Apple reports best ever March quarter with a $1.21b profit, calls netbooks "junky"
By Nilay Patel 
posted April 22nd 2009 5:54PM
posted April 22nd 2009 5:54PM
The economy might be in a dumpster, but Apple keeps selling iPods, iPhones and Macs -- the company just reported a $1.21b profit on revenues of $8.16b, which is yet another record quarter. In fact, if you do away with that pesky subscription accounting that the company uses for the iPhone and Apple TV, the numbers are even higher: $1.66b profit on $9.06b of revenue. Mac sales did fall three percent compared to a year ago, but that was offset by a three-percent increase in iPod sales (particularly of the iPod touch) and a 123-percent jump in iPhone sales. So, now that the numbers are out of the way, let's let Tim Cook take some shots at netbooks, shall we?When I'm looking at what's sold in the Netbook market, I see cramped keyboards, junky hardware, very small screens, bad software. Not a consumer experience that we would put the Mac brand on. As it exists today, we're not interested in it nor would it be something customers would be interested in the long term. We are looking at the space. For those who want a small computer that does browsing/email, they might want an iPhone or iPod Touch. If we find a way to deliver an innovative product that really makes a contribution, we'll do that.Slamming the door while simultaneously leaving it open -- how very Jobs-like. Speaking of which, Cook wouldn't say anything beyond the usual "We look forward to Steve's return in June" line, so no updates there -- but were you really expecting any? We're still listening to the call, we'll update if we hear anything good.
Update 1: When asked about the Pre, Cook said "it's difficult to say anything about a product until it's shipped... I can't say anything intelligent about the Pre."
Update 2: When asked about taking legal action on IP (presumably about the Pre), we just got a straight-up repeat of what they said last time: "We think competition is great as long as they invent their own stuff."
Annnd, that's it -- we'd say the real fireworks are the numbers, since we'd already heard this line about netbooks from Steve himself. We just wish someone would've asked if Apple's reached out to Lauren and Giampaulo.
[Via MacRumors]
Class envy much?
CraigJ, that wasn't very clever.
I think it's a valid question. Can Apple afford to become more mainstream and less high-end? Will it decrease the brand's appeal? Probably not, but it's a possibility. There's not much economical growth ahead of us in the coming years, so Apple has to adapt if they want to keep on making even more money. And they do.
Apple entered the mobile phone business with an unprecedented style. Ultimately their mobile business could make up to, let's say 40-50% of their total revenue. We've seen a lot of ups and downs in the mobile phone sector over the past years and Apple has yet to meet their first serious obstacle. How serious will it be?
Actually, the more assets you have, the more you've been hurt by the recession. Of course, if you have a lot of assets, you're not exactly worried about making rent or feeding your family.
I'm just a single wage slave, so I'm postponing major purchases for the time being...
Thats fine my netbook runs Osx86 as my main OS , so take that apple
Apple saying Netbooks are junk is stupid, basically they have the macbook air which is an advanced netbook and that thing is shit and fucking expensive.
Netbooks are definetly the way of the future because users just want a small and mobile device to do simple tasks and that is CHEAP. Unlike the iphone / ipod touch or any other smart phone you can come up with. You cant actually launch a legit MS word or excel and print documents or for that matter TYPE. The on screen keyboard is great but not if you actually want to type a document.
Apple is being ignorant just because they think they are "top shit" and that they dont need to make netbooks and thats the only way they sell products because when it comes down to it. PC's are superior.
Kind of off topic but I was a fan of pc's and then macs for quite some time and I have realised that macs are inferior and I would ONLY recommend one to someone who either needs a Xeon i7 x2 ($6000+ aus) or who wants a really nice designed (aesthetically) laptop and is willing to pay up.
This is all my opinion but what I have experienced mac's and I see no way in which they are superior and they cost a whole lot more.
...haha...im reading this on my dell mini 9....that i just unboxed about an hour ago...ha..
I don't really like Apple all that much, but I am glad that they're making money. At least there's some hope in this economy. And it'll help the Nasdaq. :)
YOU FANBOY!
j/k
Any company churning a profit in this bad economy is good news - helps raise one's confidence.
I'd buy an Apple branded Netbook over an iPod Touch any day when it comes to web browsing. I say that Apple IS being arrogant and shouldn't omit Netbooks completely from their scheme without some sort of public feedback. Netbooks are ideal for internet use, and if Apple released a Netbook, I'd be waiting outside the front doors of an Apple Store to get one.
I'm not sure why people care so much about Apple releasing a Netbook. I mean if all you're going to use it for is web browsing then it doesn't matter if it's a Mac or a PC.
As a veteran Mac user, it does annoy the sh*t out of me that Apple omits key hardware from their pro systems. Pro users pay a premium for the Mac brand and they shouldn't have to buy extra cables so they can use a firewire 400 port or an extra DVI based monitor. Also the pricing structure of the current Mac Pro line-up is a total rip compared to the previous revision.
go fuck yourself and your stupid crap site, you douche.
I am so sick of Apple's cockiness.
I got your cocky swingin', baby.
Since when did the word "cheap" become America's battle cry. I thought that word was put aside for third-world countries and losers.
Wow, what a bunch of morons in this post. It's been said, even in this post; but I'll say it again. If you love Apple, you should do one or more of the following:
1 - Buy a refurbed Air ($999, that's not bad at all)
2 - Get an MSI Wind or any other netbook that runs OSX86, a 2GB upgrade, and use the MSI Wind build of OSX with the license.
3 - Shut the fuck up.
Netbooks were meant to be cheap and quick to the fingers access to low-end programs that you need. No one needs this to install OSX and then try to run Final Cut and Logic Pro and expect blazing results. Netbooks are NOT meant to be a high end, precision built notebook in the vain of the MBP or aluminum MB. They're just not, get over it; and if you can't, proceed to aforementioned step 3. If you want a cheap, small laptop that runs OSX, proceed to step 2, and be happy. If Apple then decides they do want a netbook in the lineup, hock that shit on EBay and buy the Apple one. Jesus people, you are fucking idiots.
Chill out dude. I cannot stand people who argue and call names that if one cannot afford a new Mac then they should just buy a used one or hack a PC to run OS X. The whole point of the original iMac was that it was a computer for the People. Instead Apple has built up this elitist attitude that they're better than that. They've also built up a loyal, elitist following of users who think that they're better than everyone else. You may think PC's are crap but they make computer ownership a reality for millions of people in the world who could never afford to own a Mac.
For the record Matt, I'm not a Mac fan. Nothing against them, I just don't prefer the OS or the hardware. I use my GF's Powerbook whenever and I just like Windows better. I run PC's all day, every day. Nothing against anyone or anything else, it's where I personally am at about preference. Clear enough?
That said, my comment is in response to everyone that says "Apple should do this, Apple should do this". Why did I suggest the things I did? Simple. Because I'm pro-active in most things that I do in life. Why wait for a company to create something that they've clearly expressed disinterest in; when I could emulate that very same thing so closely?
The elitist argument is starting to be moot anyway. People have reasons for buying Apple products that have zero reasons similar to "I'm better than you/this, etc etc" I have an iPod because my car has a dedicated digital input for one. Period. Otherwise I could give a fuck about branding. Sound quality and price are where I'd be at if it weren't for that large convenience factor with my car that outweighs all else for my needs. My girlfriend has a Powerbook for one reason, less viruses than Windows. Like it or not, this is a fact; OSX has less viruses than Windows. See? Buying a product with zero elitism. Does it exist? Of course! However, this isn't majority of folks buying Apple stuff, it's just unfortunately the majority of those posting this sort of nonsense on blog comment sections.
To point out, nothing in my post said anything about not being able to afford this or that. It was directed at a substitute for a product that does not exist; a netbook made by Apple. That's all. I'm not sure how that wasn't immediately apparent.
Why did I rant? Simple. No on even discusses the topics anymore; Engadget comments have turned into NOTHING but a I love this/I hate that shitfest. No rhyme or reason, no end in sight. It's pathetic.
Yeh, chill out with those four-letter words. You're showing your Microsoft PC mentality. Mac users don't talk like that. Darn these Steve Ballmer riff-raff.
Coming from a douchenozzle who picked the name of "iphonerulez" (and not spelling rules right by the way, idiot), I'm sure I should just follow every single thing YOU say, guy. By dropping verbal-to-text turds like your.. uh.. rebuttal.. you're doing nothing more than furthering an untrue stereotype that Mac users are elitist assholes; taking a look at your previous posts, you're doing the same thing all across Engadget posts. So good for you.
By the way sport, I use plenty of Macs, my girlfriend has a Powerbook G4 and a new iMac, and several other friends also have Macs; which I use whenever I kick it with them. That would make me.. a Mac user! Just because I down own one, doesn't mean I don't use them, and I use them just dandy. I just don't prefer to own one. Learn to read; it really will help down the road, trust me.
"When I'm looking at what's sold in the Netbook market, I see cramped keyboards, junky hardware, very small screens, bad software."
~~~~reply~~~~~~
Well, I'm no fan of Apple products, but AMEN to those comments. I can not for the life of me figure out the POSSIBLE attraction to netbooks. Anything under 13.5 (and even then it better screem) is an absolute waste of money !!!!
Oh, and another thing......!!!!!
GET RID OF ABOUT 75% OF THE OTHER COMPUTER AND PHONE CHOICES OUT THERE. It's really getting to be a total whip!!!!
AMERICA!!! STOP SPEND YOUR MONEY ON WORTHLESS TRASH!!!!!
I'm done.
Apple has superior quality, superior marketing, and blah blah blah. They have a great formula, and it is nice to see that things are still moving forward without el'jobbo at the helm. I don't know whether we will see him again...
I do wish they would open up a bit and let consumers do their own thing without the socialistic control over the OS's. I own a mac (I am running Windows 7 on m mac and it is the best Windows experience I have ever had!) and an iphone and I love them, but I hate that I have to hack it to get it the way I want it.
"Mac sales did fall three percent compared to a year ago, but that was offset by a three-percent increase in iPod sales (particularly of the iPod touch) and a 123-percent jump in iPhone sales. So, now that the numbers are out of the way, let's let Tim Cook take some shots at netbooks, shall we?"
Wow - way to spin there...
The aggregate unit sales of their $1000+ computers was down 3% over last quarter, but that's ok because aggregate unit sales of the $250-or-less iPods grew 3% over the last quarter.
But wait! There's more. The sales of their iPhone 3G, which debuted in 26 countries at a lower price, was 123% better than their original iPhone, that was only available in the US. Wow.
BTW, someone might want to mention to Apple that Acer's "junky" netbooks propelled their sales up 23% and shot them into #3 place ahead of Apple. HP also grew last quarter.
"BTW, someone might want to mention to Apple that Acer's "junky" netbooks propelled their sales up 23% and shot them into #3 place ahead of Apple"
....in units. Not money. Units.
What did you think was going to happen when they sold a $300 laptop? Of course unit sales are impressive.
Companies don't go into business to make UNITS, they go into business to make money. And at margins almost exactly the same as Microsofts, Apple is doing that, hand over fist. Which proves a) they're nearly recession proof and b) the Apple Tax is nothing but desperate FUD from Microsoft.
Unless of course, both Apple and MS have their respective taxes. In which case, MS should she the fuck up.
Wow! People buy netbook because they are portable and light, plus they can actually do work using a netbook. What can you do on an Apple? Basically Apple users are happily trapped fanbois who have little sense of advancement in technology. Granted Apple has given the market a push towards touchscreen phones and the personal digital music player. But besides that, can any fanbois please tell me, can you use most of the softwares and hardware advancements in your machines?
Fanbois are a tight group.
/Sigh
Preach on darkmax! Your insight & obvious intellect are awe inspiring!
I love you apple. you made my day today. i have apple computer and it is THE BEST ever computer i had in my life. i love computer and operating system for the first time of my life. apple computer is worth every cent, haters with crampy dell's and horrible ms software - shut up. look at the results and SHUT UP.
What results? Apple still has a pretty wimpy amount of market share buddy. I'm sure they stand a chance of increasing said share but face it, they have a long way to go right now; whether you feel they can get there or not.
methinks martin doth troll...
The problem with the unit sales statistics is they equate $300 netbooks with $5000 workstations.
If you look at sales revenues, Apple looks much stronger and companies like HP and Dell look much weaker.
HPs personal computer division is generating a feeble profit margin of 5%. They are barely breaking even, which suggest that HP are sacrificing profits to buy market share.
That's unsustainable and dangerous.
Business is about making products which make profits. It's not a race to see who can shift the most boxes. That kind of thinking leads to companies selling their way into collapse.
C.
@ Mathew_M
For the record Matt, I'm not a Mac fan. Nothing against them, I just don't prefer the OS or the hardware. I use my GF's Powerbook whenever and I just like Windows better. I run PC's all day, every day. Nothing against anyone or anything else, it's where I personally am at about preference. Clear enough?
That said, my comment is in response to everyone that says "Apple should do this, Apple should do that". Why did I suggest the things I did? Simple. Because I'm pro-active in most things that I do in life. Why wait for a company to create something that they've clearly expressed disinterest in; when I could emulate that very same thing so closely?
The elitist argument is starting to be moot anyway. People have reasons for buying Apple products that have zero reasons similar to "I'm better than you/this, etc etc" I have an iPod because my car has a dedicated digital input for one. Period. Otherwise I could give a fuck about branding. Sound quality and price are where I'd be at if it weren't for that large convenience factor with my car that outweighs all else for my needs. My girlfriend has a Powerbook for one reason, less viruses than Windows. Like it or not, this is a fact; OSX has less viruses than Windows. See? Buying a product with zero elitism. Does elitism exist? Of course! However, this isn't majority of folks buying Apple stuff, it's just unfortunately the majority of those folks posting this sort of nonsense on blog comment sections.
To point out, nothing in my post said anything about not being able to afford this or that. It was a response to a product that does not exist; a netbook made by Apple. That's all. I'm not sure how that wasn't immediately apparent.
Why did I rant? Simple. No one even discusses the topics anymore; Engadget comments have turned into NOTHING but a I love this/I hate that shitfest. No rhyme or reason, no end in sight. It's pathetic.
Can they say anything intelligent without sounding condescending?
Wait, anything at all?
I bought a Dell m1330, and it will die eventually, but so will craploads of Macbooks with the same nvidia GPU. The only difference is that i got the Dell for half the price than anything comparable from the fruit company, and i got 36 month guarantee free of charge.
Macs are decent, but are waaay overpriced. And the same would happen to netbooks, but the problem with netbooks is that people like them cheap.
I hate how Applw can get off saying things like that about netbooks. Are netbooks high-end comps? No...
But look at the iPhone/iTouch (Which they suggest buying in replace of a netbook):
SUPER small screen
No real keyboard (except a small screen one that is crap)
Lower Hardware than a netbook
Worse software (Most netbooks come with xp which is better than the iPhone OS)
Half the reason people buy an iTouch is because it has aspects of a netbook thrown in. Otherwise its just an extremely oversized music player. Same goes for the iPhone (Phone seperates it though a little more)
Apple is just one of the most hypocritical companies I've ever seen. I'm always amazed at how far the brand alone gets them.
Um, maybe because an iPhone IS A PHONE and iPod Touch IS A MUSIC PLAYER. They are not marketing them as full blown laptops or even netbooks, even though you can use them as such for the most part.
Apple marketing wagging their 3% marketshare dog.
Netbooks junky... Apple won't make one... yeah, right.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Apple/?p=3738
"What a douche. What more can be said."
exactly what I think when I read your posts!
But they do get you the attention you are obviously lacking in the real world, don't they?
"We think competition is great as long as they invent their own stuff."
Xerox Alto, lol.
Well my "junky" Mini 9 running "junky" OS-X works great and is very useful to me.
Maybe they meant "junkie" as in additive and catching on like crack cocaine...
Crap plastic and underpowered processors with last gen tech = junkie whatever OS is installed on it.
nom nom nom... I eated your apple.
"Wow, damn there's so many haters on this blog! As soon as there's some good news about apple, the anti apple haters come out."
Yeah labeling the players in a market segment as making "junky" products, that's just so positive...
I got my Mini 9 on Tuesday and installed OSX on it...and runs beautifully. So much for "junk".
Your loss, Jobs. If you went the netbook route you have the opportunity to introduce OSX to an even wider userbase.
I was in Best Buy not too long ago and a salesman was trying to sell a couple on an Apple MacBook. The couple ended up not going with it because of the price -- especially when 10 feet away they have laptops (running Vista, sure) for half the price or less.
A Mac Netbook would sell like gangbusters for them. I think part of the reason why they haven't gone that route is they don't want to "cheapen" the Apple brand....which is unfortunate.
Why do people want an Apple netbook anyway? If its only for internet usage Windows XP + Firefox is good enough. And Apple is doing fine financially anyway...
STEVE Jobs is ALIVE - he is the source of calling netbooks "JUNKY."
Junky or not how many netbooks have been sold? Steve is out of touch on this and Apple is WAY late on pushing out new products for the amount of R&D they spend. I'm a Apple Fan but sometimes Apple management just gets in the way.
HH
You can't do away with the pesky 'subscription accounting,' unless you like running afoul of the 'SEC'
For those mac haters, you do realize how unfortunate it is that ironically, mac runs windows too, and better then any other computer. That just blows doesn't it? And now with the new iphone 3.0, rumors of a new type of iphone, and many other rumored editions to the mac family, microsoft really can't do anything, but to finish in second. I mean a new phone? finally? after the apple market has that as the number 1 spot since days after being revealed? Microsoft is always the tool, it was capped under apple by working for apple as a programs designer, always second place. Oh and that thing with either Dell or HP (I can't currently remember) dropping Microsoft possibly next year and going linux, that's a hard blow even if they aren't switching to mac osx. Tough luck to all those microsoft fans that hang out in their cubes!