Apple posts record earnings, iPhone and iPad sales, yet misses Wall Street expectations

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,240   +192
Staff member

One would think that posting record revenue and record quarterly profit would be seen as a good thing, but apparently that’s not good enough if your name is Apple. Despite the aforementioned good fortune, Cupertino still missed analyst’s lofty expectations – although not by much.

For the quarter, Apple recorded revenue of $54.5 billion and a quarterly net profit of $13.1 billion. During the previous year, the company posted revenue of $46.3 billion and net profit of the same $13.1 billion. They sold 47.8 million iPhones and 22.9 million iPads during the previous three months, up from 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads a year ago. iPod sales were down, however, from 15.4 million last year to just 12.7 million this year.

CEO Tim Cook said Apple was thrilled with record revenue of over $54 billion and sales of more than 75 million iOS devices in a single quarter. During the earnings call, he said that no technology company has ever posted these kinds of results.

He went on to say that Apple was very confident in their product pipeline as they continue to focus on innovation and making the best products in the world. But perhaps it’s that last sentence that has a number of analysts and investors concerned.

The record earnings and profit are good news for shareholders as the company declared a cash dividend of $2.65 per share for common stock. That will be payable on February 14 to shareholders on record as of the close of business on February 11.

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"He went on to say that Apple was very confident in their product pipeline as they continue to focus on innovation and making the best products in the world. But perhaps it?s that last sentence that has a number of analysts and investors concerned."

Time out time out time out!
1. Innovation is not making the same device with a slightly faster processor.
2. Best products in the world? Has he ever even seen an Asus Transformer Infinity? It absolutely destroys the latest iPad.
3. Of course he's confident in the product pipeline. iSheep will buy anything.
 
Lol, Apple has been going "downhill" since 1977 according to the WSJ.

Please, look at those damn earnings. Are you kidding me? That's the kind of revenue oil companies make. I can't but applaud them for what they do.

I do think that being top for such a long time has its shortcomings. You can only innovate so much in such a fast paced industry; as competition get more fierce, and as certain technologies get "recycled", the consumer more than ever is presented with choices. It's not about the price tag anymore, as Samsungs and HTCs cost the same, its about presentation and features. Messages get diluted in the media now: its all about megapixels and screen size, but not about battery life or screen tech. And when finally a customer goes to the store he sees more Androids than iPhones. There must be <I>something</I> about these, says the customer, and boom, consumer loyalty gone.

If rumors are correct, they'll have to compete with Android in the very lower end (iPhone Mini anyone?), and on the high-spec end, along with the 5.0+ inches and quad-core monstrosities. I think that'll be the turning point as people will start perceiving Apple as a competitor <I>of</I> Samsung, (ironically, because Apple itself started this very race) as opposed of what's currently in place; the inverse.
 
I have an iPhone 5 now although I owned multiple Android devices between now and my iPhone 3G. I bought my iPhone 5 because I was sick of the fragmentation in the Android world, sick of the half-working custom ROMs, and I hate toting around a huge device. I won't even go into battery life on Android 4G devices, although this has been remedied as of late on the newest hardware.

I will say this however, I understand why Wall Street is skittish on Apple, even after posting record profits ... in the US Market Apple is developing a reputation for being stagnant. Across all their product lines. While they continue to do great things with the hardware, what people see is an iOS and OSX that hasn't changed much in 6 years. Sure we have new features like Siri and Facebook/Twitter integration, but 6 years is an eternity in the technology world. People want and like change, even if they are resistant to it at first. Not Windows 7 to Windows 8 change, but easily adaptable change a la Gingerbread to Jelly Bean.

I firmly believe that Apple has become paralyzed by their own success or perhaps they are petrified of changing a working formula, whereas Jobs wasn't. The next few releases of iOS will be critical for Apple, they desperately need to wow us with another, "One more thing ..."
 
Just give me 0.001 percent of that :p

In all seriousness though, I have to agree with one particular point "Gas Manager" (ghasmanjr) made: innovation is more than increasing CPU speed.
Apple is gonna need to fight a little harder than they currently are if they want to remain relevant. And I don't mean in the courtroom - I mean in the laboratories.
 
Just give me 0.001 percent of that :p

In all seriousness though, I have to agree with one particular point "Gas Manager" (ghasmanjr) made: innovation is more than increasing CPU speed.
Apple is gonna need to fight a little harder than they currently are if they want to remain relevant. And I don't mean in the courtroom - I mean in the laboratories.

They did a little more than simply increase CPU speed - they designed their own custom ARM processor which outperformed everything at the time, while using less power ... on their first try.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6292/iphone-5-a6-not-a15-custom-core

No one else but Samsung with their Exynos line does this.
 
Yes, they had a great quarter, but investors look to the future.... to next year and the next 5 years. When they look to the future for Apple they see a company who's spending has been shifting from research and development into patent lawsuits.

They also know that continuous improvement is very hard. Innovation starts to level off after a while... it's just the nature of things. For example, what has changed for PCs in the last 5 years? Does the average user need a faster/better PC? Apple is starting to run into this now.... do we need a smaller lighter faster phone than the iPhone 5? Once you have a retina screen, increasing resolution is pointless. Soon we'll have phones with 12 hr batteries and increasing them to 14 hrs will be pointless.

Once you have a device that's extremely usable it starts taking more and more time and money to make the same level of improvement. I think this is why investors are nervous about Apple's future.
 
Not surprising to me at all. Apple is a great earner, don't get me wrong, but it is one of the most overvalued stocks around. A $700+ stock in the volatile and fickle tech and consumer electronics field is patently absurd. It's no wonder that it has dropped more than 1/3 of its value in less than 6 months - even with record earnings, smart investors know it was an unsustainable level living in its own little bubble. It is a case of setting yourself up by being too successful and trendy - the only way you can stay that high up is if you manage to continually innovate instead of regurgitate. Eventually, even your die-hard fans will get tired of spending big wads of cash for your goods just to have the latest iteration of the same product.
 
Poor apple. Since when has rolling in cash stopped becoming the goal? Wall Street is nothing but a popularity contest.
 
Apple: We made the connector port a smaller one - INNOVATION!
Apple: We made the CPU go a little faster - INNOVATION!
Apple: We made the screen a little bigger - INNOVATION!
Apple: We provided 200+ bug fixes in the new OS - INNOVATION!
Apple: We gave users a purple haze in bright sunlight - INNOVATION!
Apple: We give you the same battery use as last model - INNOVATION!
Apple: We gave the new 8mp camera a purple haze - INNOVATION!
Apple: We sued the pants out of Samsung - INNOVATION!
Apple: Shut up, it's magical! Go buy two - INNOVATION!
 
I bought my iPhone 5 because I was sick of the fragmentation in the Android world, sick of the half-working custom ROMs,
..."

So you don't like innovation, progress and choice?


On another note: MilwaukeeMike mentioned that it's hard to innovate when you're reaching your peak. While this is true, it applies differently to Apple. Their feature-list and locked down environment is lacking compared to competitors, and as such the list of available things to 'innovate' on is very small as compared to the competition.

The only way Apple can improve, is if they go against their strong beliefs they have instilled in their customer base. It's happened before, and it will happen again, but people notice and start to realise Apple is full of it. "The 3.5inch screen, you don't want anything else, it's perfect, one thumb covers whole screen."

When mainstream TV news reports how Apple is stagnant, you know it's bad news.
 
It's not that that there's much wrong with Apple products (overpricing not withstanding) it's their inflexible policies & their "we're untouchable & we'll sue anybody who gets in our way" attitude that will see their inevitable downfall if they don't start toeing the line.
 
So you don't like innovation, progress and choice?


On another note: MilwaukeeMike mentioned that it's hard to innovate when you're reaching your peak. While this is true, it applies differently to Apple. Their feature-list and locked down environment is lacking compared to competitors, and as such the list of available things to 'innovate' on is very small as compared to the competition.

The only way Apple can improve, is if they go against their strong beliefs they have instilled in their customer base. It's happened before, and it will happen again, but people notice and start to realise Apple is full of it. "The 3.5inch screen, you don't want anything else, it's perfect, one thumb covers whole screen."

When mainstream TV news reports how Apple is stagnant, you know it's bad news.

I have a different perspective than you. There are several handsets out there that are just as locked down as an iPhone, my Droid Bionic being a prime example. The bootloader is encrypted, so my ROM choices were very limited. I love the idea of open development and work almost exclusively with open source software, but just because I can choose from 15 different ROMs doesn't mean any of them are worth choosing.
 
Not surprising to me at all. Apple is a great earner, don't get me wrong, but it is one of the most overvalued stocks around. A $700+ stock in the volatile and fickle tech and consumer electronics field is patently absurd.

You are spot on. They sell a ton of products and are extremely profitable but their stock is way overvalued. However, a quick look shows Google is in the same boat - they are trading at $753/share as of this morning. Neither stock is worth more than $500/share once investor hysteria is removed.
 
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