface. I think it took me a year to find the GPS switch (gave up after 2 mins)

By what metric? Your own experience, with all due respect, is statistically insignificant on its own.

As far as OSX goes, if you do anything except web browsing, it's unusable. Guess what...their users don't do anything but that and email lol. You should know something is wrong when a several year old Linux distro is more user friendly.

Ok, let's look at some numbers:
This is StackOverflow's survey for 2017, scroll down to "Most Loved, Dreaded, and Wanted Platforms" category, see where OSX (and iOS) ended up. Filtered down to mainstream, consumer-oriented platforms, both are beaten only by Linux desktop (and the Pi, if you can call it mainstream or consumer-oriented).
So, you got one thing right: Linux is more favored, at least in some circles, some very tech savvy circles...
But guess what, those tech savvy people also love OSX more than Windows and iOS more than Android, the most ubiquitous OSes of each of the respective hardware-platforms and arguably the one people world-wide are most used to.

Perhaps this doesn't matter much under the context of how an average Joe uses their computer, but it does help to counter your claim that OSX/iOS users are stupid or technologically-challenged, and that they are only used for mailing or web browsing.

And let's not even bring graphics designers and video editing people into this...

 

[TheGuruStud]

By what metric? Your own experience, with all due respect, is statistically insignificant on its own.



Ok, let's look at some numbers:
This is StackOverflow's survey for 2017, scroll down to "Most Loved, Dreaded, and Wanted Platforms" category, see where OSX (and iOS) ended up. Filtered down to mainstream, consumer-oriented platforms, both are beaten only by Linux desktop (and the Pi, if you can call it mainstream or consumer-oriented).
So, you got one thing right: Linux is more favored, at least in some circles, some very tech savvy circles...
But guess what, those tech savvy people also love OSX more than Windows and iOS more than Android, the most ubiquitous OSes of each of the respective hardware-platforms and arguably the one people world-wide are most used to.

Perhaps this doesn't matter much under the context of how an average Joe uses their computer, but it does help to counter your claim that OSX/iOS users are stupid or technologically-challenged, and that they are only used for mailing or web browsing.

And let's not even bring graphics designers and video editing people into this...

I hate to break it to ya, but even a lot of people working on OSX are not tech savvy. They can use their apps and that's it. They're also brainwashed into believing Macs are better for productivity lol.

It is objectively harder to use b/c it takes more steps to complete the same function. Even simple things like sending a pic requires you to tap a menu open instead of just the camera icon like any other reasonable phone (or has that been fixed finally).

 

[Rehmanpa]

The whole bullshit about Macs being better for video editing may have been true 10-20 years ago. It's 2018. That's not true anymore. My windows PC is absolutely amazing for video editing and I got all the software I need (I use Sony Vegas pro 15 which supports GPU rendering). Not to mention I have a nice ryzen cpu which is an amazing bang for buck for rendering stuff, especially back in October 2017 when I bought it. Do you see those in Macs? I haven't. Do you see well designed, efficient machines that are cost effective and don't thermal throttle from Apple? I would say no, and I would tell you to throw it in the trash but it already is a trash can (literally).

I've done programming for several years and I've never had any issues on Windows. Everything works for it and supports it, Mac on the other hand can take a lot of effort to deal with. And when you can't run things like exe files, meaning people have to rewrite programs just for osx, most programmers won't bother. And for your record my dad purchased one of those Mac book pro laptop shiny pieces of junk and I've spent actual time trying to use it. Couldn't even get splitscreening two chrome browsers to work right.

Windows is faster, more capable, less locked down, more portable, more versatile, and IMO the GUI is a lot nicer. As for iPhone vs android idk how you can even begin to argue for iOS. My friends who all have iPhones are always plugged in charging, always getting game updates slower (such as for pubg Mobile it took several more days for "apple to approve the app update"). My friends only real point he had was that they look Cool. As subjective as that is, they're certainly popular with celebrities, but an endorsement by a celebrity doesn't mean jack shit when it comes to actual performance, user interface, future proofing (gotta love iOS updates slowing down the phone and killing battery life to force users to upgrade). I mean, I don't believe I'm wrong, but if someone disagrees please feel free to correct me.