Euro iPhone News

We have had the figures for a week. The graph below shows the real news: Huge boost during the last quarter. Profit of $13 B on sales of $46 B. These are huge numbers.

Apple reported its earnings excluding items more than doubled to $7.79 a share in its fiscal third quarter from $3.51 a share in the year-earlier period.

Revenue shot up 82 percent to $28.57 billion from $15.7 billion in the year-earlier period.

Analysts had expected Apple to report earnings of $5.85 a share on revenue of $24.9 billion.

Sales of iPads and iPhones were strong during the quarter: The company said it sold 9.25 million iPads during the quarter, nearly triple the amount it sold a year earlier. IPhone sales more than doubled to 20.34 million. Mac sales increased 14 percent to 3.95 million units.

Cash flow more than doubled to $11.1 billion, the company said.

The company, known for its conservative guidance, said it expects earnings of $5.50 a share on revenue of $25 billion for the current quarter.

Apple’s numbers are out and it is a monster blowout!

Apple beat expectations across the board. We have all the important numbers below.

Shares are up 10% in after hours trading.

The biggest number that jumps out: 37 million iPhones sold. That easily beats the Street’s whisper number of 34 million iPhones.

The next number is 15.4 million iPads sold, which clobbers the 13 million expectation.

Here’s what Apple did versus Wall Street expectations, via Piper Jaffray’s.

• Revenue: $46.33 Billion versus $38.76 billion expected

• EPS: $13.87 versus $10.07 expected

• iPhone units: 37.04 million versus 30.2 million expected (34 million whisper)

• iPad units: 15.4 million 13.2 million expected (13 million whisper)

• Mac units: 5.2 million versus 5 million expected (4.8 million whisper)

• iPod: 15.4 million versus 13.9 million expected

• Gross Margin: 44.7% versus 41.8% expected

• March quarter revenue: $32.5 billion versus $31.9 billion expected

• March quarter EPS: $8.50 versus $8.00 expected

• Apple now has $97 billion in cash, short term, and long term securities

• The iPhone’s average selling price is up to $660

Information care of BI site
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/live-apple-earnings-2012-1?nr_email_referer=1&utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=SAI%20Select&utm_campaign=SAI%20Select%202012-01-25#ixzz1kSxu2MjT

Read the release and listen to Apple play back at http://investor.apple.com/

Once again Apple reported a 54% gain in net income for its fourth fiscal quarter, released late in Tuesday . These impressive results by any standard were  lower than the Wall St – whisper numbers.

Apple recorded net income of $6.62 billion, or $7.05 per share, compared to net income of $4.31 billion, or $4.64 per share, for the same period the previous year. That is massive growth for any company let alone one a multi billion dollar firm. This was on revenue of $28.27 billion representing a 39% jump.

The brains of Walls St had been expecting earnings of $7.38 per share on revenue of $29.7 billion, according to consensus forecasts from Thomson Reuters. This so called miss has caused the stock to fall 6% in after hours.

The call is available for all to listed to on the Apple site: See Apple Investor Page. The units sales figures drive results:

Key numbers are:

• 17.07 million iPhones, representing 21 percent unit growth YOY
• 11.12 million iPads, a 166 percent unit increase YOY
• 4.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase YOY
• Apple sold 6.62 million iPods, a 27 percent unit decline YOY
• International sales accounted for 63 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
• Gross margin was 40.3 percent compared to 36.9 percent in the year-ago quarter

Bunch of releases today claiming that Mr Cook will take to the stage on Oct 4 to announce the next iPhone. The main leak seems to originate from our friends All things Digital over at the Wall St journal. They seem pretty convinced that Apple will hold an event on Oct 4 to announce the Apple iPhone 5.

See link

Of course like all things Apple until we see the Invitation this is just another rumour.

The news today is that Steve is stepping down as CEO and will be followed by Tim Cook. Steve is ill and has been suffering from cancer for some time and has been on extended leave for a number of periods. We have to assume that his illness is not abating and is hampering his abilities to run Apple.

Leaving Mr Cook is charge is a smart move. As COO he has managed the operations of Apple as it has grown with the huge success of the iPhone and iPad.  He has managed the transition to a high volume consumer focused company.

The stock took a dive on the news but has since clawed the loses back.

Steve’s letter is below:

CUPERTINO, Calif.-(BUSINESS WIRE)-To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

Yet another screaming quarter from the boys at Infinity Circle. Yes, once again Apple exceeds even the most optimistic revenue forecasts. After the close yesterday Apple reported revenue of $28.57 billion with per-share earnings of $7.79, the market was expecting $24.9 B and $5.80 per share.

A quick calculations shows that amounts to a 34% over estimate hit.

So where did the money come from?

iPhone sales are still massive with 20.3 million for the quarter.  While the iPad sold 9 and a quarter million units during the quarter. The ramp up in production to meet the demand has been steady. A few months ago the wait was 2-3 weeks, now is it a matter of days.

The Mac line of business is also doing rather well with total units shifted 3.95 million units representing a 14% Y o Y growth.  Some potential customers may have been delaying a purchase in light of the pending release of Lion, the new Mac Operating System. The wait is over as Lion ships today.

The humble iPod line was the only category to see a decline is sales and managed to find only 7.5 million new clients.  With the continued expansion of the iPhone volumes there is less call for having a separate music player.  Sales dropped 20% Y o Y.

We quite like our Nano powered watch.

Read the full release at Apple website:

With a 2% rise on Friday – July 15th – the stock closes at $364.92

According to Reuters a judger has thrown out the Nokia Patent infringement lawsuits, saying that Apple has not infringed 5 Nokia patents as claimed by our Finnish friends. See Reuters.

This will of course go to sundry appeals, But it loos as if first round goes to California and Apple.

With the recent Nokia and Microsoft announcement it is worth spending a little tile looking at the smart phone market and the differences in vendors between US and Europe. The Smart Phone market and the share of that market is very revealing. A recent report by Comscore nicely displays the market share and a great deal of other information on users, markets and trends and the differences between US and Europe.

These two graphs shows vendor market share: The striking points are in the US – Nokia and Symbian are virtually irrelevant with a tiny market share, as have Palm and Microsoft. It also shows the rise of Android and how it has taken share away from Apple and RIM. Of course this is market share rather than units shipped.

While in Europe. Nokia have a much, much larger starting point with close to 50% of the market. That’s a huge difference. Apple has a smaller share that in the US and Android is way down. Strangely Microsoft has a larger share in Europe than its home turf.

One key point is the outlets for iPhone and Android in the states and EU are vastly different. And in some way the EU has a more level playing field as the iPhone is available from at least two carriers in every region and the droid devices are likewise available from multiple outlets. In the UK for example iPhone is available from the original launch partner O2 that has been joined by Vodafone, Orange, 3 and T Mobile. That’s pretty much the whole market. So what ever carriers you are with you have access to an iPhone. This is in stark contrast with the US where until a week or so if you wanted an iPhone you had to be or become an AT&T subscriber.

Likewise with the Android devices they are available from so many vendors it is hard to keep to keep track of the devices and carriers, sufficient to say that both are numerous. In some ways this is different from the US where the non AT&T carriers have had to push Android as a competitor to iPhone.

With Verizon now on board this will be interesting to see that happens to market share for droids. And of course if Nokia / Microsoft can make inroads into the US and retain EU market share.

2011 will be a compelling year for the mobile industry.

Very big news from Nokia – In summary they are putting all their eggs into the Microsoft camp with the decision to move to the Windows Phone platform and dump Symbian. The new CEO, who is ex-Microsoft has signed up with the boys from Redmond to make Windows phone 7 the platform for Nokia smart phones. They had little choice – Apple and Android have stolen the high end market, leaving Nokia to fight at the low end with the Chinese mass production clones,who now make a good handset for a very decent price.

The fight is about market share and profits. While Nokia has a respectable 30% share of the mobile market it’s profit has been well and truly squeezed by Apple. This graph from the Economist shows share and profits. She how Nokia have lost the plot.

So the question will be when can Nokia get their Win 7 Phone out. Will that help or hinder their market share. We all know that Microsoft has had a dismal record with phones sales and strategy.

This time next year we expect that Nokia will be a Microsoft subsidiary.