Apple posts $1.58B profit, buys monocle, top hat
By Nilay Patel 
posted January 22nd 2008 4:52PM
posted January 22nd 2008 4:52PM
Well, the holidays were pretty happy down Cupertino way this year -- Apple just posted its Q108 financials and they're impressive. Spurred by sales of 2.3 million iPhones, 22 million iPods, and 2.3 million Macs, Steve and the boys raked in $9.6 billion in total revenue, which translates to $1.58 billion in pure, glorious profit. That represents Apple's latest best quarter ever, with a 35 percent jump in revenue year-over-year -- a $2.5 billion increase from last December. The $1.76 profit per share also beat consensus analyst estimates of $1.63 a share, and, as Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster pointed out in his notes, Mac sales have increased 43 percent since last year. All in all, quite a quarter for a fruit company -- we'll let you know what else we find out during the conference call later today.
Holy dystopia!
No thanks; I actually enjoy having control over my components and, you know, free will.
No duh, Sherlock. Well, a Mac is a PC with a specific hardware set that makes it much easier to tune the hardware for the OS. Windows works on a Mac so well because there's ONE SINGLE SET of drivers that makes it work - well, a set for each specific version of Windows that runs in Boot camp. (Even 64 bit Vista now).
As for the Mac vs PC ads, did Teetdogs notice that many of them do make it WIndows vs OS X. Or is he so blind that he can't see?
Such lame arguments as this only show one thing. People don't get it. It's about the software! The OS! Just like you can take a Brillo pad, a few ounces of TNT and some detergent and blow up a house (read: Inside Delta Force), the same with making a piece of crap computer, or a great one with just the right combination of pieces of hardware and software.
I don't understand how they could possibly be crashing so low in after hours though...
everything is crashing in after hours today. you can't spell depression without recession.
You can say that again.
I don't understand how they could possibly be crashing so low in after hours though...
The truth is coming out.
"Oppenheimer: iPod market is bigger than market for just simple music players. iPod will become first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform"
Your headline reads "Apple posts $1.58B profit, buys monocle, top hat". Your article says nothing about buying monacle and top hat. What's the deal?
Don't you watch Futurama
Leela: "I know Fry's rich, but do we really have to wear these top hats?"
Bender: "Maybe you don't understand just how rich he is. In fact, I think I'd better put on a monocle."
I'm afraid that I don't watch "Futurama" so I did not "get" the reference. Thanks for letting me know!
"Dont you watch Futurama"
havent you ever played monopoly?
Cmon guys, monocle and top hat is a reference from monopoly.
Yeah, but Monopoly is awful, while Futurama is awesome!
You get to burn in hell for calling Monopoly awful...
As long as I don't have to play Monopoly... Never liked it.
Wait, I thought nobody uses Macs?
[sarcasm off]
I don't see the need for your sarcasm tag.
It's not hard to have such a huge profit when your products are severely overpriced. [Drum and symbol thing]
For nearly 2.5 million people THIS QUARTER, Macs were obviously not overpriced. Maybe overpriced in the sense that a BMW is overpriced compared to a Chevy, but hey, you get what you pay for. If people didn't see the value in owning a Mac, they wouldn't buy them.
@Ellianth: Huh? So all you have to do to post huge profits is to severely overprice your products?
Seriously, that makes no sense whatsoever.
...nor does "drum and symbol."
@ the people who bothered to reply.
I was kidding. However here is my logic. If it costs you 100 dollars to make something and you sell them for a whole lot more than 100 dollars, then you end up with a lot more profit. Like say, you sell it for 600 dollars. 500 of that is profit.
Drum and symbol. I couldn't spell that "du-du-dum*pish*" sound (even now it's probably spelt wrong) so i just wrote drum and symbol in brackets.
Its small marketshare would point that out.
No, nobody reads anymore.
where's the news, cited in the headline, about purchasing monocle and top hat?
How about sharing the wealth Apple?! How about free iPod Touch upgrades for us early adopters that lined your pockets in 2007. (Yes, I'm bitter.)
I think it's interesting that Apple sold just as many iPhones as they did computers.
It's simple:
Their earnings they posted = good.
Their forecast for 2 quarter 2008 = bad.
They lowballed their forecast for 2Q to .94 cents per share vs. analysts expectations of 1.09 per share
Okay, so Apple grew the top line about 35% and their backward looking P/E is around 46 with the stock at $157. Still seems kinda expensive really. A P/E of 35 would only happen if the stock dropped to $118 or so.
Also, I just checked the number of Macs (1.517M in the final quarter of 2007, up 36% for the year) vs the number of PCs shipped in the same quarter (Gartner says 75.9M in the same quarter, up 13% for the year). Even though Macs continued to outgrow PCs this quarter, the Mac market is still only 3% of the PC market. In fact Dell shipped 5.3M PCs just to consumers in the same quarter, and that's probably only 1/4 or less of their PC business...
You really should be looking at the forward P/E for future earnings (P/E=~24, PEG=1.4). This is cheap for how quickly its earnings are growing.
By forward P/E, GOOG seemed spendy for each of the last 24 months (stock still went f/ $400 to $585--today's close).
I appreciate your trying to sound smart and all (and your point about 'forward P/E' actually makes sense) but anyone with half a brain for investing knows that 'PEG' is an utterly meaningless measure.
What a shame the people who make their gadgets dont get a just share of the profit. It stinks doesnt it?
I'm certain that employees have an employee stock plan that allows them to buy discounted shares, options, etc. Plus, they get bonuses just like any other company's employees, and the value of the bonus is usually tied to how well the company did that year. Also, it's nice to know that your employer isn't at risk of going out of business and leaving you without a job.
I think Greg was trying to say, "Isn't it a shame the employees don't get their options back-dated like His Steveness."
The bonus system is not a fare share of the profits. By the people who make the stuff, I was also refering to the factory workers who make the product, who are mainly in China.
Apple products are great, but it would be nice to see a more equitable model for people getting the appropriate amount for their labour.
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/low-wages-long-hours-for-ipod-factory-workers/
According to this, ipod workers are paid $50 a month. This needs context, becasue $50 a month may go along way.
$50 (im assuming US$) = (around) 350 Chinese dollars, per month. By comparison, a primary school teacher in a poor province would earn about 1500-2200 Chinese dollars a month, with insurance and housing support (as well as only 8-9 hour days).
A worker I know who does a really manual job in the railway in a poorer city, gets around 1000 per month, with benefits (and free decent housing).
So, in light of this, the praise for the huge profits is quite disturbing.
@Greg, the Chinese currency is called the 'yuan (pr. 'yu-wen') and not dollar. But your exchange rate is about right.
Yes, I live in China so im aware its called the "yuan", but yuan just really means "dollar" in chinese
Factory workers make less than school teachers in the United States, as well. Imagine if some foreign company started a factory operation in the United States and paid all of its workers $7,000/month ($84,000/year). What incentive would people have to get jobs working for their own country's economy if they could just do factory work and be set for life? I understand your point that outsourced factory work has people working without benefits or housing, but we can't just inject money into the Chinese market to match the United States economy without repercussions.
Jon, I wasn't suggesting that at all. But in the US, does a factory worker earn 5 to 6 times less than a school teacher?? (and Im talking about a regualr school teacher in a government school). In Australia, where I'm from, that's certainly not the case.
I have lived in a very ordinary Chiense city before, and even if you were to cook all your own food and live very simply, 350 a month would leave you about 150 a month savings. A good local cough syrup, for instance, costs around 10 yuan, so in that context the salaray is appalling.
I'm not suggesting that Apple pay US salaries, but even decent local ones would be a step in the right direction.
And I might add ethically, whats wrong with some of these workers recieving a small share, in the form of a bonus, for their work?
Like Mr. Peanut? Couldn't be the Monopoly guy, as that is already taken by MSFT (as demonstrated by the settlement w/ the DOJ).
That top hat and monocle didn't work out so well for the Monopoly guy the other night on Family Guy...
That is an awesome, awesome title.
they made that much money with those handicapped products !
i wonder what the result would be if they had good enough product! like , 3G iPhone , or easily upgradeable iMac.
I for one was very disappointed not to see the monocle and top hat illustrated.
"I want to take those profits and I want to put them into a strategic [communication] fund that will begin to fund alternative, smart [cellular] devices; alternatives and technology that will begin to actually move us toward the direction of independence [from carriers]."
Borrowed quote from an inept presidential candidate altered into an intelligent statement that should come from Steve Jobs...too bad he doesn't have the bullocks to make a statement like this.
seriously, an open wifi device is going to kick all their asses. I can't wait for the google phone. Now if they can just get that 700 mhz spectrum we'd ALL be set.
So, where's the post about Microsoft's 66% rise in quarterly net profit to $4.35 billion? If we're going to post about one company's profit jump, why not the others?
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN1832542920080122
I think Apple is a much more exciting company then Microsoft. And Excitement sells. People don't get as excited about Microsoft press conferences as they do Apple Keynote. Plus typically people like to root for the little guy and Apple is the little guy in the OS category when compared to XP and Vista.
No wonder they are making such huge profits when they charge so much more for their products outside of the US:
Apple iPod Classic 80Gb: an extra $64
Apple Nano 8gb: an extra $56
Apple TV 160gb: an extra $200
I can't believe that it costs them this much more to sell in the UK as opposed to the US, I won't be buying Apple until they sort out their pricing.