Apple's Growth and New Stuff

/\E · 07-23-2008, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Apple has seen strong quarters in Q2 2008 (fiscal), Q1 2008, and so on for a couple years now, buoyed by its ever growing line of consumer products and modest sales of Mac computers. So it should hardly take the reader by surprise that its Q3 2008 beat expectations and set more records for the company.

Like Intel, Apple showed strong year-to-year growth, jumping from net revenue of $5.41B USD in Q3 2007 to $7.46B USD in Q3 2008, a growth of 38 percent. Profit jumped from $818M USD to 1.07B USD, a growth of 30.8 percent.

On the unit sales side, Apple shipped 2,496,000 Macintosh computers representing 41 percent unit growth and 43 percent revenue growth over Q3 2007. It also managed to surprisingly grow its iPod share, which some had speculated was stagnating. A total of 11,011,000 iPods were sold, representing a 12 percent unit growth and seven percent revenue growth. It also sold 717,000 iPhones, up from 270,000 quarterly last year.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO was encouraged by the results, stating, "We’re extremely pleased with the growth of our business and the generation of almost $5.4 billion in cash in the first three quarters of fiscal 2008. Looking ahead to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $7.8 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.00.”

The only disappointments came in the fact that its gross margin was down to 34.8 percent from 36.9 last year, also a problem for Intel. Also, Apple lowered its projections for Q4 2008 to $7.8B in revenue, which resulted in some stock jitters, despite the strong performance.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs added to the press release a statement saying, "We’re proud to report the best June quarter for both revenue and earnings in Apple’s history. We set a new record for Mac sales, we think we have a real winner with our new iPhone 3G, and we’re busy finishing several more wonderful new products to launch in the coming months."

The last sentence was greeted by excitement, confusion, and curiosity by investors and consumers alike. What might Apple have in store; new iPods perhaps? Or will Apple debut an entirely new product? Some are hoping lower -priced Macs might be in store as well. No one really knows, though, what Apple has in store, but one thing's for sure -- Apple is unusually talkative. Before past product launches, Mr. Jobs never made such an announcement and for him to do so is extremely uncharacteristic.

The move may have been financially motivated, and if so it seems to have worked. After early jitters the stock picked up and currently is performing well. The news has also set the rumor mill in full swing, so expect to see all sorts of outlandish statements of questionable veracity about Apple's new products.

While Apple had a very strong quarter, it also had its share of problems. Its campaign to crush Mac-cloner Psystar seemed to some to be another example of Apple's desire to play dictator and a troublesome sign. Further, there was much speculation surrounding Steve Jobs health, due to him looking under the weather during the iPhone 3G unveil (he previously had pancreatic cancer).

Finally, some point out that it may seem a bit unfair that Apple enjoys strong stock performance for only earning $1.17B USD in profit and beating expectations, while rival Microsoft earned nearly four times as much -- $4.3B USD in profit -- but got hammered on the stock market for missing its lofty expectations.

http://www.dailytech.com/Apple+Repor...ticle12453.htm

I can't wait to see these new products..

Apple's stock situation seems to be looking optimistic(Bullish), I picked some shares up in March and sold them off in middle May. I made some quick money there... I want to do it again!!

Comments?

tlarkin · 08-26-2008, 11:55 PM

They'll come out with some sort of multi-touch tablet like PC in the near future I am willing to bet.

cohen · 08-27-2008, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tlarkin

They'll come out with some sort of multi-touch tablet like PC in the near future I am willing to bet.

It is on the drawing board from what i have heard.....

/\E · 08-28-2008, 02:58 AM

I wish there was another company like Apple that had their own machines to run their own OS.

I am wanting to see what Apple will do when Microsoft's rumored Surface appears...

g4m3rof1337 · 08-28-2008, 03:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cohen

It is on the drawing board from what i have heard.....

It's been expected and overdue.

tlarkin · 08-28-2008, 03:30 PM

There is a warehouse of apple items that never get seen by the public just read through their patent history and you can see where they are going. They have all kinds of "strange" touch-screen patents. Some things come out and some will never see the light. That is just how it goes.

08-26-2008, 11:55 PM	#2 (permalink)
tlarkin VIP Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 6,239	They'll come out with some sort of multi-touch tablet like PC in the near future I am willing to bet. __________________ Get a grep!

08-28-2008, 02:58 AM	#4 (permalink)
/\E Silver Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 146	I wish there was another company like Apple that had their own machines to run their own OS. I am wanting to see what Apple will do when Microsoft's rumored Surface appears... __________________ New computer: EVGA 780i SLI \| Antec Quattro 1000W Intel Q9450 \| Zalman 9700 2x EVGA 9800GX2 \| 8GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 800Mhz 2x Seagate Bara 500GB RAID0(Vista x64) \| 1x Seagate Bara 500GB(XP x64) Antec P180 24" iMac \| Dell Inspiron 1520
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08-28-2008, 03:30 PM	#6 (permalink)
tlarkin VIP Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Kansas City, MO Posts: 6,239	There is a warehouse of apple items that never get seen by the public just read through their patent history and you can see where they are going. They have all kinds of "strange" touch-screen patents. Some things come out and some will never see the light. That is just how it goes. __________________ Get a grep!

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