That doesn't really matter, does it? Non-Apple laptop manufacturers are trapped in the low margins that commoditization results in. Apple's margins are rumoured to be a large multiple of that of other laptop makers.
>While they've been profitable in the PC space (laptops/desktops) to call them successful is a bit of stretch.
You say
>Apple's margins are rumoured to be a large multiple of that of other laptop makers.
So we agree they're profitable but you are simply arguing they are so more profitable their volumes don't matter.
So do they? If we want to break out numbers [1] from March 2016 quarterly report. Mac (Laptops/PC's) accounts for $12.5bil Net Sales, which is 9.4% of quarterly sales totally <11 million units.
The funny thing about this is their Services category (iCloud, iTunes, App Store, Apple Health Kit) has (more then) doubled in 6 months and its now ~$3bil of Net Sales of their Mac category. At current growth rate's it'll eclipse it sometimes this year.
The Mac sector is quickly becoming the lowest selling division of the company. Currently only under performed by the Other category (Beats, AppleTV, AppleWatch, Cables, WatchStraps, Keyboards, Mice, etc., etc.). This is what I mean by surviving not thriving. The division is a very small corner of the company, and getting smaller.
> The Mac sector is quickly becoming the lowest selling division of the company. Currently only under performed by the Other category (Beats, AppleTV, AppleWatch, Cables, WatchStraps, Keyboards, Mice, etc., etc.). This is what I mean by surviving not thriving.
I don't think that matters when you're looking at it from a value perspective, as BH does. The margins are the best out of anyone in that sector and it's making tons of cash. And, as you said, that's one of the lowest performing divisions of the company. They're basically the BMW of laptops and you're acting like that's a bad thing.
Apple computers were 10.9% of FY 2015 revenue. That percentage has been steadily dropping pretty much ever since the iPhone came out and revenue has not been growing.
- Non-trival amount of resources go into hardware R&D and OSX development
- Desktop and laptop computer market is increasingly shrinking
- Revenue growth is flat
It's not as simple as "well we make $x for every iOS developer, $x/2 for every OSX developer and that's going to be $x/3 in 5 years" but that's the general gist of it. Consumers are not buying computers and Apple has never been a major business player.
1. A very large portion of their OS X development is directly applicable to what goes into iOS. And it's becoming more so. The same for their hardware R&D and what ends up being usable in their mobile products.
2. The consumer desktop and laptop market has been shrinking, because consumers have switched to mobile. Which is most of Apple's income.
3. Growth may be flat, but the margins are good, which exactly what BH is looking for.
Finally, and most obviously, Apple needs computers in order to make software for mobile. They own pretty much the whole stack and are able to make a hefty profit by selling their tools (hardware and software), that they would need anyways, to the rest of the world. This is classic vertical integration and it makes alot of sense business-wise.
So those points do not answer the question, which makes your answer seem like a deflection.
Furthermore Apple's revenue growth may be flat, but their competitors are in actual decline.
Consumers are increasingly buying apple computers instead of any other, and this is increasingly true in enterprises as well as consumer spaces.
The percentage of Apple's business that is represented by PCs will obviously decrease as they add other business lines. What does that have to do with anything?
