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Strong Apple iPhone, Mac sales precipitate record Q3 results

by Mark Tyson on 23 July 2014, 09:45

Tags: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

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Apple has just announced its financial results for the three months ending 28th June 2014. During its fiscal Q3 period the firm generated revenue of $37.4 billion and made a net profit of $7.7 billion. A year ago the revenue and profits figures were $35.3 billion and $6.9 billion respectively, so Apple has seen good gains on both accounts.

CEO Tim Cook made the following statement about the results: "Our record June quarter revenue was fueled by strong sales of iPhone and Mac and the continued growth of revenue from the Apple ecosystem, driving our highest EPS growth rate in seven quarters." Looking forward to the coming months Cook enthused "We are incredibly excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, as well as other new products and services that we can’t wait to introduce."

However, reading between the lines, you will notice no mention of the Apple iPad (or the iPod) above. This is due to the iPad's disappointing results over recent quarters. In the most recent quarter the tablet sold 13.3 million units. This figure represents a downturn of 9 per cent compared to the same period last year and 19 per cent down from the previous quarter.

TIME magazine reports that the whole tablet market has been under pressure from large smartphones/phablets. Perhaps evidence of this trend has forced Apple's hand into making a phablet at last. However Cook did talk to investors about the iPad, in a conference call following the results, and said "What's most important to us is that customers are enjoying their iPads and using them heavily." He also pointed to some collaborative work with IBM which could see more iPads deployed by corporations/enterprise.

It seems like the Chinese have really took to Apple devices this year. In these latest quarterly results iPhone sales in the country were up by 48 per cent and Mac computers sales up by 39 per cent, reports Reuters. Apple's CFO told the news agency that low-cost smartphones from up and coming companies like Xaiomi didn't seem to be impacting Apple iPhone sales, only rival Android makers were being battered by this local competition.

HEXUS Forums :: 5 Comments

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Posted by mustaffaleek - Wed 23 Jul 2014 10:01
Personally I'm looking forward to the next clutch of iPhones. Not an Apple fanbois as such but the tech Apple come out with does force the competition to raise the bar that little bit more.
Posted by shaithis - Wed 23 Jul 2014 10:20
mustaffaleek
Personally I'm looking forward to the next clutch of iPhones. Not an Apple fanbois as such but the tech Apple come out with does force the competition to raise the bar that little bit more.

Really? You don't think smartphone and tablet makers would up their specs each year unless apple released new products?
Posted by crossy - Wed 23 Jul 2014 11:50
shaithis
Really? You don't think smartphone and tablet makers would up their specs each year unless apple released new products?
Agreed - there's someone who hasn't been watching Samsung's product “strategy”. ;)

No mention of the iPod's? Hmm, cue the news articles claiming that it's going to be dropped. Just “rediscovered” my old 5G Video. Loaded it with lossless files, hooked up to an external DAC and over-ear ‘phones and I’m a happy camper. Would be nice - since I'm using lossless files - to have a bit more, sorry a lot more, storage. So an “upgrade” to a Classic would be good - or I can just do a flash-storage upgrade.
Posted by Jowsey - Wed 23 Jul 2014 12:28
shaithis
Really? You don't think smartphone and tablet makers would up their specs each year unless apple released new products?

No, but (bear in mind I have a HTC One) I wouldn't be able to say for sure that a company would make such premium feeling phones with-out Apple showing there is a market for it.

I may be wrong, but it is the single largest reason I choose a HTC One M7 over GS4.

Either way, I will be interested in what Apple brings to the table with the new Iphone. As I always am when any large company announces new flagship devices.
Posted by crossy - Thu 24 Jul 2014 09:06
Jowsey
No, but (bear in mind I have a HTC One) I wouldn't be able to say for sure that a company would make such premium feeling phones with-out Apple showing there is a market for it.

I may be wrong, but it is the single largest reason I choose a HTC One M7 over GS4.

Either way, I will be interested in what Apple brings to the table with the new Iphone. As I always am when any large company announces new flagship devices.
Premium-feeling? No. Premium priced, definitely.

I'll agree that Apple used to be the one to watch, but the last couple of products in the mobile line have been a bit “meh” - certainly not the buzz that accompanied the previous generations. Sure, the fanboy's will hail whatever comes out as “the best thing evah!” but I'm more cynical. Unfortunately, this is also an area where Samsung (who I think you'd agree are the leading competitor in the mobile space) are copying. S5 just looks like “S4+” to me, and S4 was a visual step back from S3 (imho).

In terms of fashion, I'd actually commend your chosen device - that whole metal-look-with-a-curved-back seems to be very much “in fashion” at the moment. Wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if iPhone6 does this too. Just got an LG G3 and that looks pretty similar to an upscaled version of the M8 Mini that my daughter has.

iPad - problem there is that there's other players in the market (esp Samsung) who have devices that are just as good, or in some cases have USP's that make them more notable, and at cheaper price points to boot. Low end - iPad Mini - they're getting their clock cleaned by the tethered devices like Amazon Kindle, Tesco Hudl, etc.

Mac's always interested me, but not enough to want to spend the £100's to get one, although I did toy with eBaying an old model so I could have some hands on time. Maybe a Mac Mini would be a good place to start.

Where I will agree with you though is that irrespective of whether they ship a new iPhone or iPad model this year that I'd want to buy, it'll be interesting to see their take on the way forward. However, if iPhone6 is merely a tweaked version of the 5S/5C and/or iPad 2014 is similarly just a minor upgrade then I suspect that more folks will start looking elsewhere for their new tech toy. Personally, I think we'll see the much-touted Apple wearable device this time around - all that focus on “ecosystem” makes me think “new device”.