Thenews was intimately all sunshineduring Apple ’s quaternary - twenty-five percent 2014 earnings call on Monday , with sluggish iPad sales the one black spot on the otherwise blazing sun of record - setting revenue . You canlisten to the whole call , including the question - and - answer session with analyst , but if that does n’t sound like the most riveting way to spend an hour , do n’t worry : these are the things that you need to know .
Apple can’t make iPhones fast enough
Apple sold 39.2 million iPhones last twenty-five percent , which is up 12 per centum from the third one-fourth of 2014 , and up 16 percent yr - over - year . Tim Cook read the launching of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus was the troupe ’s loyal , most successful rollout to date , and point out multiple sentence : “ We ’re sell everything that we ’re make . ”
When peppered with question from the analysts on how the iPhone 6 was comparing to the 6 Plus , and if Apple felt they guessed right on the mix of SKUs supplied to the retail channel , Cook kept having to restate himself that it ’s hard to recite when Apple is selling all the earpiece they ’re making . “ I ’ve never felt so bang-up after a launching before , ” he quipped . “ Maybe that ’s the best way to summarize it all . ”
Mac sales are strong
This was an deucedly bang-up quarter for Apple ’s Mac business , with 5.5 million trade , an increase of 25 per centum from Q3 2014 and a year - over - year increase of 21 percent over Q4 2013 . “ On the Mac , it was a blowaway one-fourth , our best ever . It will result in our gamey marketplace share since 1995 . The back - to - school time of year vote , and the Mac won , and carried the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . And I ’m really lofty of that . Being up 21 percent in amarket that ’s recoil , it just does n’t get any good than that . ”
From the Apple Watch to the raw iMac with Retina 5 K Display , Cook is proud of Apple ’s entire lineup .
Apple isn’t worried about iPad sales
The one dark spotlight was iPad sale , which slipped a piece . Apple sold 12.3 million iPads during the quarter , which is down 7 percent from the previous quarter and 13 percent year - over - year . Still , Cook express a positivistic attitude about the iPad business . “ I know there ’s negative commontary in the market , ” he explained , “ but I have a unlike perspective . ”
Cook is talking about the freehanded picture : Apple has sold 237 million iPads in just over four eld . “ That ’s double as many iPhones sell in the first four years . ” In the last 12 calendar month , Apple sold 68 million . In all of fiscal class 2013 , the society sold 71 million , so that ’s a decrease but not as striking as if you only look at the fourth part . “ I consider it as a f number protuberance and not a Brobdingnagian issue , ” said Cook . “ That said , we want to grow . We do n’t like negative numbers on these thing . ”
“ I make out that there ’s a popular scene that the market is saturate , but we do n’t see that , ” Cook continued . He explain in the top six revenue - generating nation , as of the remainder of the June quarter , the majority of people bribe iPads have never bought one before . Of customers who are first - metre iPad buyers , the range in those six nation fail from 50 percent to more than 70 percentage . “ When I look at first - time vendee rate in that area , that ’s not a saturated market place . You never have first - time emptor rates of 50 and 70 pct . What you do see is that people hold onto their iPads longer than they do a phone . Because we ’ve only been in this concern four years , we do n’t really know what the upgrade cycle will be for the great unwashed . And so that ’s a unmanageable thing to call . What we do bonk is that the great unwashed always respond to [ us ready ] great product , and we feel really great about what we introduced last hebdomad . ”
Don’t fear the cannibals
Another thing that could be dissemble iPad sales this quarter ? New iPhones and those bothersome record - setting Mac sale . “ There are obvious cannibalization things that are come , ” Cook tell . “ I ’m trusted that some people look at a Mac and an iPad and decide on a Mac . I do n’t have research to demonstrate that , but I ’m certain of that just looking at the numeral . And I ’m fine with that , by the mode . ”
iPad Air 2 , MacBook Air , iPhone 6 Plus … whatever machine you want to use is o.k. , as long as it ’s from Apple .
And do n’t forget how shut the iPhone 6 Plus is in sizing to the iPad mini too . Said Cook : “ I ’m indisputable that some people will look at an iPad and an iPhone and decide to get just an iPhone , and I ’m fine with that as well . ” Especially since features like persistence give users easier agency to spread tasks between equipment , start on one and finishing on another — to Apple it should n’t really matter which equipment customers begin with , as long as they have a salutary enough experience that when they decide to buy another thing , they pass on for something with an Apple logotype .
Continuity is coming to your house
Obviously , Apple employees never give away what they ’re working on until they ’re good and quick . But it would n’t be a Q&A without someone asking . This time , respectable old Gene Munsterfrom Piper Jaffray wanted to know , since investors think of Apple as a product company , what are the exciting things to be focused on as an investor ?
Cook ’s resolution was pretty great . He state , “ await at what we ’ve done and what we ’ve deliver . … But more important than all the stuff that you see is to calculate at the skill within this company . I think it ’s the only ship’s company on the planet that has the power to incorporate computer hardware , software system , and services at a world - class level . That in itself allows Apple to play in so many unlike areas , andthe challenge becomes one of decide which ones to say no toand which to say yes to . … We always have more idea than we have resources to deal with . ”
He went on . “ I would attend at what we talked about last workweek . thing like Continuity , and if you utilize your imagination and think about where that last , there ’s no other party that can do that . Apple is the only one . I retrieve this becomes so fantastically of import moving forward , for client living in an surroundings where they ’re using multiple devices . I would look at the skill , the potentiality , the passion of the company . The creative railway locomotive has never been stiff . ”
Emphasis ours , because yowza , let ’s believe for a second about where that really could go . Apple already has you covered with computer science twist and a phone — the next step is handing off direction from a mobile , personal machine like an iPhone or an Apple Watch to HomeKit - compatible devices all around your house . We already see it in CarPlay — since the information walk around with you , on your sound , there ’s no logging in to apps in the car or having to enter your abode name and address . It just knows you .
Apple Pay could be Apple ’s self-aggrandizing product in eld .
Watch out for Apple Pay
But Cook was n’t even done with Munster ’s question yet . “ Apple Pay is Graeco-Roman Apple , taking something that is incredibly sure-enough , superannuated , kludgy , where everyone is focalise on everything but the client , and putting the customer at the center of the experience and making something graceful . I would look at those things , and as an investor I ’d feel big . ”
in the beginning in the call , Cook was asked if Apple Pay would be a standalone business over time , or if Apple insure it as a lineament to sell products . Why not both ? Cook articulate it ’s not only the form of characteristic they recollect will sell phones , but like the App Store , the more it ’s used , the more Apple ’s cut total up .
“ We see immense issues with the security measure of the traditional credit entry card arrangement , ” Cook say . “ Many people who have entered nomadic payments are doing so in a way that they want to monetise the datum that they collect from customer . And we think that client in general do n’t want this . That they like to keep the data individual . So we wanted to have simplicity of enjoyment , security department , and seclusion , and maximize all three . By doing this stuff , we cogitate we will trade more devices because we imagine it ’s a killer feature . ”
“ We do not charge the customer for the welfare . We do not charge the merchant for the welfare . However there are commercial-grade term between Apple and the go forth banking concern . But we ’re not disclosing what they are . Like any other contractural arrangement , those are a private form of thing . ” Apple will describe Apple Pay revenue in the Services category , alongside the billions of taxation the iTunes unit is already scan in .
