“Apple’s blowout December quarter was stunning enough viewed in isolation,” Steve Wildstrom writes for Tech.pinions. “But it is even more striking in comparison to the rest of the industry.”
“Apple’s revenues of $46.2 billion blew past Hewlett-Packard’s $32.3 billion to make it the industry leader by sales,” Wildstrom writes. “But the real story is profits. Apple’s net of $13.1 billion was just a hair less than the earnings of Microsoft, Intel, HP, and Dell combined.”
Wildstrom writes, “Apple’s growth and stunning profitability is obviously wonderful news for the company and its shareholders. And there are no signs that its remarkable run is over. The growth rate of the December quarter is unsustainable, but that is a reflection of the strength of one three-month period, not an indication of any weakness… For the foreseeable future, expect Apple to expand its dominance.”
Read more in the full article, in which Wilstrom writes that “it’s not a healthy situation to have all the innovation coming from one company, no matter how brilliant,” here.
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AAPL Analyst Smackdown: Once again the ‘pros’ blew it, humiliated by the ‘amateurs’ – January 25, 2012
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After Apple’s absolutely epic quarter, will the Street finally wake up? – January 25, 2012
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Apple stuns Street with massive $46.33 billion record revenue; all-time record Mac, iPhone, iPad sales – January 24, 2012
And this “unhealthy ” situation is Apple’s fault. We should be happy we have at least one company innovating .
Umm, this unhealthy situation is the fault of every one except Apple…
Actually its my fault. Sorry everybody, my bad. The article title had me ROFLing.
Apple created more new business in a little over a year than Microsoft created in its entire existence. When they grow 50% that will have added another M$. Then only 33% for another, then 25%, 20%, … Apple’s reign has begun with a bang.
I agree.
Who is John Galt?
I’m not really sure WHO he is, but I know he’s living somewhere in the mountains of Colorado! (Just finished my third reading of the book.)
Better than no innovation coming from 100 companies, no matter how dull
“When will they ever learn,
When will they E-ah-ver
Learn?”
To the moon Alice! To the moon!
4th largest quarterly profit of all time behind Exxon and Shell back in 2008, and Gazprom, which has a virtual monopoly in Russia. The next 16 top quarterly profits were also oil companies. Apple is in rarified air.
Where have all the profits gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the profits gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the profits gone?
Apple’s picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?
+ ∞
Best comment is a while!
Where have all the profits gone
Diamond Reo?
Where have all the profits gone?
Kindle, Android, Zune?
Where’s the profits, I don’t know….
Call Michael Dell’s business phone
When will they ever learn,
When will they ever, learn?
(Apologies to Peter, Paul, and Mary)
Hippie dipsticks, SCREW Paul’s Peter in Mary.
Actually apologies are due to Pete Seeger.
PP&M were just one of the many 60s groups who recorded it.
We need for Obama to take all this evil money from the Apple capitalists company and redistribute this wealth!
I don’t think that was ever the idea. From what I could see (mind you, as a foreigner, I may not have a political allegiance), the idea is to put greater tax burden on those who make money doing little creative work (i.e. proceeds from an inheritance, profits from the capital gains on stocks or other financial instruments, etc). In other words, when people make money just on speculating (one could say, betting), or manipulating stocks, options, futures, credit default swaps… You know, the stuff that crashed global economy a few years back.
+1
You have been drinking too much of the liberal Kool-Aid.
…”little creative work”…
Who determines what is little, creative, or the amounts of work someone does to keep their money (Obama)? You sound like a guy named Hitler… he sold the German people on this same kind of garbage.
Sad part, you will never see the socialist slope you and all your liberal progressives friends are on until your liberties are taken away!
-1
“proceeds from an inheritance”
An inheritance is not “proceeds” it is the natural idea that what I make and earn belongs to me and can be pased along to my family when I die.
Karl Marx thought that all inheritance should be abolished. He had some good ideas, but that was his worst economic idea.
The idea that anyone has claims to someone’s wealth who did not earn it and who is not the designated beneficiary of the person who made the money is itself far more destructive of hard work than allowing someone to pass along the fruits of their labor to their children and family.
O.K. I’ll bite…
Who determines if someone did not “earn” or is “designated beneficiary” of an inheritance, Obama? Maybe Obama needs to take the billions of dollars passed on the Steve Job’s family. Did his family really earn it? Maybe all the people who Steve belittled should get his billions?
BTW – Karl Marx did nothing good for this world but give dumb ideas to stupid people, that created governments that killed millions of people, who did not agree with the stupid people that used Karl’s dumb ideas.
Patience, Prudence. If only he can secure re-election………
This is just the tip of the iceberg for Apple. The growth rate and the profits that Apple is raking in really is mind-boggling. We are witnessing the most remarkable corporate performance of all time and it’s quite obvious that Apple isn’t even near its peak. There are still so many markets to grow in and expand market share. I mean, Apple is far from being a monopoly in any of the markets that Apple competes in.
And to have done all this from the brink of bankruptcy only a dozen or so years ago… I’ve studied the histories of business titans and companies like Rockefeller and Standard Oil, Ford, Sloan and GM, Watson and IBM, Gates and Microsoft, etc. and there is just no comparison. Apple (and Jobs’ legacy) is already dwarfing anything that has happened before and setting a standard that just may never be equaled again.
As a 20+ year Mac user who lived through the dark ages of the 90’s before Jobs returned, what’s happening now is something that no one on this earth could have imagined – I’m sure not even Jobs himself. And Apple is winning fair and square: no handouts or bailouts or monopolistic positions were ever necessary… It’s really good to witness this amazing piece of history in the making.
Alex noted: “There are still so many markets to grow in…”
And Apple will grow by reducing the total number of models in the new product area it enters next…like TVs.
I detest going into BestBuy where 80 models of TV are on display and you can’t figure out which are similar and which are better without an encyclopedic mind.
The days of the Mega-Mall retailer of a jumble of similar products may be coming to an end if we look at Apple’s strategy.
The manufacturer’s stores all the way from ECCO to Nike to Apple portend a switch to focused product delivery.
The only way the Middle Class can make any good money these days is via their Apple Stock.
I so wish I had bought Apple shares in 2003, instead of buying my PowerBookG4.
Steve P. Jobs … Legend!
yeah, great… But now it’s time to put some of our dough back into the economy and build some manufacturing. C’mon Apple. Even if it’s a “token” factory, make your highest end Mac Pro or something. You’ll get the best land and tax deals in history if you build in the south, and you can’t buy better publicity.
Some other companies need to innovate.
Not really something apple can do too much about, except spawn more companies. And that defeats the purpose.
“Apple’s net of $13.1 billion was just a hair less than the earnings of Microsoft, Intel, HP, and Dell combined.”
That right there has the rest of the “tech” companies pissed.
They can’t compete on ideas, nowhere near the quality, and then there’s that P word… Profit.