We’re still a few minutes out from Apple’s Q1 2012 earnings call — but as is par for the course, the raw numbers have made their way out a bit early. And they.. are… insane.
Note: For those wondering how the heck Apple is reporting earnings for Q1 2012 in January, note that this is fiscal quarter Q1 — which for Apple, runs from September 25th to December 31st, 2011. In other words, this one quarter includes both the iPhone 4S launch (October 14th) and the holiday sales spike.
Here’s how it all breaks down:
Revenue: $46.3 Billion ($28.3 Billion last quarter), with a record quarterly profit of $13.06 billion. Earnings per share was $13.87 (vs $10.08 consensus estimate)
iPhones sold: 37.04 million (17.07 million last quarter)
iPads sold: 15.43 million (11.1 million last quarter)
Macs sold: 5.2 million (4.89 million last quarter)
iPods sold: 15.4 million (up from 6.62 million last quarter, but down 21% year over year)
Earlier this morning, Erick asked if this would be Apple’s first $40 billion quarter. The answer, clearly: yes, and then some.
I’ll be taking live notes on Apple’s earnings call down below beginning at 2 PM Pacific.
2:01: Just waiting for the call to start. Shouldn’t be much longer.
2:03: And we’re live!
2:04: Apple SVP/CFO Peter Oppenheimer is on the call, mostly recapping the stats above.
2:05: “Mac sales are up in all of our geographies, especially the Asia Pacific”. Oppenheimer cites sales of the MacBook Pro as a primary driver behind the spike.
2:06: iPod Touches made up over 1/2 of the 15.4 iPod sales made in this quarter
2:07: We’re on to iTunes numbers; of Apple’s $46.3 billion in revenue this quarter, $1.7 billion was from iTunes sales
2:11: “iPad continues its unprecedented adoption in business. Nearly all of the top companies in all industries [from pharma to retail] use iPads [in the field].”
2:12: Over 600,000 copies of iBooks Author have been downloaded since it was announced last week. 3 million copies of iTunes U have been downloaded.
2:13: As of today, over 85 million customers have subscribed to iCloud.
2:14: By the end of this month, iOS developers will have earned over 4 billion dollars in total sales
2:15: Apple retail stores are seeing an average of 22,000 customers, per store, per week.
2:16: As of the end of the quarter, Apple has $97.6 billion in cash on hand. While they have “nothing to announce today”, Oppenheimer specifically said that they don’t plan on “letting it burn a hole in [their] pocket”. ($64 billion of that cash is off-shore)
2:18: We’re moving to the Q&A.
2:19: “Can you describe the iPhone momentum as you ended the quarter, and your enthusiasm for the product as we move into the next year?” They’re thrilled with the momentum; Tim Cook recaps the sales stats, comparing it to previous quarters, and attributes the record breaking sales to things like Siri. “We were short of supply throughout the quarter. That situation has improved some, but we’re still short in key geographies.” After a followup question, he confirms that the iPhone 4S (as opposed to the now cheaper iPhone 4) was the most popular iPhone this quarter.
2:24: Regarding which countries saw them most iPhone sales: US and Japan. China, where the iPhone 4S just recently launched, was not included in this quarter’s numbers.
2:25: “[Due to the flooding in Thailand], we will pay more for drives this quarter. That’s reflected in our guidance.”
2:28: “Did you see any impact from lower-priced tablets on the market?” “We were really happy with the 15.4 million iPads that we were able to sell… This is consistent with our long term belief that we’ve had since before we launched the product. I think there will come a day that the tablet market is larger than the PC market… I think people really want to do multiple things with their tablets; as a result, we don’t really see these limited function tablets, these e-readers, as being in the same category. I don’t think people who want an iPad will settle for a limited function. In terms of other tablets, last year was supposed to be the year of the tablet. I think most people would agree it was the year of the iPad.”
2:33: Regarding your statement on how you’ll be utilizing your cash; is that a reflection that something has changed? “We are actively discussing the best uses of our cash balance… We realize that cash is growing… but we have nothing to announce today.”
2:37: “We just got back from CES. Everyone has a connected TV offering and is trying to solve problems only Apple can solve. When we look at what Apple is offering though, it’s just the Apple TV.” “Our Apple TV product is doing quite well… but in the scheme of things, we still classify Apple TV as a hobby. We continue to add things to it. If you’re using the latest one — I don’t know about you, but I can’t live without it. Other than that, no comment.”
2:38: You’ve been CEO for 4 months now. What’s the early read on the new job so far? “I love apple. It’s a reminder every day as to how much of a privilege it is to work with people who are so incredible, and how lucky I am.” Anything from a strategic standpoint? “Nope — you can see our results. We feel very good about where we are.”
2:39: Another question about the cash on hand, specifically regarding dividends and share buy-backs; they dodge the question with another “nothing to announce today”.
2:43: “Can you give us an update on where you are regarding distribution for the phone? What are your prospects for expanding your carrier reach in China?” “We now have over 130,000 points of sale around the world. We’ve consistently added points of distribution — both carrier distributors, and owned distribution. We added carriers last quarter (KDDI in Japan, Sprint in the US). Both of them can speak for themselves — but we’re extremely pleased with both. In terms of China: China Unicom continues to be a key partner, but we’ve got nothing to announce today. China is extremely important to us, and we’re always looking for ways to grow there”
2:44: Estimates for next quarter (ending in March): they expect iPhone/Mac/iPad sales to be down from this quarter (of course — it’s not the holiday quarter), but up year-over-year. They probably wouldn’t say that if a new iPad was launching sometime by March (as has been rumored).
2:49: After China, Cook sees their next biggest opportunity being Brazil.
2:51: “In terms of adding more carriers — we have been adding carriers, and will keep adding carriers. Nothing to announce today.”
2:53: “iPad growth really outpaced our expectations. Do you think that Apple actually benefited from some of these lower-cost tablets coming into the market? Do you see that happening with the MacBook Air, as well, with the influx of Ultrabooks?” “I’ve looked at the data, particularly in the US, on a weekly basis after Amazon launched the Kindle Fire. [There wasn’t a clear effect, positive or negative. I’ve heard stories of people doing what you suggest, but whether that’s happening on a large scale is unclear.] There is cannibalization of the Mac by the iPad, but we continue to think that there’s much more cannibalization of the PC by the iPad.” In K-12, we sold twice the number of iPads as we did Macs.
2:56: Android vs iPhone. Is this becoming a two horse race? How do you see the sustainability of your integrated model?
“I wouldn’t classify it like Mac/Windows at all. The Mac has outgrown the market for over 20 quarters, but still has a single digit percentage of worldwide market. iOS, if you look at phones/tablets/etc, we’ve sold over 350 million iOS devices. I think this compares very favorably in any comparison. I don’t have comparable numbers on Android, I haven’t found a way to get very crisp, quarterly reporting like we do. If you look at NPD data, it shows — just looking at Oct/Nov — it shows that just the iPhone is at 43% with Android at 47%. Nielson shows it at 45% with Android at 47%. Comscore shows iPhone at 42 with Android at 41. All of the data I’ve seen is that it’s a very close race. I think on the iPad side (I don’t have specific numbers), all of us believe the iPad is way ahead there. There’s also no comparable product to the iPod Touch out there. iOS is doing incredibly well. I wouldn’t say it’s a 2-horse race. There’s a horse in Redmond that always suits up, and others that will always keep running. What we focus on is innovating and making the world’s best products. We’ll keep doing that and keep ignoring how many horses there are.”
3:01: Has the uprise of larger screens and 4G devices changed your view? [I won’t comment on future roadmaps, but we sold 37M iPhones and could have sold more if we had more supply. People love what we’re doing.]
3:02: And we’re done! Thanks for tuning in.