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iPhone revenue greater than all of Microsoft's
The next iPhone is expected to launch next week and CNN Money decided it was a good time to run a list of superlatives related to the financial impact of Apple's smartphone. To start out with, Apple's iPhone business unit could be a Fortune 50 company on its own. That business unit is already bigger than all of Microsoft in terms of revenue. From June 2011 until June 2012, the iPhone generated $74.3 billion in revenue for Apple. By comparison, all of Microsoft's business units together generated $73 billion in revenue. CNN Money notes that if you take all of the revenue that Apple generates from the iPad, various iPod models, iTunes, the Mac and the 30 percent take of all apps sold, it still doesn't add up to the revenue stream from the iPhone. A year-by-year comparison of the impact of the iPhone to Apple's bottom line shows that in 2008 -- one year after the first iPhone was launched -- the device accounted for 9 percent of Apple's total revenue; now that figure is 53 percent. Of course, there's always the question of what "worth" means, as Forbes pointed out a few weeks ago. In this case, we're talking about sales, and that's a pretty fluid thing. Nokia's Lumia 920 could be a huge hit, for example, and the iPhone is no longer the "number one" smartphone according to one survey. Way back in Februrary Ed Bott did a breakdown of how Apple, Google and Microsoft make their money. Of course the iPhone was a major component of Apple's business, versus Microsoft's more distributed revenue streams, and Google's lopsided revenue stream (advertising). As MG Siegler points out, even if you took away the iPhone from Apple's chart, the remainder is still bigger than Microsoft's total business. That's significant. Apple is always good at showing off the numbers at its events, so we can count on even more amazing financial statistics next week.
CNN Money: New York Times gets Tim Cook's earnings wrong
The New York Times ran a report over the weekend that claimed Tim Cook was a million-dollar-a-day CEO. Acording to a follow-up report from CNN Money, that estimate is way off. The CNN report claims the NYT was correct with the CEO's yearly salary of US$900,000, but made a mistake when it included the one million shares of Apple stock that Cook was granted in 2011. These shares won't vest for ten years, which means Cook won't see any of that money until 2021. CNN Money took the value of those shares ($376.2 million on the day they were granted) and calculated that Cook would get $103,000 a day over the ten-year period. When you combine the stock money with Cook's salary, the resulting figure is not even close to the $1 million the NYT claims.
'Can Apple maintain profitability?' Yes.
Seriously? This is the question of the day? When people are still voicing serious and legitimate concerns about the rest of the economy? We're talking about a company with enough money in the bank to make a Goldman Sachs-sized investment in Facebook if it wanted to, more than triple the amount Dell had in the bank at the end of the last quarter, plus more than five times the amount HP had too, while we're at it. Let's look at a number for a minute: Apple has 51 billion dollars in cash. That's 51,000,000,000 bucks. Or, approximately the amount of money it takes to fill a vault-slash-swimming-pool. Who has that kind of money these days and didn't get it via government bailout? Apple, that's who. What is its secret? It made that money the old-fashioned way, by selling new-fashioned things. In a time when few companies are profitable and everyone's excited about a flat line since it isn't a downward curve, Apple is making money iHand over iFist. One could presume from this that analysts and others who watch CNBC professionally would be excited about a company with growth and profitability in the current climate. However, that's not the case. Remember when Apple wasn't doing well? Those bygone days when people may have actually believed the name of the company was "Beleaguered Apple Computer?" Well, once Uncle Steve made his return in 1996, that started to turn around. Apple Computer started making things that start with "i," and in 2001 with the launch of the iPod, Apple was officially cool again. You know, unless you were an analyst on Wall Street, in which case Apple wasn't cool, it was just less lame than before. But seriously, have you seen what sort of stock prices Dell and HP have these days? Now those are tech companies. I call shenanigans! Now, instead of being impressed with profitability, the question is "Oh sure, you're all profitable, but can you stay that way?" Apple hasn't proven that yet? Explain to me how making ANY money in a time of unprecedented financial volatility is something that gets played down. What will it take before Apple gets a fair shake? A brand new device that sells a million units in three months? Try two and a half. A new version of the same thing released a year later, how long did that take to sell a million? Three days. Find and replace "Apple" with a non-tech company in some of these articles and see if it still makes as much sense. Just the iPhone product line by itself is bigger than Coca-Cola, but Apple still gets dismissed like this? Someone needs to have a little heart-to-heart talk with some of these guys. Apparently they've all had their heads down in their BlackBerrys for so long that they don't realize it's cool these days to carry around something Designed In Cupertino. Clearly a lot of other people have figured it out -- what's stopping Wall Street from seeing the light?
Found Photos: Rarely seen Steve Jobs
As Dave Caolo told TUAW readers a few days ago, Fortune named Apple CEO Steve Jobs "CEO of the Decade" for his phenomenal leadership at Apple and how he has remade four industries (music, movies, mobile telephones, and computing) in the past ten years. Part of the Fortune article was a collection of rarely seen photographs of Steve Jobs. From the early days with Steve Wozniak, to his recent battles with pancreatic cancer, the photos chronicle the life of the iconic CEO. Two of my personal favorites in the gallery are a photo taken in 1982 of Jobs and the Mac team having a working lunch as they hammer out the design of the first-generation Mac, and another of a barefoot Jobs meeting with Bill Gates at the Jobs home in Palo Alto to talk about the future of computing for Fortune. The entire set of posts, along with the photos and video, are a fascinating look into the many successes and few failures of the engimatic Mr. Jobs. If you have a chance, take a look at it this weekend.
PS3 tops CNN's 'Best of the Blu-ray players' list
CNNMoney has put together a list of the five best Blu-ray players you can currently find on the market. Sitting pretty at the top is our beloved PS3, with the highest grade given of A-. Why such a high grade? The ability to upgrade to Profile 2.0, excellent picture quality, 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio, and fast load times for movies were just some of the reasons CNN cited. Their biggest complain seems to be about the lack of an IR receptor, which means you can't use universal remotes with it.Not to worry, CNET and RemoteShoppe has got you covered in that department. Each site has their own Infrared-to-Bluetooth converter guides to help you pick out the best equipment for your needs. Check it out here and here.Source -- CNN via EngadgetHDSource -- CNET and RemoteShoppe via Engadget
More rumors about iTunes movie rentals
CNN Money has more fuel for the fire on the iTunes movie rental rumors popping up lately. They say Apple is in talks to get the rentals up and running with major Hollywood studios.Supposedly the movies would be watchable on the iPod or iPhone, but could not be copied, and would not actually be purchased. You'd have a 30 day access period to the movie for $2.99, but CNN doesn't say whether that means you get to watch it once during the 30 days, or if it's yours for as many times as you want it during the period. The low price says just one viewing to me (since iTunes movie purchases are at least $9.99, if not more), but you never know.Of course, the big question is: would you do it? If incorporated with the iTunes WiFi store, I think it could be huge-- be somewhere bored on your iPhone, click a few buttons, and be watching The Incredibles within minutes. But as usual, it all depends on what the studios want-- if the whole process is burdened with DRM, and I get error messages when I try to re-sync with iTunes, they can keep their rentals. I'll just make a note to put it in my Blockbuster queue.[via Ars]
Nintendo and CNN Money's best gifts for gamers
CNN Money's Chris Morris usually has interesting input on the gaming market, but with his Ten Best Gifts for Gamers, he seems to have missed the mark.Two titles for the DS appear on the list -- Brain Age and New Super Mario Bros. Great games? Indeed, and were this a list of suggested gifts for non-gamers or those new to the hobby, we would happily applaud. But for established gamers? Who hasn't played these games? How many of us still own them? We thought the whole idea behind gift-giving was to find something new, but maybe we've been doing it wrong all these years.Any DS games on your personal wishlists? Or are you the type who can't stand waiting and just buys them on your own?
And the award for 46th most important business personality goes to... Mike Morhaime!
CNN Money has named Mike Morhaime, the CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, as the 46th most important person in a list of 50 personalities that represent Business 2.0. We'll leave out our annoyances with the list as a whole (c'mon, naming "consumer as creator" as #1? Cop out!) so instead we'll use Mike's naming as an opportunity to analyze the importance of Blizzard's crowning achievement, World of Warcraft, to the World of Business.The totality of CNN's tribute to Mike is dedicated to the wild popularity of WoW. The article claims that WoW is more than "just another video game", citing the uniqueness of the game's popularity (6.5 million users and climbing), profitability (WoW brought in $700 million last year) and peripherals (a thriving out-of-game market for virtual goods worth around $200 million) as factors that make Mike a uniquely influential business leader.Big business' attraction to World of Warcraft's is no doubt due to the game's domination of MMO marketshare -- when you own 50% of a subscription based market you're bound to draw the attention of the suits -- so we wouldn't be surprised if WoW isn't the company's last MMO, despite earlier denials by a Blizzard staffer. Still, we feel sorry for Mike. On one side he's got the money crazy suits asking for more, MORE MMOs, and on the other he's got millions of StarCraft, Diablo and WarCraft fans screaming for sequels to their beloved franchise. He deserves an award just for being able to maintain that smug smile!
Infinium founder charged with using "impending Phantom launch" to inflate and sell stock
Timothy Roberts, the founder and former CEO of Infinium Labs, the company that promised us the Phantom (which came in at second on Wired's list of vaporware products of '06), has been accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission of artificially inflating stock and selling it on at a $422,500 profit. The SEC alleges that Roberts hired a promoter to send junk faxes to investors citing the Phantom's imminent launch, when in fact the console had postponed the launch due to insufficient funds. According to the SEC, Roberts then sold 1.3 million shares from the company -- without any disclosure -- and secretly paid the promoter he had hired. These two actions, unfortunately for Roberts, are against the law: the SEC has asked a court to force Roberts to surrender the cash, pay a penalty and to prohibit him from ever becoming a CEO again.Meanwhile, the company -- sans Roberts -- has blown through $63 million without producing the Phantom and has lost another CEO yet still claims to be relevant and capable of launching The Phantom along with a useless lap-based keyboard accessory. Someone put the company out of its misery. Pretty please?[Thanks, Neal]
PS2's price slashed to $129 in April?
Chris Morris at CNNMoney covers the latest rumblings of an anticipated PS2 price drop. The console currently remains at $149 after Sony called Microsoft's bluff on the 360 launch; however, now that 360 consoles are finally hitting retail shelves -- and staying there -- it sounds like Sony is reconsidering dropping the price by the end of April.Apparently they aren't considering anything as dramatic as a $99 price point, rather opting for a more conservative $129 figure, a $20 drop. Considering Sony has little trouble selling PS2s, the move might be in response to the presence of the PlayStation at E3. A quiet price cut will help keep the focus on the PS3 while continuing to undercut the competition. The big question now is: what will Microsoft do?Morris speculates that instead of matching, Redmond might consider hitting $99, thereby undercutting Sony. He does, however, acknowledge that MS has been eager to leave this generation behind. We've even covered the increase in price of the original Xbox following the launch of the 360. Simply, if you have $100 to spend, they'd rather have you thinking about putting that money towards a console they hope to make a profit on than one that's proven to be ... well, costly.[Thanks, striegs]Update: Fixed embarassing math error, thus restoring peace to the blogosphere.
