MacDailyNews presents live notes from Apple’s Q210 Conference Call

Live notes from Apple’s Q2 -2010 Financial Results Conference Call is reverse chronological order:

• End of conference call.

• Apple looks forward to competing in the education markets.
• School districts are under pressure in the U.S. Apple sees no evidence of market share loss in education.

• Oppy: We are very confident in our new product pipeline
• Cook: iPad numbers, as far as “new to Apple” customers are too preliminary to disclose or read to much into so far
• Oppy: Apple is thrilled with the number “new to Mac” customers in Appel Retail Stores all over the world.

• Oppy: Customers are loving their iPads and going to the App Store to download apps, books, etc.
• iPad numbers will be reported via a line item on Apple’s data summary similar to how they report iPhone
• Oppy: Apple Stores are performing very, very well.
• Apple Retail: Average increase of revenue per store up 8% YOY. Same store Mac sales up over 20%. A great place for people to come in a see and try iPads.
• Cook on iPhone and the carrier rate plans: Apple does everything that they can to try to get the best deal possible for the consumer and, Apple believes, so do the carriers

• Cook: From my personal use, I choose my iPad over a netbook for email, browsing, listening to music, watching videos and TV shows, reading books, App Store access, games, and the list goes on
• Cook: I’m already addicted to my iPad and can’t imagine living without it
• Cook: To me iPad vs. netbook is a no brainer; I can’t think of a single thing a netbook does well, but iPad does a number of things extremely well
• Cook: Since the iPad announcement, we see no obvious cannibalization of Mac sales. We’ll see how this shapes up going forward

• Cook: Apple TV’s market is a small market (vs. personal computer, smartphone, portable media player markets), however we love the product, we use the product and we continue to think there’s something there for the future.
• Cook: Apple TV still classified as a “hobby” by the company.

• iPhone in U.S. vs. international: Tim Cook: Smartphone market has a very great growth rate and Apple outgrew the market by 3 times.

• Apple is very excited about iPhone OS 4
• Apple being very aggressive with iPad to maximize their first mover advantage
• Apple has in the past seen margin improve as unit sales scale
• Tim Cook: iPad has been priced very aggressively. Apple won’t give out specific margins.

• Apple has seen iPhone market share and unit sales increases in countries with multiple carriers.
• Apple has contractual iPhone exclusivity in 3 countries: U.S., Germany, and Spain.

• AAPL after-hours trading: $258.93, up $14.34 (+5.86%).
• iAd: This year is about learning a lot, not so much about generating significant profits

• DRAM market is constrained and Apple expects higher costs in the quarter
• Tim Cook: iPad demand “shocked us.”
• Tim Cook: iPad demand in U.S. “much, much strronger than we predicted,” that’s why international release was pushed ahead a bit
• App Store: Well over 4 billion downloads to date
• Thru first half of fiscal year, Apple revenue from greater China almost $1.3 billion
• Apple saw strong performance from iPhone carriers around the world
• Phone units in Asia/Pacific, for example, grew 476% YOY, Japan up 183% YOY. Europe up 133% YOY. Incredible demand
• Why were iPhone sales so strong? TIm Cook: Channel inventory was essentially flat from start to end of quarter
• Q310 guidance based on sequentially lower ASPs, iTunes Sales, dollar strength, seasonality
• Last year in March, Apple announced a new iMac and new Mac mini, so you can’t compare March 2010 to March 2009 directly
• Tim Cook: In our view, there was no obvious impact from iPad on Mac or iPad in quarter. Going forward, we’ll see how it goes.

• “Future product transition” to impact margins
• Apple on track to open 40-50 new Retail Stores globally in 2010
• 284 Apple Retail Stores average revenue of $5.9 million vs. 5.8 million in year-ago quarter
• About half the Macs sold in Apple Retail Stores were to customers new to Mac
• Apple Retail Store revenues were $1.68 billion vs. $1.38 billion in the year-ago quarter
• Apple pleased with iPad launch and reviews; 3G to ship on April 30; both iPads
• JD Power 2010 U.S. Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Survey: iPhone #1 – again
• iPhone ASP about $600
• 3,500 new apps designed for iPad
• More than 185,000 apps in App Store currently
• Cash on-hand: $41.7 billion. Oppy: “Our investment priorities for cash continues to be preservation of capital which has served us well in the current environment. We are continuing to focus on short-dated, high quality investments and remain comfortable with our investment portfolio.”
• Best non-holiday quarter ever, with revenues up 49% and profits up 90%
• Q3 – 2010 EPS guidance: “about $2.28 to $2.39”
• Q3 – 2010 revenue guidance: “about $13 billion to $13.4 billion”
• iPhone units: 8.75 million vs. 6.8 million Street consensus; 131% YOY growth
• iPod units: 10.89 million vs. 9 million Street consensus; 1% YOY decline
• Mac units: 2.94 million vs. 2.7 million Street consensus; 33% YOY growth
• EPS: $3.33 vs. $2.44 consensus
• Revenue: $13.5 billion vs. $12.06 billion consensus
• Present on call: CFO Peter Oppenheimer, COO Tim Cook, Treasurer Gary Wipfler
• Fiscal 2010 second quarter ended March 27, 2010