In a 2011 CNBC interview, Steve Wozniak reminisced about his early relationship with Steve Jobs, the first Apple computers and the company's bold Super Bowl ad in 1984, the year the revolutionary Macintosh computer was released. Apple's track record hasn't been all sunshine, Airpods, and iPhones (the company has sold well over a billion of the smartphones). In fact, even the company that revolutionized the personal computer industry with the Macintosh has had its share of failures over the years, from an overheating computer to a handheld device that co-founder Steve Jobs hated and comedy writers mocked.
UPDATE:earnings release excerpt: "Services Revenue Reaches New All-Time High of $11.5 Billion ... [total] quarterly revenue of $58 billion, a decline of 5 percent from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.46, down 10 percent. International sales accounted for 61 percent of the quarter’s revenue."
See also consolidated financial statements (pdf).
Big tech companies have the momentum to be even larger?
Video above published Jul 29, 2017: Ann Winblad, of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners (domain: hwvp.com), on the outlook for the tech sector. Apple Inc. is the largest company in the world by market capitalization. Apple's assets include more than $250 billion in cash.
Apple was founded April 1, 1976, in Cupertino, CA, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. On December 12, 1980, Apple launched the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of its stock on the NASDAQ (domain: nasdaq.com) stock market. When Apple went public, it generated more capital than any IPO since Ford Motor Company in 1956 and instantly created more millionaires (about 300) than any company in history. Read more at History of Apple Inc. | Wikipedia.org.
Apple Inc.
Stock exchange: symbol | NASDAQ: AAPL (shares are up 41% Aug 1, 2016 - July 28, 2017).
Principal domain: apple.com
investor.apple.com: Apple's FY 17 Third Quarter Results (calendar Q2 2017) Conference Call: Tuesday, August 1, 2017 at 5:00 p.m. EDT. Listen to the audio webcast LIVE and Replay. FY17 Q3 Results: Revenue Growth of 7 Percent and EPS Growth of 17 Percent - Services Revenue Hits All-Time Quarterly Record - iPhone sales up 2% YoY to 41M, iPad sales up 15% YoY and 28% QoQ to 11.4M, Mac sales up 1% YoY to 4.3M, and Greater China revenue down 10% YoY to $8B. Press release:"August 1, 2017 — Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2017 third quarter ended July 1, 2017. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $45.4 billion and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.67. These results compare to revenue of $42.4 billion and earnings per diluted share of $1.42 in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 61 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
“With revenue up 7 percent year-over-year, we’re happy to report our third consecutive quarter of accelerating growth and an all-time quarterly record for Services revenue,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We hosted an incredibly successful Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and we’re very excited about the advances in iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS coming this fall.”
“We reported unit and revenue growth in all our product categories in the June quarter, driving 17 percent growth in earnings per share,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We also returned $11.7 billion to investors during the quarter, bringing cumulative capital returns under our program to almost $223 billion.”
Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2017 fourth quarter:
revenue between $49 billion and $52 billion
gross margin between 37.5 percent and 38 percent
operating expenses between $6.7 billion and $6.8 billion
other income/(expense) of $500 million
tax rate of 25.5 percent
Apple’s board of directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.63 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on August 17, 2017 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 14, 2017. Apple will provide live streaming of its Q3 2017 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT on August 1, 2017 at www.apple.com/investor/earnings-call/. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.
Apple (AAPL) Q3 2017 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com: "I see Tencent as one of our biggest and best developers. They've done a great job of implementing a lot of iOS features in their apps and we're looking forward to working with them even more to build even greater experiences for our mutual users in China."--Apple CEO Tim Cook
GoDaddy [NYSE:GDDY], which operates the world's largest domain name aftermarket, today announces the launch of its first mobile app for domain investors. The GoDaddy Investor app, launching on iOS and Android, will allow investors to watch and bid on domains at auction and stay on top of their current bids all from their mobile device. Aftermarket domain auctions are time-sensitive and highly competitive, and it's critical that investors are able to easily participate at any time and from anywhere, not just from their computers. GoDaddy Investor offers several additional features not previously available. After downloading the app, domain investors are able to monitor a watch list of active expiry domain auctions in real time, as well as view their bidding history. Investors can also see the auction history for each domain, including the number of bidders and the prices of their bids. Investors can also place proxy bids and securely re-authenticate with their Auction PIN (Android, iOS) or Touch ID (iOS). A streamlined, visual dashboard count shows, at-a-glance, how many auctions investors have won, bid on, or are watching overall. Finally, since auctions are won and lost in an instant, push notifications will immediately alert investors when they've been outbid on auctions that are ending soon. "We worked closely with our domain investors to bring the same great investing experience to mobile that they've enjoyed on desktop for years," said Paul Nicks,GoDaddy's Senior Director of Aftermarket. "The new GoDaddy Investor app was designed with the timely nature of domain bids in mind, allowing investors to register valuable pre-owned domain names, win more auctions and keep a closer eye on their bids, no matter where they are."
UPDATE September 19, 2015: Will Ad Blocking Be Google's Kryptonite? - Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) | Seeking Alpha: "I got out of Google back in late July after the stock had popped and began trending sideways. I still think it is slightly overvalued (PE multiple of 33 and a long-term PE of 25), and would like to see a pullback before I build a position again. In the meantime, I'm keeping an eye on ad blocking trends and any indication that it is beginning to affect revenues." (read more at the link above) UPDATE September 18, 2015: Welcome to hell: Apple vs. Google vs. Facebook and the slow death of the web | The Verge: "IOS 9 IS APPLE'S ATTEMPT TO FULLY DRIVE THE KNIFE INTO GOOGLE'S REVENUE PLATFORM"
Google Inc., makes more money from Internet advertising than any other company in the world. In 2014, Google's ad revenue amounted to almost 59.06 billion US dollars. Advertising accounted for 89.5 percent of Google's total revenues. (source: Statista)
Apple’s Ad Blockers - WSJ: Apple’s upcoming iOS 9 will make it easier for hundreds of millions of iPhone and iPad users to install apps that block ads, posing a challenge to Google, advertisers and publishers.
Apple’s Ad Blockers Rile Publishers - WSJ: "Putting such “ad blockers” within reach of hundreds of millions of iPhone and iPad users threatens to disrupt the $70 billion annual mobile-marketing business, where many publishers and tech firms hope to generate far more revenue from a growing mobile audience. If fewer users see ads, publishers—and other players such as ad networks—will reap less revenue. The move also is a competitive weapon against Apple rival Google Inc., which makesmore money from Internet advertising than any other company in the world. Making ad blockers available on iOS, one of two main smartphone-operating systems, is expected to prompt more consumers to use the technology. The benefits of blocking ads arguably are greater on smartphones than on personal computers, because they can reduce the clutter on small screens and help pages load faster."
Apple’s Ad-Blocking Feature Is Sending Publishers Scrambling - Bloomberg Business: "IOS 9, which is set for a Sept. 16 release, will allow owners of Apple’s newer mobile devices to download Web browser extensions that can block advertising from being shown while they browse the Web ... Apple hasn’t publicly articulated why it will start allowing ad blockers on iOS, but Tim Cook has criticized Internet companies in the past for violating people’s privacy to boost ad revenue."
With Technology, Avoiding Both Ads and the Blockers - The New York Times: "A report last month from Adobe and PageFair, an Irish start-up that monitors ad blocking, projected that the software would lead to nearly $22 billion in lost revenue for advertisers this year. Roughly 200 million people globally now use ad-blocking software; global usage increased 41 percent in the last year."
I work in advertising, but I still block ads - Digiday: "Our business is changing incredibly fast. We’ve become a mobilized society, and ads don’t work very well on mobile. The screen is too small for most banners to be effective. We’ve had to reinvent advertising for mobile, and we’re going to reinvent advertising when we all start blocking ads."
June 22 -- Bloomberg Businessweek's Paul Barrett reports on how Taylor Swift forced Apple to back away from an earlier decision not to pay royalties for songs played on its new streaming-music service during a three-month free trial. He speaks on “Bloomberg Markets.”
3rd UPDATE: Apple iPhone sales and revenue significantly declined in the quarter ending in March, 2015, as compared to the previous quarter--statistic source further below at iPhone UPDATE. 2nd UPDATE: June 16, 2015, see:Record labels attack Apple deals that would leave them 'completely screwed' - Telegraph UPDATE June 10, 2015: Apple Music, a new music streaming service discussed further below, is now the subject of antitrustinvestigations--It was reported this morning in the Wall Street Journal and Seeking Alpha that both the Attorney General (AG) of New York and of Connecticut are now investigating whether deals made by Apple for its new music service violated Antitrust laws. Apparently this joint investigation is probing whether Apple pressured music labelsor whetherthe labels conspired with Apple and one another against popular freemium services such as Spotify in order to favor Apple Music. New York AG Eric Schneiderman and Connecticut AG George Jepsen were among a group of attorneys generals who in 2013 sued Apple for "conspiring to raise the prices of e-books" for which Apple agreed to pay a $450 million settlement.
UPDATE June 9, 2015, 1PM EDT (US): Can Apple Music Lure Customers Away From Spotify?Technalysis Research President Bob O'Donnell discusses Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference with Bloomberg's Angie Lau on Bloomberg Asia's "First Up" in the video above.
Apple WWDC15 message - source: apple.com
Apple: "Live stream of Apple's WWDC 2015 keynote address, viewable in Safari and on Apple TV — Our live broadcast begins at 10 a.m. PDT. Follow along and share your favorite moments from today's #AppleLive event. Live streaming video requires Safari 6.0.5 or later on OS X v10.8.5 or later; Safari on iOS 6.0 or later." (emphasis added) source: http://www.apple.com/live/2015-june-event/
Of course, one can just do what Domain Mondo did--watch the whole thing (Apple WWDC15 Keynote) LIVE at twit.tv, via a Chrome browser running on a Win7 laptop.
Screenshot of Apple stock 30 minutes into Apple WWDC 2015 Keynote (source: google.com)
check current price here
The problem with Apple? It's falling behind. Things may "look" good today, but underneath, the "rot" has begun--for background reference read The Innovator's Dilemma--
Apple Watch? IT’S A LOUSY WATCH: "I’m completely flummoxed how Apple screwed up so bad. Really makes me believe the company is doomed. Because there’s no Steve Jobs, there’s no VISIONARY, no one to say what’s right or wrong, when to go or stop."--Bob Lefsetz
Apple Music? Apple is "strong-arming" (quote from Leo Laporte) its Beats music streaming onto iPhone and iPad users--will strong-arming succeed?--Apple Streaming - Lefsetz:"If Apple were all-powerful, iTunes Radio would have killed Pandora ... the public has no loyalty. It abandoned MySpace for Facebook… advertising and promotion don’t win online, it’s all word of mouth for excellent products. Instagram and Snapchat were not sold by hype. Why does everybody believe that a big press story will put Apple streaming over the top?"--In other words, musictoday is all about YouTube, Spotify, free or freemium online and paid LIVE.
Other Apple Services? You can get freeor cheaper, and usually superior, services from Google, Facebook, Amazon, et al, orpay a premium for the Apple brand and its often inferior services--e.g., Apple maps.
Apple App Store?--very profitable today but native apps are so yesterday--that is why Apple is abandoning its iTunes music store for its streaming service (see Apple Music above).
iPhone? Apple's Crown Jewel today but for how much longer? Voice service is in the process of moving to 4G LTE (VoLTE)--soon all phones will work anywhere with any carrier with just one chip for everything--voice and data. Expect Amazon to give away free phones to its Prime Customers. Google is not far behind.
UPDATE: Statistic: Apple's iPhone sales declined by over 10 million units, and its iPhone revenue declined by over 10 billion dollars, in its most recently reported quarter (ending in March, 2015), as compared to the previous quarter.
Affirmed Networks CEO Hassan Ahmed and Estimize CEO Leigh Drogen discuss Apple's second-quarter earnings with Bloomberg's Alix Steel and Cory Johnson on "Street Smart," April 27th.
Products discussed: iPhone, Apple Watch, MacBook, iPad
"We’re now halfway through fiscal 2015 and our year to date results have been simply staggering. We sold over 135 million iPhones, 34 million iPads, and 10 million Macs in the first six months of the year. Our revenue has grown by 28% to over $132 billion, net income has increased 36% to over $31 billion, and EPS has grown by 44%."--Apple's (AAPL) CEO Tim Cook on Q2 2015Results - Earnings Call Transcript | Seeking Alpha
Apple - Press Info - Apple Reports Record Second Quarter Results: "April 27, 2015—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 second quarter ended March 28, 2015. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $58 billion and quarterly net profit of $13.6 billion, or $2.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $45.6 billion and net profit of $10.2 billion, or $1.66 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.8 percent compared to 39.3 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 69 percent of the quarter’s revenue. The growth was fueled by record second quarter sales of iPhone® and Mac® and all-time record performance of the App Store℠..."
Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2015 third quarter:
revenue between $46 billion and $48 billion
gross margin between 38.5 percent and 39.5 percent
operating expenses between $5.65 billion and $5.75 billion
source:Statista
source: Statista
