Apple reports blowout quarter today at 5PM with a few surprises

[TheForce]

iphone sales sets all time sales high for the history of the company with 2/3 being new customers. The entry iphone 5s had new users was 80%.

itunes members now at 800 million.


Tim Cook announced that Apple will increase its present share buyback by $30B
Company will increase it's dividend to 3.39% beginning with the next quarter payable in May.
In June Apple will issue a 7 to 1 split of its stock to make the stock more desirable to new small investors. At it's current price per share in today's aftermarket, the new price per share will be around $81. The stock closed around $524 per share, when the pre earnings call report was released on the website the stock jumped to $560 and is creeping up throughout the call.

 

[mike123abc]

Analysts were expecting a decline. Good to see Apple still driving home the profits.

 

[navychop]

I should have listened to you and bought their stock.....

 

[lparsons21]

When it comes to tech in general, and Apple more specifically, the analysts 'guessing nature' shows much more prominently!!

 

[TheForce]

Actually, Peter Oppenheimer's guidance never missed in the history of his being CFO. He is now retired. But the negative nancy's out there are still reeling from the $700 to $400 drop a couple years ago. Glad I hung in there.

For those who still want to ride the stock up with the new accelerated buyback and the new price point post split, you have your chance after June.

Once these new products hit the market Tim keeps hinting about, it may again be too late.

Apple stock is a no brainer for a long tern investment. Plus it has good month to month volatility allowing you to trade around a core position which is the best way to grow your net worth. If you do it within a Roth IRA it's also tax free!

 

[mike123abc]

The only soft spot was iPad sales.

 

[lparsons21]

I noticed they said that AppleTV, you know the 'hobby' product, had $1B in sales of product and product bought on it. Some hobby.

And a note in one of the blogs that said the iTunes store would be a Fortune 500 company if it were a company in and of itself!

 

[TheForce]

In the Q&A Tim responded to the Hobby comment that it wasn't a hobby anymore.

ipad has 98% and 95% of education and enterprise market share. It's pretty difficult to improve in that area. But consumer market it has dropped significantly and is only 60%. But here it is competing with extremely cheap products. Like saying the Tesla doesn't have the market share of a Honda civic. Both get you transportation but one is quite a different and better ride. While numbers may dwindle as more and more cheap tablets show up on the retail shelves, the proof is what devices are being used and Cook claims that ipad usage far exceeds all these other cheap tablets. He also blames the drop in sales on internal marketing policy changes which could be a temporary glitch in the sales timing. In other reviews, I have seen Microsoft Surface Pro gaining speed mainly due to fact that some people ( like me) need a PC like device in a tablet form. iPad will never be that. Cook also said that Microsoft Office will be available for ipad. I'm excited about that and will likely be a customer. Office for ipad will be a game changer for both companies on ipad.

 

[lparsons21]

MS Office is already available for the iPad. I've got it installed. Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote are there.

Free to download and with Word and Excel you can use it free to view documents, but if you want to actually create or edit, you have to get an Office365 subscription of one sort or the other. OneNote is totally free from what I've read. And I thought I read that Powerpoint didn't require the subscription to create/edit, but I'm not sure that's correct.

 

[TheForce]

Thanks for the update on that. TC was commenting on how that product will impact future sales of ipad so I thought it wasn't out yet. I'll have to check it out. Thanks.

 

[jevans64]

I think there will be little difference between the various tablets when they all go 64-bit ARM with 4 cores. Shoot. Even Intel is going to make ARM v8 chips on the 14nm process when it is up and running. I think 2015 will be a big year for ARM-based SoC and hopefully we will see a quad core Denver-type CPU paired with a Maxwell GPU -- Tegra 6. Tegra K1 ( Tegra 5 ) is already a beast even with only two CPU cores and 192 shader cores.

 

[mike123abc]

I think one of the problems that Apple faces with the iPad is that the tasks most people use a tablet for are pretty generic and it is hard for Apple to stand out. So, cheaper tablets win the day.

 

[lparsons21]

I think one of the problems that Apple faces with the iPad is that the tasks most people use a tablet for are pretty generic and it is hard for Apple to stand out. So, cheaper tablets win the day.

I think it is more that the tablet market has matured. Look at the personal computer market for indicators when that happens. The bulk of the sales turn to the cheaper models, but the companies don't make much money on them, except for Apple. Pretty similar thing happening right now and trending more so. Apple still makes the bulk of the money per unit and overall, the others take a little profit with the exception of Samsung and their 'model of the week' intro cycle.

But your opinion is well taken. My son is a typical, non-geek user and is still using the original iPad I gave him when I got my Mini. It does everything he needs it for and he sees no reason to consider getting a new one. The average consumer tablet user most likely isn't doing much, if any, creation. Just consumption, email, facebook and other social things as well as some tunes and videos.