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Tag: Q3

  • Apple Brings In $35.3 Billion, Sold 31 Million iPhones In Q3

    Apple’s third quarter was going to be interesting no matter how you look at it. The company hasn’t released any major hardware all year, and its year old iPhone 5 had to fight off competition coming from new devices like the Samsung Galaxy S4 and the HTC One. With all that in mind, Apple did pretty good for itself this year, especially with the iPhone.

    Apple announced today in its third quarter earnings that it pulled in $35.3 billion in revenue and quarterly net profit of $6.9 billion. That’s a little up from the previous third quarter revenue of $35 billion, but its net profit was down from the previous third quarter’s $8.8 billion. The company noted that international sales accounted for 57 percent of its third quarter revenue.

    As for individual device sales, iPhone sales were way up at 31.2 million units sold during the third quarter. The company only sold 26 million iPhones in the previous third quarter. It wasn’t quite as sunny for Apple’s other hardware, however, as iPad sales were down to 14.6 million units sold from last year’s 17 million units. Mac sales were also down a little to 3.8 million units from last year’s 4 million.

    “We are especially proud of our record June quarter iPhone sales of over 31 million and the strong growth in revenue from iTunes, Software and Services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We are really excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, and we are laser-focused and working hard on some amazing new products that we will introduce in the fall and across 2014.”

    As for its fourth quarter, Apple predicts that we’ll see the following:

  • revenue between $34 billion and $37 billion
  • gross margin between 36 percent and 37 percent
  • operating expenses between $3.9 billion and $3.95 billion
  • other income/(expense) of $200 million
  • tax rate of 26.5%

    • Despite the decrease in profit, Apple is up 21 points in after hours trading.

  • Barnes & Noble Took A Hit During The Holidays, Nook Suffered The Most

    After the holidays, Barnes & Noble said that sales of its Nook hardware and eBook business were both starting to fall. In fact, Nook revenues reportedly dropped 12 percent in the time leading up to the holidays. Now the company’s third quarter results are out, and it’s not pretty.

    Reuters reports that Barnes & Noble posted a net loss for its third quarter, which includes the holiday shopping season. Its retail business posted a 2.2 percent loss. That was nothing compared to its Nook business, however, as it took a massive $190.4 million, or 25.9 percent, loss.

    Barnes & Noble founder and Chairman Leonard Riggio wants to buy the retail bookstore business, but he would leave the company’s Nook and textbook business to fend for itself. After splitting off the Nook business from its retail business, it received a few substantial investments from companies like Microsoft. It may need more of that to stay afloat until it can get its groove back.

    Analysts are saying that will be difficult though. They call Nook’s ability to compete with Google, Amazon and Apple into question as its tablets lack many of the apps that make tablets from the former more popular. Morningstar analyst Peter Wahlstrom seemingly suggests that the Nook business should be sold, but says that “the window of opportunity” to do so is closing.

    Despite all this, Barnes & Nobile CEO William Lynch says the company is still committed to its Nook business. What that means for the future of Nook, especially if Riggio is able to buy back the retail business, remains to be seen.

    The most likely scenario to emerge from all this is Nook abandoning or selling off its hardware business, and focusing exclusively on its software/eBook business. Even then, the subsidiary could be bought up by somebody else for its massive selection of eBook titles. My money is on Microsoft as it needs to better equip Windows 8 in the fight against Apple, Google and Amazon. A collection of exclusive eBooks could be just the thing Windows 8 needs.

  • Microsoft Reports Strong Q3 Results, Thanks Xbox

    Microsoft has released its report on third-quarter earnings today, and they show record results.

    Q3 revenue is reported at $16.43 for the quarter which ended on March 31st.  This is a 13% increase year-over-year.  More results:

    Operating income, net income, and diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $5.71 billion, $5.23 billion, and $0.61 per share, which represented increases of 10%, 31%, and 36%, respectively, when compared with the prior year period. Diluted earnings per share included a $0.05 tax benefit primarily related to an agreement with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to settle a portion of their audit of tax years 2004 to 2006.

    “We delivered strong financial results despite a mixed PC environment, which demonstrates the strength and breadth of our businesses,” said Peter Klein, chief financial officer at Microsoft. “Consumers are purchasing Office 2010, Xbox and Kinect at tremendous rates, and businesses of all sizes are purchasing Microsoft platforms and applications.”

    Categorically, Microsoft delivered revenue increases in each division.  On the heels of Office 2010, Microsoft Business Division revenue grew 21% year-over-year.  Server & Tools revenue grew 11& year-over-year.  They report that Windows 7 remains the fastest selling OS in history with a very impressive 350 million licenses sold.

    On the back of Bing’s expansion to 13.9% of the search share, Microsoft’s Online Services Division revenue grew 14% year-over-year.

    The real star, however, is the Entertainment & Devices Division.  Fueled by Kinect sales, Xbox console sales and Xbox Live subscriptions, it grew 60% year-over-year.  They say that the Kinect is the fastest selling consumer electronics device in history.

    Microsoft isn’t the only company to post strong quarter earnings.  Yesterday, e-commerce giant eBay posted very strong Q1 earnings of $2.5 billion in net revenue.

    And with the PlayStation Network looking like it’ll be down for another week, maybe frustrated PS3 users will jump ship and switch to Xbox, who knows.  I guess we will see when Microsoft reports its Q4 earnings on July 21st.