
Apple Reports Second Quarter Results - ucha
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/05/apple-reports-second-quarter-results/
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IBM
Big narrative violations:

Mac units up 4% year over year, revenue up 14% year over year. Last quarter it
was up 1% and 7%. In contrast Surface revenue was down 26% year over year.

Other products (which include Apple Watch and AirPods) revenue was up 31% year
over year. Tim Cook just said on the call that Apple Watch sales doubled year
over year.

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jsight
It is interesting that Apple Watch sales are starting climbing. I have
definitely noticed a lot more of them on appearing on wrists during the past 6
months.

~~~
vannevar
I think they may be benefiting from the fitness device trend in a somewhat
unexpected way: everyone is getting used to wearing an ugly-looking wrist
device, or seeing them on other people, so the fashion barrier is not as steep
as it was a couple of years ago. My original thought about the watch was that
it was going to need to get smaller and a lot better-looking before it really
caught on, but maybe not...

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Steko
I see more watches but still question whether it's 'really caught on'. I don't
have a fashion objection but for me the basic functionality of waiting for the
face to light up is close to a dealbreaker and the convenience of Apple Pay
seems to be moving backward as I'm forced to use my PIN and sign in all sorts
of places I used to be able to just wave my phone at.

~~~
lparry
> the convenience of Apple Pay seems to be moving backward as I'm forced to
> use my PIN and sign in all sorts of places I used to be able to just wave my
> phone at.

This is a rant against how you imagine things work, instead of how they
actually work. I put my watch on in the morning and it is automatically
unlocked the next time I unlock my phone with touch id. From this point on,
the pin is never required. Apple Pay is just a double click on the long
button, no pin entry as you've imagined if the watch is unlocked, which is
true unless you've only just put on the watch.

waiting for the face to light up however, is a legit complaint. It really
sucks that there's not even an option for "always on" that you could use while
working out, as it's a pain in the ass to be running and want to check your
current pace and find that wrist-flick detection failed so you're staring at
an off instead of getting the data you wanted and getting back to looking
where you're going quickly again.

~~~
TomSawyer
He's talking about having to enter the PIN for his debit card into the POS
keypad.

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bogositosius
How can a retailer ask for a PIN number on an Apple Pay transaction? They
don't even know what account the money actually comes from, since Apple Pay
only gives them a one-time use number for that single transaction. So how can
they verify a PIN number in that context?

~~~
TomSawyer
My experience using Apple Pay with a checking account's debit card at Whole
Foods Market and Trader Joe's is that it only saves having to swipe/insert the
physical card. I'm still required to enter the pin. Sometimes it gives me the
options of "VISA Debit" or "US Debit" which both work the same way. A few
times I've gotten lucky and it gives me the option of "Credit" or "Debit" and
when I pick "Credit" it's a toss up -- probably driven by the amount of the
transaction -- on if the transaction is complete or if I have to "sign" with
the stylus on the POS.

~~~
derefr
Canadian? I'm betting this is a terminology collision—US debit cards use
credit-card protocols to talk to banks, while Canadian debit cards ("ATM
cards" or "client cards") use their own protocols for POS transactions, which
Apple doesn't even bother supporting.

Instead, to support Canadian debit cards directly, Apple would seem to be
using the Canadian banks' _web_ payments infrastructure (Interac
EasyWeb)—which is effectively a SAML auth flow using your card number + PIN as
credentials.

Before this mechanism was introduced, Apple did first support Canadian "Visa
debit" cards, though, so earlier Canadian users of the system—who have their
phone pointed at a Visa debit card number they have, instead of their debit
client-card number directly—might be confused by the assertion that Canadian
debit card use on Apple Pay requires a PIN. It doesn't, _for them_.

~~~
TomSawyer
Nope -- American.

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ihuman
MacStories has nice graphs comparing this quarter to past quarters:
[https://www.macstories.net/news/apple-q2-2017-results-529-bi...](https://www.macstories.net/news/apple-q2-2017-results-529-billion-
revenue-508-million-iphones-89-million-ipads-sold/#twitter-widget-7)

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nodesocket
The Board approved a 10.5% increase to the Apple's quarterly dividend, and has
declared a dividend of $0.63 per share of common stock, payable on May 18,
2017 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on May 15, 2017.

Increasing stock buyback by 75 billion as well, showing that Apple believes
their stock still has room to grow.

~~~
tcoppi
> Increasing stock buyback by 75 billion as well, showing that Apple believes
> their stock still has room to grow.

Or means that they have nothing else productive to do with their cash.

~~~
solomatov
From the point of view of shareholders, stock buyback is superior to paying
dividends taxwise. If shareholders just hold the stock, the price rises, and
they don't have to pay any taxes.

~~~
jdmichal
Rather, they taxes on it when they sell. Of course, the cost is that you don't
have anything in your pocket today. And gains written on paper are just as
easy to erase.

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csomar
Is this below market expectations? It seems that the stock is down 2% in after
hours trading.

~~~
Esau
I've been watching this for years and, frequently, Apple stock value goes down
after the company announces it has met or exceeded expectations. I have no
idea why this happens.

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smileysteve
> I have no idea why this happens.

Buy the rumour, sell the news

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ChuckMcM
It is amazing to think about Apple in terms of its size and influence on
computing compared to IBM. And that makes me wonder who is going to replace
Apple 30 years from now, or if Apple will have a 100+ year run like IBM has. I
hope they get a chance to repatriate their cash hoard.

~~~
eldavido
I've thought about this a lot, and here's my .02 on the matter.

If you look at politics now, there's a decidedly anti-elitist trend. This is
why Trump got elected. I felt the movie "Hell or High Water" portrayed the ex-
Bay Area/other "creative class" cities' zeitgeist really well. There are just
a huge number of people struggling to get by, trying to make their mortgage
payments, in tons of debt.

At the same time, I find Snap fascinating. Anecdotally, it seems to appeal to
young people, people bored working low-end jobs, and others I wouldn't call
"rich". And despite the CEO's dumb comments about "a social network for rich
people", there's a raw, back-to-basics, "for normal people" feel they've
worked hard to cultivate.

I think that if Apple isn't careful, they could be seen as an elitist, out-of-
touch, "rich person" phone company. Like, "this is the phone for people who
drive E-Class Mercedes. I want a phone for people who drive a truck, drink
Miller, and watch football". I could totally see this happening if the Asian
Android manufacturers keep nipping at their heels. At some point, phones are
going to hit saturation in terms of how much new functionality people care
about. And I think there will be a space for a device that's further
downmarket, more affordable, and not as aspirational/elitist as an iPhone. It
would be a phone that does about 80% of what an iPhone does today, GPS, video
calls, camera, good battery life, etc., but without some of the really
"gadgety" recent stuff on the iPhone, like 3D touch.

I also think that if computing overall moves to more of a
conversational/message-oriented paradigm, it's going to cause the form factor
of phones to change a lot, and become more "invisible" in favor of simpler
devices, or even a pair of headphones that talk directly to a mobile network.

The other thing to keep in mind, history shows incumbent tech companies aren't
"replaced", they're just outgrown by new ones. IBM is _still_ selling
mainframes, just not PCs or mobile phones. So the more likely case is, some
new thing comes up and has even broader appeal than Apple products. Granted,
it's hard to see how that could happen with their sales volumes, but that's
what history suggests.

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ChuckMcM
You make some excellent points. I don't have any way to evaluate whether or
not class politics will play a role in their future success or lack thereof, I
strongly agree that changing form factors and purposes will be interesting. If
you imagine a '5G' world where the large swaths of a place are suffused with
enough spectrum to essentially create a gigabit network everywhere, can you
disintermediate the phone company completely with direct addressed
communication channels ? And what will that mean when we are consuming dramas
and music directly from the production companies servers with perhaps
blockchain micropayments. It will definitely be different :-)

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eldavido
I think it will be interesting, for sure (SV developer here)

I think the class politics thing is a big deal, though. I just read fb interns
are now getting paid 8k/month. You certainly can make the argument that
they're creating enough value to justify that level of comp but it's not hard
to see how this must chafe people, esp. in low-COLA areas. Mix in the fact
that Apple has basically made "high-end luxury" their brand, and I think it's
inevitable some backlash will result in the next decade. Esp. when you
consider that Uber, Airbnb, etc. are all "Silicon Valley" companies.

