Apple has posted a record £8.36bn quarterly profits. Thats up 118% compared to the final quarter of 2010. They sold 37 Million iPhones.

iPod sales fell by 21% however.

Yes Apple realised years ago that people would abandon MP3 players for phones that could do the same job hence they brought out the iPhone. Something my old HTC Canary could do long before the iPhone was a glimmer in Saint Steve's eyes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16712089

Their previous quarter was a bit poor. Clearly part of this has been people waiting for the iPhone 5 since about May last year and then pretty much everyone buying the iPhone 4S.

A phenomenal quarter by any standards though. The amount of iPad sales relative to computer sales shows why MS is putting such a tablet focus on Windows 8.

That kind of profit is exceptional by any companies standards.

maybe theyve squeezed a few more dollars margin out of the dubious factories/suppliers they use too

I am not surprised, everywhere I look somebody is molesting an iphone in their hands. A friend bought iphone 4S, it costed as much with a plan than other phones without, and he said,"I don't need much, it does all I need" Anyway, people are selling kidneys to get the bloody thing, so really, not surprised.

Apple is now "worth" more than Greece! Although, in all honesty, I am probably worth more then Greece.

Well Done Apple


I have only ever had a Iphone out of all the Apple products but it is a amazing bit of kit.

Nobody seems to be making the point that these of profits are exceptionally high and perhaps Apple customers should be asking themselves if they are getting value for their money from Apple products especially their computers which are between 200 and 400% more expensive than comparable spec models.

thats exactly what I was thinking !!!!


You still pay through the nose for apple products and aren't necessarily getting anything better.

at one time when apple was smaller and niche you expected high prices because of that.

Nonsense... Taking prices from Amazon for example.

Phones
iPhone 4s - £475
Galaxy Nexus - £470

Ultrabooks
MacBook Air - £830
Asus UX21 - £850

I could go on and on but I would be better banging my head off a brick wall...

So they are making high profits - therefore they should sell for less money?

Then when they start making a loss they charge more?

Just proves that they don't need to have factories in China. They could really support the flagging Americas economy with lots of jobs but I know they are not alone in doing this.

I remember when my old company went to off shore call centres I said to them that they are citing saving money and yet the company was producing healthy profits. It is just greed.


PJ

Most companies work to maximise profit

Folks used to moan about Microsoft's profits from Windows and Office products but they look tame compared with Apple's current performance. People should have no issue with business success but when a company posts excessive profits there needs to be some accountability.

Why for example does a MacBook pro cost £1000 more than a similar Windows spec laptop and why does a simple iPad accessory like a plastic cover cost £35? I personally think Apple customers over value many of the products they buy and it is their choice to do so. Apple are not forcing anyone to buy anything but in light of the results Apple customers should perhaps act to prevent the company making the high margins they do presently.

No doubt the Apple strategy is to make as much as possible while they can which is what any capitalist company strategy should be but in time competition will force them to offer better value for money. The free market always acts in the interests of customers and whilst style, fashion value and exclusiveness may be big factors making big profits for now those wil not sustain such massive profit opportunity for ever as brand leaders like Sony have found in consumer electronics and more recently Blackberry and Nokia have found in the mobile phone market.

Its sad that product innovation and free market competition has been low on the agenda of Apple strategy lately as the company have focussed on litigation and patent protection to maintain their massive margins.

One of the reasons they make so much profit is a simplified product range.. One flagship phone 4s, an older but still competitive model 4 and then the entry level 3Gs which is even older and costs them next to nothing (in comparison) to make. Memory is the only available upgrade within each one. 3 phones to suit everyone!!

Compare that to the gazzilion HTC/Samsung/Nokia/SE's. Each one sucks up R&D, Production design, Tooling, Marketing etc. Losses when a product isn't successful ie Nokias last few smartphones before the Lumina range... Apple focus everything and strip out the rubbish.

Buying power is another way they maximise profit over say HTC as they can order so many parts in advance and get a massive discount as they have a very good educated guess that thier product will be successful.

The major downside of this is if one product say the Next iPad is really unsuccessful it burns thier income hard... Probably why they are sitting on so much cash reserves. Where as Samsung could survive with a few bad product launches as they follow a lower risk strategy.. Ie more product lines.


As for litigation... I'd hardly say its stifled innovation. Apple have cash reserves to sue all year long so it's not having an effect on them and some of the work arounds for example Samsung have come up with have actually created innovation. The question of why the other companies need to wait till Apple points out they own 'that way' before they actually innovate lies directly at the door of the competition!

Customers will buy an excellent product if 1 they produce it, 2 show them what it can do for them. 3 let them understand the technology. The competition can come up with great phones (I love the new Nokia) However if they do not follow up in the way Apple does interacting and engaging the customer they will never get the same successes. However it all comes down to keeping it simple..

Steve jobs spoke to Obama about this saying that he would rather manufacture everything in the US but there is a major lack of engineers which would currently make it impossible.

With the same build quality and battery life along with excellent aftercare service?

Please give an example.

I used to buy the battery life argument, until I bought a macbook pro. Great battery (as long as you don't watch any videos online or browse the web that is).

But the nexus is a niche phone (aimed more at developers) with NFC and a large high Res screen. The 4s is much lower specced generally. Better to compare it to the price of another phone really.

That may have been what Google intended, but Samsung have pushed it as a mainstream model so I think the comparison is fair.

surely the reason why Apple have posted such exceptional profits is because (despite people moaning about the cost) people are more than willing to spend that amount on the product.
if they werent then i suspect apple would decrease the price but while there are customers prepared to pay the cost (whether exhorbitant or not) then aple will continue to make a profit.

Then you need to compare a similarly spec'ed phone to the iphone4s. The Nexus is a far superior spec'ed phone. You are comparing a BMW with a Ferrari here.

Now the Jobs is no longer with us. Give it a couple of years and you will see the declilne of the company. Jobs was Apple, no Jobs means the decline of apple. Its a good job they have a large reserve of cash.

People on here have been saying Apple is on the verge of decline for the last few years.

People may have, I havent. I have given the reason why I think they will decline. If you think there is a flaw in my reason, I would like to hear it. Coming back with "people have saying that for years" doesnt really help.

Yes, it's better in some ways, but not all, & not enough IMO to be "far superior", not overall.

Screen: Galaxy Nexus wins (bigger, higher resolution).

CPU: Both have a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9, although the Nexus wins on speed (1.2GHz vs. 800MHz in the 4S [underclocked to save battery life]).

RAM: Galaxy Nexus wins (1GB vs. 512MB).

GPU: 4S wins (dual-core PowerVR SGX543MP2 vs PowerVR SGX540 [same GPU as the *original* Galaxy S]).

Camera: 4S wins (8MP vs. 5MP).