“Apple’s fiscal 2012 first quarter earnings report was a jaw dropper,” Joe Wilcox reports for BetaNews. “iPhone generated $24.42 billion revenue. During the same quarter, all of Microsoft: $20.89 billion.”
“More broadly, Apple revenue ($46.33 billion) was more than twice Microsoft’s, and net income nearly was ($13.06 billion versus $6.62 billion, respectively),” Wilcox reports. “But it’s that iPhone figure that really stands out. One product’s revenues against an entire company’s.”
Wilcox reports, “But it’s not just iPhone. Apple did something remarkable during fourth quarter — Mac sales grew during three months when PC shipments were their worst in a decade, according to IDC. Apple sold 5.2 million Macs, generating $6.6 billion — or more revenue than any single Microsoft division. Closest: Office at $6.28 billion… In the United States, fourth-quarter PC shipments fell for every vendor in the top five but Apple, according to Gartner. HP shipments plummeted by more than 26 percent — meanwhile Apple’s grew by 20.7 percent.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we have always said, even as many short-sightedly waved (and continue to wave) the white flag, the war is not over. And, yes, we shall prevail… No company is invincible. Not even Microsoft. – MacDailyNews Take, January 10, 2005
The worm has turned.
Balmer laughs at 24.8 billion in sales for the iPhone
Guess who’s laughing last? The iPhone was worth it alone just for the utter humiliation it’s been personally & professionally for Steve Ballmer who got his nuts served to him raw on a platter. Forgive me a very cruel, vicious chuckle & BWAHAHAHA!!!
Nut, not nuts. His left nut is running rampant on this site.
Brilliant, i love when someone pulls something out of a post, especially when it is ballmers left nut (can we pull him out permanently????)
Right there with you Brother Blood. How soon naysayers forget. Anything to add BLN? Go suck on a banana in the cage with your Monkey Boy mentor. Pff. Pathetic excuse for a CEO. As Long As IT TAKES!
Re: iPhone sales:
“It’s just a rounding error…”
Rriiiight…
I like our strategy. I like it a lot!
Borrow against the iPhone biz to Buy out MSFT and then shut it all down ASAP 🙂
iWar is won with no bullets fired!
Go Apple to $606 bucks this year!
Booyah!
Lets see…. In 7 years… From this interview…
Window Mobil phone crashed… They are trying to reboot…
Zune crashed… No reboot…
Vista crashed.. Reboot into Windows 7…
Windows PC Tablets finale died… Tying to reboot with W8…
Man is major clueless….
no no, he is doing fine! 😉
He likes his strategy. He likes it a lot.
(As we all are.)
I think that’s time to stop talking about Microsoft as anything more than a niche software house like Adobe. The revenue comparisons are becoming silly. IBM had their day, Xerox, and now Microsoft. Not only are they no longer a threat to Apple, I think we’ll start seeing a dramatic decline in their influence in the industry. Windows is quickly becoming legacy software to be endured until it can be replaced by business and consumers. And I think Ballmer’s snake-oil approach to customers, “Ah, why don’t you wait to get home before you try it, but pay me first.” approach simply reinforces Microsoft and its product as crap.
Well said.
A Niche Software House, in rapid decline, when compared to Apple’s growth.
IBM had their day, Xerox, and now Microsoft. Not only are they no longer a threat to Apple…
———-
IBM is in on their shifty conspiracy mode. It was humiliated by Apple when it gave up its PC business. Now it is in the software and total solution business and making a comeback. To get back at Apple, it is using Google as a proxy to upset the Applecart. It has transferred tons of its IPs to Google to continue the fight. Apple should allow its friend Larry Ellison of Oracle to get IBM in the enterprise business.
every time I see that interview video, “We’ve Only Just Begun” keeps popping in my head, but instead of “…to live!”; “..to fuck-up!” comes to mind for Ballmer T. Clown©.
Just wait until Apple gets the iPhone sales in China going. Think these Q1 numbers are stupidly large? Once 1.2 billion Chinese can walk into a store and buy an iPhone without scalpers mucking things up, the Q1 numbers will be small potatoes. I don’t know how Apple can even build enough iPhones.
Yep, this March quarter should be good too. China Telecom should announce the iPhone 4S CDMA version on their network in a couple weeks in my opinion. And, Apple will launch the next iPad by the end of March, so this quarter is gonna get goosed!
It’ll be like delivering beef to McDonald’s.
Are you sure that’s beef?
Except in India, where the Chicken Maharaja-Mac tops the McDonald’s menu. Nary a cow in sight…
Realistically, nowhere near 1.2B Chinese will be able to buy an iPhone. Many are still rural and too poor to afford both phone and plan.
That said, even if only 10% of China’s population can afford an iPhone (just for comparison; could be higher or lower in reality), that’s 120 million potential iPhone customers right there. That’s staggering. Mind you, a good half of those will settle for cheap knock-offs, and I don’t mean Samsungs.
Still, if Apple prognoses sales of $32.5 billion, then realistically we can expect like $35 billion or more. This might mean sales of 28 million iPhones or more.
And we can all breathe a sigh of relief because Ballmer is likely to be retained at Mister Softy for a good while longer.
It’s a rounding error.
When quoting Apple’s Mac sales versus the industry sales, are the Mac sales backed out of the industry number? If not, the difference is even more dramatic.
With Macs taken out of the last set of figures PC shipments declined 8.6%
@currentinterest,
Mac sales are NOT backed out of the total PC growth figure. When they are, Windows PC growth alone was -6% last quarter!
Boom!!!
MacDailyNews Take: As we have always said, even as many short-sightedly waved (and continue to wave) the white flag, the war is not over. And, yes, we shall prevail… No company is invincible. Not even Microsoft. – MacDailyNews Take, January 10, 2005
Apple needs Microsoft MDN. It’s hard to rail against something that’s not there. What would people compare their Macs to if not for Windows?
What a friggen moron…
From the movie “Patton”
For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph – a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses.
A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory is fleeting.
“Sic transit gloria mundi.”
Translation: “There, ya go, Gloria!”
My, how Uncle Fester has aged since the iPhone came out in 2007…
Microsoft peaked 12 years ago. Y2K showed everybody that they just can’t make a good product. After that it has been downhill for Ballmer & Co. People don’t take you seriously if you don’t even realize the change of the millenium in your “operating system” (i.e. Windows).
This is the guy that Bill talked into quitting business school early? Perhaps he doesn’t have very good feel for the business. And I agree above, how many can they sell if capacity was up – wow!
There certainly is a shift. As large business untangle their current systems away from a Microsoft OS and application standpoint you’ll see a decline. Microsoft will always be with us but they have to change. Perhaps like IBM they need to morph into a service company but service is not really their style. It’s an unfortunate situation they find themselves in. To succeed they must cut what is dear to them – Windows. It’s the only way. They can continue to support it but they most promote an entirely new ecosystem of Desktop, Mobile and server based Oss. It’s a bold strategy but it’s the only thing that will keep them as big as they are today. Perhaps that’s what W8 is? A move away from the x86 architecture and maintaining support for legacy applications.
What keeps MS afloat today is many large business use their software. It often takes one budget year to make a decision to move away and another 3 years to find a new platform and implement it. I’ve already seen these type of shifts occurring.
That video of Ballmer just never gets old! In fact every time it’s replayed, new facts have emerged that make him sound even dumber each time. Priceless!
Right now Apple is selling tens of millions of iPhones every quarter, and Microsoft is selling very few. How things have changed since 2007!
Ballmer, you are doing a fine job. That was just one little public error in judgment. Don’t worry about it. The iPad will become unpopular very soon and Microsoft can continue to feed off of Android for many years to come. It’s all good…it’s all good…it’s all good.
Microsoft shareholders: Ballmer is not the corporate problem you are looking for. Move along.
Ballmer. I like that man. I like him a lot.
However, MDN, you have also said that Ballmer & Microsoft may luck out yet, via licensing agreements as settlements for IP infringment lawsuits. These are interesting times, Indeed.