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Apple’s Earnings: They Sell Macs, Too

July 25th, 2007

Google was poked at because of a slight earnings miss for failing to meet Wall Street expectations, and this week Apple was prodded with a similar stick, made especially long and pointy by insane expectations.

Earlier this week, AT&T numbers were used to indicate less than expected iPhone activations, and Apple’s stock price took a 6% hit. But keep in mind that the 146,000 or so iPhone activations were from two days of a product just being launched. Two freaking days!

Since these were activations the number doesn’t include the many people that bought but weren’t able to activate their phones, or those that ordered iPhones online.

An analyst, quoted by iLounge, I rather agree with:

The launch of the iPhone was the first move in what is likely to be a long game for Apple, trying to gauge the overall success based on two days of incomplete data is silly.

Anyhow, Apple’s earnings were announced today and while the two days of iPhone sales came in under expectations, Apple sold a crap load of Macs (the most ever) and the iPod sales are still holding their own – resulting a 73% profit increase over last year. It’s nearing 150 a share in after hours trading.

It’s worth remembering that while all the focus is currently on the iPhone, Apple also sells computers and iPods, both of which surely have some product refreshes in the months to come before the holiday season… and remember, Leopard? October?

Apple, I only have one complaint – aren’t we overdue for a split?

Additional Reading: Blackfriars’ Marketing, Apple 2.0, Phone Different

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  • JC
    My favorite part about AT&T's announcement yesterday was reading all the regular iPhone basher's headlines ("iPhone sales far fewer than expected", "Is the iPhone a flop?", etc.). Meanwhile, what had actually been announced? That AT&T had ACTIVATED 140,000 phones within that first 30 hours. Hmmm. I seem to remember reading quite a few articles within that first 30 hours about people who were unable to activate their iPhones because of AT&T screwups, other carriers not turning over phone numbers, etc. Could that have prevented at least a few people who bought an iPhone from activating it? Could some people have bought an iPhone as a gift for someone else, who didn't activate it until Sunday? Is there a chance that if we wait one day to hear Apple's official number we might actually get the facts instead of speculation?

    It came as no surprise to me that actual SALES of iPhones were actually 270,000—almost double the AT&T activation numbers. What was the response from our tech media to this revelation from Apple? Zilch. Not one retraction story; not one apology for getting the facts completely wrong. Nothing. Utter silence.

    No wonder so many people have turned to bloggers for information and analysis. The press simply can't be trusted. Some are too lazy. Some are too afraid of not getting to the story first. Others have an actual agenda to hurt products and companies. Combine all three and you have quite an echo chamber of misinformation floating around.
  • Apple just keeps humming along. While I no longer have the patience to stay long on AAPL, I keep wishing I was. Today, I jumped in at $137.43 and jumped back out at $148.48 a few hours later. If it keeps going to $160 and more, I'll live, but wow. Apple's got something serious going. Go AAPL!
  • There is definitely temptation to come up with a sensational headline (usually negative) that is totally speculative just to get some attention. It's totally ridiculous to judge the iPhone's success on two days of sales, but that won't stop the press and bloggers from doing the ridiculous, because that will get attention.


    I try get some sense of what is going on by looking at information from a ton of sources and seeing what the overall trends are. This blog is obviously biased in its own way because I'm the only author, but I try to keep some sanity and retain skepticism rather than chasing the traffic.


    (And I'm sure if I fall off the wagon some reader will call me on it, which I appreciate).


    Meanwhile, looks like Apple is holding up really well on a crappy day for the rest of the market, once again.

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