> We’re thrilled to report the biggest quarter in Apple’s history, with broad-based growth that included the highest revenue ever from a new iPhone lineup. iPhone X surpassed our expectations and has been our top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November<p>This is interesting, as the majority of the publicity I've seen about the iPhone X has painted it as lackluster.<p>> The Company posted quarterly revenue of $88.3 billion, an increase of 13 percent from the year-ago quarter and an all-time record, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.89, up 16 percent, also an all-time record.<p>As much as I see people deride the touchbar or the iPhone X notch, it seems consumers are at least willing to take a chance and try out something new.
There is an emerging pattern of analysts pushing out negative outlook on Apple's performance shortly before they announce earnings. This quarter it was the whole Apple X production cut thing.<p>Why do I feel this is actually some sort of gaming of the system which ought to be investigated by authorities? Clearly, there are players are constantly doing this to drive share price down, buy the stock and wait for it to bounce back up again after earnings.
> We’ve also achieved a significant milestone with our active installed base of devices reaching 1.3 billion in January. That’s an increase of 30 percent in just two years, which is a testament to the popularity of our products and the loyalty and satisfaction of our customers.<p>My personal example of my contribution to the raise of the installed base was: I've used the Christmas sales to buy a new iPhone for me and a new iPhone and new iPad for my parents. I've considered buying cheaper Android devices for the parents, but the ease of use of iOS and the better security compared to Android still won.<p>But, dear Apple, dear anybody from the company who maybe reads this: please don't let your current management levels dilute the old clear vision, the "ease of use" goal. My parents are especially annoyed, for example, by not being able to permanently disable the additional "Apps" buttons in the Message app that get in the way. Ditto for not being able to have the former "simple mode" of Notes. (And I'm personally annoyed by "a" looking too much as "o" in the Notes). It's hard to keep the focus that Jobs was able to reach, but please understand that that legacy is still something that motivates at least these older users that I know.<p>And one more detail: the iPhones I've bought are with the earphones jack, still! I'm not sure I will want these without it. Keep that feature somehow or this may be the drop that moves the writer of these words to the actions of the guy from the Samsung's "Growing Up" ad.
They sold 77.316 million iPhones for $61.576 billion. If I do the calculation right, that's an average revenue per iPhone of $796.<p>That seems extremely high to me. Also, iPads bring in <i>less</i> revenue per unit sold (13.170 million sold for $5.862 billion of revenue, or $445 per iPad)<p>What do they count in iPhone revenue? “deferrals and amortization of related software upgrade rights and non-software services.” according to <a href="https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/Q1_FY18_Data_Summary.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.apple.com/newsroom/pdfs/Q1_FY18_Data_Summary.pdf</a>, but what are those, and why would they be different for iPhones vs iPads?
I still get caught on the UI/UX of my iphone X. FaceID is great but the whole swiping up from the bottom etc., is still hard on my muscle memory. Also, not a lot of apps gracefully deal with with being in wide mode. It's super annoying, and this cycle I am more and more willing to go to a Pixel phone than ever before. I won't, but I am not absolutely certain I won't jump ship the next round.<p>I guess what I am getting at is how long can they keep milking mobile? iPhones and iPads... are meh now. Now what?
Do we know the split between iPhone X and iPhone 8? It was a risky strategy to launch both but it looks like they made a good transition. Next year, they will take the notch out, increase the size and sell it as an upgrade.
They added another $6.7 billion in long-term debt in the quarter, bringing the total up to $103.9 billion.<p>With the tax changes now taken care of, I'd like to see them begin reducing that immense pile of debt. You do it while times are good and you're pulling in $50b in net income, rather than getting caught in a very bad position later (which is overwhelmingly what most companies do).<p>In a very short amount of time, several of the leading tech companies have gone from being among the least indebted companies, to among the most indebted. Microsoft as another example, is carrying $76 billion in long-term debt, up from $27 billion in 2015. Their cash exceeds their debt, I consider that a very low bar to be setting though. Instead of bribing shareholders with buybacks (an indicator of lackluster growth opportunities in the business, when it comes to capital deployment opportunities), and artificially boosting EPS growth, that capital should all be going into paying down debt.
Interestingly Apple spells out their overall revenue (88.3 billions) but not their profits (they only mention profits per share). This is obviously not a coincidence. I wonder why...