
Apple Reports Second Quarter Results - llambda
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/04/24Apple-Reports-Second-Quarter-Results.html
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ChuckMcM
I think it is important for folks to look at Apple's balance sheet and
understand just how amazing of a job they have done in what is nominally a
'hardware' business. 39B$ in quarterly revenue trounced Microsoft's $17B$.
More than double. If you had asked me in '95 if Apple would ever have double
the quarterly revenue of Microsoft I would have thought you were crazy. That
is legendary execution.

Of course if they are pulling all that money in there has to be folks who
would be willing to pull in just a bit less (in market economies) so it will
be interesting to watch the response of folks like Google, Microsoft, and HP
as they maneuver around in this space.

Songs will be sung of this time in technology :-)

~~~
Aqueous
Yes, Apple's amazing. But I think there's this attitude that nobody can
compete with them.

Somebody can. But we're all just too busy looking and marvelling at Apple's
astounding success to see that, if just enough insight and resources were
given to the R&D departments at a bunch of different companies, similar
results could be achieved elsewhere.

Apple was just like other companies 15 years ago. Worse, actually. They were
failing in 1997. It was about to go under or be acquired. All Steve Jobs did
was return and re-focus the company on products instead of marketing. Granted
the focus he brought was perfectionist to a neurotic degree, but those
tendencies aren't limited to Apple.

So why aren't other companies doing that?

~~~
sudont
Jackson Pollock.

My kid could paint that, he just didn't.

"All Steve Jobs did" is nearly impossible for every single company. I'm
watching bosses fight over the possibility of including dynamic content in a
jQuery slideshow. I'm wading through thirty meetings to get approval to roll
out an update to a javascript file that was nothing more than changing an
easing function.

Most companies are not able to move beyond political infighting to coalesce
around a goal, let alone the correct goal.

They coast.

~~~
AngryParsley
This is offtopic, but if work is that bad you might want to look for a better
job. The who's hiring thread is a good place to start:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3783657>

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Steko
Ars liveblog of the earnings call by Jacqui Cheng:

[http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/04/liveblog-apples-
fy...](http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/04/liveblog-apples-
fy2012-q2-earnings-call-today-at-5pm-edt.ars)

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gsibble
I think this should be titled: Apple Crushes 2nd Quarter Estimates with
Massive iPhone Sales

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vikas5678
I feel the stock might not have the same momentum over the next few days.
Although Apple beat estimates, it guided lower for the upcoming quarters:

APPLE SEES 3Q REV. ABOUT $34B, EST. $37.49B APPLE SEES 3Q EPS ABOUT $8.68,
EST. $9.96

~~~
mikeryan
Apple's also notorious for lowballing guidance.

EDIT (answer): I didn't downvote you.

~~~
vikas5678
Why the down vote for pointing out their guidance?

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erichocean
Eric Raymond hit hardest.

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pgrote
Wow. This stood out:

"Apple sold 7.7 million iPods, a 15 percent unit decline from the year-ago
quarter."

I wonder why the decline and if there is a concern?

Everyone that wants one has one? More competitors? Everyone who has an iPod
transitioning to the iPhone?

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hospadam
Anecdotally - none of my friends (or myself) carry iPods anymore. Nearly
everyone I know uses their smart phone. I think most iPod sales are now sold
to children as stand-ins until they have a smartphone of their own.

~~~
altcognito
Or people who refuse to pay exorbitant rates (in comparison) for internet
access to communications companies who on one hand claim the last mile is the
bottleneck and expensive, yet refuse to invest in infrastructure for their
wireless towers. AT&T and Verizon in particular.

~~~
notatoad
you don't have to get a dumbphone just because you don't want to get a data
plan. wifi is pretty ubiquitous, and if you don't have a data plan your
smartphone will still work as an mp3 player and do a bunch of other cool
stuff.

~~~
hyperbovine
FWIW signing on to either AT&T or Verizon's network with any recent iPhone
will "automatically" enroll you in a data plan if you don't have one. There
really is no way to have a data-free iPhone, I've tried.

~~~
jasomill
Pay cash and use it on T-Mobile? That's what I did. AT&T or any other GSM
prepaid should also work.

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burke
And to no one's surprise, they're up 8% in after-hours trading.

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smackfu
And down 2% today before earnings. AAPL, she sure does swing.

