back to article Apple tops estimates with earnings leap of 118 per cent

Apple blew past even the most optimistic Wall Street earnings estimates for the first quarter of its fiscal 2012, posting revenues of $46.33bn, resulting in a quarterly net profit of $13.06bn, or $13.87 per share. "We're thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs," said CEO Tim …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ha!

    No surprise, considering that the alternatives are free operating systems (or Winblows)

  2. Ted Treen
    WTF?

    And these anal-ysts...

    ...get a huge multiple of my earnings for being wrong. Repeatedly.

    Guess I shouldn't have paid attention at school...

    1. Vic

      > Guess I shouldn't have paid attention at school.

      There are a couple of old sayings that are important here.

      Time is Money

      Knowledge is Power

      Now we know that Power = Work / Time

      Substituting the above equalities, we get:

      Knowledge = Work / Money

      Rearrange that to get :

      Money = Work / Knowledge

      IOW, the less you know, the more you earn...

      Vic.

  3. cosmo the enlightened
    Coat

    So

    I'll look forward to my dividend payout then yippee!

    oh, wait, hang on a minute...

    ok I'll get my coat...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re "I'll look forward to my dividend payout then yippee!"

      Personally I'm happier with the huge capital gain on Apple shares which can be sheltered from tax in an ISA (up to the annual allowance). In addition to an ISA we all get a capital allowance each year which might otherwise go to waste & can soak up some gains tax free. All in all it beats a dividend hands down for most of us. I'd suggest Cosmo the enlightened isn't as enlightened as he thinks...

      1. Goat Jam

        Capital gains?

        You don't make anything from capital gains until you sell the shares.

        If you guess the wrong time to sell then you make less of a gain.

        Or perhaps even a loss, depending on what prices were at the time you guessed to buy in.

        In fact in twelve months time apples figures might be less impressive, their shares tank and your illusory "capital gains" will disappear in a puff of a Wall Street analysts' cigar smoke.

        No, give me a dividend any day thanks.

        Also, receiving a dividend in no way precludes also having a capital gain.

        1. Jon Press

          Quite.

          The money Apple makes stays with Apple. The stockholders are making money from each other, speculating on Apple's future performance. The only way this works, unless a dividend is declared, is if Apple's growth is ultimately limitless. That sounds awfully like the housing market - how could prices not continue to go up?

          Admittedly Apple is generating tons of money, but its book value is around $82 per share while its traded share price is around $420 - that's an awful lot of anticipated return per share to be delivered through future earnings especially if it has to be returned to the stockholder through capital gains.

          1. Adam Nealis

            P/E, PEG, P/B

            82 versus 420 is a lot as an absolute value. As a ratio it's not too bad.

            Why would Apple start to issue a dividend before they run out of steam growth-wise and their stock price flatlines or goes into a stage 4 decline?

            http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=AAPL+Key+Statistics

            I don't think yesterday's figures are incorporated.Still

            P/E is still about 15, which is considered by many to be fairly priced.

            PEG is 0.64 is pretty low.

            Price/Book 5.10

            Benjamin Graham thought that if the ratio of (P/E) / (P/B) < 22.5, then the company represents reasonable value.

            For AAPL that is 15 / 5.1 = 3

  4. Gil Grissum
    Pint

    Where are the Droid Drones now?

    Numbers don't lie. This would make for a funny new Apple add poking fun at Samsung. No one stands in line for Android products. There's a reason for that. USER EXPERIENCE. Way to go Apple. That should silence the droid drones for a bit.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      People keep saying these things about UX and so on, but where is it??

      I think it is just a dumbed down interface.

      Have you used iOS 5 on an iPad? Safari crashes every other minute? Guaranteed crash at http://www.apple.com/macosx/whats-new/ on an iOS5. They may change the website by the time you read this, but it is all over the Apple forums. (Until they censor that too.)

      Or iTunes? Truncated course names in iTunes U, with no option to see the whole name except to click it. Is that USER EXPERIENCE???

      Dumbed down interface - yes. Users who don't know what their devices can really do - yes.

      Now if they kept it simple AND had options to make it usable, then kudos to them.

      But they most certainly aren't there.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Not crashing for me, did they change the website in the 7 minutes since your posted?

      2. krza
        Headmaster

        crashes in landscape orientation ...

        ... every time. Or if you switch to landscape while the page is open in portrait.. Strange but true!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re:Way to go Apple

      Yay, wahoo! This is truly great news! I'm sure with all that money, Apple are now going to invest in R&D, and help out their fellow American's by creating thousands of new jobs! (no pun intended)...

      Ohh, wait, no they wont. Apple are a cancer on an economy, and shouldn't be encouraged. They have enough money sitting around to literally give every American $200, but they just sit on it. The only money they spend in America is setting up new infrastructure for taking more money.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "help out their fellow American's by creating thousands of new jobs"

        Actually they already are. Have you not seen Apple's job openings?

        http://www.apple.com/jobs/us/startsearch.html

        1037 corporate jobs listed for the US (at least some with multiple vacancies). This is excluding retail.

        Plus they are producing the A5 processor in factory in Texas:

        http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/16/us-apple-samsung-idUSTRE7BF0D420111216

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Yes, but...

        "The only money they spend in America is setting up new infrastructure for taking more money."

        Isn't that the way you'd expect a successful corporation in a capitalist society to behave?

      3. Flashy Red
        FAIL

        Moocher

        Your post is dripping with the bitterness of entitlement. You're precisely what is wrong with the American economy.

      4. Ian 16
        Gimp

        Are you on some kind of smack?

        Do you honestly think Lenovo would do better? Oh, wait - forgot - Lenovo is a chinese company. What about Dell or Acer? Where are all these jobs created? Oh they are not - the money is going back to the investors. If anything blame the way the current economy is setup. This is not Apples fault for making money.

        It could also be the consumers fault for not wanting to pay the extra 20% cost for having the product created in the great US of A......

        Apple are not perfect , but the money is still going back to the US in some way...

    3. Adam Foxton
      FAIL

      It might also have something to do with

      about a billion companies around the world making- and selling- Android phones.

      And those Android phones are now outselling the iPhone, suggesting that the total profit they're bringing in is going to be pretty much on a par with Apple.

      And standing in a line isn't good User Experience. It's a sign of stock shortages, poor staffing levels and/or the need to drum up publicity for a product to make it sell. Again, WITHOUT needing people to wait in queues Android is outselling Apple.

      Only Apple could have 'standing in a queue for 16 hours' as a plus point!

      Example- I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy Note. Took me- from getting to the store to walking out, new contract and phone in-hand- under 45 minutes. THAT is an excellent user experience.

      I went onto the Internet and was able to use it's web browser to browse regular web pages without daft 'missing plugin' icons. THAT is excellent user experience.

      It took about 30 seconds to download my Google account data- without having to connect the device to anything. Again, an Excellent user experience.

      1. ratfox
        Boffin

        @foxton

        If you think that android phones overselling iPhones means roughly the same amount of profits, you haven't been paying attention. Apple's margins are way above the rest of the industry.

    4. EyeCU

      Don't need to queue

      Most sensible people know that there is no need to. You don't desperately have to have the latest gadget that very day or I'm gonna die !!!ZOMG!!!11!!. You casually go to the shop and buy one. If they don't have any in stock then just go back when they do. It really isn''t going to impact your life that much. Of course, not being tied to one company also means that if they don't have what you went for in stock then there is probably an alternative that you would be just as happy with that will do the same job.

  5. RichyS

    Just imagine how much Apple could have made if the iPhone 4S wasn't such a disappointment, and the Kindle Fire hadn't eaten all the iPad sales. </sarcasm>

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I don't think safari has ever crashed on me - bad trolly!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    People trash talk the iPad but quite honestly it's the best tablet - a friend was under he impression the Galaxy Tab was cheaper - it's te same price and side by side mst people would pick Appe and iOS.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well done apple! You probably have enough cash swilling around to (almost) but Samsung if you wanted it?...

    1. Jonathon Green

      "Well done apple! You probably have enough cash swilling around to (almost) but Samsung if you wanted it?..."

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung

      "Samsung produces around a fifth of South Korea's total exports[11] and its revenues are larger than many countries' GDP; in 2006, it would have been the world's 35th-largest economy."

      I think Apple have some way to go before they can buy Samsung. Probably not going to happen until the revenue streams from the iOilTanker, the iLargeCapitalInfrastructureConstructionProject, the iLifeInsurance, the iJetEngine, theiPharmaceuticals, and the iThemePark products start to ramp up. In the meantime with around twice the revenue and three time the assets I don't think they have too much to worry about.

      Incidentally we have both Apple (a Macbook Pro, an iPad 2 and an iPod Touch) and Samsung branded Android (2 x Galaxy 'phones and a Galaxy Tab) in regular use around the housem, we're very happy with both. The Apple kit was bought to meet the requirement to run specific applications (Logic and Garageband on the Macbook and iPad) or for compatibility (we have a number of older iPods in use, have iPod specific docking kit both in the cars and in the home as well as quite a large shared music library) rather than for any obvious functional superiority though...

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm sure I've seen posts in other comment threads that Apple's sales were sliding.

    These new figures can't be true, El Reg commentards are never wrong.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Oh noes

      Now what have you done, cue Barry Shitpeas claiming Apple numbers were as cooked as Google+'s take-up figures.

      ps: Hey Barry, when's that Asus TF Prime root tool coming out again?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Probe Anal

        It's out in February. Don't forget to change your name.

    2. Silverburn

      Easy on the commentards...

      I think you'll find it's the fandroids in desperate need of correction. Some commentards actually know what they're talking about. Though it's usually restricted to an encyleopedic knowledge of post-beer cuisine...

      Fandroids = new fanbois. Complete with rabit mouth frothing, fingers-in-the-ears, and 'gymnastic' approach to data analysis.

  10. Jonathan White

    Love won't pay my bills, I want.. Money!

    "You probably have enough cash swilling around to (almost) buy Samsung if you wanted it?"

    Yeah, but why would they? Samsung aren't making anywhere near as much money selling phones as Apple are anyway. They'd be much better off using the money to invest internally.

    As for

    "Wall Street moneymen looking a wee bit silly"

    Well, honestly? I think pretty much every day of there last three years has been doing that hasn't it?

    Final thought - I haven't checked, but I bet there's a fair chance Apple's share price fell at this news.

  11. Earl Jones Of Potatoes
    Joke

    no matter how hard it tries

    http://youtu.be/odhQIgBOEZU

    This video is very representative of the current situation :) Enjoy the crack dance.

  12. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  13. Silverburn
    WTF?

    How times have changed

    Recent revenues: MS - 20bn, Apple: 40bn

    <--- see icon

    1. amanfromearth

      Indeed ..

      It brings a warm glow to the cockles of my heart

  14. dotdavid
    Holmes

    Wall St Analysts

    We shouldn't encourage them. Now Apple has beaten their estimates, the sum total of their analysis next year will be "Apple will earn EVEN MOAR NEXT YEAR!" which may or may not be true.

    As for those saying this is some kind of blow to, er, "fandroids" - I can't imagine why. Just because Apple sold a tonne of phones didn't mean Samsung, HTC, Motorola et al didn't too. There's a lot of room in this (blatantly still) growing market.

  15. Valerion

    Analysts are great

    They over-estimated Google's earnings, and then when it posted a nice healthy increase the shares went DOWN because it wasn't as good as the analysts guessed it might be.

    Then Microsoft posted a decrease, but because they thought it might have been a worse increase, the shares went UP.

    How that makes sense is beyond me, but then I'm not an analyst.

    Next year the analysts will make up some more numbers that will be a lot higher and when Apple don't match their made up guessed numbers they will probably see a falling share price, because earning $1bn profit per week won't be good enough.

  16. Peter 39
    WTF?

    oh dear

    It seems that Apple's profit is more than Google's revenue.

    Oh. Dear. Android.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      El Reg clearly needs to educate its readers on what Android is.

  17. Tom_

    Analysts

    Those high performing analysts may have been spot on if they hadn't estimated only 14 iPad sales!

  18. Truffle

    Excellent news....

    The irony is, if this was Microsoft making this level of profits, there would be Anti-competition lawsuits, European and US Federal judgements and Microsoft having to apologise for dominating a market with a single product.

    Becuase its Apple though, they make nice shiny things which look pretty, awwwww they're fine. We dont want to sue them!

    I wonder how long this attitude will last before Apple are seen as the mighty oppressive overlord.

    1. Armando 123

      Difference of where you start

      Apple does not have a monopoly in any market, except their own (which is like saying McDonald's has a monopoly on McDonald's fries). Microsoft, OTOH, has a monopoly and traditionally tries to leverage that monopoly to take over other markets. It didn't work with music, try as they might, and in game consoles they've dumped a TON of money to be competitive. I don't think they'll succeed with smartphones, either, because consumers and businesses are smarter now, competitors are smarter now, and when a business has a lot of momentum, it's harder for them to turn direction.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Interesting analogy

        Microsoft wasn't allowed to bundle its browser with its OS and had to offer alternatives.

        McDonald's would never be asked to allow Burger King to set up chip shops in its "restaurants".

        Apple could be considered more like the former but gets treated like the latter.

        1. Chad H.

          Apple

          Is not in the same position as MS. They do not have near 100% market share In any of their product lines.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    $13 billion profit in a quarter? Why... that's over $50 billion profit for the year! So we can expect Apple to be paying, say, $10 to $15 billion in corporation tax for this year, right? Right?

  20. qweqweqwe

    These figures obviously prove I was wrong to buy an Android and should have followed everyone else. I can't think of any other reason behind them.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Apple's momentum is incredibly strong" ....at the moment! History has shown us that.

    The number of people starting to realise just how poor iOS is will see to that.

    Enjoy it while it lasts.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You sure about that?

      "ChangeWave poll finds 96% of users satisfied with iPhone 4S", in contrast to 50% for the nearest competitor OS...

      http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/12/01/changewave-poll-finds-96-of-users-satisfied-with-iphone-4s/

  22. durbster

    Between the lines...

    It's amusing that Apple fanbois are rejoicing at this news when it's effectively an official confirmation that they have paid a HUGE amount more for their stuff than it costs Apple to make. :)

    Their profits are massive because people believe they're getting more for their money, so are happy to hand it over.

    Love them or hate them, Apple have given the world a marketing masterclass over the past ten years.

  23. Irony Deficient

    reshoring

    Ian16, it would cost far more than 20% per unit to bring the entire production chain to the US. This article touches on some of the issues involved (although its focus is ostensibly on the iPhone):

    http://www10.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?pagewanted=all

  24. Crisp
    Stop

    There has to be something crooked going on here.

    There's no way a company can honestly make that amount of money.

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