Sam Oliver reports for AppleInsider, “Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer last week participated in a conference call with New York-based investment firm Gleacher & Company. Unsurprisingly, Oppenheimer did not reveal any incremental information about Apple, but analyst Brian Marshall did state he believes Apple’s gross margin profile is in the process of bottoming. ‘In fact, if we are correct in our assessment that ‘antenna-gate’ is behind us and the bumper give-away will cease soon, AAPL’s gross margin will automatically improve 100bps assuming all else equal (due to $175mil revenue deferral reversal),’ he wrote. ‘If this happens, in our view, one of the greatest investor concerns will be lifted.'”
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“In the company’s last quarterly earnings conference call, Apple said it would defer about $175 million to buy cases for the iPhone 4 Case Program,” Oliver reports. “That cost will be recognized upon delivery to customers.”
Oliver reports, “In July, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs announced that his company would give away free cases to all iPhone 4 buyers through Sept. 30. After that date, the company will review the situation and conclude whether or not it will continue the giveaway.”
Read more in the full article here.
And because antennagate didn’t quite work, let’s blow up and distort Apple’s “kill switch” patent to into a big brother monster story…
@ breeze
PRECISELY! ++
I am not a PR pro or anything but I really think Apple needs to get ahead on these type stories by clearly stating the purpose and actual results of things they are doing. They seem to let others write the headlines when they should fill in the media better.
fuck the media, Apples job is to make great products and they do.
That $175 million loss is based upon what they would have gotten if they sold them, not for what they actually cost.
So later out comes a revision “We only lost 2 million on the bumpers” and the stock shoots up again, manipulated as usual with Apple’s under and over reporting.
Coward:
Either way do you actually think that these figures make a dent in the stock valuation?.. Get real
Apple’s profit margins were dependent on iPhone bumpers?
Anyone else find this notion to be the most stupid thing you have read online in a long time?
Whenever I’m feeling a little down in the dumps I come here to read the postings of anonymous coward. Just the thought of not being him lights up my life.
@ leodavinci
I agree completely. This story implies that Apple had poor gross margins now, and the situation is “bottoming.” In fact, Apple makes almost half of the “available mobile profits” in the industry, according to another article from a few days ago.
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/26343/
Profit margin is not the same as absolute profit, but either way, Apple is doing quite well, with or without a minor expense to provide free cases.
What about camera-gate… I’m on my third iPhone 4…
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2479908