Apple's embarrassment of riches

Opinion

Apple surprised Wall Street with its last earnings call. It was below their expectations. Sometimes I think Wall St looks on Apple as a rare source of good news, making their disappointment all the more palpable, but perhaps they should have listened to a group with a little more knowledge on the subject? Apple.

But hey, Wall Street may not have its eye on the ball. It has been otherwise occupied.

Apple's own projections were much more accurate than the Street's. In fact, Apple beat its own revenue guidance by 12 per cent. But many Wall Street watchers expected higher and so the miss was widely reported, and Apple's stock fell as a result, dropping from above 420 before the announcement to under 400 on the afternoon of the figures being released.

Actually, Apple's earnings fell within the normal (historical) 12 to 18 per cent over guidance, but the analysts got ahead of themselves and overestimated the Inc's performance.

Apple announced fourth-quarter 2011 fiscal earnings of US$6.6 billion in profit and $28.7 billion in revenue.

Analyst concern, however, seemed to centre on the number of iPhones Apple sold during the quarter: 17.07 million. In the previous quarter, Apple sold 20.1 million. Samsung, for interest, sold 18-21 million smartphones last quarter.

But Apple says it was a "record" September quarter for them and indeed, had seen this dip in iPhone sales coming. As CEO Tim Cook pointed out, iPhone 4 sales were down as people were holding out for the new iPhone 4S.

Cook actually thought it was "much less of a reduction than what we were expecting and that was a large factor in our revenue exceeding our guidance."

Further, Tim Cook, along with CFO Peter Oppenheimer, lay some of the blame for Wall Street's too-high expectations at the feet of Apple rumour bloggers.

They're much closer to source than me, of course, and have US networks of information to draw on, so they must know more than me. Oppenheimer later said "The biggest impact was the rumors [sic], which were very pervasive, especially at the end of the quarter."

Anyway, the earnings don't trouble anyone at Apple. It's extremely unlikely that any of this means Apple is wobbling, which is a concern generally since Jobs is no longer the guiding hand. For sure, it's been a difficult time for Apple - Steve Jobs' very unfortunate demise must have really shaken staffers (and the faithful). Since then, the revelations coming out from Jobs' frighteningly (to some) honest authorised Isaacson biography continue to make the Apple firmament tremble a little.

Not included in those fourth-quarter figures, of course, were the record sales of the new iPhone just after the close of the quarter: Apple sold four million iPhone 4S units in the first three days it was available.

That means the iPhone 4S sold more units during its launch than all previous iPhone launches combined - TUAW posted a graphic of this here.

About 25 million iOS devices were updated in the first five days the iOS 5 update hit Apple's servers, with older model iDevice owners keeping their products up to date. So really, the quarter figures just showed the slowing of sales of a 13- to 15-month old phone, as the overseas Apple blogging site GigaOm rightly points out.

Apple also sold, in the last quarter, 11.12 million iPads, 4.89 million Macs and 6.62 million iPods. (And here's another number for you: the iPod just turned ten.)

Meanwhile, Twitter got a big boost from the service's integration into iOS5. Twitter saw its daily signups for the service via iOS devices such as the iPhone and the iPad go up more than three times on the first day of iOS 5's availability.

The company will see growth that augments its already impressive expansion: Twitter is currently processing more than 250 million tweets per day and has more than 100 million global active users, more than half of which log in every day, as people increasingly take to the texting-like 'microblogging' service. But Twitter has yet to cover its own costs, despite its wild popularity!

http://gigaom.com/2011/10/17/twitter-ceo-apple-is-our-corporate-mentor

As far as New Zealand and the new iPhone 4S is concerned, we are getting it ... some time. The telcos are definitely working with Apple, but that's all I know. No time frame.

And it will be very profitable for Apple. Again. The 4S costs only a tiny bit more to build than the 4 despite having several advances: the base model 16GB iPhone 4S carries an estimated bill of materials of US$188, which is only US50¢ more than the iPhone 4, according to iSuppli.

App: Under the weather

So, Apple continues to prosper. Meanwhile, for some positive news from this 'little country that (sometimes) can', check out this excellent new app by NZ developer Ben Lynch.

UnderTheWeather is a meteorological app that uses weather stations from airports and other official sources to display weather data in an attractive interface.

That's nothing new - what is new is that owners of personal weather stations can opt into the app's network, meaning you can get really individualised and localised data on your iDevice.

Personal weather station owners can submit their station to have it display in the app - from there it graphs the data, showing the latest conditions. Lynch already has over 20 weather stations in the Auckland area, with the rest of the country steadily increasing its coverage - soon your favourite fishing spot, camp location or beach might be there.

There's take-up in Australia and around the world, which is great for travellers or those living overseas.

I bought it - to pay just NZ$2.59 to support a local developer with a good idea that's genuinely useful? Absolutely. OK, maybe I'm just happy because I notice that Grey Lynn is often 2° warmer than Auckland Airport.

- Mark Webster mac-nz.com